Android may have started with the mantra that developers are allowed to do anything as long as they can code it, but things have changed over the years as security and privacy became higher priorities. Every major update over the last decade has shuttered features or added restrictions in the name of protecting users, but some sacrifices may not have been entirely necessary. Another Android 11 trade-off has emerged, this time taking away the ability for users to select third-party camera apps to take pictures or videos on behalf of other apps, forcing users to rely only on the built-in camera app.
They’re small changes, but they’ve been adding up over the years to make Android less and less desirable. Sadly, there’s really no other viable option, so we’re stuck with it.
Thom Holwerda,
+1, that pretty much sums it up.
The lack of competition not only keeps fees high, but also reduces features and innovations. There’s always someone who says “if you don’t like it, go buy something else”, but that kind of ignores the lack of competition. Unfortunately there are significant issues that rise up to the “don’t buy it” mantra in both camps such that you can’t actually get what you want. This duopoly is screwing over consumers – kind of like being forced to vote between two bad candidates.
LineageOS? https://www.cyanogenmods.org/lineageos-18/
Flatland_Spider,
Indeed! I don’t know if you’ve used lineageos, but it’s nearly identical to android, even down to bugs and limitations. I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference if it wasn’t rebranded. It’s based on the open source AOSP, but AOSP lacks userspace functionality that many userspace applications require, So I actually use a fork called microg, which not only degoogles android but achieves fairly good compatibility with most applications.
Lineage & microg support on devices lags behind official android releases, but given that it’s a bunch of volunteers being extremely generous with their time, it’s hard for me to fault them for that. The version I’m stuck with (until I buy a new phone, probably) is based on android 9, the version in which google infuriatingly blocked users from being able to use android as a wifi analyzer. This was such a useful feature. Lineageos is so dependent on upstream that the feature is broken there too 🙁
So while I like to use lineage w/microg to unplug from google services, it doesn’t really provide meaningful competition for the platform – it’s the same platform.
I used it’s predecessor, Cyanogenmod, for a little bit back when Android was my mobile OS of choice. MIUI was my favorite ROM; there was less tweaking involved. 🙂
That is a really useful feature. As much hate as Apple gets, they do understand their mobile is a platform for people to build things on top of, and it’s more of a general computing device. It’s not perfect, but they still have wifi analyzers. 😀
Yeah. I would be nice if cellphone hardware was less user hostile.
I’d really like the Pine Phone or Fairphone to take off and allow a 3rd mobile platform for the 1% who care, like how Linux is the, distant, 3rd desktop platform.
I have a Fairphone 3, I think LineageOS doesn’t work on it (yet?), but a fork /e/ OS supposedly does. But I haven’t tried it yet. I need some time to set it up.
And the length of this list scares me: https://gitlab.e.foundation/groups/e/-/boards/12?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&state=opened&label_name%5B%5D=FP3
I have Android 9 and I can install a WiFi Analyzer app and it works.
Lennie,
Are you positive that it’s actually working normally and not just showing you the old data? Android 9 blocks new requests unless they’re 2 minutes apart in forground apps! It confused the hell out of me until I realized what android was doing “What happened to all my neighbors access points that I used to see at the same time? And why aren’t the power levels updating?” When they all disappeared I genuinely thought they were taken offline, but it turns out the data was no longer being collected after the android update. Normally wifi analyzer scans every few seconds and superimposes all the frequencies but given android 9’s limitations it can’t get enough scans to reliably map out weaker access points. This makes wifi analyzers next to useless for their intended purposes on android 9.
In one of the posts complaining about this google confirmed they did this intentionally in 9, and only offered an option to disable it in 10, which isn’t available to me 🙁
I can’t find that post now, but here’s the information in a developer guide:
https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/connectivity/wifi-scan#wifi-scan-restrictions
So, keep this in mind next time you need to use a wifi analyzer.
Ohh, you are saying it’s updating slowly ? Yes, that does seem to have happened.
It’s clearly not something I use daily and hadn’t noticed that.
Lennie,
Exactly. Normally the chart updates in near realtime. But now it gets a few scans in and then stalls. WiFi analyzer is still requesting scans of course, but android returns nothing. Lost packets can and do happen normally (especially for faint access points), so WiFi analyzer just displays them with their last known value. This behavior is normally ok, but with the broken API starting with android 9 it leads to the false impression that scanning is working even though it isn’t. I’m not sure if it is possible for applications to distinguish between legitimately empty scans versus fake empty scans. If there was a way to distinguish it, at least the authors could inform the users that their version of android is blocking their scans. I haven’t seen any WiFi analyzers do this though, I had to learn about it through searches.
