What is partial photo access on Android 14? The Select photos option

How does the permission prompt work?

Before Android 13, apps asked for broad storage access. Android 13 split it into separate media permissions, including READ_MEDIA_IMAGES for pictures. Android 14 added a middle option: when an app requests photos, the system shows a picker where you tick individual items or albums, and the app is granted access to exactly that set.

Under the hood, Google's developer documentation calls this READ_MEDIA_VISUAL_USER_SELECTED. An app that supports it can show a button to add more items later, which reopens the system picker. Apps built for older Android versions still get the choice; the system treats the selection as temporary for them and may ask again.

How do you change it later?

1. Open Settings, then Apps, and pick the app.
2. Tap Permissions, then Photos and videos.
3. Choose Always allow all, Allow limited access or Don't allow.
4. With limited access, use the edit option to change which items are shared.

The exact labels shift a little between Pixel, Samsung and other skins, but the three levels are the same. Revoking access takes effect at once; the app loses its view of the photos the next time it checks.

What does it mean for cleaner apps?

A cleaner can only judge what it can see. With limited access it scans the selected items, which makes it a sensible way to try one: pick a single messy album, look at the suggestions, and only then decide whether to give the app the full library. Duplicates and bursts are found only among the photos you shared, so a small selection will miss copies that sit elsewhere.

Deleting is a separate step. Even with full access, Android's scoped storage rules make apps ask you to confirm before photos are removed. GalleryJury, a coming-soon Android cleaner, works within these rules and deletes nothing without your OK. The privacy and safety page explains what it does with access.

Some apps refuse to work with partial access and ask for everything up front. That is a design choice, not an Android requirement, and you can decline.