Would be nice if mobile OSs had a permission that let apps save photos but to re...

sk0g · on May 31, 2019

I think Android does/ can do just that? There's a native photo picking intent, and the app just gets back a photo. Whether it was from the camera, the gallery, etc, who cares?

In practice, most apps would rather have their own in-app photo grid. Nothing to do with wanting to violate your privacy, I'm sure :)

londons_explore · on May 31, 2019

The photo picking intent leads to a confusing UI - it's common for phones to have many photo picking intents, so a typical flow would be:

* User clicks "attach photo"

* Phone asks, do you want to use "Photos", "Gallery", "Google Photos", "Camera".

* User wants to share a screenshot - so they don't know which to pick. They choose "Gallery".

* The built in gallery app doesn't show images apart from those taken with the camera. User goes back.

* User picks "Google Photos"

* Google photos only shows screenshots under a confusingly named "device folders" link in a hidden-by-default side menu. User doesn't find that.

* User tries "Photos".

* That turns out to be an alias of Google Photos put there by the phone manufacturer.

* User tries "Camera". That lets them take a picture, or to scroll through another list of past camera photos.

* User gives up.

And we wonder why apps don't use that feature of the platform...

jclardy · on May 31, 2019

iOS does as well. An app can use the system photo picker to allow the user to select a single/multiple photos without having "Photos" permission.

The problem is that granting full save permission also grants read permission, it would be more ideal if those were split.

baroffoos · on May 31, 2019

I know it certainly has a photopicker but I don't know if you have to have filesystem access to pick one or if you can save photos.