Google has introduced new rules to restrict apps from unnecessarily accessing users’ photos and videos on Android devices. Now, annoying permissions, such as apps asking for access to our entire gallery even to set a simple profile photo, will be revoked. Here are the details…

New rules from Google: Apps will no longer have easy access to your photos!

With the photo selector tool introduced with Android 13, Google is making sure that apps can only access photos and videos that users select. This means that if an app wants to access a specific image or video, it won’t have to browse our entire gallery.

Google is serious about this. Now apps will have to provide a real reason to use permissions like READ_MEDIA_IMAGES and READ_MEDIA_VIDEO. If apps want to get these permissions, they need to get specific approval from Google.

Otherwise, they will not be able to use these permissions. The target date for the full implementation of this new policy of Google was set for January 2025. This means that app developers have a certain amount of time to comply with these rules, but once that time is up, update approvals will become more difficult for apps running on the old system.

In particular, the new rules target apps that only allow the app to access the gallery to set a profile photo, and then continue to use this permission permanently. Such apps will be more strictly regulated under the new rules. If developers do not bring their apps into compliance with these rules, they will not be able to update their apps in the Google Play Store.