3 ms·

New app permissions in Android. Nice. Edit: Asks when needed, not at install time. Focus on the web with Chrome custom tabs looks good too. I only got 5.1.1 to

New app permissions in Android. Nice. Edit: Asks when needed, not at install time. Focus on the web with Chrome custom tabs looks good too. I only got 5.1.1 today but 6? (M...) looks great from the small amount seen so far.

biot 11y ago
This could finally be the year I start using Android. The horrible all-or-nothing permission system has made me stay clear of it so far.
- sushirain 11y ago
  CyanogenMod is an Android mod that has customizable Android permissions (Privacy Guard).
Someone1234 11y ago
Very nice. I hope "phone" includes phone number, as Android has a bad track record of leaking your cellphone number to every single app (and ad network) that you install. I doubt it does, as Google had made it quite clear they don't consider your cell phone number personal information (but DO consider your email address). I am just waiting until it blows up in their faces, when spammers and scammers start utilising the hole.
- izacus 11y ago
  Huh? Retrieving a phone number always required android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE permission. Same as retrieving your email requires android.permission.GET_ACCOUNTS .
  - Someone1234 11y ago
    READ_PHONE_STATE is given to every app for "free" now. It is no longer listed on the play store and hasn't been for almost a year.
- deepnet 11y ago
  Many Cell plans send your phone number to any websites you visit.
  - Someone1234 11y ago
    That was a huge controversy and many have since stopped. They are now trying to send a unique ID number, but not the actual phone number.
tdkl 11y ago
Does anyone also find the "App link" a step back ? I thought getting a dialog where to open the Intent in is actually an awesome feature of the Android platform, now user will get thrown into whatever app will be defined on the server. Also let me check my crystal ball and predict that this will take a long time to be adapted by "big" companies, just like the design guidelines. App permissions and copy/paste changes are welcomed, but I got a sense they finally caved in and just copied how some other mobile OS handles it (which is not bad, since it was always better there).
- jsingleton 11y ago
  I worry that the new intents may not allow third party apps, as the domain of the link is verified. I hope not only official apps are allowed. Time will tell.
  - jophde 11y ago
    I think Google, and to some extent Facebook and Twitter, are terrified of the Intent system. I think they could be leveraged for something extremely powerful outside of the platform or sharing app owners control.
- christop 11y ago
  Yes, as a user of a third-party Twitter client I immediately thought this isn't a great thing. Just because somebody has Twitter installed (or their carrier pre-installed it), doesn't mean they necessarily want to use the official app. I noticed last week that Google search in Chrome on Android already does something similar — I searched for somebody and got a Twitter profile link. Clicking it led me to the Play Store to install the official Twitter app instead of allowing the intent system to open it in Falcon Pro. Though hopefully that's just related to Google's recent Twitter partnership.
  - christop 11y ago
    Looking at the M preview release, I see that Settings > Apps has expanded the "Open by default" section for each app. Now there's a toggle, "Open supported links without asking", with a list of domain names that the app supports. So you can keep the old "which app do you want to use to handle this intent" behaviour by turning off supported links for apps you don't like (e.g. Twitter).
digi_owl 11y ago
They glossed over this awfully quick in their keynote, but spent a whole lot of time talking about "custom tabs" for Chrome on Android... And the "granularity" of the permissions seemed on par with the permissions categories they introduced to Play a while back. Meaning that once you ok the use of, say, speakers, the same app can get access to anything inside the same category of permissions...
- magicalist 11y ago
  Yeah, I'm torn on that. On the one hand, I want to take advantage of the permissions granularity that android offers rather than being stuck with categories. On the other hand, the small number of bigger permissions works well on iOS, so maybe that is the better solution for the mass market. It would be nice if you could switch an expert mode switch and individually toggle every single permission, not just categories.

biot 11y ago

This could finally be the year I start using Android. The horrible all-or-nothing permission system has made me stay clear of it so far.

sushirain 11y ago
CyanogenMod is an Android mod that has customizable Android permissions (Privacy Guard).

Someone1234 11y ago

Very nice. I hope "phone" includes phone number, as Android has a bad track record of leaking your cellphone number to every single app (and ad network) that you install. I doubt it does, as Google had made it quite clear they don't consider your cell phone number personal information (but DO consider your email address). I am just waiting until it blows up in their faces, when spammers and scammers start utilising the hole.

izacus 11y ago
Huh? Retrieving a phone number always required android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE permission. Same as retrieving your email requires android.permission.GET_ACCOUNTS .
- Someone1234 11y ago
  READ_PHONE_STATE is given to every app for "free" now. It is no longer listed on the play store and hasn't been for almost a year.
deepnet 11y ago
Many Cell plans send your phone number to any websites you visit.
- Someone1234 11y ago
  That was a huge controversy and many have since stopped. They are now trying to send a unique ID number, but not the actual phone number.

tdkl 11y ago

Does anyone also find the "App link" a step back ? I thought getting a dialog where to open the Intent in is actually an awesome feature of the Android platform, now user will get thrown into whatever app will be defined on the server. Also let me check my crystal ball and predict that this will take a long time to be adapted by "big" companies, just like the design guidelines. App permissions and copy/paste changes are welcomed, but I got a sense they finally caved in and just copied how some other mobile OS handles it (which is not bad, since it was always better there).

jsingleton 11y ago
I worry that the new intents may not allow third party apps, as the domain of the link is verified. I hope not only official apps are allowed. Time will tell.
- jophde 11y ago
  I think Google, and to some extent Facebook and Twitter, are terrified of the Intent system. I think they could be leveraged for something extremely powerful outside of the platform or sharing app owners control.
christop 11y ago
Yes, as a user of a third-party Twitter client I immediately thought this isn't a great thing. Just because somebody has Twitter installed (or their carrier pre-installed it), doesn't mean they necessarily want to use the official app. I noticed last week that Google search in Chrome on Android already does something similar — I searched for somebody and got a Twitter profile link. Clicking it led me to the Play Store to install the official Twitter app instead of allowing the intent system to open it in Falcon Pro. Though hopefully that's just related to Google's recent Twitter partnership.
- christop 11y ago
  Looking at the M preview release, I see that Settings > Apps has expanded the "Open by default" section for each app. Now there's a toggle, "Open supported links without asking", with a list of domain names that the app supports. So you can keep the old "which app do you want to use to handle this intent" behaviour by turning off supported links for apps you don't like (e.g. Twitter).

digi_owl 11y ago

They glossed over this awfully quick in their keynote, but spent a whole lot of time talking about "custom tabs" for Chrome on Android... And the "granularity" of the permissions seemed on par with the permissions categories they introduced to Play a while back. Meaning that once you ok the use of, say, speakers, the same app can get access to anything inside the same category of permissions...

magicalist 11y ago
Yeah, I'm torn on that. On the one hand, I want to take advantage of the permissions granularity that android offers rather than being stuck with categories. On the other hand, the small number of bigger permissions works well on iOS, so maybe that is the better solution for the mass market. It would be nice if you could switch an expert mode switch and individually toggle every single permission, not just categories.