How to enable or disable App Permissions on the Android M Developer Preview [VIDEO]

Google was met with a round of applause during their keynote yesterday when they announced Android M would give users more control over the device permissions apps can request. The new system allows you to grant or revoke access on a granular basis, so you choose whether to grant an app access to the microphone, or your camera, or your location or contacts.

Those who have flashed the Android M developer preview will be able to start controlling permissions right away, even in apps that haven’t been designed for it. Here’s how you can go about doing that.

1. To start, head to Settings > App and find an app which you want to work with. Select it.


2. Tap App Permissions on the App Info screen.


3. You will see a list of permissions the app requests, and whether those permissions are toggled on or off. Tap the toggle to customize the setting.

Note that you may get a warning letting you know that some apps which don’t natively implement the new permissions might break as a result of disabling or enabling. If that happens, just use the steps above to go back and turn the permission back on. The only thing left to do is to rejoice now that you have the final say over which device functions an app is allowed to use.

Report: Android M will allow users to block app permissions upon installation

A new report out of Bloomberg claims Google is finally about to give Android users the one feature they’ve been asking for years now: the ability to hand-pick specific permissions to grant an app upon installation. It’s supposed to be just one of the many features coming in Android M, Google’s next major Android release said to debut at this year’s Google I/O.

Privacy is a growing concern amongst mobile users, with some even forgoing installing certain apps because of their lengthy permission requests (Facebook being the first that comes to mind). It’s not entirely clear which permissions you’ll be able to block (all or just some of them?) but basic permissions like photos, location, and contacts were the ones that were named.

Because often times an app needs many of these permissions to function properly, giving users the ability to block each and every permissions but not be the best move. Not everyone understands that. We’re guessing it’ll be something similar to how iOS asks the user to grant apps permission to access their gallery, or camera app in order to function. In either case, giving users more control of their OS is never a bad thing.