Hi everyone, my new update to M on my Huawei gives me a hard time. I cannot set access rights for apps because it wants me to enable (or disable) overlay rights to some app I cannot identify. Actually I would have expected the name of the related app to be printed in the message but it doesn't do that. Many have problems with that message using screen filtering apps .. but I am not aware of using such app.
I have read that the permission in question is "android.permission.SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW".
I am now looking for a sort of batch tool that allows for an easy change of this permission to all apps e.g.:
Store current state; toggle all on or off; restore state
I looked at some privacy managers and the state appears. But didn't find one (yet?) that allows me to do this to all apps at once.
Can anyone point me to a tool that can help me? Regrettably I am not a programmer.
Related
When SwiftKey Flow's first beta came out, I discovered that SwiftKey did not leverage the existing dictionary and predictions which I'd spent months teaching SwiftKey 3.
This posed a problem to me, as it reduced my typing speed a lot, and made it difficult to efficiently talk to many people at once. To fix this problem, I created a simple app that allowed me to change keyboards much faster than manually going into settings and doing it. I then uploaded the app to Google Play, in the hope that it will help others.
Now with the coming of so many keyboards that people are trying out and using (Kii, SwiftKey Flow, SwiftKey, Skype, Thumb just to name a few), I thought I'd make a thread here as well to share that app and take suggestions.
The app is free, with just one advertisement in the settings screen (which isn't as bad as it sounds, as you can get away with visiting the settings screen just once for the entire time you use the app).
Update #1:
I've added Danish and Chinese Translations to the app
There is now an option to start at boot
FAQ
Q: Why can't the app switch keyboards automatically, instead of showing a dialog with a list?
A: The Android SDK does not allow third party apps to change the selected keyboard without user intervention, as this could result in a malicious app replacing your keyboard with its own (and perhaps log everything you type with it) without your permission. This would be a serious security problem, and is hence not allowed.
Raghav Sood said:
FAQ
Q: Why can't the app switch keyboards automatically, instead of showing a dialog with a list?
A: The Android SDK does not allow third party apps to change the selected keyboard without user intervention, as this could result in a malicious app replacing your keyboard with its own (and perhaps log everything you type with it) without your permission. This would be a serious security problem, and is hence not allowed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there anything I miss ? what is the different between this app in the notification bar then the Android's system "Choose input method" ?
When my I am in input mode, the "Choose input method" becomes available in the notification area. I click it and a list of keyboard appears which is the same as this app ?
Like you said in FAQ... if it can switch between two pre defined keyboard.. that would be great.. instead of looking at the list and involve more steps before it can switch KB quickly..
Using XPRIVACY*****won't be adding any more stuff to this guide for a while. will continue this when i have enough free time*******
XPRIVACY is undoubtedly the best privacy app out there. Its because of the options it supports almost all the android versions.
But it is not as easy to understand as App Ops or Pdroid privacy guard. Thats why inspite of my many attempts to use it, i gave up after few hours or days and switched back to App Ops.
It has come along way from when i made those attempts, it has become more user friendly and interactive but so many options which is its biggest plus point, also makes it hard for new users to switch from other privacy app to XPRIVACY.
I recently made a small guide about HOW TO USE APP OPS MORE EFFECTIVELY.
So the next obvious step was GUIDE on XPRIVACY. i have been putting it off from many days but now no more will add more videos whenever i can but its about time i that i finally get started with it.
I hope this guide will help my fellow XDA members to make the required switch or to introduce them to the world of XPRIVACY
Installation instruction, minimum requirements and other usefull stuff can be found at the official thread of XPRIVACY
What this Guide is ABOUT???
>This guide is for NOOB users, so that they can understand how to use XPRIVACY. Also as i ahven't purchased the PRO version yet this huide will only cover functions of FREE version. I will be buying the PRO version soon and then it will cover use of PRO features as well
>I will try to explain different restriction using different apps.
>Examples will be video of the app with and without those restrictions and the effect that those restriction will have on that app
>NOTE 1 - this is not full blown guide and it is just to get you started. However it can turn into full blown guide depending on the inputs from various users and also after a certain time as i get better in using this app.
>Note 2: Differnet categories are explained using different app. Most of the times category name will be used as heading as you can see in 3rd point, but at some places where permissions like location, contacts , clipboard etc are explained i will use these words only as these words will result in easier understanding.
> More and more videos will be added as i find the appropriate app and a way to demonstrate the use of a particular permission using that app.
LETS STARTYoutube playlist link
1) Faking or restriction location
I am pretty sure this is going to be very useful to many people for playing location based games or to become mayor of certain place in foursquare and i am sure you can think of using it in many other apps.
