How to Change App Permissions on Android

Jan. 30, 2021

Over the past few years, Android updates have primarily been focused on improving the privacy of the operating system. With recent Android versions,Googlehas given users more control over how apps can access data and use various features on Android devices. One notable improvement has been on Android’s app permissions and today, we will be taking a look at how you can change app permissions on Android.

Change App Permissions on Android

You can either change the permission from an app’s settings page or use Android permission manager to efficiently manage permissions. Read on till the end to know how you can modify permissions using both of these methods. Without further delay, let’s get started.

As the name suggests, app permission settings is amechanism that lets users grant or revoke permissions necessary for apps to access various data and hardwareof your Android phone. Through Android’s permissions manager, you have granular controls to decide if an app should have permission to access sensitive information on your phone. Hence, if you notice that an app is demanding permissions for accessing data that isn’t necessarily relevant to the purpose of the app, you can easily deny or revoke the permission.

For Android phones running Marshmallow (6.0) and above, the following are the standard permissions:

1. When you install a new app, it requests permission from you. If you’re looking for a way to adjust the app permission of a specific app after granting the permission, you can do that from the app’s settings page. OpenSettings, and tap on Apps & notifications. Based on your device’s custom skin, you’ll find the option to open the app list on this page. In this case, the option to expand the app list is by tapping ‘See all 287 apps.’

2.Choose the app that needs app permission adjustmentsfrom the app list and tap on it to access its settings page. From this page,press the ‘Permissions’ sectionto manage the permissions. You’ll now see the allowed and denied permissions of the app.

3.If you see unnecessary permissions here, all you have to do is tap on it and choose Deny. On the other hand, you can tap any of the denied permissions and choose ‘Allow’ if you want to grant additional permissions for the app to function as intended.

Android offers the flexibility to let users toggle app permissions based on categories. In other words, you can see a list of apps using the same permission and choose to accept or revoke it. You can access this permission manager fromSettings -> Apps & notifications -> App permissions.

Choose one of the permission categoriesto see the list of apps that have access to it. From this page, you can easily tweak the permission of apps based on category. You can follow the same steps to check app permissions in all categories. To be on the safer side,you should certainly check apps that have access to the camera, location, contacts, SMS, and microphone.

If you’re using a phone running on Android 10, you can choose to grant location permission only when you’re using the app. Android 11 takes this to the next level with theintroduction of one-time permissionsfor location, microphone, and camera. On a similar note, you can configure toautomatically remove permissions for unused apps on your Android 11 device by switching the ‘Remove permissions if app isn’t used’ togglein the Permissions page.

So, that’s how you can tweak app permissions to ensure that apps don’t have unnecessary permissions on your Android phone. If you found this article helpful, our guides ondisabling spam notifications,Google Assistant settings you should change, andremoving MIUI 11 ads, bloatware, and push notificationswon’t disappoint you.

Subin writes about consumer tech, software, and security. He secretly misses the headphone jack while pretending he’s better off with the wireless freedom.