QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES warning from the play store even if that permission do not appears in the AndroidManifest.xml merged file

Question

I am coding this android app and I was using the CometChat library to add chat functionality to my app. When I did that with newest or oldest version I had that permission that was automatically added into my android manifest.xml file => QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES I talked to the Cometchat support 2.1.2-beta8 so I changed the version of android call sdk to implementation 'com.cometchat:pro-android-calls-sdk:2.1.2-beta8' and the grep -r QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES * return nothing. But when I package my app and send it to the play store I still have that error https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/10158779?hl=en-GB

the only culprit I can see is the MediaUtils.kt in the comet chat ui kit Kotlin

Where there are some call to queryIntentActivities that might create that problem -> https://github.com/cometchat-pro/android-kotlin-chat-ui-kit/blob/v3/uikit-kotlin/src/main/java/com/cometchat/pro/uikit/ui_resources/utils/MediaUtils.kt

What should I do ? according to https://developer.android.com/training/package-visibility

I should add something that look like that

<queries>
    <intent>
        <action android:name="android.support.customtabs.action.CustomTabsService" />
    </intent>
    <intent>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />

        <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />

        <data android:scheme="http" />
    </intent>
    <intent>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />

        <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />

        <data android:scheme="https" />
    </intent>
    <intent>
        <action android:name="android.media.action.IMAGE_CAPTURE" />
    </intent>
    <intent>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.GET_CONTENT" />
    </intent>
</queries>

Answer 1

Thanks to the support of Cometchat the solution to that issue was to put that library in that specific version implementation 'com.cometchat:pro-android-calls-sdk:2.1.2-beta8'

It will remove the QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES from the permission. The other version were magically adding that permission into the final manifest. No other code in my codebase were adding that permission .

Answer 2

Let me try to add queries for ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE ACTION_GET_CONTENT

And see if the play store accept that.