On your Android phone or tablet, the Google app helps you manage your Google apps and services, like Search, Google Assistant, or Lens.
Most of your phone’s features need permission to use some of your phone’s data. For example, to find your upcoming events in the Google app, you need to give Google permission to access your calendar.
To decide which Google app permissions are right for you, use the following information:
When you give Google Calendar permission to use:
- Google Assistant: You can ask to create Calendar events.
- Google app: Google shows you Calendar updates, like upcoming events in the Google app. You can also get notifications when it’s time to leave for your event.
- Lens: If you use Lens to save an event, Google can save the details to your Calendar.
- Your device: If you use the "At a Glance" widget, Google shows your upcoming events on your phone’s Home screen.
When you use Lens on your device, you'll be asked to give permissions to access your photos and media to search your:
- Photos
- Screenshots
- Other image files
With Lens, you can search your screenshots, saved images, and photos to learn more about what you see. When you share “Photo gallery” permission through the Lens app, the access grant will be shared automatically with Google Search app.
When you give Contacts permission to use:
- Google Assistant: Google Assistant can call or text your saved contacts, and understand who you contact most often.
- Lens: When you take a photo of someone’s information, like a business card, Lens can create a contact.
Important: It can sometimes take a long time for the Google app to get your current device location. To give you search results quickly, the Google app might use your device's location from the last time you used the Google app.
If you turn on device location, your phone can determine its precise location.
This kind of precise location is useful to help Search, the Assistant and Lens get you useful information, wherever you are. For example, some searches that rely more on precisely where you are, like coffee shop, bus stop, or atm, usually give more helpful results with location permissions turned on.
Your location may also be used to deliver local information like weather. It may also be used to help provide locally relevant notifications and updates from the Assistant, even if you’re not currently using the Google app.
If your device location was used to help get your search results, the location information at the bottom of the search results page will say From your device. If your location was estimated from a different source, you’ll also find that at the bottom of the search results page.
You can change your device, browser, and app settings, but you can’t prevent apps or websites that you visit, including Google, from getting the IP address of your device, because the Internet doesn't work without it. Learn how to manage your location when you search on Google.
When you give Microphone permission to use:
- Google Assistant: You can ask Google Assistant questions, find places to eat, get directions, and more. If you turn on “Hey Google” to wake your device up, your mic will be used in the background. Learn how to use Assistant actions.
- Google app: You can use your voice to input text across many Android apps. You’ll also need to grant microphone permission for each app.
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General: If you give the Google app permission to access your phone, you can have the Assistant make calls for you. You can also call any phone number that you capture with Lens.
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Call log: This permission helps us understand the people you contact most often. It ensures we suggest the most relevant person when you ask the Assistant to contact someone.
When you turn on text message permissions with:
- Google Assistant: Google Assistant can send messages for you. We also use this to understand the people you contact most often. This permission ensures that we suggest the most relevant person when you ask the Assistant to contact someone. Learn how to make calls and send texts with Google Assistant.
- Lens: You can send messages to numbers that you capture with Lens.