android 13 released its first official beta a few days ago. This version can now be installed on all smart phones compatible; it comes with a few changes from the previously released developer preview. On this occasion, it seems that Google has taken seriously the permissions of the Applicationsand perhaps too much.
It seems that Android 13 will not allow granting permissions to some applications that it considers ‘abusive’. In this way, certain types of applications will not be able to access the information of the mobile deviceseven if the user is willing to provide it.
Until now, Android app permission limits have been pretty lax. In fact, in several previous releases, you could see how some permissions were grouped into categories; instead of providing more specific control for each.
Well, it seems that from Mountain View, they have taken action on the matter and now Android 13 provides an additional barrier to make it difficult for third parties to access users’ personal information.
Yes, this restriction applies to applications that are installed outside of Google Play Store. The above is because although the Google store is a fairly safe place; Many services or websites require their users to install APK files from sources other than the official method. Therefore, it is much easier than cyber criminals or malicious companies take advantage of the lack of a security shield.
It is not an absolute limitation, so you can avoid this feature of Android 13
Of course, Android will not grant full licenses for these types of applications. If you want to modify them for a specific application, you can do it without any problem. The good news is that Android 13 creates a more secure environment for users who don’t know how app permissions work on their mobile devices.
If you want to grant permissions to apps that have been installed through methods other than the Play Store, you only need to enable one option. Is about ‘Allow restricted settings’, a function that will allow granting or denying permissions for this type of applications and services.
To enable it, simply go to information menu of each application and enable the option mentioned above. Done, now you can have more freedom, but at the cost of less security.
Android 13 now has specific permissions for access to media files
Google seems to have improved permissions for media files in the first beta version of Android 13. Now you can grant ‘sub-permissions’ to Applications so that things are not black and white.
These permits have been divided into three different sections: image, video and audio. So that it can be understood better: Until now, when an application wanted to read shared media files in the storage, his permission gave access to all kinds of media files.
So, to improve the privacy and security of users, in Android 13 you can find a new set of permissions that request access to a specific type of file:
– READ_MEDIA_IMAGES (for images and photos)
– READ_MEDIA_VIDEO (for videos)
– READ_MEDIA_AUDIO (for audio files)
Thus, if a player music needs to access the internal storage to play the music the user wants, he will only have to authorize access to music and audio files on the device, without having to authorize it to access any media file, so starting with Android 13 music players will no longer need to request permission to access personal images and videos.
