Help Is installing Rocket Player safe?

[Djard]

My AT&T Samsung Galaxy S5 warns me that if I install any app that is not from Google Play, such as Rocket Music Player, it will (not may, but "will") get access to the following:

Read phone status and identity
Modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
Read contents of your USB storage
Find accounts on this device
Full network access
Google Play billing service
View network connections
Pair with Bluetooth devices
Draw over other apps
Control vibration
Prevent phone from sleeping
Change your audio settings
Modify system settings
Send sticky broadcast

It seems that I get this same message no matter what app I go to install that is not from Google Play on my device. Is the described threat merely to scare me into exclusively shopping from Google Play store, or is there some validity to the described threat?

 

[Hadron]

Your post seems to be suggesting that all non-Play apps have the same permissions. That is certainly wrong: the permissions depend on the app, not where you get it from or how you install it. So if you are seeing exactly the same permission list for all non-Play apps I'd be very suspicious of wherever you are downloading the apps from.

If you mean that you get the same message but with different permissions listed for different apps, that would be normal. The same is true when you install an app from the Play Store.

In the particular case of Rocket Music Player the Play Store lists the following permissions, which do seem pretty similar to the list you reproduce.

In-app purchases
Identity

• find accounts on the device

Photos/Media/Files

• test access to protected storage
• modify or delete the contents of your USB storage

Wi-Fi connection information

• view Wi-Fi connections

Device ID & call information

• read phone status and identity

Other

• change your audio settings
• draw over other apps
• modify system settings
• full network access
• pair with Bluetooth devices
• send sticky broadcast
• control vibration
• prevent device from sleeping
• view network connections

If you are unsure you could always install the Play Store version. There are reliable non-Play sources, and there are dodgy ones, so the trick is to know which you are using (avoid sites that offer paid apps for free, for example, as apart from stealing from developers they are frequently malware sources).

 

[Djard]

Your post seems to be suggesting that all non-Play apps have the same permissions. That is certainly wrong: the permissions depend on the app, not where you get it from or how you install it. So if you are seeing exactly the same permission list for all non-Play apps I'd be very suspicious of wherever you are downloading the apps from.

If you mean that you get the same message but with different permissions listed for different apps, that would be normal. The same is true when you install an app from the Play Store.

In the particular case of Rocket Music Player the Play Store lists the following permissions, which do seem pretty similar to the list you reproduce.

In-app purchases
Identity

• find accounts on the device

Photos/Media/Files

• test access to protected storage
• modify or delete the contents of your USB storage

Wi-Fi connection information

• view Wi-Fi connections

Device ID & call information

• read phone status and identity

Other

• change your audio settings
• draw over other apps
• modify system settings
• full network access
• pair with Bluetooth devices
• send sticky broadcast
• control vibration
• prevent device from sleeping
• view network connections

If you are unsure you could always install the Play Store version. There are reliable non-Play sources, and there are dodgy ones, so the trick is to know which you are using (avoid sites that offer paid apps for free, for example, as apart from stealing from developers they are frequently malware sources).

 

[Djard]

My error. It's not Google Play Store but AT&T Play Store. And no, the warnings are not quite the same when installing apps from different sources, like sites that let you download APK files onto your PC, from which you can then upload to the Download folder on the mobile device and run the APK file. Why do this? Well, you get to keep the app instead of merely installing it; so in the event you want to install it on a tablet without Internet access, you can. Since developers give permission to download their programs from sites like Apps APK, the Play Store limitation and overstated threats can only be construed as dishonest marketing strategy.

I installed RocketPlayer and all is well.

 

[Hadron]

The message isn't dishonest: the app has the permissions needed to access those things, which means it has the capability. That doesn't tell you what it will do with them, but since the app is closed source you can't easily check that, so I personally would always want to know that the capability is there so I can make my own judgement. A well-written app would only request the permissions is absolutely needs, but some of these are anyway so broadly defined that innocuous and invasive uses are both covered by the same permission. It is worth remembering that if an app requests a permission but doesn't use it a later update could start to use it and you would get no notice that anything had changed.

I've never found any difference (other than formatting) between the messages when installing directly from an apk or from the Google Play Store, though there are only a few apps which I've installed both ways. What matters to me is the list of permissions - whether the messages says "will" or "may" isn't important to me since the app has the capability however the message is phrased.

To be honest I tend to criticise the Google Play Store for being too casual about the permissions information: successive changes have always played it down (or "simplified" it, as Google say). I've no experience of the ATT Play Store, since I'm from a different continent and indeed didn't know that they had their own until you said just now.

But do enjoy the app

 

[Djard]

Thanks.

I think my next step will be to "root" the device and gain administrative privileges, even if it voids the warranty. After enjoying the freedom of being able to do things like edit the Group Policy Editor and registry, and customize Windows, the restriction of owner's control in Android and Apple devices reminds me of the repression of socialism in some countries I once visited. I don't like my property governed so strictly by AT&T and its accomplices.

Cheers!

 

[PhilFennueter]

My AT&T Samsung Galaxy S5 warns me that if I install any app that is not from Google Play, such as Rocket Music Player, it will (not may, but "will") get access to the following:

Read phone status and identity
Modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
Read contents of your USB storage
Find accounts on this device
Full network access
Google Play billing service
View network connections
Pair with Bluetooth devices
Draw over other apps
Control vibration
Prevent phone from sleeping
Change your audio settings
Modify system settings
Send sticky broadcast

It seems that I get this same message no matter what app I go to install that is not from Google Play on my device. Is the described threat merely to scare me into exclusively shopping from Google Play store, or is there some validity to the described threat?

I installed Rocket Player from the Google app store so I guess why are you not using the App Store to find this app??????? Still, Google doesn't police their app developers the way Apple does. I just coincidently am using Rocket Player right now, and when I opened it today, instead of an ad as usual, it told me I had an Android update waiting and gave me a button to click. But this isn't how I get Android updates so instead I went right to my system settings to check for an update and there is none. Then I thought maybe it ment a Rocket Player update so I checked in my Apps settings - nothing. So I also am starting to reconsider this MP3 plyaer although all Ive ever found annoying is the occasion ads covering the control screen.

 

[svim]

This is a nine year old thread so it's important to keep in mind that apps and how they're developed and supported has changed quite a bit since then, and Google's Play Store as evolved (or devolved to appease the Google haters out there) into a very different repository. Also, app Permissions are very different now than when KitKat and Lollipop were the current versions on our devices at that time.