Please note that you cannot fake location for some apps like google maps and facebook. these are the only two apps that i know of. you cannot fake location for these two apps but you can restrict it.
Also as you can see in the video you will be able to fake location in foursquare but when you will try to access google maps view from inside Foursqaure app you will get no location. But still you can check in and get suggestion from foursquare based on your fake location. default fake location is CHRISTMAS ISLAND. but you can change it through XPRIVACY(which is covered in the video).
2) Blocking access to the different accounts configured in your device
For this i have used Chrome beta as you can see in the video that blocking the account permissions will result in chrome not seeing the different google accounts that are present on my device. Thus i am unable to sign in chrome beta to sync my bookmarks and other stuff.
You can use this to block access from those app which try to gain access to the different accounts configured in your device.
Note: if you block access to 9gag, Ifunny etc apps like these for which you sign in using your configured google account. You wont be able to sign in those apps as these apps won't be able to see the configured account.
Although if a you sign in using username or email id which you use only for that particular app. You can block restrict this permission as it will have no negative effect on that app behaviour
3) Xprivacy Category - View Browser
For explaining what this permission does i have used DIGG app. This permission will restrict app from opening external links. or more precisely hyperlinks from withing app. If this permission is restricted you will be displayed warning from xprivacy when you try to open any link from withing the app(shown in the video).
4) More Videos to come soon..........
More videos to be added whenever i can find time and based on users input. I am also a beginner when it comes to XPRIVACY so be patient with me and if you have any ideas to make this thread better please do share it with us.
Once you have enough understanding to use Xprivacy on daily basis you can head over to XPRIVACY thread and post you advanced question there.
Currently i have some personal stuff to take care of so updating this thread is on hold. Will update it with more videos as soon as i can. I have made the videos just need to edit them and upload.
Reserved
reserved
Other Useful threads by Me
[GUIDE] Using Apps Ops (or Privacy Guard) 4 blocking wakelocks & saving battery
[App] Samachar - Indian News app and more
thanks
thanks for this helpful tutorial.
can u please tell me if I could use xprivacy to block adds on apps , cheers
drreality said:
thanks for this helpful tutorial.
can u please tell me if I could use xprivacy to block adds on apps , cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can block internet permission. That will block ads but that can also make app useless if it needs internet to function.
Why don't you use adaway or adblock pro to block ads?
I know this is a dumb question but I've been using Xprivacy for a few years now and I never could figure out what the two boxes to the right of the application names are for. I believe one is for restrict and one is for allow? If someone could let me know which each of those boxes means it would be much appreciated.
Good question. The two-column system is a later addition to xprivacy and many of the newbie tutorials don't cover it.
Let's take a simple example like location.
For starters, let's say the second column is unchecked. This is the easiest situation to understand. Then what happens depends on the first column.
The first column -- if it's checked then xprivacy will always deny access to location and will instead feed the app fake information as set up in the xprivacy settings.
If however the first column is unchecked then the app will be able to get to your actual location.
This is what you want with an app where the answer to "can it use this permission?" is always the same (either "always" or "never"). Second column unchecked, first column choice telling the app yes or no.
The second column controls the pop-ups that you see with xprivacy. If the second column is checked then you'll get a pop-up asking whether to allow the app the permission or not (whether or not the first column is checked).
There are four choices -- "allow", "deny", "don't know", and "oops I timed out".
"oops I timed out" will give the app whatever the answer in the first column is. You can tell what the first column is because the app says "Timeout will: allow/deny" depending on whether the first column is unchecked/checked.
If you click "allow" in the pop-up then xprivacy unchecks the second column in its settings, unchecks the first, and gives the app access to your true location. The popup will then not appear again unless you recheck the second column in the xprivacy settings.
If you click "deny" then xprivacy unchecks the second column, checks the first column and feeds the app fake location. Again you'll not see the popup again.
If you click "Don't know" then I *think* xprivacy denies access (whether or not the first column is unchecked) and leaves the second column checked, so it will ask again the next time.
How did I find this out? Well I didn't read it from a FAQ! I just downloaded xprivacy yesterday and I found it incredibly difficult to work out from scratch. In the end I just downloaded an app which prints out your gps location and nothing else, and I just experimented with it. The above is a report on my conclusions. I hope it helps other people because it is the post which I wish I could have read this time yesterday.
Note that other permissions might work slightly differently. For example it is not really possible to feed an app fake internet information, as this would require carrying around a fake internet on your phone. You can get a quick idea about what data can be faked by looking at the xprivacy settings. For example, you can fake your phone number and your MAC address. But as I've said you can't fake your internet and you can't fake your storage either -- which is quite a good idea because if you pretend to let an app write to your SD card and then pretend to let it read it and it can't find what it just wrote, this is bound to lead to trouble, probably more trouble than if you'd just denied it access in the first place.
