Google apps in Android Marshmallow neatly ask for permissions on a case by case basis

One of the more useful — and long overdue — features coming with Android M is the ability to have precise control over app permissions. And now, with Android Marshmallow developer preview 3 (which was released last week), Google’s default apps will neatly ask you for permission if you tell the app to do something that it doesn’t currently have permission to do.

For example, as of Android Marshmallow, you can head to the Settings app (specifically, you have to go to Apps, tap the app you want, and then tap permissions) to disable individual app permissions. If you’ve disabled access to the microphone for the Google Keep application, tapping the microphone icon in Keep will give you the above dialog box, asking for permission.

Of course you can deny permission as well. Since most apps haven’t been built for Android Marshmallow quite yet, turning off individual permissions in the Settings app for many apps will just make apps crash or cease to function correctly. With default apps in the third Developer Preview of Marshmallow, though, you can neatly deny permissions and be given a pop up that tells you “Microphone blocked on this device” in the case of Google Keep.

If you want to give this feature a test run, you’ll need to have a device running the latest build of Android Marshmallow Developer Preview. At the moment, the only devices that Google is supporting for the pre-release build of Android Marshmallow are the Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 9, and Nexus Player. If you’re running a previous Developer Preview you can update over-the-air, and otherwise the latest preview is available at Google’s website.

Developer Preview 3 didn’t pack much more than some bug fixes, but it did receive several new wallpapers. The release is the last preview before Android Marshmallow goes public, which we expect will happen sometime before or around the time the new line of Nexus devices are announced.