Android 14 is almost upon us, with a release expected soon, and a host of new features shipping with the update. With launch day approaching, we’ve learned about a cool new feature of Android’s newest version – management for full-screen ads.
Specifically, we’re talking about full-screen ads on Android that may pop up similarly to phone calls or alarms when your phone is locked – this doesn’t necessarily translate to all pop-up ads that some apps may throw at you, but certainly the ones that take advantage of the system that allows calls and alarms to show up as full-screen notifications.
Now, a new management screen in the ‘App Permissions’ section for your individual apps will let you toggle the pop-ups.
As noted by Mishaal Rahman, a senior contributor at Android Central, on Twitter/X, the ‘Manage full-screen intents’ screen has one toggle: ‘Allow apps to send full-screen intents’.
In Android 14, you can manually revoke the USE_FULL_SCREEN_INTENT permission from apps so they can’t send you full-screen notifications.
— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) August 9, 2023
Later this year, Google Play will auto revoke this permission from newly installed apps that don’t provide calling or alarm functionality! pic.twitter.com/plCSZDz94f
Later in the year, Rahman expects that the default for apps downloaded through Google Play will be to automatically revoke the permission (with the need to manually enable it) if the app isn’t for calling or alarm purposes. There are probably only a handful of reasons why an app would need these permissions, anyway, so why would all apps need access?
Not that abusing this feature was a widespread problem, mind you. Most apps from reputable developers tend to be not so pervasive with advertising, perhaps asking for push notification permission now and again and pushing a message on you once and a while. That being said, ads pushed with the above-described features would certainly be annoying.
Regardless, this is a brilliant feature, and it only makes me more excited for Android 14, which looks like it’ll have a heavy focus on security.