Access to microphone requested. For what?

[samuelb]

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📝 Description

Hi

Since a few days, macOS prompts me to allow access to the microphone for Gitify. This popup appears every time Gitify shows me an notification about a new or updated PR.

I find this suspicious, since this tool shouldn't require the microphone for anything. Or does it?

I installed Gitify with Homebrew and the version is 4.6.1. My files in the /Applications/Gitify.app folder matches the once from the downloadable zip from Github.

Why does Gitify require microphone access?

🪜 Steps To Reproduce

Not sure if this is a occurrence specific on my system and therefore I don't know really how to reproduce this on any other system. I basically installed and configured Gitify. Then it starts to prompt for microphone access when PR activity in my repos would show a notification in Gitify.

ℹ System Info

MacBook Air M1 macOS 14.3

📸 Screenshots

No response

[bmulholland]

This is weird. I'm also on macOS 14.3 with Gitify 4.6.1 installed via Homebrew, and I don't experience it. I checked Settings > Privacy > Microphone, and Gitify isn't listed. I don't know all the lines of the codebase, but I'm pretty confident we haven't added something to do with a mic in recent releases. Given you're the only person who's reported this, it's more likely something about your setup.

[mthines]

I get the same request and do not like it Macbook M3 Pro, macOS 14.3 (23D56)

[larsgreason]

+1, Apple M1 Pro, Sonoma. Reproducible by quitting and starting again, but stops if clearing all notifications before quit.

Gitify is listed under Settings > Privacy&Security > Microphone.

EDIT: Actually (since I don't want to allow access), the application is currently unusable, I get three consecutive dialogs for mic access every time there's a notification.

[setchy]

I found this when searching the apps plist

adam@air ~ % grep Microphone -A 1 /Applications/Gitify.app/Contents/Info.plist 

    <key>NSMicrophoneUsageDescription</key>
    <string>This app needs access to the microphone</string>

@afonsojramos - could this be linked to the warning in the v4.6.1 release notes - re the macOS build being built on your machine until we resolve #696

[setchy]

Searching for all mentions of access returns

adam@air ~ % grep access -B 1 /Applications/Gitify.app/Contents/Info.plist

    <key>NSBluetoothAlwaysUsageDescription</key>
    <string>This app needs access to Bluetooth</string>
    <key>NSBluetoothPeripheralUsageDescription</key>
    <string>This app needs access to Bluetooth</string>
    <key>NSCameraUsageDescription</key>
    <string>This app needs access to the camera</string>
--
    <key>NSMicrophoneUsageDescription</key>
    <string>This app needs access to the microphone</string>

none of which are part of our entitlements file - https://github.com/gitify-app/gitify/blob/main/entitlements/entitlements.mac.plist

[adufr]

NSMicrophoneUsageDescription This app needs access to the microphone

I tried searching for this too in my local repo, the only place it came up was in node_modules/electron/dist/Electron.app/Contents/Info.plist 🤔

[bmulholland]

Yeah and the first place I checked on was Electron's setting to ask for mic, but there's nothing in this repo about that. Super weird. Is there something about the build process that introduces it?

[afonsojramos]

That's very weird... I'll see if the switch to electron forge fixes this by any chance.

[bmulholland]

I also wonder if the electron upgrades will help.

[samuelb]

I discovered that the microphone permission prompt wont show up if "Play sound" in Gitify is turned off or when having a bluetooth headset connected.

[bmulholland]

Just to make sure I understand: you're saying this prompt only happens if:

1. "Play Sound" is enabled in Gitify, AND
2. You have a Bluetooth Headset connected, AND
3. You receive a new notification

Is that right?

[samuelb]

Prompt happens if:

1. "Play Sound" is enabled in Gitify, AND
2. You don't have a Bluetooth Headset connected, AND
3. You receive a new notification

Sorry when my wording was not clear in my previous message.

[bmulholland]

Wow super weird. Thanks for the clue!

[setchy]

Labeling this as documentation. We can look to update both the README, and the FAQ for gitify.io

[setchy]

https://github.com/gitify-app/gitify/pull/970 will remove these from the macOS builds going forward