User:JodyBruchonFan/Google software sucks: Difference between revisions
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This page collects various failures | One would expect Google to be a company of world class developers. While they create good software in some categories, they sometimes don't implement basic features one would expect some other categories of software to have. This page collects various failures and bad decisions by Google's "world class developers". Everyone is welcome to contribute. | ||
== Android file manager == | == Android file manager == | ||
It baffles me how Google manages to create a sophisticated chat bot like Gemini while failing to build a proper file manager. | |||
Most importantly, after tapping on "copy" or "move, it doesn't stay in the current directory, but opens the Download folder instead. This means, if | Both "Files by Google" and Android's built-in file manager (DocumentsUI) lack basic features one would expect from a file manager. They lack features that ES File Explorer already had in the early 2010s, in its golden days before becoming adware and when Android was friendly to third-party file managers. | ||
For example, there is no scrollbar. On DocumentsUI, you can not see the total size and recursive file/folder count of one or more selected directories. You can not limit searching to one specific folder but you have to search the entire storage. There are no search filters like date range. The search feature only returns up to 24 results, an arbitrary limit. In list view, the last modified time and number of items within a folder are not shown. The detail view only shows the last modified time in minutes, not seconds, and does not show the exact file size in bytes. You can not jump from a search result to its parent directory. It does not remember your sorting preference. You can not select all items inbetween two items (like shift+click does on desktop and ES File Explorer does with a dedicated button). There is no "open with" feature. There is no address bar that would let you enter a file path. It doesn't even make use of Android's built-in recycle bin feature. | |||
It doesn't even preserve the date and time attribute of copied files, something Windows had in the 1990s and Windows Mobile 6, released in 2009, had too. | |||
Most importantly, after tapping on "copy" or "move", it doesn't stay in the current directory, but opens the Download folder instead. This means, if you wish to move items to a subdirectory of the currently viewed directory, you first have to manually navigate all the way back to the directory you were in before tapping on "copy" or "move". This is something even Windows 95 did better. | |||
Earlier versions even had a bug where cancelling a file move operation would cause source files to be irrecoverably deleted without having been moved to the destination.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://support.google.com/photos/thread/106201?hl=en |title=Photos disappeared after moving to another device folder - Google Photos Community |author=Gökhun Güneyhan |date=2018-04-24 |access-date=2026-06-08 }} ([https://megalodon.jp/2023-0228-0023-32/https://support.google.com:443/photos/thread/106201?hl=en archive])</ref> | |||
But hey, at least they implemented Google Drive integration. To their credit, they implemented the ability to browse ZIP and even TAR and 7z files, create ZIP files, a built-in EXIF viewer, the ability to open multiple instances, selection by tapping the file icon (faster than holding), a large grid view suitable for image seeking, and the file transfer progress indicator is displayed as a notification, which is better than a pop-up that blocks interacting with the file manager, like in Samsung's file manager. | |||
== Android screenshot blocking == | |||
The thing that supposedly sets Android apart from iOS is user choice and freedom, yet Google decided that device owners are at the mercy of app developers to let them take screenshots and screen recordings. This is known as [[screenshot blocking]] or screen capture blocking, and can only be overridden with an unlocked bootloader and root access, which has complications of its own. | |||
While this was originally intended to prevent banking app content from being captured or broadcast to external screens (miracast, MHL), there is nothing preventing it from being used outside of its intended scope. Consequently, it was only a matter of time before app developers realized they could use it arbitrarily.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.howtogeek.com/why-screenshots-dont-always-work-especially-in-secure-apps/ |website=How To Geek |author=Faisal Rasool |title=Why Your Phone Blocks Screenshots in Secure Apps |date=2025-08-23 |access-date=2026-05-26 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=konradkar |url=https://old.reddit.com/r/LineageOS/comments/f3xk35/bookingcom_app_disallow_to_take_screenshot_can_i/ |website=[[Reddit]] |title=Booking.com app disallow to take screenshot, can I bypass this? |date=2020-02-14 |access-date=2026-05-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230615071612/https://old.reddit.com/r/LineageOS/comments/f3xk35/bookingcom_app_disallow_to_take_screenshot_can_i/ |archive-date=2023-06-15}}</ref> | |||
