Google is alerting app developers to some important coding changes ahead of the planned extension of Android’s auto-reset permissions policy. This means that more users will have the permissions they granted to automatically revoked apps starting in December. Here’s what you need to know as a consumer.

The auto-reset permissions policy came with the launch of Android 11 and applies to every device running this version or later. The policy states that if a user grants certain permissions for an app that targets Android 11 (API level 30) or later, but does not use the app for a few months, those permissions will automatically be revoked.

There are a few exceptions to the rule: developers can instruct users to turn off the auto-reset feature if it’s enabled, and; users can manually enable the policy for apps targeting Android 6.0-10 (API levels 23-29).

So here is the only thing that changes from December: the policy will start to apply to any device. with Google Play services running Android 6.0 through 10. There is no change to the API target of the policy, so apps targeting Android 11 or later will continue to be the only ones subject to the policy. But that still means hundreds of millions, if not billions of devices with modern idling apps will be notified that their app no ​​longer has permission to perform preferred actions. The rollout of the policy is expected to last until the first quarter of next year.

With this class extension, developers with apps targeting level 30 and above who want users to disable the policy will need to implement a new set of APIs Google released in beta now and will be integrated into Jetpack Core v1.7 next month. In addition, these APIs will also work by prompting users to disable the more intensive application hibernation policy, set for Android 12. More details can be found on the Android Developer Blog.