[russdill]

On a related note, I don't understand why apps are permitted to require you to enable certain permissions or refuse to run. What is the point of giving users control of their privacy if large popular apps are a able to essentially opt out of the optional part. I'm looking at you Kakao.

[ryandrake]

This case is clearly better on iOS. The AppStore guidelines require that your app functions regardless of whether the user consents to permissions. None of this bullshit “oh you denied this flashlight app contacts permission? Fuck you exit(0)”

[vinay427]

The Google Photos app on iOS is still an egregious abuser of this, requiring access to all photos to run at all, rather than just selected photos or no photos at all. I’m still not sure why it would need that if I only intend on using it to access shared albums in the cloud, download photos, or view selected photos on my device, but it’s Google so I’m not terribly surprised.

[axelthegerman]

Agreed for optional permissions, but not sure what you'd expect a browser to do that doesn't have internet access or a camera app that is not allowed to access the camera

[patates]

Allow you to open the app still and go through the menus, maybe you just want to export your data? Maybe you want to check the T&C again (which should be available offline from the menu)? Perhaps you wanted to see the design/ergonomics of the app before allowing it? It could be a thousand reasons. Photo app can display "No camera permission granted, click here to setup" instead of the visor or something, and the browser can also inform the user of the situation with a static page.

It's like proper exception handling: Do not just close the app, fall back gracefully and allow the user to retry.

[jbay808]

I'd expect the browser to behave the same way it does when the device is in airplane mode: display a message about being offline, while still letting me play with the UI, adjust settings, navigate to local files and cached pages, and so on.

[josephcsible]

For the browser, view local HTML pages via file:// URLs. For the camera, look at previously-taken photos through the built-in mini-gallery that most support.

[russdill]

In the example of Kakao, it lists the contacts permission as optional and the app will install and open without it. But it won't let you past a nag screen without it first verifying that you have given it access to your contacts.

Really anything involving personal data should be up to the user. Especially something like your contacts.

[josephg]

As much as I have a problem with Apple’s monopolistic control over the App Store, one benefit is that behaviour like this doesn’t make it past review.

I’d love to see a button on the contacts permission window to give the app a list of AI generated fake contacts. (And fake GPS coordinates, and so on).

Philosophically, your phone should be your user agent. It should act on your behalf, not on behalf of some tech companies.

[netheril96]

Xiaomi's newer phones do have this functionality, albeit in a rudimentary form (only empty list is returned so the app can still detect it given how few people have empty contacts).

[antifa]

Hopefully they fix it so that "contacts denied" returns a large list of randomly generated contacts.

[artificial]

All for the user-agent-ification. Great idea.