Android 11: new storage system has a hidden recycle bin to recover files
Android 11 won its first beta version a few days ago and we are now hearing about a lot more news about the next version of Google’s operating system. One of the great news is the scope storage, which will guarantee greater security and privacy for the files saved on the phone by the user, see what we discovered today.
The Scope Storage function was introduced in Android 10, but it is only now taking action due to the drastic changes it causes in the way applications can access files on the phone. To use this new version, applications must use API level 30, which is being released with Android 11.
In the figure above you can see an illustration of how Android 11 Scope Storage provided by Google. In it we can see the shared storage composed by the Downloads folder, media files on the device and other folders, it is separated from the private storage, which contains folders necessary for each application to work.
In this way, one application cannot access data from another and they need permission to delete and modify files from shared storage. They can, however, include files in this storage, such as a browser downloading a photo, for example. Applications with special access, such as those on the system, have free access.
The big news is that now Google has shown how the MediaStore API allows you to delete a file without it being permanently deleted from your phone. This is because when trying to delete a photo or video, a dialog box asks if you want to move it to the trash only, where it will be available for 30 days, after that period the cell phone will definitely destroy it. See a demonstration by Yuriy Mysochenko:
The feature can be compared to the Recycle Bin, which has been present on computers for years, but which is only now being improved on Android. Storage by default already had this feature, but it was unreliable and will now have more integration with applications, which will be able to access it and show its content so that the user can easily retrieve it.
Incidentally, in the Mysochenko demo there is a warning that the file will be destroyed in 7 days, apparently this deadline has been extended to 30, since the version he tested was still a Developer Preview. It’s worth noting that there’s still no specific Google application for the Recycle Bin, but that could come in the future with the stable version of Android 11.
In addition, a new function will allow the user to mark a file as a favorite and this mark will be visible to all other applications, avoiding accidental deletion and allowing all of them to synchronize this label.
Developers who are interested in deploying this capability in their applications should visit the Android Developers website to find out specifically about the new API. To learn more, watch the full video that was published by Google in English:
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