Nice tutorial
@yannick.12
Many many thanks for you're well explained tutorial.
This is was definitley needed because is still (incredibly) very hard to find out some good guide out there, expecially for the "second column" options, as you mentioned.
Thank you, again my friend :good:
I got also another question (if someone knonw the answer) about the "shared rules". I mean, if I download the rules for some app, from the XPrivacy server, it's supposed to be the settings that someone has configure, ok. But what if I send my rules and, later in time, I download it again for that app? I got my rules (the rules that I uploaded before) or I got the " common" rules setted shared by the XPrivacy?
Sent from my Xperia E4g using XDA-Developers mobile app
Is it possible for xPrivacy to allow app's permission? I'm using a phone that runs android 5.1.1 and some apps just don't ask for permissions which makes it impossible for me to access storages. It will only respond that app has no permission to write over storages which makes the app not functional.
rUx_Gaming said:
Is it possible for xPrivacy to allow app's permission? I'm using a phone that runs android 5.1.1 and some apps just don't ask for permissions which makes it impossible for me to access storages. It will only respond that app has no permission to write over storages which makes the app not functional.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Won't work like that.... And that issue is still there.. Even with pie... App's developer fault..
Sent from my Redmi Note 5 Pro using Tapatalk
Kapiljhajhria said:
Won't work like that.... And that issue is still there.. Even with pie... App's developer fault..
Sent from my Redmi Note 5 Pro using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for info. Is there any possible workaround for this other than contacting the devs to fix storage permission issue?
rUx_Gaming said:
Thanks for info. Is there any possible workaround for this other than contacting the devs to fix storage permission issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, give permission manually from app info
Sent from my Redmi Note 5 Pro using Tapatalk
Kapiljhajhria said:
No, give permission manually from app info
Sent from my Redmi Note 5 Pro using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess there'snothing I can do other than look for an alternative app, android 5.1.1 won't let you edit app permission.
rUx_Gaming said:
I guess there'snothing I can do other than look for an alternative app, android 5.1.1 won't let you edit app permission.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mean give app permission from app's info. I think u can do that... Dont remember 5.1.1 interface now but it should be possible
Sent from my Redmi Note 5 Pro using Tapatalk
Kapiljhajhria said:
I mean give app permission from app's info. I think u can do that... Dont remember 5.1.1 interface now but it should be possible
Sent from my Redmi Note 5 Pro using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My phone doesn't seem so. Here's how it looks like in the app settings.
Direct copy and credit to larsdennert's thread here. It works with V10 also.
"Thanks to ragingredbull for pointing out you can shortcut to App Ops on the G4. App Ops won't officially be released until Android M but has been in AOSP since 4.3. Google hid it in 4.4 and it was no longer accessible without root. The G4 has it available. Props to LG for allowing this!!
App Ops allows you to restrict access permissions such as GPS, contacts or Keep awake for individual apps. It is basically a privacy control that the iPhone has had for a bit and is sorely lacking in Android. The G4 version works for downloaded apps only unlike a root version. It is, however, still very useful and gets you most of the way. If you find that disabling permissions for an app causes it to force close then the app is written poorly to handle null data and you will have to turn the permission back on if you want to use that app.
To access the menu, Download "Any cut" or "Quick shortcut maker" from the play store. You want to create a short cut for "Access Lock" from the app.
Open it, change 'incremental search' to ' normal search' and search for Access .
You should get a Settings option that you can expand. Look for one labeled Access Lock and click on it.
It's possible that some App Ops enabling apps may also point to the proper Activity and work the same way.
After you have made the shortcut, clicking on it will open a menu allowing you to restrict app permissions.
(now we just need a hosts blocker and firewall...)"
Wow! Thanks for this
Check here out for "host blocker and firewall" as far as lack of root is concern lol
unclear
OK installed quickshortcutmaker but there is no "Access Lock" anywhere. How did you get that to appear?
Or use this?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=thewazteam.lgaccesslock
Sent From My LG G4
I created an application to open App Ops in some devices, especially for LG G4. If you guys want to open App Ops in only one tap, just install it https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.toanpv.appopslauncher
No permission required.
toanpv.vc said:
I created an application to open App Ops in some devices, especially for LG G4. If you guys want to open App Ops in only one tap, just install it https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.toanpv.appopslauncher
No permission required.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Much more elegant design. A little over 24kb. the other app posted above is over 5mbs. I'm an educated end user. I wonder what the differences could be that would make such a difference in size?
moSess said:
Much more elegant design. A little over 24kb. the other app posted above is over 5mbs. I'm an educated end user. I wonder what the differences could be that would make such a difference in size?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for good question. I just focus on which you guys want, is simple and fast (smiley)
When the developer creates new Android project on Android Studio, the tool will automatically implement some libraries to that project to help developer create nice, useful app more easily (such as "app combat" - a support library), and other things... App combat library will increase the total size of application around 500Kb.