Because we can’t have people sideload a hacked version of the Google Camera app on their non-Pixel phones and using it without usability issues (like not being able to use it with third-party apps), can we? Otherwise those people might buy a non-Pixel phone that isn’t butt-ugly and with a tiny battery like the Pixel phones are.
I do think that keeping the Google Camera app a Pixel exclusive was the start of Android becoming evil, since Google has a strong interest in protecting that exclusivity using underhanded methods (though not of iOS proportions).
As Thom said, there is no viable alternative, so we are stuck with Android.
???? Umm…. Android is/was a data collection platform for Google. It was never good.
My Note8 has been warning me of the “Security Threat” posed by my side-loaded pixel camera app every once and a while for months now.
My HTC U11+ doesn’t. Are you sure it’s a Google thing and not a Samsung thing?
If i could i would remove all four cameras as well as the rumble engine in my phone as well as fingerprint reader if it gave me 1minute of longer battery time.
“They’re small changes, but they’ve been adding up over the years to make Android less and less desirable. Sadly, there’s really no other viable option, so we’re stuck with it.”
As someone who has never installed a third party camera app, I’m really not that bothered by this. To be honest, given that you might have different apps that may be delegating to a camera for more or less sensitive photos (e.g. banking apps now often allow you to pay cheques in by photo), then ensuring the trust/security of the camera app used in such cases seems like a reasonable trade off. Providing you can trust what the built-in camera app is doing…
In most cases, you would be able to use an existing image/video, so if it really is that important that you use a third-party app, you would still be able to launch the app separately and then select the file.
But… but… muh FREDOM!!!!!
Apple bad. Google good.
Apple Bad. Google Good.
Apple BAD! Google GOOD!
APPLE BAD! GOOGLE GOOD!
Flatland_Spider,
As the most vocal person beating the subject to death, that’s not what you think of me, is it? Haha. Honestly I try to avoid making it about one company over another, it’s about giving owners the right to do as they please. I try to be consistent about it.
XD No, not at all. The Google shills are quite about this, and someone needs to stand up for that poor, multi-billion dollar corporation. 🙂
The line I deleted was about how Apple may have known what they were doing with iOS’s security model. There is room for improvement, but Android is moving to more of a iOS style security model. Not to mention, Linux, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD are working on security systems that are similar to technologies in Android, iOS, Windows, and MacOS; they just have to play nice with the community while the commercial OSs have liability issues to consider.
I’m also irked that people who should know better are so anti-security when I wrote that. I need a “Some people haven’t had to remove malware, and it shows.” meme. XD
Hardening the camera to keep stalkerware, malware, etc. from hijacking the camera sounds good. Or the new camera could send everything to Google, so who knows.
That’s the thing isn’t it. Security is useless until it’s not. It’s just a nuisance until you’re looking up anti-fraud numbers trying to convince them you’re the real you.
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OMG, why do so many people see this industry in terms of a soap opera?
Google’s decision to standardize the platform on a main camera app actually makes a hell of a lot of sense if you are aware of the road maps for camera modules and the camera IP in the new ARM SoC coming out. There’s a hell of a lot more complexity coming up, and frankly only a few of the big players are going to have the man power to write proper camera apps that use all the new features.
Since “camera” has become the main value added/differenciator for people purchasing new phones, it makes sense that you want to provide a consistent high quality experience.
Google probably wants to make sure the Android camera experience is in par with the iPhone’s. To make sure they have that “value proposition” checkbox set.
javiercero1,
Customizing was one of the big differentiators with android and loosing too much of that will naturally be seen as regressive to some users.
You are entitled to your opinion, but actually some people change the camera app because they want a better experience. Much for the same reason someone would replace the keyboard, web browser, email, messenger, dialer, or whatever. The truth is the built in google and apple apps are not always the best suited to user needs. Overriding the user’s preference is not the end of the world, but it is disappointing.
Indeed. Other cameras have things like filters or “pro” DSLR-esque features.
I change the keyboard back to the regular keyboard from whatever abomination the OEM decided/got paid to set as the default.
The built in Android Mail app was particularly horrible, and I think that’s dead now.
Because they’re tech writers, and they need to produce content and pageviews. Level, thoughtful articles don’t get pageviews, and they take a long time to produce. Drama gets people gets invested, and hot takes are easy to bang out.
From what I understand, the change only restricts people from choosing alternate camera software when they are taking a picture within a different app. There is nothing to stop people from installing and different camera apps on their own.