Is there a line input on newer MacBooks? I thought the jack had just mic input!

Also, does anyone knows whether the orange dot shows up when you also use an external USB audio interface? If so this is kind of stupid on the part of Apple.

The article also mentions that those apps turn on Microphone capture even when unnecessary, so it seems the dot it's doing its job, although obviously there was a massive oversight, and there should have been a special permission to disable IMO.

I have one sample from 2011-ish era MacBook Pro that allowed switching between line-level and mic input for the input plug, via a dropdown in sound settings. The single "shared" plugs on Retina units no longer support this, I think.

Thanks, I did read the article but missed this part. I had it in my head that it would be something like playing a locally-sourced audio feed through an app, but I suppose input from more complex equipment makes sense.