Cracking the whip of user privacy on lazy developers
The Android 13 update came with a bunch of privacy improvements, including a new Photo Picker API. Instead of granting an app access to your entire gallery using the document picker API, this optional component lets you better protect your privacy by limiting an app’s access to select images and videos. Android 14’s first developer preview is now rolling out with a bunch of functional improvements, including an Apple-like mandatory transition to a more privacy-centric storage access system, even if apps don’t support Android 13’s Photo Picker API.
The Photo Picker component is a part of Google Play Services, and it is backward compatible up to Android 4.4. As a result, you don’t have to run Android 13 to use it. Moreover, it reduces third-party app usage of the relatively less private media store API, which relies on users granting apps permission to their device storage. However, only a handful of app developers have transitioned to using the Photo Picker API by default because it’s rather complicated and resource intensive for the teams. Writing for XDA Developers, Android enthusiast Mishaal Rahman notes the latest version of the operating system forces apps to access media through the Photo Picker API, regardless of the developer’s coded intent to use the media store method.
Storage permission options on iOS; Android 14’s storage permission options; new Photo Picker utility; App permission settings
For an end user, this behind-the-scenes change could show up as a new option called Select Photos, in the storage permissions dialog box, much like the Allow access to all photos option on iOS. The new option would exist alongside buttons to allow or disallow an application’s unconditional access to the device storage. However, tapping the Select Photos option would invoke the Photo Picker, an intermediary sandbox where you pre-selected images, videos, and media an app will gain access to. It maintains your privacy because a system component uses the media store index and reads files, but the third-party app in question only gets access to the files Photo Picker allows.
Interestingly, the new option isn’t visible by default in the storage permissions dialog box on Android 14 DP1. A developer flag must be enabled to make the option visible, but it shows Google’s interest in intercepting app requests from apps accessing your entire storage at the expense of your privacy, instead of using the secure Photo Picker utility that’s been around for a while now.
That said, Android 14 will go through six releases in the developer and beta channels before you get to enjoy the stable build. It will take some time, but with changes like these in the pipeline, it will certainly be worth the wait.
