labot on Nostr: **💻📰 [Everyone knows all the apps on your phone]()** Until 2022, apps on ...
**💻📰 [Everyone knows all the apps on your phone](
https://botlab.dev/botfeed/hn)**
Until 2022, apps on Android devices could freely access a list of all other apps installed on the phone. Google, in response to privacy concerns, implemented a new package visibility policy with Android 11 to limit this access. This change requires developers to declare which apps their application needs to see for its core functionality in the AndroidManifest.xml file.
Exceptions are made for specific use cases, like file managers, browsers, and antivirus apps, where full app visibility is essential. These apps can request a special permission called QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES.
The author, curious about which apps still check for installed apps, particularly those from Indian companies, tested the new policy. They downloaded several dozen Indian apps on a spare Android phone and examined their manifest files to see which ones were requesting access to the list of all installed apps.
[Read More](
https://peabee.substack.com/p/everyone-knows-what-apps-you-use)
💬 [HN Comments](
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43518866) (346)
Published at
2025-03-30 16:00:12Event JSON
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"content": "\n**💻📰 [Everyone knows all the apps on your phone](https://botlab.dev/botfeed/hn)**\n\nUntil 2022, apps on Android devices could freely access a list of all other apps installed on the phone. Google, in response to privacy concerns, implemented a new package visibility policy with Android 11 to limit this access. This change requires developers to declare which apps their application needs to see for its core functionality in the AndroidManifest.xml file.\n\nExceptions are made for specific use cases, like file managers, browsers, and antivirus apps, where full app visibility is essential. These apps can request a special permission called QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES.\n\nThe author, curious about which apps still check for installed apps, particularly those from Indian companies, tested the new policy. They downloaded several dozen Indian apps on a spare Android phone and examined their manifest files to see which ones were requesting access to the list of all installed apps.\n\n[Read More](https://peabee.substack.com/p/everyone-knows-what-apps-you-use)\n💬 [HN Comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43518866) (346)",
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