We have been updating our alarm app to target Android 12 and ran into some odd behavior with the new SCHEDULE_EXACT_ALARM permission.

When targeting Android 12 this permission is supposed to be required to set exact alarms, see: https://developer.android.com/training/scheduling/alarms#exact-permission-declare

Problem:

In our testing we have found the following with apps targeting Android 12/API 31:

an app without SCHEDULE_EXACT_ALARM AndroidManifest permission can still set exact alarms when it is ignoring battery optimizations as per: PowerManager.isIgnoringBatteryOptimizations()
an app with SCHEDULE_EXACT_ALARM AndroidManifest permission, but has its permission disabled in the Alarms & reminders app info, can still set exact alarms when it is ignoring battery optimizations

Expected behavior:

an app without SCHEDULE_EXACT_ALARM permission should not be able to set exact alarms on Android 12 regardless of whether it ignores battery optimizations or not
an app with SCHEDULE_EXACT_ALARM permission, but has the permission disabled by the user in the Alarms & reminders section, should not be able to set exact alarms on Android 12 regardless of whether it ignores battery optimizations or not

Whether a user has set the app to ignore battery optimizations seems odd to be a substitute for the SCHEDULE_EXACT_ALARM permission. As per Android documentation:

Apps who hold this permission and target API level 31 or above, always stay in the WORKING_SET or lower standby bucket.

This documentation suggests that holding this exact alarm permission has some sort of affect on avoiding Android's built-in battery optimization. However, how they are so tied together and one can circumvent entirely the new permission is puzzling.

Also, many alarm & reminder apps direct their users to disable Android's built-in battery optimizations as it often is a problem for alarm apps (see: PowerManager.isIgnoringBatteryOptimizations()). This is the most common issue in our app's 40k+ reviews and we're constantly emailed about this (despite attempting to get users to disable the optimizer after installation and other reminders).

We have created a sample project that shows this behavior - the project's main features include:

Target API 31
AndroidManifest permission added: <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.SCHEDULE_EXACT_ALARM" />
MainActivity's onResume() method queries the result of PowerManager.isIgnoringBatteryOptimizations() and AlarmManager.canScheduleExactAlarms(), as well as sets an exact alarm and determines if it was successful and displays the info to the activity's screen
We have also made 2 videos on our Pixel 6 (running Android 12) that show the behavior when adjusting battery optimization, toggling the Alarms & reminders manually in app info, and adding/removing SCHEDULE_EXACT_ALARM permission in the AndroidManifest

We have shared the files with android-bugreport@google.com and they are available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qWkXg5bXT9c47fYOHwS-ZXc1vOMKJQsq/view?usp=sharing

The above behaviors have been seen on our Pixel 6 running Android 12, and our Samsung S22 running Android 12. One can also see this behavior on several alarm apps targeting Android 12, such as Google Clock, Samsung Clock, and others.

Thanks!

Issue 225025693

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