Mobile Phones > Android How to Manage Android App Permissions Personalize your Android settings to protect your privacy By Molly McLaughlin Molly McLaughlin Twitter Senior Content Strategist New York University Molly K. McLaughlin has been a technology writer since 2004. Her work has appeared on many tech sites across the web including PCMag, Dealnews, Wirecutter and many others. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on January 2, 2022 Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email Android Switching from iOS What to Know Fastest method: Tap Settings > Privacy > Permission Manager > tap the permission > tap app.Or, tap Settings > Apps & notifications > Advanced > Permission Manager > tap the permission > app name.Alternatively, go to Settings > Apps & notifications, tap an app, then tap Permissions. This article explains how to access and manage Android permissions, and how to control the information Google collects from you. Instructions apply to Android 10, 9.0 (Pie), and 8.0 (Oreo). How to Access Permission Settings There are three ways to navigate to the permission manager. The first option is by going to the Advanced settings under Apps & notifications. Open Settings. Tap Apps & notifications. Tap Advanced > Permission Manager. You'll see a list of permissions with details below each one—for example, Body sensors (0 of 2 apps allowed). Tap any permission to see what it means. Apps with Body sensor permissions can access sensor data about your vital signs. Underneath are two sections: Allowed and Denied. Tap an app name to Allow or Deny permissions. On that screen, you can also tap to see all permission settings for that app. Go back to the Permissions Manager. Tap Location, find Google Maps (or another navigation app), and you'll see three options instead of two: Allowed, Denied, and Allowed only while in use. Get to Permissions Settings By Viewing All Apps Another method is by going to your all apps page in settings. Open Settings. Tap Apps & notifications. At the top of this screen are recently used apps. Tap See all apps to get the full list. It will also say how many apps you have—for example, See all 57 apps. Tap an app, then tap Permissions to view that information. As above, you'll see an Allowed and Denied section. Tap an item to change the permissions. Tap See all apps with this permission to see an overview. Tap an app to change permissions. Get to Permissions Settings Via Privacy Settings Finally, the fastest way is by going to your privacy settings. Open Settings. Tap Privacy > Permission manager. Tap a permission, such as Calendar or Camera, to allow or deny permissions by app. How to View Special App Access Android also has special app access settings. You'd rarely need to play around with these, and some are available in an app's settings. These include Tap & pay (mobile payments) and Unrestricted data. Open Settings. Tap Apps & notifications. Tap Advanced. Scroll down and tap Special app access. You'll see a list of lesser-known permissions such as Battery optimization, Device admin apps, Do Not Disturb access, and Picture-in-picture. Tap a permission to see which apps have it enabled, then tap an app to toggle the permission on or off. How to Limit Activity Tracking From Google Google tracks a lot of your activity, some of it to provide you better service or suggestions based on places you've visited, websites you've navigated to, YouTube videos you've watched, as well as personalized ads. It's easy to limit or turn off these permissions if you prefer. Open Settings > Privacy > Advanced. Tap Google location history. Choose a Google account. Toggle Location History on or off. Scroll down and tap All Activity Controls to see all of Google's activity tracking. You can also get to Activity Controls from the previous screen. You can enable or disable Google's ability to collect web and app activity, location history, and YouTube history. Scroll down to Ad personalization and tap Go to Ad Settings to turn this function on or off. This screen also has an explanation of how Google personalizes ads, including personal information you've added to your Google account. You can also see which companies are serving you ads based on visits to their websites. Finally, there's a list of categories from Athletic Apparel to Books & Literature to Fast Food. You can turn each one on or off; when on, Google estimates your interests based on Google and YouTube searches. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again. You're in! Thanks for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. Thank you for signing up! Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit