Should I use ConnectivityManager and WifiManager instead of Read_Phone_State?

Question

Okay, so everywhere on Stackoverflow people say, to check if a network connectivity is available I shall add the Permision READ_PHONE_STATE to the manifest - which is pretty ugly to me (even though many apps in the market have that permission, this one is an overkill I think; you get the IMEI, the users phonenumber etc).

So I stumbled upon the permissions ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE and ACCESS_WIFI_STATE, which should give the same result. Is there a reason why nobody uses them?

Because if not, I would not need the READ_PHONE_STATE permission, which is a little bit less scary (or do users actually don't care anyways?)

Thanks!

Answer 1

I have used these permissions in many of my applications. A BroadcastReceiver can check when the network has changed states, or you can check the connection status with something like this (source):

public boolean isNetworkAvailable() {
    ConnectivityManager cm = (ConnectivityManager) getSystemService(Context.CONNECTIVITY_SERVICE);
    NetworkInfo networkInfo = cm.getActiveNetworkInfo();
    if (networkInfo != null && networkInfo.isConnected()) {
        return true;
    }
    return false;
}