com.android.avatarpicker Copy

The "Avatar picker", a small platform app built from the AOSP packages/apps/AvatarPicker project. It provides the screen used to choose the picture that represents a device user or profile. On the current main revision its manifest declares a single activity, AvatarPickerActivity, behind the com.android.avatarpicker.FULL_SCREEN_ACTIVITY action, so it is launched by other system surfaces rather than from a launcher icon. The Android 17 release manifest adds a second entry point, AvatarPickerSetupWizardActivity behind com.android.avatarpicker.SETUP_WIZARD_ACTIVITY, so on that release it is also reachable during device setup. In our sample it is signed by platform keys across many vendors, including Samsung, Motorola, Xiaomi, Zebra Technologies, Fairphone, TCL and Google, which is what you would expect of an AOSP component each OEM builds and signs itself. Version note: this is a recent split-out rather than a long-standing package. AOSP lists no release branch for the project earlier than android14-qpr3-d1-release, and the standalone picker was reported on Pixel devices with Android 15, replacing the profile-picture chooser that previously lived inside Settings. Expect it to be absent from older builds, so its absence from an inventory is not in itself a sign that anything has been removed. We have not checked whether individual OEMs backported it further. For Android Enterprise, EMM and kiosk use it has no part in enrolment, policy or work-profile handling. What it holds is the chosen profile image, which was reported at launch as being shared only with system surfaces such as Settings and System UI rather than with third-party apps. On a tightly locked-down kiosk it is normally unreachable. Disabling it removes the picture chooser that Settings and the user switcher hand off to, with no other benefit, so there is little reason to touch it.

• AvatarPicker AndroidManifest.xml (main) - Android Open Source Project →
• AvatarPicker AndroidManifest.xml (android-17.0.0_r1) - Android Open Source Project →
• platform/packages/apps/AvatarPicker branches and tags - Git at Google →
• Android 15 gets a new avatar picker app that syncs your Google Account photo - Android Authority →
• Package provenance for com.android.avatarpicker - Android System App Database →

• Re-signed by each device maker with its own platform key - 13 different certificates appear across 10 device makers in our sample. That is the signature of a stock AOSP/system package every OEM builds and signs itself, not a single maker's or a third party's preinstall. These are platform-level keys: they also sign the Android framework itself.
• Its largest observed manifest declares 4 permissions: 1 install-time and 3 vendor or uncatalogued.
• APK size ranges from 3.6 MB to 6.6 MB across the reporting device profiles, so the build differs substantially between them.
• Never reported as user-facing, so it runs as a background or system component rather than an app the user opens.