On Android 14, Google would prepare an option to avoid giving applications access to the entire gallery. Instead, you could make only selected photos accessible by a particular app. A function that is already found on iOS.
Let’s go for Android 14 DP1. In other words, the future OS update has officially started to prepare, but is still in its infancy. This is already an opportunity to look for some new things that Google is concocting behind the scenes. An exercise that Mishaal Rahman of XDA Developers who discovered an iOS-inspired privacy option.
In an article published on the specialized site, he explains that Android 14 should offer even finer control of the permissions granted to applications to access photos and videos stored on the phone.
A new option on Android 14 for more privacy
Concretely, Android 14 will always leave the possibility of authorizing (or denying) an application to access your photos and videos. However, to these classic choices would be added an option: allow access to selected photos only.
Source: XDA Developers
Source: XDA Developers
Source: XDA Developers
XDA Developers share some screenshots showing how this feature would manifest in various places:
- as a pop-up window displayed above the application when the latter needs to access the photos;
- in the image picker once the user has decided to allow access only to images that he has chosen;
- in the Android 14 settings managing the permissions granted to apps.
This user experience would therefore be very similar to that of iOS on the iPhone where a similar option already exists. Note however that this function is not yet available by default on the Developer Preview of Android 14. It takes a little tweaking to activate it, but we can think that by the Beta phase or the stable version of ‘OS, it will be put forward for the general public.
Go further than Android 13
XDA Developers
recalls that Android 13 had already taken a step in this direction by offering a new photo selector giving access only to selected images. The tool in question was also integrated into Google Play Services and therefore worked even on older versions of Android. The solution was therefore very practical, but it was technically not easy for developers to adopt. Result of the races: only a handful of apps had made the effort to make this beneficial transition for the confidentiality of users.
However, with Android 14, Google would leave no choice and would even force applications that did not make the necessary modifications after Android 13 to go through the right photo selector to take advantage of this new option. At least there’s good reason to hope to learn more during future development stages of Android 14.
To follow us, we invite you to download our Android and iOS app. You can read our articles, files, and watch our latest YouTube videos.