Android P Rumors: Update Will Block Background Apps From Accessing Camera, Microphone

Android P or Android 9.0 is expected to be announced in a couple of months during Google’s annual I/O conference. Thanks to a source code commit, some information on upcoming new security features for Android P may have already been revealed.

Some details about Android P were first discovered by the folks over at XDA-Developers. The first tidbit the the site discovered was that Android P will prevent idle background apps from accessing a smartphone’s camera. This is a huge deal in terms of user privacy since it would prevent malicious apps from opening the camera and taking photos and videos without the user knowing.

In a follow-up report, XDA-Developers also discovered that Android P would be able to block idle background apps from accessing a smartphone’s microphone. Again, this is a huge improvement in security and ensure that malicious apps won’t be able to record audio without the user’s permission. The merged commit detailing these new Android P features were spotted on the Android Open Source Project.

The new rule-set keeps an eye on the UID (User ID) of applications. UIDs are unique to each app and it will never change as long as it’s installed on the user’s phone. It automatically blocks an app from accessing the phone’s camera and the microphone if it detects that the app’s UID is “idle” or is running in the background, as explained by 9To5Google.

This isn’t actually the first time that Google has placed security features that dealt with privacy concerns over apps that run in the background. As pointed out by Android Police, Google added a feature in Android Oreo last year that is able to send notifications to users that informs them that an “app is running in the background.” Notifications are sent for varying reasons, including when a background app is trying to access the camera.

The problem with this, however, is that users began receiving constant notifications that became very annoying. In the end, most users would simply turn off the feature to stop receiving constant notifications on background apps thereby potentially compromising their privacy and security.

With Android P, it looks like Google has figured out a way to natively block background apps from accessing the mic and the camera. This is a huge deal in terms of smartphone privacy and it could strengthen user’s security overall.

Android P doesn’t have an official name yet, but Google did confirm that it will be version 9.0 of Android. Earlier this month, it was also reported that Android P would be able to natively support display notches like the one found on Apple’s iPhone X. A lot of Android phone manufacturers, including Essential and a bunch of Chinese OEMs, have already begun adding notches and it makes sense that Google would start embracing the new design trend for its next major release of Android.