An important part in Android, is Application Sandboxing. This basically helps in isolating apps from one and another. Working on that same principle and adding a little more, Android has come up with Scoped Storage. This new part of Android will feature in Android Q. Based on user’s feedback during the first beta of Android Q, Android has taken cue and developed Android Q Scoped Storage. Here’s a breakdown of all that Android has done when it comes to Android Q Scoped Storage.
Impact of Android Q Scoped Storage on Apps and Their Usage:
While many apps remain unaffected as they are already following best practice, there will be some that may be impacted. Android Q beta testers noted that there will be some apps that will need some changes and to fully assess the impact they would need more time. So taking note of the additional time that beta testers require, Android decided to make some changes.
Android 9 Pie users and lower will see no difference to how storage functions in Android. When you update your existing apps you will be able to use a new manifest attribute that will enable new behavior on your apps. Details of these changes will be available with the third beta update.Scoped Storage will be a major part of Android Q and developers are urged to make changes to their apps well in advance.
What Happened Before Android Q Scoped Storage:
At present any apps read and write files to external storage. Because of this many apps store numerous files onto a phone’s external storage which leads to privacy and security concerns. To fix all this Android Q Scoped storage was released.
With Android Q Scoped Storage, Google planned on having it such that apps now, will only have access to their own data folder in external storage. In cases when the app needed to access other files such as those in gallery or music they would have to request new permissions which will be specific to those individual cases. For those apps that require to have large access to files such as file mangers, they have to shift over from Java APIs to Storage Access Framework.
Best Practices and Updates
As mentioned earlier developers wanted more time to fully assess the impact. Android Q scoped storage affects all apps on the newest Android. This means that all apps have to be compatible with the new change otherwise they won’t make it onto the new Android platform.
A relief to developers came when Google announced a slight change in their plans. Now developers who target Android Pie with their apps don’t need to focus on scoped storage. To make things simpler all apps that come to the app store after 1st August 2020 have to target Android Q and this means that they have to keep in mind the new Scoped storage requirement. If developers want to see their existing apps on Android Q they have a deadline of November 1st 2020 to update them with scoped storage.
