Android 4.3 App Permission Manager Discovered, Hidden For Now

We saw a lot of new features during the unveiling of Android 4.3 Jelly Bean earlier this week, including multi-user account support with restricted profiles, as well as Google Play Games, which is Google's version of Apple's Game Center. However, there's a new feature installed as well called Apps Ops, which is an app permission manager.

Apps Ops is hidden for the time being, most likely due to it not being fully ready yet, but luckily, you can install a third-party app that unlocks the hidden app permissions manager, letting you set individual custom controls for each app and give them their own permissions that they're allowed to perform.

For instance, you can fine tune permissions to apps to prevent them from accessing your contacts, getting your location through GPS, and accessing your call log. Obviously, this is a huge win for those worried about their privacy, but it's also a huge win for smartphone hypermilers, as you can turn on automatic GPS in apps to save on battery.

We're not sure when Google plans on unlocking the feature for everyone, without the help of a third-party unlocking app, but this gives us a sign that Google is becoming more aware of privacy and wants users to be able to fine tune settings in order to have the level of privacy they want.

The hidden feature also seems to give users the ability to to deny some permissions in apps at the time of installation, which would be rather convenient and time-saving. Currently, many of us don't read the app permissions anyway when we install the app, and simply just hit "Accept," but this could make us pay more attention to the information that apps can get a hold of.

SOURCE: Android Police