What kind of Android application will require android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE permission?

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Wei Yang picture Wei Yang · Nov 14, 2013 · Viewed 26.7k times · Source

I have seen some Android apps on my phone require this android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE permission. I don't know if I could trust them. I know this permission will give the app access to many information. I'm particularly interested in what functionality in an Android app normally require the information like DeviceId , SimSerialNumber, SubscriberId?

Answer

Samuel Bolduc picture Samuel Bolduc · Nov 14, 2013

Phone state provides access to a lot of information about the phone. Usual usages will be for reading the IMEI of your phone and your phone number. This can be useful to identify you in their systems.

It can also be needed if the application is made compatible for Android 1.5 or lower, because this permission didn't exist back then and is added automatically by the play store to those apps

See also: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/605/why-do-so-many-applications-require-permission-to-read-the-phone-state-and-ident

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