Is READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE really needed?

[rsyring]

I'm not an Android developer so this may be an ignorant post, my apologies if that is the case.

I recently installed the app on a Pixel 6 and was surprised that when requesting READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE Android said I was granting access to photos and media. That didn't seem like something this app should need.

I did some research and:

• Looks like Android 11 changed behavior with respect to this permission
• The permission only grants access to the MediaStore API?
• I don't see any reference to MediaStore in this source code.
• I do see a reference to getExternalFilesDir() but in the link above, it looks like no permissions are required to access that API: "Not needed for external storage when your app is used on devices that run Android 4.4 (API level 19) or higher."

[httpdispatch]

Thanks for the detailed analysis.

How I remember this optional permission has been added after access forbidden crash started to appear in the Google play console for some devices. That crash appeared when app tried to play selected ringtone. At the time I've assumed that it is some custom ringtone stored at the external storage.
After this permission has been added the crash disappeared from the reports. So I'm still not sure it can be removed without consequences.