This is what a white dot on your Android phone screen means

The status bar on Android phones provides several details about your device. It tells you the battery charge level, whether it’s connected to Wi-Fi or data, the time, and any missed notifications, such as texts or calls. It’s useful for taking a quick look to see if you have any unread messages or voicemails and lets you see potential notifications before unlocking your phone to read or respond to them. However, there are still other symbols that may appear that you may not be aware of.

One of these icons is a white dot that Android users have reported seeing at the top left or top right of the notification bar, although not all Android phones work the same and many don’t display a white dot at all. If the white dot appears on your Android phone, don’t worry: it just means there are more notifications, but not all of their icons fit on the screen. The dot replaces them, telling you there are other notifications you might want to see.

Additional notifications vary and can come from any app you have downloaded to your phone. This is not a problem or a fault, but a way to let you know that you are receiving a lot of notifications. Don’t confuse the white dot with a green dot on your Android phone screen, this one may be a little more urgent.

Phone makers and Google haven’t provided much official documentation online about what the symbol means, but online forums detail what it is and how to clear it. For example, Reddit users claim that the white dot is just a combined way to display multiple notifications on your phone. They discovered several fixes that make the white dot on the notifications tab disappear.

One way to get rid of the white dot on your Android phone screen is to clear all your notifications in the notification bar. To do this, unlock the phone, then swipe down on the screen to view notifications, then select “Clear everything” at the bottom. This should clear the screen of all active notifications, including the white dot. Another solution is to clear each notification manually by selecting it to open the app or swiping it. Keep in mind that many settings choices may require updating the phone to Android 10 or later. Regular updates are important, and ignoring one is something you should never do on your Android phone.

Another possible solution is to go to Android notification settings. Options might include not showing notifications for the lock screen or status bar, or showing all notifications for both. Again, the options, wording, and location of notification settings may vary by phone.

The status bar can show many different icons, and not all of them are easy to distinguish, like the white dot. Dozens of symbols can appear on the top bar, and each can be linked to a downloaded app or be linked to the phone itself, such as Wi-Fi or mobile data. App notifications on the bar can be disabled or enabled in the Android phone settings.

You can control notifications for each app downloaded to the phone. Keep in mind that the more apps you install, the less storage you’ll have, but Google is testing a new Android feature to address storage issues. Icons like Wi-Fi, Airplane mode, data, and battery symbol may not be able to be removed, but you should be able to clear app notifications.

With more apps, more notifications may appear in the status bar. If your Android phone is overwhelmed with the number of notifications received, you will see the white dot in place of new notifications. To declutter the status bar, it all comes down to configuring what you want to be notified about in the settings. Do this and you’ll reduce the chances of seeing that pesky white spot in the future.