- Android customers now cannot add all recordsdata to Nextcloud, simply because Google revoked a permission
- Nextcloud says Google is punishing smaller opponents whereas defending its personal apps from restrictions
- Nextcloud customers now get a worse app expertise, not due to failure, however gatekeeping
The power to seamlessly add all varieties of recordsdata from Android to the cloud has change into a baseline expectation for contemporary customers, particularly those that depend on providers like Nextcloud to handle their knowledge.
In a transfer that has sparked a backlash, Google has blocked full file add capabilities within the Nextcloud Information Android app, citing “safety considerations.”
This single coverage change has considerably affected how customers work together with one of many main cloud storage providers obtainable at this time, elevating broader questions on equity, energy, and competitors within the digital ecosystem.
Nextcloud claims unfair therapy below the guise of safety
Whereas customers can nonetheless add media recordsdata reminiscent of photographs and movies, a core characteristic for anybody in search of one of the best cloud storage for photographs, Nextcloud has been compelled to disable uploads for all different file varieties on Android.
Based on Nextcloud, the difficulty stems from Google’s refusal to grant an important file permission that the app has used since 2011. That is the “All recordsdata entry” permission, which permits an app to learn and write all recordsdata on a tool’s shared storage, not simply media recordsdata.
“To make it crystal clear: All of you as customers have a worse Nextcloud Information consumer as a result of Google wished that. We perceive and share your frustration, however there may be nothing we will do,” the corporate stated in a press launch.
Nextcloud argues that this isn’t merely a technical subject however a strategic one. The corporate claims it’s being boxed out, not for safety causes, however as a result of it poses a aggressive menace to Google’s personal cloud ecosystem.
“Google proudly owning the platform means they will – and are – giving themselves preferential therapy,” the corporate states, noting that Google’s personal apps, in addition to these from different Large Tech gamers, proceed to take pleasure in the identical permissions that Nextcloud has now been denied.
Google’s advice to make use of different frameworks just like the MediaStore API or SAF has not solved the difficulty. Nextcloud explains that these choices don’t meet its necessities, and reviewers have misunderstood their performance.
The state of affairs echoes Microsoft’s previous techniques in limiting WordPerfect’s entry to Home windows APIs, a historic parallel that Nextcloud readily invokes.
Beneath the guise of person security, Nextcloud claims, Google is making it more durable to compete, notably for smaller builders providing privacy-focused cloud backup options.
Whereas regulators are tasked with addressing such considerations, Nextcloud notes that progress is gradual. A collective grievance filed in 2021 alongside 40 different organizations for the same subject has but to obtain a response.
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