Android Photo Picker for Google apps had been introduced by Google a while back, for better privacy of the photos, videos, and files on your device. Now, Google started forcing app developers to use Google’s privacy-preserving photo and video picker.
What is Android Photo Picker?
Android Photo Picker API had been introduced by Google in 2022 with Android 13, which was a privacy-preserving method for apps to access your photos and videos. With the help of which, apps instead requesting permission to access your entire media gallery, can request access to the photos or videos of your choice only.
Also read: Google System Update October 2024: Read here what’s new
New update to Photo Picker:
Through updates, Google made Photo Picker compatible with versions of Android as far back as 4.4, by which if apps wanted to select photos or videos, it can select media from Google photos. By making new Google Play Store Policy, Google started enforcing Developers to adopt it for better privacy of users.
It has been reported by Android Authority that Google announced Last October that- it would eventually crack down on apps that “unnecessarily request the READ_MEDIA_IMAGES and/or READ_MEDIA_VIDEO permissions (on Android 13+) to access the user’s images and/or videos.” This crackdown would initially begin in “mid-2024” with a “request” for apps that only have a one-time or infrequent need to access images and/or videos to remove the READ_MEDIA_IMAGES and/or READ_MEDIA_VIDEO permissions. Beginning in “early 2025,” though, “only apps with core functionality relying on accessing the user’s image and/or videos” would be allowed to use the READ_MEDIA_IMAGES and READ_MEDIA_VIDEO permissions.
With this step of Google, now developers will start adopting the Android Photo Picker for apps and users will see more and more apps getting the new photo picker, especially towards the start of next year.
Those apps who would not fit into Google’s guidelines and request broad access will not be able to publish app updates on Google Play until meeting the new policy.
For more such updates, follow Technology Navigator, your daily dose of technology.
