com.android.cellbroadcastservice Copy

The AOSP-named build of CellBroadcastService, one half of Android's CellBroadcast module. AOSP documents the service as handling cell broadcast SMS decoding, geofencing for Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) 3.0, message duplication checks and broadcasting messages to apps. In the documented message flow the radio layer passes a CDMA or GSM cell broadcast to the framework, which hands it to this service, and the service then forwards it to the default CellBroadcastReceiver app, which displays the alert. The module's AOSP manifest declares this package name, labels it "Cell Broadcast Service", marks the application persistent and direct-boot aware, runs it in the network stack process, and declares the FULL_ACCESS_CELL_BROADCAST_HISTORY signature permission and a CellBroadcastProvider for alert history. Google's builds use com.google.android.cellbroadcastservice, documented separately on this site; the LineageOS and GrapheneOS package-name mappings cited here pair the two names. On this site it is recorded on 11 devices from 11 makes (including Google, Samsung, Zebra Technologies, Elo Touch Solutions, Lenovo and TCL) across OS API levels 30 to 36, and none of the observations mark it as user-facing. Where this site holds signer data, which is 5 of those 11 makes, the Samsung build is signed by a Samsung OEM key that also signs the Android framework, a platform-level key; the TCL build by a TCL OEM key; the Google build by a Google-classified key; and the HUAWEI and OnePlus builds by a key this site classifies as third-party. AOSP separately states that the CellBroadcast module is signed with a Google signature instead of a platform signature; why the Samsung build observed here differs cannot be established from this data. This site records it requesting location (including background location), SMS receive and broadcast, phone state and cell broadcast permissions; this site aggregates permissions across observations rather than per build, so which builds declare each of them cannot be established. Version note: AOSP documents that the CellBroadcastService and CellBroadcastReceiver are packaged in a single APEX (com.android.cellbroadcast) for devices running Android 11 or higher, and that the module migrated existing framework classes into packages/modules/CellBroadcastService. The earliest OS API level recorded for this package on this site is 30 (Android 11), which matches that boundary. For Android Enterprise, EMM and kiosk use, no enrolment or management role is identified in the sources cited here, but on AOSP's documented flow it sits between the radio and the alert display, so disabling it would be expected to stop cell broadcast emergency alerts reaching the receiver app. AOSP's documented flow starts at the radio interface layer, so on a device with no cellular radio it would have no cell broadcasts to process. Treat removal with caution. AOSP documents an Emergency alert settings page that users reach from the Settings app; changing alert settings there is a narrower step than disabling this service.

• CellBroadcast - Android Open Source Project →
• CellBroadcastService AndroidManifest.xml (packages/modules/CellBroadcastService) - AOSP source →
• LineageOS scripts dev/rro/target_package.py (Google to AOSP package names) →
• GrapheneOS arsclib Constants.java PACKAGE_NAME_MAP →
• Package provenance for com.android.cellbroadcastservice - Android System App Database →

• Signed by a third-party certificate (carrier or partner), not stock AOSP or Google, but 4 different certificates appear across the fleet, so OEMs ship their own builds of it.
• Its largest observed manifest declares 12 permissions: 7 runtime (user-granted), 3 signature or system-level, 1 install-time and 1 vendor or uncatalogued.
• Never reported as user-facing, so it runs as a background or system component rather than an app the user opens.