Why has the READ_PHONE_STATE permission been added?

Question

In the latest beta version I just published to the Play Store, I notice that the READ_PHONE_STATE has been added since the previous version.

I haven\'t

Answer 1

This issue is present in Play Services v 12.0.0 as well. There's an open issue tracker on it here. It seems the issue is present for both permissions:

• android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE
• android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE

It will probably be fixed with 12.0.1 as we saw with the 10.0.1 fix (from the original question).

Until then, I recommend removing the permission manually from the manifest as stated in the answer by drmrbrewer.

Update
12.0.1 has been released as of March 28, 2018, where this issue was addressed. See the release notes here.

Adds missing minSdkVersion in -license artifacts to prevent automatic inclusion of READ_PHONE_STATE and READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permissions.