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I was afraid of having to do exactly that, create a new app with a new name and move all of the customers over... I ended up fixing it eventually by somehow cl

I was afraid of having to do exactly that, create a new app with a new name and move all of the customers over... I ended up fixing it eventually by somehow clearing all versions in alpha/beta channels and uploading a new fixed version without the SMS permission with increased version number multiple times, and then bubbling that up to production. For reference, we only used READ SMS permission in this app to improve the phone number validation process so it was easy to remove, with the downside that now it is harder for our users (mostly over 45) because they have to switch to the SMS app and back to complete the validation. Our helpdesk has seen an increase in support calls about the validation process since then.

michaelt 8y ago
we only used READ SMS permission in this app to improve the phone number validation process What's wrong with the SMS Retriever API [1] which seems to be designed explicitly for this purpose? [1] https://developers.google.com/identity/sms-retriever/overview https://developers.google.com/identity/sms-retriever/overvie...
- vbsteven 8y ago
  I was not aware that existed and it looks like it can improve our situation. Thanks!
- tialaramex 8y ago
  Yes! This kind of thing is what we want to see _more_ of in phone permissions. Remember how crazy it was back when "flashlight" was an app on your phone that you had to give the "camera" permission to this random crappy app because the lamp is built into the camera and so that's the permission needed? The same is true for so many features in so many apps, why does this app say it needs permission to _make phone calls_ when it's actually just measuring 3G signal strength? Why does this other one want to "read and write files" when actually it just wants somewhere to store a 40 byte ID? In some cases the answer is Android / iOS didn't create the right permissions to reflect what's actually needed. But in plenty of others the problem is app developers don't use what is offered because they found a "simple" way (often pasted from a 5 year old Stack Overflow answer) to achieve what they wanted.
- vetinari 8y ago
  That API looks great, but it is not part of the Android API. It is Google Play services API (i.e. won't work on Kindles and Chinese phones, you will need separate solution for them).

michaelt 8y ago

we only used READ SMS permission in this app to improve the phone number validation process What's wrong with the SMS Retriever API [1] which seems to be designed explicitly for this purpose? [1] https://developers.google.com/identity/sms-retriever/overview https://developers.google.com/identity/sms-retriever/overvie...

vbsteven 8y ago
I was not aware that existed and it looks like it can improve our situation. Thanks!
tialaramex 8y ago
Yes! This kind of thing is what we want to see _more_ of in phone permissions. Remember how crazy it was back when "flashlight" was an app on your phone that you had to give the "camera" permission to this random crappy app because the lamp is built into the camera and so that's the permission needed? The same is true for so many features in so many apps, why does this app say it needs permission to _make phone calls_ when it's actually just measuring 3G signal strength? Why does this other one want to "read and write files" when actually it just wants somewhere to store a 40 byte ID? In some cases the answer is Android / iOS didn't create the right permissions to reflect what's actually needed. But in plenty of others the problem is app developers don't use what is offered because they found a "simple" way (often pasted from a 5 year old Stack Overflow answer) to achieve what they wanted.
vetinari 8y ago
That API looks great, but it is not part of the Android API. It is Google Play services API (i.e. won't work on Kindles and Chinese phones, you will need separate solution for them).