Should i ask READ or WRITE permission to access Mediastore images in Android Q?

Question

I recently updated my app to Target API 29 (Android Q). It is a Photo app which takes pictures and stores images in Gallery. I get WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission to create folder in primary external storage through 'getExternalStoragePublicDirectory' and read images from the gallery. Since, the above method is deprecated and Google recommends three options and i chose Mediastore.

Ref: https://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/Environment#getExternalStoragePublicDirectory(java.lang.String)

Since we don't need write permission to store images anymore, i stopped asking write permission from the user when taking picture. But to read the images, we need permission. As per this table, Google recommends getting either WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE or READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE.

Ref: https://developer.android.com/training/data-storage

It also says that "For other apps to access your file, though the other app needs the READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission"

And this recommendation in Android doc, https://developer.android.com/training/data-storage/shared/documents-files

“If your app uses the media store, however, you must request the READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission to access other apps’ media files.”

I tested with my existing WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission and i was able to read images from gallery. But from the above recommendations, i feel that it is better I should go for READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE which gives more finer permission control.

Which one would be more appropriate?

Answer 1

Android updated their docs to use only read external storage while accessing images. Here is the reference https://developer.android.com/training/data-storage/use-cases