Over the past few years, Android updates have mostly focused on improving the operating system’s privacy. With recent versions of Android, Google has given users more control over how apps can access data and use various features on Android devices. One notable improvement is Android app permissions and today we are going to look at how you can change app permissions on Android.
Change app permissions on Android
You can either change permission from an app’s settings page or use Android permission manager to manage permissions efficiently. Keep reading till the end to learn how you can change permissions using these two methods. Without further ado, let’s get started.
What is app permission and why is it important?
As the name suggests, App Permission Settings is a mechanism that allows users to grant or revoke necessary permissions for applications to access various data and materials from your Android phone. With Android’s permission manager, you have granular controls to decide whether an app should be allowed to access sensitive information on your phone. Therefore, if you notice that an app is asking for permissions to access data that is not necessarily relevant to the purpose of the app, you can easily deny or revoke the permission.
List of application permissions on Android
For Android phones running Marshmallow (6.0) and later, the standard permissions are:
- Body sensors
- Calendar
- Call logs
- Camera
- contacts
- Site
- Microphone
- Call
- Physical activity
- SMS
- Storage
Change app permissions for individual apps
1. When you install a new app, it asks for your permission. If you are looking for a way to adjust the app permission of a specific app after granting the permission, you can do it from the app settings page. Open Settings, and tap Apps & notifications. Depending on your device’s custom skin, you’ll find the option to open the apps list on this page. In this case, the option to expand the list of apps is to tap on “See all 287 apps”.
2. Choose the app that requires app permission adjustments in the app list and tap it to enter its settings page. From this page, tap on the “Permissions” section to manage permissions. You will now see the allowed and denied permissions of the app.
3. If you see unnecessary permissions here, all you have to do is tap on it and choose Deny. On the other hand, you can tap one of the denied permissions and choose “Allow” if you want to grant additional permissions for the app to work as expected.
Change app permissions by category
Android provides the option to allow users to toggle app permissions based on categories. In other words, you can see a list of apps using the same permission and choose to accept or revoke it. You can access this permission manager from Settings -> Apps & Notifications -> App Permissions.
Choose one of the permission categories to see the list of applications that have access to it. From this page, you can easily change app permission based on category. You can follow the same steps to check app permissions in all categories. For more security, you should definitely check which apps have access to camera, location, contacts, SMS and microphone.
If you are using a phone running Android 10, you can choose to grant location permission only when using the app. Android 11 takes it to the next level with the introduction of ad hoc authorizations for location, microphone and camera. On a similar note, you can configure for Automatically remove permissions for unused apps on your Android 11 device by toggling the “Remove permissions if app is not in use” toggle on the Permissions page.
Adjust app permissions for better privacy
This is how you can change app permissions to make sure apps don’t have unnecessary permissions on your Android phone. If you found this article helpful, our guides on disabling spam notifications, which Google Assistant settings you should change, and removing MIUI 11 ads, bloatware, and push notifications won’t disappoint.
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