For this reason, Google should have provided a built-in option that lets the device owner override screen capture blocks at their own responsibility. An app deciding whether you should be allowed to take screenshots on your device is comparable to a guest in your home telling you how to behave. | |||
== GBoard (Google Keyboard) == | == GBoard (Google Keyboard) == | ||
There is no option to turn off the one-hour clipboard time limit. | There is no option to turn off the one-hour clipboard time limit, which automatically deletes clipboard items older than one hour, even after users have asked for it.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://support.google.com/android/thread/209187528/adjust-gboard-clipboard-timeout?hl=en |title=Adjust Gboard clipboard timeout - Android Community |date=2023-04-03 |access-date=2026-06-04 }} ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260514000953/https://support.google.com:443/android/thread/209187528/adjust-gboard-clipboard-timeout?hl=en archive])</ref> | ||
The clipboard is not intended for long-term storage of course, but that's not an excuse for not giving the user the choice. Why not two hours? Why not one day? Why not indefinitely until a certain number of items is exceeded? Let the user decide. | |||
In comparison, Samsung's and Xiaomi's keyboard applications (before Xiaomi ditched their native keyboard app in favour of GBoard) have no fixed time limit and delete the oldest unpinned clipboard item if a number of items is exceeded. | |||
If special character shortcuts are enabled, there is a shortcut for the backslash (<kbd>\</kbd>), but surprisingly not for the forward slash (<kbd>/</kbd>), a much more commonly used key. | |||
You can't change the delay until holding the backspace key will erase multiple characters, and how fast they are cleared (how many characters per second). A delay too long becomes a nuisance over time. | |||
Additionally, it lacks reverse backspacing. Samsung's keyboard allows reverse backspacing using Shift+Backspace. This is like the "delete" key on desktop computers. | |||
== Google Calendar == | == Google Calendar == | ||
Lacks a "jump to date" feature. This is something Samsung had in the early 2010s (but curiously removed with the S6), and Nokia had even in the 1990s, for example on the Nokia 7111. | Lacks a "jump to date" feature which would let you enter the numerical date. | ||
This is something Samsung had in the early 2010s (but curiously removed with the S6), and Nokia had even in the 1990s, for example on the Nokia 7111. | |||
If you want to check what day of the week a specific date was, you have to manually scroll to it. | If you want to check what day of the week a specific date was, you have to manually scroll to it. | ||
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== Google Chrome == | == Google Chrome == | ||
Mandatory pull-to-refresh, data lock-in, lack of customization, and more. See ''[[User:JodyBruchonFan/Everything_wrong_with_Chrome|Everything wrong with Chrome]]''. | Mandatory pull-to-refresh, data lock-in, lack of customization, and more. See ''[[User:JodyBruchonFan/Everything_wrong_with_Chrome|Everything wrong with Chrome]]''. | ||
== Google Docs == | |||
Google Docs will only let you save documents locally if the creator allows it. This is moralized nonsense. If someone makes something public, they should expect that others are able to save it. | |||
== Google Messages == | |||
No option to [[Data_lock-in#Text_messages|export messages]], making it almost impossible to create local backups without root access. | |||
The third-party app "SMS Backup+" sadly forces the user to go through the middleman GMail rather than doing the sensible thing, just dumping a file in the device storage. | |||
There is no option to always show the number of remaining characters. The number of remaining characters is only shown if ten or less characters are left. | |||
== Dialer (telephone) and contacts app == | |||
Of course, no built-in exporting to a file. Not surprising at this point. | |||
== YouTube == | == YouTube == | ||
[[YouTube]] has | The [[YouTube]] website and mobile application provide no way to download videos to a local file that is accessible outside the YouTube website or app. Unlike most other things on this list, this has been done on purpose, not as a result of negligence, see [[YouTube#Digital_Rights_Management|YouTube § Digital Rights Management]]. | ||
There is no numerical "jump to time feature" like the one the desktop edition of VLC Media Player has had for decades. The mobile edition of VLC Media Player has it too. | |||
== References == | |||
<references /> | |||