Back in February, Google made a decision that upset a lot of users by limiting access to the SD card by developers. With Lollipop, those limitations get a lot less limiting.
Photo by planet coline
As Android Police notes, Google is adding new APIs that allow developers a lot more control over where and how files are stored on the SD card while simultaneously making the interaction as effortless as possible for the end user. You can read about the specifics at the source link, but here’s the important takeaway for the average user:
All put together, this should be enough to alleviate most of the stress related to SD cards after the release of KitKat. Power users will no longer have to deal with crippled file managers, media apps will have convenient access to everything they should regardless of storage location, and developers won’t have to rely on messy hacks to work around the restrictions. Of course, these features are still specifically a part of Android 5.0 (and above), so it will be a while until these benefits can truly materialise. At least we can all rest easy knowing that the future of Android does not involve dooming the SD card to obscurity — it’s actually balancing usability and security.
When we posted about the previous limits, many users expressed their disdain. Hopefully this will alleviate some of those concerns. Ultimately the end result should be more secure, more powerful, and less confusing file management for all.
Android 5.0 Makes SD Cards Great Again, Extends API To Allow Full Directory Access, Automatic MediaStore, And Improves Security [Android Police]
Comments
One response to “Android Lollipop Will Open Up SD Card Access A Lot More”
Now it just has to get passed by each manufacturer and then each carrier… As much as I love the android os, I can’t stand the fragmentation…
I just got my first android device last week (a Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8″) and I’ve been thinking how interesting it is what google are doing.
The ‘fragmentation’ is what they are selling, it’s the ability for everyone to get a tablet at the low end, and to be competitive against apple in the high end.
Apple sell 1 high-end tablet in different sizes, google ‘sell’ a whole bunch of tablets. google don’t directly sell tablets, but they approve them, or at least have min specs for the OS.
It’s like how car manufactures sell 1 highend car, a sports car or supercar, and people will buy the low end car because of this car. Google have highend tablets, but most people can only buy their lowend lablets and still be happy with it. Apple don’t do this, they’re the Ferrari, they only sell highend cars.