How to Choose Play Console Permissions?

How to / Third Party Tooling
1

I have a simple app, built with Expo, that displays information. The info is downloaded from a Firebase DB when the home screen is loaded. When submitting the app in the Play Store, we are required to choose at least one permission from the list. I incorrectly checked the SMS permission, so the app was rejected. My bad.
However, it is not clear which permission is appropriate for a simple app like ours. I contacted Play Console Help and asked which permission was appropriate for our app. Their reply:

“The declared functionality {Default Phone handler (and any other core functionality usage while default handler)} is determined to be unnecessary or not aligned with the core functionality of your app.”

Here is the list of permissions. If anyone knows the correct choice for this type of app I’d appreciate the advice.
Thanks.

==== Permissions Choices =======
Default SMS handler
Default Phone handler
Default Assistant handler
Transactional backup and restore for users and archive for enterprise (time-limited/non-continuous)
Enterprise SMS call archives
Caller ID, spam detection, and blocking
Connected device companion apps (for example, smartwatch or automotive)
Cross-device synchronization or transfer of SMS or calls
SMS-based financial transactions and related activity where access is restricted to financial SMS transactions (for example, 5-digit messages)
SMS based money management
Proxy calls
Services - Carrier
Services - OEM
Device Automation
Physical safety / emergency alert apps (e.g., senior safety)
Call-based OTP account verification
Using SMS_CB_RECEIVED for customer communications (e.g., Smart Zone Cast service)
Write and Show Call History in Dialer

1 Like
2

@pixeldroid I am going trough the same problem. Have you figured it out yet?

3

Fixing it was convoluted and in the end I’m not sure what worked. 2 suggestions:

  1. Add empty permissions to android section of app.json:
"android": {
      "package": "org.name.name",
      "permissions": [],
      "versionCode": 5
    },
  1. My impression of the persistance of the permissions is that it is a caching bug in Google. After a few days it cleared out. I also contacted support. They eventually answered, but I don’t know if they played an a active role in fixing the issue.

Hope that helps.

4

It helped for sure. I uploaded an .apk with app.json permissions key set to , just like yours, and I got the same problems. Because of that I had the same impression about the persistence of permissions being a caching problem.

So I think I’m just going to wait a little bit to see what happens.

Thanks a lot!

5

How long has the problem persisted?
I’d recommend contacting support: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/7218994.