manifest merging in Xamarin.Android

PhilipHadley · September 2017

Our 3rd party Android library's manifest declares uses-permission entries for android.permission.BLUETOOTH and android.permission.BLUETOOTH_ADMIN, but our app does not use those bluetooth capabilities. As a result, our users see these app permissions during installation from GooglePlay, which creates confusion.

I have tried using the manifest merging approach by adding these lines to our app's manifest:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH" tools:node="remove" />

However, it does not change what appears in the permissions list during app installation from Google Play.

Then I discovered @xakpc 's post saying that Xamarin does not support manifest merging. I see bug 24809, but it is marked as resolved.

If this issue is still outstanding, then I suspect that I would need to implement something like what @AlexanderMelchers did in this post.

Do I have this right? Please tell me it's much simpler than this!

stepheaw · February 2018

Any update @PhilipHadley ?

PhilipHadley · February 2018

@stepheaw

Update from Microsoft on 10/23:

I’ve spoken with one of the Xamarin.Android developers, and we did confirm the same behavior you are seeing. MSBuild does not appear to accept modified manifest elements, and reverts the change. The workaround you found in the forum post does seem to be the best way to correct this, although it is not desired.

Due to the complexity of the workaround and the low priority/severity of the bug, our team opted not to fix, for now. I have requested to be notified when a fix is available, so I will provide another update when that happens.