How to Check What Permissions an Android App Really Needs

An app’s permissions are the clearest statement of what it can actually do to your phone and data. Marketing can lie; a permission request can’t. Learning to read them turns “I hope this app is fine” into “I know what this app can and can’t touch.”

How Android permissions work

Android splits permissions into two rough groups. Normal permissions (like vibrating the phone or connecting to the internet) are granted automatically because they’re low-risk. Sensitive — “runtime” — permissions must be granted by you, usually with a pop-up the first time the app needs them. These are the ones that matter: location, camera, microphone, contacts, SMS, call logs, and access to your photos and files.

Check permissions before you install

On the Play Store, scroll to “About this app,” then “App permissions → See more.” This lists what the app can request. Ask a simple question of each: does this app need this to do its main job? A photo editor needing photo access is expected. A photo editor needing your contacts and SMS is not.

Check and fix them after installing

Go to Settings → Apps → [the app] → Permissions. Here you can see what’s granted and change it. Three habits worth adopting:

• Set location, camera and microphone to “Allow only while using the app.” Very few apps have a good reason to use these in the background.
• Revoke anything that doesn’t match the app’s purpose. If it breaks a feature you actually use, you can grant it back — now you know why it wanted it.
• Use Android’s “Remove permissions if app is unused” toggle so dormant apps lose access automatically.

The permissions that deserve the most suspicion

Accessibility and “Display over other apps” are powerful — they let an app read screen content or draw on top of other apps. Legitimate tools (screen readers, password managers) use them, but so does a lot of malware. Grant these only to apps you strongly trust. Same for “Device admin” and “Install unknown apps.”

Why this matters for fake apps

Repackaged and fake apps often over-request permissions because harvesting data is the whole point. A sideloaded “Aavot APK” from a third-party site could ask for far more than any real utility should — and because you enabled Unknown Sources to install it, there was no scan to flag it. There’s no official Aavot app yet; when there is, its permissions will be minimal and explained. Pair this with our APK safety guide.