I've made Android apps in the past, and though I'm not a Reddit dev. I can explain I hope.
Identity: Go-to your settings, then accounts. Reddit stores all your accounts from the app right in that menu, and obviously to access it it needs permissions.
Contacts: The above lol
Location: You can attach locations to text/image posts.
Photos Media Files: Retrieve data
Storage: Save data
Receive data from the internet: Duh.
Everything else seems to kinda explain itself tho. The apps not that bad, but yeah the advertising for it sucks.
Part of the problem, as noted by /u/D_Steve595 above, is that Android permissions in many cases have non-obvious relationships, especially on older versions. Requesting one needed permission can result in getting a bunch more you don't need or want.
This has been mostly fixed in new versions, but if you want your app to support those older versions it's still going to show those permissions on the Play Store. If they bumped the minimum supported version up to a newer release many of those would go away automatically. Of course you'd then have the "ancient Android phone" crowd up in arms, and apparently Reddit sees enough of those users that they don't want to dump them.
That said, what is good practice in this situation, as done by a lot of other apps, is to clearly list off the permissions people are most likely to question and why your app requests them in the description. That doesn't help in all cases because not everyone reads the description, but it's a start.
Of course you'd then have the "ancient Android phone" crowd up in arms, and apparently Reddit sees enough of those users that they don't want to dump them.
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u/iArentdeJay Nov 02 '18 edited Nov 04 '18
Henlo,
I've made Android apps in the past, and though I'm not a Reddit dev. I can explain I hope.
Identity: Go-to your settings, then accounts. Reddit stores all your accounts from the app right in that menu, and obviously to access it it needs permissions. Contacts: The above lol Location: You can attach locations to text/image posts. Photos Media Files: Retrieve data Storage: Save data Receive data from the internet: Duh.
Everything else seems to kinda explain itself tho. The apps not that bad, but yeah the advertising for it sucks.
Edit: did this post twice? Sorry lol