New RTL-SDR Driver for Android Developers

Android developers have a new RTL-SDR driver wrapper available to use called "RTL-SDR CP Driver". This driver by Evgeni Karalamov is designed to have an additional feature over the current Android RTL-SDR drivers in that it implements client application permission management. The overview reads:

RTL-SDR CP Driver utilises the rtl-sdr codebase and is meant to be kept in sync with the developments there. The provided interface mirrors the functionality of rtl_tcp in an Android way. Instead of via a TCP socket, the communication is carried out through file descriptors returned by a ContentProvider.

Since some potentially sensitive information could be captured through the SDR receivers, like indications of the device location, the RTL-SDR CP Driver implements permission control similar to that of the Android framework. Prior to accessing receivers, client applications have to ask the user for permission to access the driver by starting the driver's permission flow via startActivityForResult. Once the user grants access, their answer is remembered and they are not prompted again. The user has the ability to later revoke the permission from the driver's UI, accessible via the Android launcher.

The actual driver app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store. Note that this doesn't provide any functionality by itself. We will need to wait until apps take advantage of it.