This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

How do I disable the blinking red microphone icon when I've allowed a tab to access the microphone?

more options

I like to keep a web app (Discord) in a pinned tab so I can see its favicon notifications (sorry, not sure of the correct term for this) when I get a new message. Because I also use it for voice communication, I've granted it long-term permissions to use the microphone. Unfortunately, this results in Firefox cycling its favicon with a red microphone icon, blinking it on and off about once per second. Not only is this somewhat annoying and eye-catching, but it also prevents me from glancing at the pinned tab's icon to immediately see if there's a new message, as the regular icon won't be shown half of the time. I'd like to disable this functionality if possible.

I've tried Googling for related issues ("Firefox disable microphone favicon", "Firefox blinking red microphone icon", etc.), but I haven't gotten any useful hits. I've also searched in about:config for things related to "mic", "micro" ("microphone" gets nothing), and "permiss" but also found nothing (come on, why isn't there a browser.tabs.showAudioRecordingIcon boolean?).

What else might I try to disable this icon? Perfectly willing to install an extension if needed. I've enabled the troubleshooting information, but I'm happy to run any additional diagnostics anyone needs.

I like to keep a web app (Discord) in a pinned tab so I can see its favicon notifications (sorry, not sure of the correct term for this) when I get a new message. Because I also use it for voice communication, I've granted it long-term permissions to use the microphone. Unfortunately, this results in Firefox cycling its favicon with a red microphone icon, blinking it on and off about once per second. Not only is this somewhat annoying and eye-catching, but it also prevents me from glancing at the pinned tab's icon to immediately see if there's a new message, as the regular icon won't be shown half of the time. I'd like to disable this functionality if possible. I've tried Googling for related issues ("Firefox disable microphone favicon", "Firefox blinking red microphone icon", etc.), but I haven't gotten any useful hits. I've also searched in about:config for things related to "mic", "micro" ("microphone" gets nothing), and "permiss" but also found nothing (come on, why isn't there a browser.tabs.showAudioRecordingIcon boolean?). What else might I try to disable this icon? Perfectly willing to install an extension if needed. I've enabled the troubleshooting information, but I'm happy to run any additional diagnostics anyone needs.

All Replies (1)

more options

I used this site as a test: https://www.onlinemictest.com/

I see the site icon fades in and out, exchanging with a microphone. Two elements that make up that area of the toolbar get a new attribute:

xul:image => .tab-icon-image[sharing="microphone"] xul:image => .tab-sharing-icon-overlay[sharing="microphone"]

While I can hide the microphone using the following rule, that doesn't prevent the regular icon from fading in and out.

.tab-sharing-icon-overlay[sharing="microphone"] {
  opacity: 0 !important;
}

So that doesn't really help. Maybe someone else can figure out how to stop the fade-in effect. I think an extension might be needed.