Samsung status bar location icon

[Susan Calvin]

I'm hoping maybe someone here can help with an insignificant in the big scheme of things issue on my new Samsung Galaxy A16 phone. I sure haven't had any luck with a web search.

I normally keep my location turned off, but there are a couple of apps that require it when I use them. I like for my status bar to always show the location icon if I have it turned on, because that reminds me to turn it back off.

Well.

It turns out some bright person at Samsung thought it would be a good idea to hide that icon unless it was actively in use, which is not what I want. I want to know at all times if my location is turned on or not.

A web search turned up ways to make it go away if it wasn't in use, in other words to fix it if it was constantly displaying. Well, I'm the weirdo who wants it constantly displayed when it's turned on whether anything is using it or not

Thanks in advance. From what I've seen so far, it will be a minor miracle if I can make this thing work the way I want it to.

[Jim__]

1. Some suggestions from AI

Standard Settings (One UI 7.0 and Higher)In newer versions of Samsung's software (One UI 7.0 and up), a persistent green location indicator often appears in the status bar to show when background system apps or services (like Google Play Services or Samsung Weather) are using your location.

- If it's already showing: Tapping this indicator can tell you exactly which apps are currently using your location.

- To ensure visibility: Go to Settings > Location > App permissions, tap the three-dot menu, and select Show system apps. Any app set to "Allowed all the time" is more likely to trigger a frequent or constant icon in the status bar.

...

If your goal is to see the icon because you want to know when your location is being tracked, you should review which apps have constant access:

- Go to Settings > Security and privacy > Privacy > Permission manager > Location.

- Review apps listed under "Allowed all the time". If no app has this permission, the icon will only pop up momentarily when you open an app like Google Maps.

...

[Susan Calvin]

2. I already saw something similar to that, although I don't use AI.

It tells me how it works by default, and that is not what I want.

If I have location turned on I want to see the icon in the status bar whether anything is using it at the time or not, as I did on my old phone. I want to know if I accidentally left it on so I can turn it off. Whether anything is currently using it or not.

So far it sounds like they've taken that away and I can't get it back.

[Jim__]

3. You're right. I went to Copilot and got a clearer answer.

Short answer: No — Samsung does not provide any built‑in way to force the location icon to stay visible at all times. One UI only shows the icon when an app or system service is actively accessing location. You can hide it with Good Lock/QuickStar, but you cannot force it to stay permanently on.

🧭 What Samsung actually allows
Samsung’s One UI treats the location indicator as a privacy signal, not a status toggle. That means:

It appears only when something is using location (apps, system services, Google services).

It disappears when nothing is actively accessing location.

There is no system setting to keep it always visible.

Copilot does go on to talk about 3rd party options - I'm not sure if they would give you a reasonable alternative.

[Susan Calvin]

4. Yep.

That AI summary is precisely what I thought, and I am absolutely sure that Samsung knows it is a privacy issue to some people and doesn't care. I found out several years ago that when I am sharing my phone screen to my Samsung TV, which I do for my Zoom exercise class, it takes a screenshot on the TV twice a second. Which there is absolutely no reason for it to do except sheer random intrusiveness. Every day in every way these Big Tech jerks collect more information just because they can.

Please consider not using AI. It consumes massive amounts of power and water for each seemingly simple question, and it spews out massive amounts of misinformation. Google's AI summaries, for example, have been demonstrated to be partially or completely incorrect at least 10% of the time. Then multiply that by the number of Google searches every day. Anecdotally, I have found plain web searches to be less and less useful as well, due to AI slop rising to the top.