Seeing a blue icon on your Galaxy phone after installing Android 17? Here’s what it means

After a major software update, it can take a while to notice all the little things that have changed. One UI 9 (Android 17) has a few of those, and one you may spot during everyday use is a small blue icon at the top of the screen.

That’s the new location privacy indicator. It appears when an app accesses your location, making that activity easier to keep track of.

Apps use your location for all sorts of things. A maps app needs it to give you directions, while a weather app can use it to show the forecast for wherever you happen to be. So you may see the indicator even when you haven’t opened a maps app or started navigation.

Check which app is using your location

The useful part is that you can find out what triggered the indicator without guessing which app is responsible.

When it appears, open the Quick Panel and tap the blue indicator. Your phone will show which app is accessing your location.

Abhijeet Mishra / SamMobile

Location icon in the status bar

Abhijeet Mishra / SamMobile

Tap icon in quick panel to see which app is using location

If it’s an app you’re actively using, the reason may be obvious. If it’s something else, this gives you a starting point for checking whether it needs that access.

For example, an app with permission to use your location all the time can access it in the background as well. You might have granted that permission when setting up the app and forgotten about it since.

Change an app’s location permissions

To review those permissions, open Settings > Location > App permissions, then select the app.

Depending on the app, you can allow access all the time, limit it to when the app is in use, have it ask each time, or block access entirely.

Choose Allow only while using the app if that’s all it needs. If an app has no reason to use your location, select Don’t allow.

Abhijeet Mishra - Editor-in-Chief

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First Samsung device: SGH-D500

Abhijeet's writing career started with guides for custom firmware for Samsung devices (including the original Galaxy S), and he moved to SamMobile in mid-2013 and worked up the ranks to Editor-in-chief. In addition to phones and mobile devices, his interests include gaming on both PC and console, PC hardware, and spending countless hours on YouTube watching videos on tech, movies, games, politics, and internet dramas.

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Seeing a blue icon on your Galaxy phone after updating to One UI 9? Here’s what it means

Check which app is using your location

Change an app’s location permissions

Abhijeet Mishra - Editor-in-Chief