- 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 sorts 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 information.
In a transfer that has sparked a backlash, Google has blocked full file add capabilities within the Nextcloud Recordsdata Android app, citing “safety considerations.”
This single coverage change has considerably affected how customers work together with one of many main cloud storage providers accessible right now, elevating broader questions on equity, energy, and competitors within the digital ecosystem.
Nextcloud claims unfair therapy beneath the guise of safety
Whereas customers can nonetheless add media recordsdata resembling images and movies, a core function for anybody in search of the best cloud storage for photos, Nextcloud has been compelled to disable uploads for all different file varieties on Android.
In keeping with Nextcloud, the difficulty stems from Google’s refusal to grant a vital 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 Recordsdata shopper as a result of Google needed that. We perceive and share your frustration, however there’s nothing we are able to do,” the corporate stated in a press launch.
Nextcloud argues that this isn’t merely a technical concern 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 Massive Tech gamers, proceed to get pleasure from the identical permissions that Nextcloud has now been denied.
Google’s suggestion 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 ways in limiting WordPerfect’s entry to Home windows APIs, a historic parallel that Nextcloud readily invokes.
Underneath the guise of consumer security, Nextcloud claims, Google is making it tougher to compete, significantly for smaller builders providing privacy-focused cloud backup options.
Whereas regulators are tasked with addressing such considerations, Nextcloud notes that progress is sluggish. A collective grievance filed in 2021 alongside 40 different organizations for the same concern has but to obtain a response.
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