Why has the READ_PHONE_STATE permission been added?
<p>In the latest beta version I just published to the Play Store, I notice that the <code>READ_PHONE_STATE</code> has been added since the previous version.</p>

<p>I haven't added this myself.  All I can recall doing since the previous version is using v9.6.0 of various play-services libraries (was v9.4.0):</p>

<pre><code>compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-location:9.6.0'
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-places:9.6.0'
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-auth:9.6.0'
</code></pre>

<p>Would this have done it?  I can't see it documented.  Can I get rid of the permission?</p>

<p>And I've ensured that all the of the libraries I'm using match the main app, as per <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/a/27604757/4070848">this answer</a>... makes no difference in my case.</p>

<p><strong>EDIT</strong></p>

<p>OK based on <a href="https://commonsware.com/blog/2015/06/25/hey-where-did-these-permissions-come-from.html" rel="noreferrer">this article</a>, I've delved into my log output to find:</p>

<pre><code>ADDED from [Meteogram:jobdispatcher:unspecified] C:\Users\Me\AndroidStudioProjects\Meteogram\app\build\intermediates\exploded-aar\Meteogram\jobdispatcher\unspecified\AndroidManifest.xml:37:25-84 android:uses-permission#android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE
</code></pre>

<p>But nothing has changed in the jobdispatcher library (which I imported into my project as a gradle module) since the last version.</p>

<p><strong>EDIT2</strong></p>

<p>Here is a bit more from that log, and my feeling is that maybe it is due to the play-services library version as suspected?</p>

<pre><code>ADDED from [Meteogram:jobdispatcher:unspecified] C:\Users\Me\AndroidStudioProjects\Meteogram\app\build\intermediates\exploded-aar\Meteogram\jobdispatcher\unspecified\AndroidManifest.xml:37:17-87
    android:name
        ADDED from [Meteogram:jobdispatcher:unspecified] C:\Users\Me\AndroidStudioProjects\Meteogram\app\build\intermediates\exploded-aar\Meteogram\jobdispatcher\unspecified\AndroidManifest.xml:37:25-84
android:uses-permission#android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE
IMPLIED from C:\Users\Me\AndroidStudioProjects\Meteogram\app\src\pro\AndroidManifest.xml:2:1-12:12 reason: com.google.android.gmscore.integ.client.location has a targetSdkVersion &lt; 4
activity#com.google.android.gms.common.api.GoogleApiActivity
</code></pre>

<p>The <code>targetSdkVersion &lt; 4</code> matches with the other answer linked above, but is there anything I can do in this situation, since the play-services library is not mine?</p>

<p><strong>EDIT3</strong></p>

<p>I found an answer... rather than delete this question I'll leave it up, with solution, in case it's useful for others (and in case someone else has a better solution!)</p>

<p><strong>EDIT4</strong></p>

<p>Looks like it has been fixed in <code>9.6.1</code>.</p>