Android 12 comes with a striking obligation to share photos verplichting

We all share something. We do this through various apps. Android 12 now comes with a notable obligation for this.

Google is a company that – like other large tech companies – would like to keep a lot of control. Actually about everything. And they are now (again) going a step further with the rollout of Android 12. There they come up with a new ‘solution’ to share photos.

Android 12 obligation

We’re sharing something today. The most popular things we share are photos and videos via social media platforms and messaging services. But have you ever wondered how this goes? It doesn’t always happen through the same pane. As it turns out, this is because Android allows app developers to use “share sheets.” According to Google, this creates inconsistency within apps. That’s why they now want to create more unified experiences. Now you can still set third-party apps as the default sharesheet instead of the default Android version. Think of an app like Sharedr. But that is about to change.

Adaptation

However, Google plans to permanently stop this in Android 12, according to XDA Developers. You can imagine that the developer of Sharedr is ‘not amused’ with this. That’s why it filed a bug report after noting that in Android 12, users are no longer asked to choose between Android or another app. Google has confirmed this and says that this is indeed the intention. So, the company is basically blocking third-party apps from replacing its own share dialog.

“It was never our intention to allow apps to replace the sharing dialog, it is intended for apps to start the sharing dialog,” Google told XDA Developers. It still remains a bit vague, because with Samsung smartphones, for example, you can switch parts on or off, as XDA Developers noted. Soon you will still be able to use apps like Sharedr, but you have to select them as an app which creates an extra step.