Question

From what I uderstand, there is no way to do something like

if(have certain permission){
    //do something that requires the permission
}

where the application can request optional permissions.
For example I want to track usage of my app only if the user accepts to being tracked. But still allow the user to download and use the app with tracking disabled if he dosen’t agree.
Is this at all possible ? If not, what is the reasoning behind not supporting this feature ?

EDIT: to clarify, Im referring to Android permissions, like using the camera or looking at the contact list.

Answer 1

According to the Android documentation:

The permissions required by an application are declared statically in
that application, so they can be known up-front at install time and
will not change after that.

User needs to be informed about the permissions while installing the application. Asking them at run time would be a security risk. A rouge application can use clickjacking to make user accept the permission..