Google Maps No Longer Requires Storage Permission

With the advent of permissions management in Android Marshmallow, more users will (hopefully) begin scrutinizing the permissions requested by the applications they use. Why in the world would a flashlight app require access to my text messages?

Obviously it doesn’t, but many users put their trust into Google curating the Play Store to prevent malicious apps from data-mining you. However, sometimes a strange permission requested by an application isn’t a result of the developer trying to data-mine you. Sometimes developers are forced to add a permission because Google required it.

For a few years now, Google has required that any developer using the Google Maps Android SDK implement the WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE. However, as Android developer Said Tahsin Dane writes in a Medium post, Google no longer requires developers to add this permission. Now, developers hoping to use Google Maps within their application will no longer have to scare their users into accepting a permission their apps seemingly don’t need.

Developers using Google Maps in their applications should take note that the WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission is still required for any Android devices < 6.0, but that the required permission will be removed entirely from the next release of Android.

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