To enforce your own permissions, you must first declare them in your AndroidManifest.xml
using one or more <permission>
elements.
For example, an application that wants to control who can start one of its activities could declare a permission for this operation as follows:
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" package="com.example.myapp" > <permission android:name="com.example.myapp.permission.DEADLY_ACTIVITY" android:label="@string/permlab_deadlyActivity" android:description="@string/permdesc_deadlyActivity" android:permissionGroup="android.permission-group.COST_MONEY" android:protectionLevel="dangerous" /> ... </manifest>
Note: The system does not allow multiple packages to declare a permission with the same name, unless all the packages are signed with the same certificate. If a package declares a permission, the system does not permit the user to install other packages with the same permission name, unless those packages are signed with the same certificate as the first package. To avoid naming collisions, we recommend using reverse-domain-style naming for custom permissions, for example com.example.myapp.ENGAGE_HYPERSPACE
.
The protectionLevel
attribute is required, telling the system how the user is to be informed of applications requiring the permission, or who is allowed to hold that permission, as described in the linked documentation.
The android:permissionGroup
attribute is optional, and only used to help the system display permissions to the user. In most cases you will want to set this to a standard system group (listed in android.Manifest.permission_group
), although you can define a group yourself. It is preferable to use an existing group, as this simplifies the permission UI shown to the user.
You need to supply both a label and description for the permission. These are string resources that the user can see when they are viewing a list of permissions (
) or details on a single permission ( android:label
). The label should be short; a few words describing the key piece of functionality the permission is protecting. The description should be a couple of sentences describing what the permission allows a holder to do. Our convention is a two-sentence description: the first sentence describes the permission, and the second sentence warns the user of the type of things that can go wrong if an application is granted the permission.android:description
Here is an example of a label and description for the CALL_PHONE permission:
<string name="permlab_callPhone">directly call phone numbers</string> <string name="permdesc_callPhone">Allows the application to call phone numbers without your intervention. Malicious applications may cause unexpected calls on your phone bill. Note that this does not allow the application to call emergency numbers.</string>
You can view at the permissions currently defined in the system using the Settings app and the shell command adb shell pm list permissions
. To use the Settings app, go to Settings > Applications. Pick an app and scroll down to see the permissions that the app uses. For developers, the adb '-s' option displays the permissions in a form similar to how the user will see them:
$ adb shell pm list permissions -s All Permissions: Network communication: view Wi-Fi state, create Bluetooth connections, full Internet access, view network state Your location: access extra location provider commands, fine (GPS) location, mock location sources for testing, coarse (network-based) location Services that cost you money: send SMS messages, directly call phone numbers ...