Develop Reference

In android Manifest how do you declare that a permission is not required?

Say I have these permissions:
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.GET_TASKS" />
<uses-permission
android:name="android.permission.PACKAGE_USAGE_STATS"
tools:ignore="ProtectedPermissions" />
I would like to tell the Play Store that these permissions are not required and are not to be used for filtering out devices. I found that with some permissions like bluetooth you can add the <uses-feature tag and then to that add android:required="false". For example:
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_ADMIN" />
<!-- Tells the Play Store that the above two permissions are not required -->
<uses-feature
android:name="android.hardware.bluetooth"
android:required="false" />
However I found no features to declare for any of the permissions I listed in the beginning of this post. So how am I supposed to tell the Play Store that they're not required?

So how am I supposed to tell the Play Store that they're not required?
You don't. No devices will be filtered out based on those permissions.
I would like to tell the Play Store that these permissions are not required and are not to be used for filtering out devices
No permissions are used directly for filtering out devices. As you noted, some permissions imply features, and you can declare that the features are not required.

I would like to tell the Play Store that these permissions are not
required and are not to be used for filtering out devices.
Don't worry! If your next update/package don't require some permissions, just remove those permissions from the mainfest.xml, and done. If you still have doubt, you can see the number of compitable device models during creation of release in your console.
I found that with some permissions like bluetooth you can add the
<uses-feature tag and then to that add android:required="false".
They are all for feature-based filtering and not for permissions. Because, features might be critical for some apps to work. If an app uses a feature which is not critical for its functionality, required=false might be helpful.

You can use like that:
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"
tools:node="remove"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE"
tools:node="remove"/>

why android.hardware.telephony feature is being added automatically in android app

While releasing the apk to play store, I found out that the my app requires the android.hardware.telephony feature but I haven't added it in manifest anywhere. I have also check the merged manifest in android studio and it also does not contain this feature so I think no third party sdk is adding this. What could be the source of this feature?
For reference, I have following permissions declared in the manifest:
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.GET_ACCOUNTS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.MANAGE_ACCOUNTS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_WIFI_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_SMS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_SMS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_CONTACTS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" />
Also, when I make it optional using below code, the app is available on devices without this feature:
<uses-feature
android:name="android.hardware.telephony"
android:required="false" />
So why is required by default without adding it anywhere?

Google Play automatically adds some features, depending on which permissions you have requested.
As you have requested READ_SMS and RECEIVE_SMS permissions, this implies you use the telephony feature. So, Google Play reacts as if you had the following in your AndroidManifest.xml:
<uses-feature
android:name="android.hardware.telephony"
android:required="true" />
When you manually add this and declare it required="false", this tells Google Play that whilst you do ask for the permission, you can handle the case where the user does not have the telephony feature.
This is confirmed via this note in the docs:
Note: Some system permissions implicitly require the availability of a device feature. For example, if your app requests permission to access to BLUETOOTH, this implicitly requires the FEATURE_BLUETOOTH device feature.
The full list of permissions and the feature requirements implied is available here, and includes your situation:
Finally, with your ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION you are also declaring a feature requirement on android.hardware.location, just for your information.
There's also further detailed information over on the GameDev StackExchange.

One or more of the dependencies / modules / libraries your project is using is adding that requirement to your Android Manifest.
To investigate open your main Android Manifest file in Android Studio, and click on the Merged Manifest tab at the bottom of the page.
This will show you a view of the final merged Manifest, along with sources of each line.
Read more about this here: https://developer.android.com/studio/build/manifest-merge#inspect_the_merged_manifest_and_find_conflicts
HOW TO FIX
If you wish to avoid adding that requirement to your final Manifest, you can use Node Markers in your Manifest to control how the merge works.
Read more about Node markers here: https://developer.android.com/studio/build/manifest-merge#node_markers
e.g. try this:
<uses-feature
android:name="android.hardware.telephony"
android:required="false"
tools:node="replace" />

Android App doesn't require any special access

When I start to install myapp.apk, I get the below screen.
My app requires Location, External Storage permission. Above permissions are supposed to be requested from user as required i.e. just before the code which required these permissions.
Now , when app is installed I get a screen which say App doesn't require any special access as in the screen below. Why?
This is my permission code in Manifest file.
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CALL_PHONE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="com.google.android.previders.gsf.permission.READ_GSERVICES" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.DOWNLOAD_WITHOUT_NOTIFICATION" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_DOWNLOAD_MANAGER" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" />

With Android 6.0, was introduced the new Android permissions runtime control. Shortly: on older devices all permissions were provided on install of app, from Android M needed permission is used only on runtime, when it is really needed, like Camera activity.

Are you overwriting app? This scenario happens when you already have app installed and installing same app or same app with new version.
If you don't have any new permission added in new app then it will show like that.

As Jadav Lalit already said:
if you install an app it will ask for the permissions it needs. This is also the case for installing, uninstalling and re-installing an app.
if you reinstall or install a newer version of the app without new permissions, it will not ask for any permissions.
On a side note, if you only need Location and External Storage permission you should only have ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION, ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION, READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE and maybe WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE.
You could also add ACCESS_LOCATION_EXTRA_COMMANDS since you use location.
Anyhow a complete list is here: https://developer.android.com/reference/android/Manifest.permission.html
They are all there and up to date, but the description can be a little short sometimes.
A more descriptive list is here: http://androidpermissions.com/ but seems a little out of date updated.

Android: add permissions to push out notifications

I'm developing an Android app and I plan to push out notifications to the user in a future version. However, I want to add the permissions for it already on the current version.
How do I do this?
For example, in my AndroidManifest.xml file, should I add something like:
<permission
android:name="...permission.C2D_MESSAGE"
android:protectionLevel="signature" />
<uses-permission
android:name="...permission.C2D_MESSAGE" />

Yes, GCM permission
<permission android:name="<your-package-name>.permission.C2D_MESSAGE"
android:protectionLevel="signature" />
<uses-permission android:name="<your-package-name>.permission.C2D_MESSAGE" />
is correct. BUT
You should not add any permission into manifest, which your app is not
using. Better to add permission in the same version when you will
introduce PUSH notification feature.

Android Market issue with manifest file

I have a problem while publishing on the Market. My application does not use autofocus feature but when I publish it on the market I see in console following:
android.hardware.camera
android.hardware.camera.autofocus
And here are permissions and features that I request in manifest file:
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION" />
Can anyone tell me what's the problem please?

Are the proper <uses-feature> tags included in your manifest? That means only
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera" />
The doc states:
For example, if an application requests the CAMERA permission but does not declare a element for android.hardware.camera, Google Play considers that the application requires a camera and should not be shown to users whose devices do not offer a camera.
from filtering based on implicit features
You can check this list and see that the two features mentioned by you are assumed when you use the camera permission and don't state anything in your manifest. Add the above code snippet and it should get reduced to just the camera-feature.