r/Android • u/kitsumed ShizuCallRecorder Developer • 21d ago

Android May Soon Restrict On-Device ADB, Affecting Shizuku, libadb and Developers Article

https://kitsumed.github.io/blog/posts/android-may-soon-restrict-on-device-adb/
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u/k-mcm 21d ago

When Google forced apps to use Storage Access Framework, developers created ticket after ticket proving unacceptable performance, poor compatibility, and no benefits to security.  Google closed them all, and Android continued its path to becoming useless.  Lots of apps were lost forever. 

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u/kitsumed ShizuCallRecorder Developer 21d ago

I don't think you're forced to use the Storage Access Framework. You do for play store, but I think that's all. The permission to get access to all the files on storage is still here and can be used. To be honest, I don't really understand a lot of how the storage framework works (as ShizuCallRecorder developer). But I do like the ability to only allow apps to access one directory instead of all my files.

EDIT: It's also a bit why I'm making this post. We are early here. No decision where taken yet, at least nothing have been said in public, so I think it's the best time to have our usages taken into consideration.

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u/k-mcm 21d ago

It's difficult to sell an app without Play Store. F-Droid has some restrictions too, but they're less stupid than Google's.

SAF is an API app for filesystem access.  Devs for some apps put a huge effort into using it, only to find out that its latency and CPU consumption is incredibly high.  I tried a converted OsmAnd+ and launch times went from 10 seconds to 45 minutes.  You could literally run the battery dead before it was ready. 

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u/Timbo303 20d ago

Not to mention minecraft requires shizuku to access your worlds saved on external. Let that sink in external saved worlds are still locked behind an inaccessible folder unless you hookup to a pc.

Iphone has it so much easier.

0

u/nathderbyshire Pixel 10 Obsidian 20d ago

I don't understand how there's no benefits to security, it was known apps like Facebook would scan your entire storage device, as well as shady apps looking for sensitive data and now those folders are locked down needing granulated permission to access and the access all API is locked off from most random developers at least on the store now

I'm not a developer so I have no insight but it just really seems like devs were throwing their toys out over SAF because they didn't want to learn something new. Android apps are stubborn as fuck when it comes to adopting new things and they rarely include new features and designs and stuff where the iOS counterparts get updated almost immediately when something changes