T-Mobile’s T-Life App has a “Screen Recording Tool” Turned on and It’s Freaking People Out (Updated)

In recent days, T-Mobile customers stumbled upon an unannounced setting in the T-Mobile T-Life app that raised some eyebrows and has created a bit of a freakout. A new setting called “Screen recording tool” was found on select devices and was enabled with a description that doesn’t exactly sound like something most of us would … Continued Read the original post: T-Mobile’s T-Life App has a “Screen Recording Tool” Turned on and It’s Freaking People Out (Updated)

May 29, 2025 - 00:00

T-Mobile’s T-Life App has a “Screen Recording Tool” Turned on and It’s Freaking People Out (Updated)

In recent days, T-Mobile customers stumbled upon an unannounced setting in the T-Mobile T-Life app that raised some eyebrows and has created a bit of a freakout. A new setting called “Screen recording tool” was found on select devices and was enabled with a description that doesn’t exactly sound like something most of us would want enabled out of the box.

With the T-Life app not exactly being loved by many as it works to replace a traditional level of support and frequently spams borderline ads and bloated product offerings in customers’ faces, this new setting certainly didn’t pop-up under positive feelings from the current state of T-Mobile. In fact, the “Uncarrier” has mostly shed its good guy who is sticking up for customers label with price increases a frequent occasion in recent times.

Prior to the start of the weekend, owners of an iPhone 16 found a toggle within their settings menu that was indeed called “Screen recording tool.” Others haven’t been able to find it, but we did on a Galaxy S25 Ultra, although not on an iPhone 15 Pro or Pixel 9 Pro. It seems to be limited to specific devices at this time.

When we first saw folks freaking out about the setting being turned on without their approval, we figured it was a support setting that would simply allow a customer service rep to see a customer’s screen if they needed a extra level of support. However, the description for the setting makes it clear that it is not that at all:

Screen recording tool
We use a tool to record how customers use the app to analyze and improve your experience. Only T-Mobile will review and analyze your info. If you turn this toggle on or magenta, we will record your screen while you use the app. If you turn this toggle off or gray, we will not record your screen.

As you can read there and see below, this is not a support tool and is instead there to provide feedback to T-Mobile on how you are using and interacting with the T-Life app. Of course, T-Mobile is trying to ease your concerns by stating that “only T-Mobile will review and analyze your info,” but they haven’t exactly launched this tool in the best way and have already lost some trust by enabling it without us knowing it.

If you’d like to go hunting for this setting in order to toggle it off, open the T-Life app, tap Manage at the bottom, then the Settings (gear) icon at the top right corner, and then scroll into the Preferences section. The description for it states that if you turn it off (or gray) they “will not record your screen.” The tool also states that they will “record your screen while you use the app,” if left turned on, but we can’t find any other support pages that describe exactly what that means and so you really might want to consider turning this off.

Shoutout to reddit.

UPDATE 5/28: T-Mobile followed up with us by providing the following statement–

To help us give customers who use T-Life a smoother experience, we are rolling out a new tool in the app that will help us quickly troubleshoot reported or detected issues. This tool records activities within the app only and does not see or access any personal information. If a customer’s T-Life app currently supports the new functionality, it can be turned off in the settings under preferences.

To be clear, T-Mobile is only now telling us that they are rolling out a new tool that records your screen, rather than before it arrived, was turned on by default without any consent, and caused a freakout. At least you all now know about it and can turn it off.

Read the original post: T-Mobile’s T-Life App has a “Screen Recording Tool” Turned on and It’s Freaking People Out (Updated)