[waqf]

I don't want you to query my packages and I don't want your help to invite people I know to your app. That sounds like a feature that was made for your benefit, not for mine.

So it seems that Google made your app better for me as a user. Congrats Google indeed.

[franga2000]

It's not helping them invite your friends to their app (which is impossible). It's helping you invite them if that's something you want to do (probably by listing the messaging apps you have and giving you pre-compose buttons; EDIT: confirmed by sibling comment).

If you don't want to use that feature, don't press the "invite friends" button and that code will likely never run. If you don't want the app to even theoretically have access to your app list, don't give it the permission. Is it not a runtime permission? That sounds like Google's fault, not the app's.