The Android photo picker and limited photo access: what an app can actually see

For years, sending one photo to an app meant giving it your entire photo library. The app asked for “storage” or “photos” access, you said yes, and from then on it could read every picture on the phone whenever it ran. Newer Android versions changed that, but only for apps that adopt the new way and for permissions you review. Here is what changed and how to use it.

The photo picker: one photo, no permission

The photo picker is a system screen that apps can open when they want you to choose a picture. It shows your photos, you tap the ones to share, and the app receives only those.

What makes it private:

• The app needs no photo permission. It never sees your library, only the result of your choice.
• Access is limited to what you pick. Android’s developer documentation describes it as temporary read access to the selected files.
• It looks the same everywhere, because the system draws it, not the app.

The picker is available on recent Android versions and has been brought to many older phones through system updates. If you’re asked to choose a photo and you see a plain system sheet with your photos, with no permission prompt first, that’s the picker.

Limited access: for apps that still ask

Some apps still ask for access to your photos instead of using the picker. On Android 14 and later, when one does, you can choose to allow access to selected photos and videos only. You pick which ones, and the app sees just those. You can add more later.

Older permission choices stay as they were. An app you gave full access in the past keeps it until you change it.

Review an app’s photo access

1. Open Settings, then Apps.
2. Tap the app, then Permissions.
3. Tap Photos and videos (on older versions, Files and media or Storage).
4. Choose a narrower option: limited or selected access where offered, or Don’t allow.

Go through the apps you rarely use first. A game or shopping app rarely needs your whole library. The privacy dashboard shows which apps have been using permissions recently, and which apps can see your photos walks through a full audit.

What the picker doesn’t protect

• What you choose to share. A picked photo can be copied, uploaded and kept by the app. Location and camera details inside the photo go with it, unless the app strips them. Remove them first with the steps in remove location from photos.
• Your cloud library, if your backup app shows cloud photos in the picker. You might scroll past private photos while choosing one.
• Apps with full access. The picker doesn’t override permissions you already granted.

Keeping private photos out of the picker

The picker shows photos from your main library. To keep a photo out of it:

• move it into your gallery app’s locked folder,
• keep it inside private space, which hides its apps’ photos from the picker while locked,
• or move it into a vault app, whose files aren’t in the shared library.

Silo, coming soon to iPhone and Android, asks for photo access only so you can choose what to import and so it can remove originals after checking each copy. If you give it only some photos, it can import them but can’t remove originals it wasn’t given. Imported photos are encrypted inside the app and never appear in the picker.