Why Don't We Need Permissions for Qt Applications on Android?

Ibrahim

Hi;
I wrote Android native (Java) code for WebView:

import android.webkit.WebView;
...
WebView webView = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.webView);
webView.loadUrl("https://qt.io/");
...

We need this permission to run the code:

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

I wrote same application with Qt 5.x:

import QtWebView 1.1
...
WebView {
  id: webView
  anchors.fill: parent
  url: "https://qt.io/"
}
...

But we don't need the internet permission to run the Qt application. I'm wondering, why don't we need permissions for Qt applications on Android? Thanks.

ekkescorner

@Ibrahim take a look at the generated AndroidManifest inside your build dir
there you'll see all permissions Qt has inserted

Ibrahim

@ekkescorner thanks. I found permissions into build-QtAndroid-Android_for_x86_GCC_4_9_Qt_5_8_0_2f23f9-Debug/android-build/AndroidManifest.xml. Then I removed all WebView components from my project and I removed all permissions from build-QtAndroid-*/android-build/AndroidManifest.xml. But when I built my project, I always see this permissions:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />

Whereas my project doesn't need permissions:

import QtQuick 2.7
import QtQuick.Controls 2.0
import QtQuick.Layouts 1.0

ApplicationWindow {
  visible: true
  width: 640
  height: 480
  title: qsTr("Hello World")

  Text {
    id: txt
    anchors.centerIn: parent
    text: qsTr("Hello World!")
  }
}

How can I remove unnecessary permissions from my project?

ekkescorner

@Ibrahim you should copy the templates to your project
Build Android APK
copy templates

this copies the templates inside your project

in your .pro
ANDROID_PACKAGE_SOURCE_DIR = $$PWD/android
tells Qt where your android files are living

go into this folder, open AndroidManifest and change the default behaviour
all is explained there:

    <!-- The following comment will be replaced upon deployment with default permissions based on the dependencies of the application.
         Remove the comment if you do not require these default permissions. -->
    <!-- %%INSERT_PERMISSIONS -->

BTW: you should read the documentation: http://doc.qt.io/qtcreator/creator-deploying-android.html
scroll down to Editing Manifest Files - there you'll find all the needed informations