As a mobile developer, APK size is one of the most goals of mine. Creating a useful, beautiful, and smooth app with a small size makes you work harder. Consequently, you will create a good experience to users. In this app, I just wrote a code file (Java) to try opening App Ops if it is available. No need to do more. I removed all thing that not need.
I think some developer don't care about the size of an apk file and/or they want to do something such as using analytical tool, collecting some datas...
Download Activity launcher from the playstore. Go to all activities\settings\access lock. You can choose many more options that don't show up in those apps.
toanpv.vc appopslauncher link
find it at apkpure
"App Ops for LG - Permission - no root"
24.3 kb - works on LG LK430 running 5.0.1
bad post, sorry
Hi Forum Members,
I wanted to implement device administration control on the devices which are using my app. The scenario here is I want to get control on the uninstall of the app. Since with lock mechanism, I will lock the settings from user thereby denying the user access to settings and hence user can't uninstall apps which are under device administration control. I achieved the same with my Celkon Tab and Motorola mobiles but the problem arises with Honor Tab( media type T3 10) where when the user tries to uninstall the same app which is under device admin control it will not intent to the setting but directly uninstalls the app from the device. This shouldn't have happened since every app with device admin control code should have gone to settings and only if the user unchecked the device admin control feature he would be able to uninstall. Any help regarding the same will be highly appreciated.
kompac_xda said:
Hi Forum Members,
I wanted to implement device administration control on the devices which are using my app. The scenario here is I want to get control on the uninstall of the app. Since with lock mechanism, I will lock the settings from user thereby denying the user access to settings and hence user can't uninstall apps which are under device administration control. I achieved the same with my Celkon Tab and Motorola mobiles but the problem arises with Honor Tab( media type T3 10) where when the user tries to uninstall the same app which is under device admin control it will not intent to the setting but directly uninstalls the app from the device. This shouldn't have happened since every app with device admin control code should have gone to settings and only if the user unchecked the device admin control feature he would be able to uninstall. Any help regarding the same will be highly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds shady, like you want control of other people's devices to prevent them from uninstalling your app.
Shady business like that could be used to put a privacy invading app on someone's device to spy on them and prevent them from uninstalling the app, forcing them to leave themselves exposed to snooping.
This kind of thing could also be used to prevent uninstalling the app so that you can continue making money on ads associated with the app.
Shady business, either way.
The only way I can see this being a legitimate purpose is if it involves owning a business with business owned/controlled devices with the app installed on the devices being used by employees for company purposes and preventing them from uninstalling the app to protect the business purposes for the app. In this case, it would be better to just make the app a system app somehow then prevent the user from having root access, in this scenario, the user wouldn't have the ability to uninstall the app unless they rooted the device themselves.
Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk
When we deny/ block certain permissions to apps, how does Android (or iOS) enforce this?
There are two ways of enforcing this setting:
1. System tells the app not to ask for the permission because the user has denied it.
2. App keeps trying to access the particular permission, and the system continuously blocks it.
For example, if we deny location permission to an app, does the app no longer request location access, or does it keep trying to access location and system keeps blocking it?
If method 1 is how it works (and I doubt it), it would be great for performance and battery life.
If method 2 is how it works (and I think this is how it works), then the app would likely continue to drain battery even more than what it would if the permission was granted.
Can someone explain how this works?
Thanks.
TheMystic said:
When we deny/ block certain permissions to apps, how does Android (or iOS) enforce this?
There are two ways of enforcing this setting:
1. System tells the app not to ask for the permission because the user has denied it.
2. App keeps trying to access the particular permission, and the system continuously blocks it.
For example, if we deny location permission to an app, does the app no longer request location access, or does it keep trying to access location and system keeps blocking it?
If method 1 is how it works (and I doubt it), it would be great for performance and battery life.
If method 2 is how it works (and I think this is how it works), then the app would likely continue to drain battery even more than what it would if the permission was granted.
Can someone explain how this works?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The first one if it's update to support the current SDK. App comunicate a request system-level (permission) and ask you to choose.
Granting / revoking permissions is done at app's level and controlled / noted by Android OS:
Permissions on Android | Android Developers
developer.android.com
Keep in mind that once an app has permission to use something, it can do so whenever it wants. While an app might have a legitimate reason for accessing your location, it could also check your location in the background every so often and send that data to advertisers - what will drain battery, of course.