> On Samsung Galaxy S9+ simply listing apps that can install apps silently (whic...

krn · on March 21, 2019

> Why is there such a permission in the first place?

Google Play and F-droid require it in order to update apps automatically.

Essentially, you give one app a permission to install other apps. Whether it notifies you or not, it's up to the app.

phh · on March 21, 2019

As mentioned, there are updates, but then you could have an upgrade-specific permission (there isn't one).

But even when simply installing, check the workflow that the play store currently have: When you click "install" in the play store, you don't really want interactions far in the future about it. So the apps' permissions are asked right away. Without this silent install permission, you would have a pop-up at the end of the download (which can be between few seconds after clicking "install" to several hours if you're unlucky and downloading a big app), asking you to confirm the installation.