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

• Quentyn Kennemer
• 5 years ago

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.