Google Play forces apps to use Android’s photo picker to improve privacy

The photos and videos you store on your Android device can reveal a lot about you, so it’s very important to choose the apps that have access to them carefully. The best Android apps don’t ask for access to your phone’s entire media gallery unless they really need it, but unfortunately many apps ask for extensive access to your photos and videos even when they don’t really need it. Masu. Google is trying to crack down on this problem by giving developers privacy-preserving alternative ways to access photos and videos, but so far it has not allowed developers to use them. have not been successful. But soon, many app developers will be forced to use Google’s privacy-preserving photo and video picker.

With the release of Android 13 in 2022, Google introduced the Photo Picker API, a privacy-preserving way for apps to access photos and videos. The Photo Picker API allows apps to request access to selected photos and videos without requesting permission to access the entire media gallery. This is intended for apps that need to access photos and videos once or frequently.

Photo Picker is essentially a proprietary version of the system file picker that’s been around since Android 4.4 was released in 2013. The system file picker provides a privacy-protected way for apps to access any files on your device, while the photo picker only provides access to photos and videos. Google has given the photo picker a better UI for selecting photos and videos, with larger previews and tabs to switch between all items and albums.

However, after its introduction, Google had a very hard time getting developers to adopt it. The majority of Android apps continue to use the old system file picker or a custom-developed picker, the latter of which requires extensive access to photos and videos. Google has enhanced the photo picker through an update to make it compatible with versions of Android up to 4.4, allowing it to take over the job of the system file picker when an app wants to select a photo or video, and to By doing so, I tried to move the needle. Select media from Google Photos. However, these changes were still not enough to convince many developers to adopt Photo Picker, so Google is employing the most effective means to force adoption. That is the creation of a new Google Play Store policy.

Last October, Google announced it was “finally cracking down on apps that make unnecessary requests.” READ_MEDIA_IMAGES and/or READ_MEDIA_VIDEO Permissions to access user images and videos (Android 13 and later). ” The crackdown will begin “in mid-2024” and will target apps that only need to access images and videos once or infrequently. READ_MEDIA_IMAGES and/or READ_MEDIA_VIDEO authority. However, starting in “early 2025,” only “apps whose core functionality relies on accessing users’ images and videos” READ_MEDIA_IMAGES and READ_MEDIA_VIDEO authority.

The company announced at Google I/O earlier this year that it would start enforcing this policy starting in August, but it appears that enforcement began late last month. On the support page for Google Play’s Photos and Videos permissions policy, Google says that starting September 18th, Google will ask developers to either “submit a declaration form to qualify for core use/broad access or (1) “We have started encouraging them to either remove their permissions (for one-time/infrequently used).” Developers have until the end of this month to submit their returns, or their apps will be blocked from updating on Google Play. Google is giving developers the opportunity to request a suspension of enforcement until January 22, 2025, after which the company will enforce this policy for all developers.

Developer Tolriq shared a screenshot of this declaration form on Reddit last month. There are READ_MEDIA_IMAGES and READ_MEDIA_VIDEO Permissions is a gallery app, or an app that focuses on editing, managing, and maintaining photos/videos. Google’s support page also says, “Apps in the social, communications, and photo/video editor categories, and other apps that represent a wide range of access needs, such as photo editors, user-generated content platforms, image search capabilities, and QR code scanners.” has been. You can apply to maintain these privileges. However, these apps must demonstrate a “primary use case requiring persistent or frequent photo/video access,” and simply having a custom photo selection experience does not qualify.

Either way, this new policy significantly limits the number of apps that can request these two permissions, forcing many existing apps to migrate to either the System File Picker or the Android Photo Picker. While this forced transition is definitely a benefit for privacy, Android Photo Picker still lacks a lot of features and will be less functional for some apps. For example, Android Photo Picker doesn’t yet have a search feature, but Google says this is in the works. It also doesn’t show local albums created by Android apps, so you’ll have to scroll through the Photos or Videos tabs to find them. Finally, there are also no filtering or sorting options, the ability to select albums, or a way to quickly select many items.

We hope Google addresses these issues in a future update to Android Photo Picker, especially since it plans to force this feature on the app.