Android 11 Scoped Storage - Android future completely Google dependent (centralization)
I read some details (Scoped Storage) about what should come in Android Q (Android 10), but was aborted first and will be introduced with Android 11.
Why Google lies to the users and what the honest developers have to say about it and have recognized it correctly. https://www.xda-developers.com/android-q-storage-access-framework-scoped-storage/
Google touts the security and privacy benefits of this change, but technically speaking, there is no improvement. Apps have had the ability to privately store files since Android 1.0, and almost all apps make use of this capability. When you grant an app access to the root directory of your storage via SAF, it can read, write, and send any file it wants to its nefarious developer in the exact same fashion it could when you granted an app access to storage in Pie.
The only “security improvement” comes about because it’s now a more arduous process for a user to do this. Unless of course an app only wants to steal your most personal information, like photos and videos you’ve taken, for which Google has added an alternative access solution which uses a simple pop-up click-yes security dialog. It is not known what benefits Google hopes to achieve with this change. The official stated reason in the Android Q beta documentation is to “give users more control over their files and to limit file clutter.” Scoped storage, in its present form, is a new limitation of what the user is allowed to do, not an extension of their control. The claim of reducing clutter may be somewhat valid, but only because the change reduces the ability to use files at all. And “clutter” is increased when you consider the problem of some apps now having to duplicate files to work with them.
If Google is truly concerned about giving users more control over files and clutter, they should architect a solution that directly addresses that, rather than falsely branding the current Android Q design as such an improvement. The simplest answer would be to let users decide if they want an app to have scoped or general filesystem access, using the extant storage permission request dialog. If there is a particular concern for users making poor decisions here, it’s certainly possible to make that dialog more prominent and require additional user interaction to approve an app for full access.
The answer to how Android can give users more control of their files is to actually give users more control, not to take it away and fundamentally constrain the capabilities of the Android platform.
What do we see here?
The developers knew exactly how to really improve it for the users and the added value behind it.
Why does Google lie and want to include it in Android Q even though it's not an improvement? Google wants to limit Android even further, just like Apple does with their iOS system and products that use this system e.g. iPhone.
Google is pursuing the same goals as Apple and Microsoft in the final stages. Building a centralized system. No more control by users or developers, only server dependent.
The problem that most Android or Linux developers have known about for a long time and therefore do not develop apps for centralized systems. But the consumers don't know it yet or don't see the interrelations and that's a problem.
Since Google is able to integrate it into Android 11, they will try again and again in the future to make the Android platform similar to the Apple platform.
What many do not know Google does these steps in small steps. So it always starts first.
Only in a few years one sees the effects. Apps can only be installed from the Google Play Store. Everything else goes only by an software which one sends to Google, in order to get a permission, so that the App can be installed. No offline setup/use possible anymore! Android devices can only be set up and used via Internet activation at some point (as with iPhone).
We have to act otherwise we will be more and more controlled by global corporations that only pursue their own interests (centralization, control, economic growth, fake security problems to limit the operating system, more market power, etc).
But the cause is in reality the consumers. The majority currently believe that Google, Apple, etc... are on the users' side. No, that's not true. It's just an illusion to distract.
The fact is that without the users' money, corporations like Google cannot exist. The decision is always ours!
We millions of users can spend more money in independent systems, hardware, software. We users can support even more independent developers. It's really possible. Don't forget!