Android 6 and up will start stripping unused apps’ permissions

Enlarge / Android 6.0 Marshmallow is getting a spiffy new feature. (credit: Ron Amadeo)

Google is coming for your unused Android crapware. The company announced Friday that it will backport an Android 11 privacy feature-auto-resetting app permissions-to Android 6.

Auto-resetting app permissions were introduced in Android 11 as part of a continually expanding Android feature set aiming to automatically limit apps you don't use. When you don't use an app for a set period of time, Android will automatically strip the app of any permissions it has been granted, limiting it from tracking you in the background or accessing data. It's a nice feature for less tech-savvy people who aren't interested in manually organizing the inner workings of their phones. If you open the app again, it can ask for all of those permissions again.

Like most new Android features, auto-resetting permissions were exclusive to Android 11 when it came out last year-making up a very small number of Android's 3 billion active devices. Google's official Android Studio stats have Android 11 at 0 percent market share, but that chart hasn't been updated since Android 11 came out (update your chart, Google!). The last update we got said OEMs were pushing out Android 11 about as quickly as they rolled out Android 10, so today, version 11 might be cracking 10 percent of Android devices.

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