As Google continues to update its privacy and security policies,It is now making a major change to Android that will significantly limit the ability to Android applications to view all files other applications that you have installed on your device.
In a recent one developer ad, Google has outlined an update to its policies that will restrict “Wide application visibility “on Android 11 or later. Wide visibility of the application is a feature that allows applications to check your device and potentially see which other applications you have installed. Google says it considers data about other apps installed on a device to be sensitive information and makes this change to help increase user privacy.
More specifically, Google says that any application that “can work with one more version package visibility statement with targeted scope”Call QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES, which returns a list of all apps on your Android device, is not allowed. while a wide visibility of applications “is restricted to specific use cases where awareness and / or interoperability with all applications of the device is required for the application to work.”
Types of applications that can have broad application visibility include applications such as file managers, browsers, antivirus applications, and others that simply can’t work without deeper access to other applications on your device, which means it will be especially important. make sure that these types of applications come from safe and trusted sites.
Also, in the future, Google says developers will need to properly justify the use of wide-visibility calls to the app or remove the app’s permission to view a device’s manifest. Starting April 1, Google is offering developers a 30-day grace period to edit or update their apps in response to the new policy. However, developers who do not meet the requirements before May 5 risk withdrawing or withdrawing their apps from the Google Play Store.
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Over the last year or so, Google has been slowly cracking down on app permissions on Android, and this recent step to severely restrict the wide visibility of apps is another small but important step in increasing the security of our apps. and devices. And with Google set up to force developers to create apps for Android 11 and later from November, we should see a noticeable improvement in Android security in the future.