A Closer Look at the New App Settings Menu with Granular Permission Controls in Android M

One of the most anticipated features in the latest and greatest version of Google’s popular smartphone OS, Android M, is granular app permission control. To the average user, this might be the equivalent of speaking a foreign language that does not compute, but for those who prefer to take a safer approach to mobile computing, this is a welcome addition that has been requested for some time now. For those unfamiliar, or even those interested in seeing how it works, let’s take a look at what’s new in the app settings menu in the first Developer Preview of Android M.

The first thing I noticed when looking in the new Settings > Apps menu: there is only one unified screen that has all of your installed apps. In the past, there was a tab for downloaded apps, running apps, and all apps. Now, everything is listed in one place making it easier to find what you’re looking for. In the top right-hand corner, there is a search button (for those of you who like to install tons of apps) and a hamburger menu that has advanced options, a setting to show or hide system apps, and an option to reset app preferences.

The advanced settings menu has the following submenus, which I’ll give you a brief rundown of below:

• Default Apps — Set your default browser, phone, and SMS apps; there’s also an Assist setting that lets the assist app see what you’ve done on your screen.
• App Links — Developers can add an “autoVerify” attribute to their app manifest to tell the operating system that there is no need to prompt the user for certain types of links. When users click on links that meet the criteria, it will bring them straight to the auto-verified app. In this setting field, users can toggle the option to open supported links without asking.
• App Permissions — This is a super handy new field that lists all the possible permissions an app might require of your devices, like your camera, location, and phone. Clicking on any one of these fields will bring up a list of every app installed on your device that uses a particular permission. This can be extremely useful for limiting access to an app from a developer that isn’t 100% trusted. After all, a rogue app with the access to the right app permissions could end up causing more than just a headache to the device owner.
• Ignore Optimizations — Android M features a pretty awesome new battery-saving tool, called Doze Mode. The ignore optimizations tab gives users the ability to select which apps they want to ignore these battery optimizations. By default, Google Play Services, Google Play Store, and Download Manager are all set to ignore, likely because they will not function properly if this option wasn’t selected.
• Memory — Another revamped screen, the memory tab shows each app, how often the app is running, and the amount of RAM each app is accountable for consuming. This can be particularly useful when tracking down rogue apps that chew through battery life and cause your device to perform slowly.

So, What are Granular App Permissions?

Granular app permissions allow the user to pick which permissions a given app has access to. This can be tested by selecting an app from the Settings > Apps menu. The menu here has also been revamped, now displaying the amount of storage the app is using, the amount of data the app has used, permissions, notifications, defaults, and battery consumption — virtually everything you could want to know about said app. Clicking the permissions button leads you to the list of permissions the app in question can use, along with toggle switches that allow you to turn on and off each permission. For example, the Android Wear app uses the following permissions:

• Contacts
• Phone
• Calendar
• Location
• Microphone
• SMS

Any of these permissions can be denied by the user, for any number of reasons. In the case of trusted apps, you won’t likely disable many permissions, but it’s always nice to be able to do so if the need arises. When it comes to apps from developers you are not familiar with, you can now at least test their apps with total control over which permissions these apps can and cannot access.

Pretty nifty, right?

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