Since Android 6.0 listening to the PhoneStateListener.LISTEN_DATA_CONNECTION_STATE changes seems to no longer require READ_PHONE_STATE permission

Question

I\'m applying Android 6.0 runtime permissions into an app which listens to carrier data connection state changes. I first tried to just remove the READ_PHONE_STATE from the mani

Answer 1

Is there any way to confirm this?

Yes, this commit removes the request of READ_PHONE_STATE when register the event type LISTEN_CALL_STATE, LISTEN_DATA_ACTIVITY and LISTEN_DATA_CONNECTION_STATE:

Do not enforce PHONE_STATE_PERMISSION to register listener PHONE_STATE_PERMISSION should not be required to register to the following event types:
- PhoneStateListener.LISTEN_CALL_STATE
- PhoneStateListener.LISTEN_DATA_ACTIVITY
- PhoneStateListener.LISTEN_DATA_CONNECTION_STATE

In case of LISTEN_CALL_STATE, an empty string should be passed instead of incomingNumber, when caller has no PHONE_STATE_PERMISSION.

Bug: 21588537 Change-Id: I5b6d0308924f7e4cd13a983b8e0c9b3a5bbb119b

The documentation on developer.android.com was updated and correctly shows that the permission are not required.

If your code doesn't need the permission READ_PHONE_STATE for other reason apart from LISTEN_DATA_CONNECTION_STATE you can change your AndroidManifest.xml adding maxSdkVersion to the uses-permission: