As Google continues to upgrade its privacy and security policies, it is’s is now making a major change in Android that will increase the ability of Android apps to all the other applications that you have installed on your device.
In a recent developer announcement, Google has set forth an update to its policies that ‘broad app visibility ”in Android 11 or later. Broad app visibility is a feature that allows applications to query your device and possibly see what other applications you have installed. Google says that it views data about other apps installed on a device as sensitive information and that it uses the change to increase user privacy.
More specifically, Google says that any app that “can work with a lake targeted statement for packet visibilityMay not use the QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES call, which lists each app on your Android device, while the broad app visibility “is limited to specific use cases where awareness of and / or interoperability with any and all apps on the device is required for the app to function.”
The types of programs that will be allowed to make a broad program visible include programs such as file managers, browsers, antivirus programs and others that simply cannot function without deeper access to other programs on your device, which means that it will be especially important be to make sure that the kind of programs come from safe and reliable places.
Furthermore, Google says that in the future, developers should properly justify the use of broad app visibility calls or remove the app’s permission to view the app’s app manifest. As of April 1, Google gives developers a 30-day grace period to modify or update their apps in response to the new policies. Developers who do not comply with this by May 5th, however, run the risk of having their apps removed or removed from the Google Play Store.
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Over the past year or so, Google has slowly ripped off app permissions within Android, and this recent step to severely limit broad app visibility is another small but important step to increase the security of our apps and devices. And since Google needs to force developers to build apps intended for Android 11 and above from November, we should see a significant improvement in Android security.