Apps that all do the same thing

[flybub]

Before I get going on this I appreciate that we have a choice of default apps with Android. I've been using Android since 2008 and have no plans on going to a different platform. However, how many picture viewers do I need? There's the stock gallery, Google photos, Dropbox viewer, ES File Explorer, and Google Drive viewer. I know it's just a quick 'use this one as default' and the dialog never again pops up. Is this why we need 64gb phones these days, because when we install an app we get another 30mb of junk along with it? I want Dropbox for storage, not for viewing pdf files, pictures, or editing documents. So instead of the Dropbox app being only 6 or 7 MB, it's 35 MB. I'm sure I'm exaggerating but I think you get the point. Should we be able to have the option of these tag-along options during install to save on space on our device?

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Rukbat]

Should we be able to have the option of these tag-along options during install to save on space on our device?

Absolutely, AFAIC. How many text editors do we need? How many file viewers do we need?

Not only at installation, but let me try Dropbox's picture viewer, Drive's viewer, etc., then delete that part of the app if I don't want to use it. (It's not difficult to write compartmented code like that.)

I don't think that's why apps are getting huge, though. We used to write programs in assembly, and play tricks to get the same code to do different things (jump to the operand, for those who still remember assembly - it would act as the opcode for a different instruction and, if written correctly, could save a chunk of space). A shoehorn was art of a programming kit - you shoehorned every last byte of code you could into as little space as you had. Or even go as far as using Forth as a programming language (that was Excedrin headache #1), to eliminate a little more code. (So what if the programmer had to take 5 minutes at the end of the day to re-establish up and down in his mind before falling off his chair to the ceiling? It saved 20 whole bytes in that program.)

Today, "developers" drag&drop controls on a skeleton that can do everything, so you have a wifi app that has Bluetooth classes included - just in case someone wants to use that skeleton for a Bluetooth app. No one "writes code" any more (and very few people actually write an app before coding it). And that's what's making a 40KB app take 300MB. (You can't write an Android app to put a one word notice on the screen in less than tens of KB, at least - in DOS, in assembly, doing that in 100 bytes would get you fired (unless it was a REALLY long word - because the word is included in the number of bytes, so it could take 100 bytes to print a 90 character long word to the screen).

But writing code in assembly requires that you rewrite it for each CPU (even assuming that all hardware access is via APIs), and the "10 lines of code a day" rule would make a trivial Android app cost a few hundred dollars. Being able to "make an app" in an hour means that even if your time is worth something, 99 cents a pop pays you a lot for that time. (And you can "write a Tasker app" in a few minutes.)

They call it progress. I guess we'll have to learn to live with it. (I still use my Gingerbread phone when I don't need much, and my 10 year old "dumb phone" when all I need is telephone access. We don't HAVE to buy a new phone every 3 years - but it's nice to be able to use the new apps.)

 

[vbdwork]

Each application comes with it's own functionality. Developers don't know what you already have installed in your system and how it's going to handle the files. Same like in computers, we have an option "open with..." and a list of programs or "choose default program". 100-200MB "lost" space is not a big deal. Even low-end smartphones offer 8GB internal storage with about 5.5GB available. Many offer SD card extension slot for additional storage.