The Android development team highlighted a change inbound for Android 18, which is exciting since I suppose we are nearing the time when we can look forward to betas and developer builds. An Android 18 public release isn’t expected until well into 2027, but before that comes a lot of internal and external testing needs to take place. One feature we can look forward to is a rework of the Write Contacts permission
As of right now, when an application requests this permission, Android grants it the ability to, “make widespread changes to contacts across the device in the background, even without user interaction.” Fearing this could cause issues, the team is addressing it.
With Android 18, a new contact editor interface will be provided for apps that only need to “add or edit a few contacts,” negating the need to grant access Write Contacts permission. Of course, apps that continue to need wide access (dialers, spam blockers, etc.) will be able to request permission via an updated MANAGE_CONTACTS permission.
Expect lots of Android Dev-related news this week with the Android Dev Summit taking place tomorrow and Thursday.
