It makes more sense to me to have the switches appear as red when the device has the ability to record you. When color is used as an indicator for something, the general convention is that red is negative. Meaning that there is a greater possibility of something going wrong when a red indicator is being displayed. You could argue that “webcam is not working for some reason” is a negative, and that seeing the bright red indicator can bring your attention to the switch as a hint to how to fix the issue. I would argue against that by stating that having a webcam record you when you do not want it to is a much bigger potential negative than the webcam not recording when you do want it to.
Also:
- When a traditional video camera displays a red indicator light, that means the camera is recording.
- On the underside of the Framework 16, the expansion module latches are red when disengaged
Technically, the color has always indicated the opposite of the expected default.
Passive indicators on switches like this historically have used the color to signify when something is disabled, because normally you expect that thing to be enabled. Look back to old devices with mute and disable switches like the old iPhones, Palm devices, etc. and the color always signified the thing being disabled. The default state is enabled, and the switch is disabling it.
Active indicators like LEDs being used on devices to indicate things like the mic or cam being on are generally newer. But even going back to things like the red recording lights, that’s because the expected default state was off, and the indicator was showing it was in a secondary state.
The color in both cases indicates the thing being controlled is in a secondary state, but the expected default state is different in the two scenarios.
Unless you consider firearms where red traditionally means the safety is off and the gun can fire.
I was gonna say that’s good to know, then realised I’ll probably never actually come into contact with a gun
I guess the disconnect here is that I expect the default state here to be disconnected. More often than not, I am not using my mic/webcam. So when I do, I change the switch to its secondary state to enable it.
I can definitely see your position on this - and from a security minded perspective, it makes perfect sense. I too operate with mic/camera disabled to be my laptop default.
We just happen to be living in a precedent where the “muted” state by common knowledge is red, so FW would design for the “global” average.
Everyone is overcomplicating this. Red = stop. When it’s red, that means it’s off.
As for why indicators are sometimes red lights, that’s because casting light requires active effort, so if a light is on, then you can assume that the thing is at least receiving power. Red LEDs are the cheapest LEDs (or at least they used to be), which is why binary on/off indicators will sometimes use them. It has less to do with the color and more to do with the price (that’s also why older indicators are usually amber or have colored plastic filters; LEDs weren’t invented yet, so the cheapest thing was a tiny incandescent bulb with an optional color filter). Otherwise, red lights usually signal an urgent warning, error, malfunction, or some other event that requires someone to stop whatever they’re doing and give the device immediate attention.
Edit: in the case of recording specifically, people likely started using red as a recording indicator because, well, recording is important and requires your attention.
The red light on a camera also means it’s “recording”. Which is the reason the record-action in audio/video software is still a red circle to this day. This being about audio and video recording capability makes this another way to look at it, in a not complicated way.
What in trying to say is that what’s intuitive depends on your perspective. Most of all what you’ve encountered before that’s similar. It had nothing to do with overcomplicating anything.
I think it’s more of a standard to have red indicate a disconnected state. My Thinkpad T14s has a red dot on the webcam cover, wireless peripherals like mice have a red indicator when they’re off, etc.
Edit: I also don’t think it should be confused for the “activity being used” LED indicator. The disconnected indicator is just paint, not a light.
I see it more of a way to alert the user that devices might not work as expected if there is red. From the manufacturer perspective, they want to minimize the number of phonecalls that a webcam/mic isn’t working and red will more likely get user attention before someone calls
Toilet door locks indicate they’re locked with red. Similar for a lot of other types of mechanical locks.
Red light indicators for active recording is a more recent thing, mostly a consequence of red LED lights being easiest and cheapest to manufacture at scale