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

Update #2: Version 10.0.1 fixes the issue again.

Update: this also occurs in version 10.0.0 of Google Play services, as reported in this post.

Previous Answer:

Per this post in the Android Developers G+ Community, one of the moderators (me) posted this comment:

I already reported this issue internally yesterday when a developer pointed it out, the fix has already been made internally, and an updated SDK is coming soon

And the updated SDK is now available - use the 9.6.1 Google Play services dependency.