Google Play Permissions: Transitioning to Android PhotoPicker

[bradencohen]

Hey there!

First and foremost, a huge thanks to everyone on the MAUI team (including contributors). I've been around since the Xamarin.Forms days and have transitioned through .NET 6 — the improvements since then have been remarkable!

I have a question regarding accessing the photo library on Android. Currently, we’re using the standard API as recommended in the Microsoft documentation:

var result = await MediaPicker.PickPhotoAsync();

This approach requires adding the following permissions to the Android manifest:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_MEDIA_IMAGES" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_MEDIA_VIDEO" />

Recently, we encountered the following error in the Google Play Console:

Your app uses the following undeclared photo and video permissions:
android.permission.READ_MEDIA_IMAGES
android.permission.READ_MEDIA_VIDEO

If your app has a one-time or infrequent need to access photos and videos, migrate to the Android photo picker or a photo picker of your choice.

If your app needs to access photos and videos frequently, let us know why you believe you meet the requirements to use these permissions.

To learn more about Google Play's Photo and Video Permissions policy, visit the Help Center.

While we can submit a declaration explaining the need for these permissions, the terminology suggests that the recommended approach moving forward is to adopt the Android PhotoPicker. You can read more about this shift in policy here.

Would this change be something that should be reflected in .NET MAUI? Should I open an issue to address this, or is it already being considered?

Thanks,
Braden

[bradencohen]

For any wandering eyes, we did migrate to use the Android PhotoPicker.

Instead of calling MediaPicker.PickPhotoAsync we now call our own custom implementation:

 public static partial class MediaHelper
 {
        private static ActivityResultLauncher _pickMediaLauncher;
        private static TaskCompletionSource<Android.Net.Uri> _photoPickerTcs;

        /// <summary>
        /// Initializes the Photo Picker launcher for Android. This should be called before the activity is resumed.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="activity">The Android activity that will register the launcher.</param>
        public static void InitializePhotoPickerLauncher( Activity activity )
        {
            if ( _pickMediaLauncher == null )
            {
                // Register the activity result launcher before the activity is started or resumed
                _pickMediaLauncher = (activity as AndroidX.Activity.ComponentActivity).RegisterForActivityResult(
                    new ActivityResultContracts.PickVisualMedia(),
                    new ActivityResultCallback( uri =>
                    {
                        // Set the result to TaskCompletionSource
                        _photoPickerTcs?.SetResult( uri );
                    } )
                );
            }
        }
        /// <summary>
        /// An asynchronous method to pick a photo on Android, using AndroidX PhotoPicker.
        /// </summary>
        public static async Task<FileResult> PickAndroidPhotoAsync( MediaPickerOptions options = null )
        {
            // Create a new TaskCompletionSource to await the result
            _photoPickerTcs = new TaskCompletionSource<Android.Net.Uri>();
            // Launch the PhotoPicker for images
            var pickVisualMediaRequest = new PickVisualMediaRequest.Builder()
                .SetMediaType( ActivityResultContracts.PickVisualMedia.ImageOnly.Instance )
                .Build();
            _pickMediaLauncher.Launch( pickVisualMediaRequest );

            // Return the Task, which will be completed when the user selects a photo or cancels
            var uri = await _photoPickerTcs.Task;
            if ( uri != null )
            {
                // Get the file data from the URI using the Android content resolver
                using ( var stream = Platform.CurrentActivity.ContentResolver.OpenInputStream( uri ) )
                {
                    // You can read the stream or return it as part of the FileResult
                    var tempFilePath = Path.Combine( FileSystem.CacheDirectory, $"{Guid.NewGuid()}.png" );
                    // Save the stream to a temporary file
                    using ( var fileStream = new FileStream( tempFilePath, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write ) )
                    {
                        await stream.CopyToAsync( fileStream );
                    }
                    // Return the FileResult for the temporary file
                    return new FileResult( tempFilePath );
                }
            }
            else
            {
                return null;
            }
        }
        /// <summary>
        /// Handles the result of the photo picker selection.
        /// </summary>
        private class ActivityResultCallback : Java.Lang.Object, IActivityResultCallback
        {
            private readonly Action<Android.Net.Uri> _onResult;
            public ActivityResultCallback( Action<Android.Net.Uri> onResult )
            {
                _onResult = onResult;
            }
            public void OnActivityResult( Java.Lang.Object result )
            {
                if ( result is Android.Net.Uri uri )
                {
                    // Call the action with the selected URI
                    _onResult( uri );
                }
                else
                {
                    // No media selected, pass null to the action
                    _onResult( null );
                }
            }
        }
    }

[jwidmer]

We just ran into this when trying to promote a release to production on the Android Play Store. All we did was remove the READ_MEDIA_IMAGES, READ_MEDIA_VIDEO, and READ_MEDIA_AUDIO permissions and now the Maui MediaPicker prompts the user for permission and the Google Play Store no longer gives the warning.

[bradencohen]

Weird... I know Android changed some stuff with how the permissions are handled in newer Android versions (maybe 32 or 33?). Does your app support older versions of Android, and if so, does it still work as expected?