Question :

Today, I noticed there was a “paper plane”-icon on the top menu bar of my iPhone. More accurately described, it is a “point of a hunting arrow” icon, and sometimes it’s grey, and sometimes it’s purple.

What does it mean ? And how do I get rid of it ?

Answer :

The “point of a hunting arrow” icon means that you one or more apps are using Location Services on your iPhone (or iPad), which might drain your battery, especially when the icon is outlined in purple.

There are 3 versions of the Location Services icon (a.k.a. “paper plane” or “point of a hunting arrow”) :

1- a purple Location Services icon will appear next to an item that has recently used your location.

2- a grey Location Services icon will appear next to an item that has used your location within the last 24 hours.

3- an outlined purple Location Services icon will appear next to an item that is using a geofence. (*)

(*) geofence = virtual perimeter around a location. Apps use geofencing to notify you when you arrive at or leave these locations, but…  if an app is constantly checking to see whether or not you are within it’s virtual perimeter, and you are nowhere near this will drain your battery…

To get rid of the Location Services icon (a.k.a. “paper plane” or “point of a hunting arrow”) :

• open the Settings.app –> Privacy –> Location Services
• in the window that opens, you can choose to switch off Location Services entirely, or select the apps from the list and choose their Location Services setting one by one
• the primary advice is to set all apps that have the ‘outlined purple’ Location Services icon next to them to “Never”
• the secondary advice is to set all apps that you do not regularly use to “Never” also

More info on Privacy and Location Services in iOS8 and iOS9 can be found on the Apple-website :

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203033

…that’s it – enjoy !

😉