How to manage application permissions in Android 11

Your device has been updated to Android 11. Everything is running smoothly, but you know there is more to do. Consider this: Android 11 gives you a lot more control over app permissions. The problem is that you already installed a bunch of apps before upgrading to 11. That means those apps already have permissions set.

Of course, Android 11 will revoke the permissions of apps you don’t use for a couple of months, with a warning (more on that in a bit). Why wait for that eventuality when you can manage app permissions right away, especially when you may have given those apps unrestricted access to your device?

How do you do this? Let me teach you.

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What you will need

The only thing you will need for this to work is an Android device running the latest version of the operating system (version 11).

How to adjust permissions in Android 11

To locate the Permission Manager, open the Settings app and then tap Privacy. In the resulting window, tap Permission Manager. You should now see a list of all the services available on your device (Figure a).

Figure a

Find and touch a particular service that you want to manage. For example, let’s say you want to manage location service permissions. Tap Location and you will see a list of all the apps that have permission to access the service. You will see three categories:

Scroll through the list and find an application that you want to modify. Tap that entry and then you can modify the permission to be one of the following:

Tap on the permission you want the app to have and then exit the app list by tapping the left pointing arrow in the upper left corner. Review all the applications of this service and modify the permissions to perfectly suit your needs. When you are done, exit this service and proceed to the next one.

How to enable automatic removal of permissions

Do you remember the warning I mentioned earlier? Android 11 has a pretty nifty feature that will automatically remove an app’s permissions if it’s not used for a few months. However, this feature is not enabled for any application by default. To use the feature, you must enable it on a per-app basis.

That’s just as efficient as a Windows 10 upgrade. However, I’ve given it some thought and figured out how to make it work for you. It’s best to review installed apps, locate apps you don’t use very often, and enable the feature.

To do this, open the Settings app and then go to Apps & notifications. From there, tap on See all X apps (where X is the number of apps you have installed). In the resulting window, locate and tap one of the applications that you use infrequently. In the resulting window, tap Permissions (Figure B).

Figure B

In the application permissions window, tap the On / Off slider to Remove permissions if the application is not used, until it is in the On position (Figure C).

Figure C

And that is. You have enabled your first app so if you don’t use it for a few months (we don’t know how many months that really is), the permissions for that app will be removed. This is a good way to ensure that applications that you don’t use very often cannot access your data. When you use an application of this type again, you must grant it permissions.

There you have it, you’ve managed app permissions on Android 11. With just a little time and effort, you can ensure that none of your installed apps have permissions that they shouldn’t. Lock that mobile device and you will enjoy a greater sense of privacy and security.

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