My android devices have all come with basic file system browsers, but even better, I can choose from a plethora of full featured apps for full file system access. This is one of the issues that has kept me away from iphone, though.
Modern Android (11 onwards) no longer allows full filesystem access for file manager apps. Apps can opt into exposing some of their files for management by implementing a horrible Java API designed for cloud storage services. Some vendors' forks probably disable this change but that's not something that can be relied on.
Meanwhile iOS also has sandboxing but at least you can still meaningfully use normal goddamn filesystem APIs and there's now a system file manager.
Minecraft for Android has two storage locations in-game: Application (default, not accessible to users) and External (accessible to users by connecting their phone to a computer).
I cannot backup my worlds without either using a third-party tool, or paying Microsoft $4 for the privilege of uploading my world to their server (Realm), changing my storage location to External and then downloading it back. Ridiculous.
I seem to recall very Android phone I've had came with an app called "Files". If not named "Files", they always had some kind of baked-in file browser. The last few phones have been Pixels, I don't remember exactly the specifics of the one on the Motorola devices I had prior, but on the Pixel devices its this app:
No ads. Sure, it tries to group things by categories and searching at the very top, but its still easy to see "Storage devices" which lets me navigate the actual folder structure. My Pixels have come with USB-C male to USB-A female adapters which allow me to plug in things like flash drives, memory card readers, cameras, external hard drives, even other Android devices and access the files through the Files app.
Yep, this is the main reason I use Android. It also means I can modify things on the OS level to e.g. fabricate false GPS data and supply it to apps that insist on GPS access to be functional.
On iPhones and stock Android phones, apps "know" when you deny permissions, and can even know when you use the mock GPS feature.
Out of curiosity, are you referring to rooted Android, or some variant that provides the user some protection from apps "knowing"? GrapheneOS seems to provide some of this (Storage Scopes, network permission, etc.) but not all.
Custom mod of LineageOS, not rooted stock Android, although you might be able to accomplish it with rooted stock and some frameworks like Xposed, they can be detected by some apps, and some apps actually do detect those frameworks and ban users. WeChat is particularly notorious for this kind of detection. If you get banned you not only are disconnected from communicating with your family and friends, you can't even book train and flight tickets, you can't buy food at many places that only take mobile payments and don't take cash, just for a stupid framework. So it has to be done on the OS level.
I was thinking about getting an xperia, I asked about rooting/custom rom and apparetly unlocking the bootloader will delete keys that the camera needs to run. Seeing as it's designed as a cameraphone first and foremost, that's a bit of a major feature to lose.
Why, as a user, is that story (even without losing the camera) would any of that sound better than just having the app store require that apps follow some approval guidelines about what they are allowed to do with privileges and what they are allowed to do when denied privileges?
Unfortunately, you can't really have sideloading and an app review process. If sideloading is trivial/normalized for users then it'll be trivial/normalized for bad actors wanting to exploit those users.
According to the App Store rules for iOS, An app can’t withhold functionality when you deny it GPS access unless it’s required for the app’s functionality.
Why would I use an app that requires unnecessary permissions?
The SSH client Prompt uses GPS permissions as a round-about workaround to ensure your SSH connection is not reaped and closed by iOS while in the background.
To stay in touch with friends and family who only use a certain app for communication and social event planning. I don't have the energy to convince them and an entire country to move off said app.
To get permits to certain wilderness areas that require GPS permissions to even apply.
To get on restaurant waitlists before arriving. (Some restaurants insist on your phone-reported GPS location being within a certain radius to get on the list. Welcome to Silicon Valley in 2023)
So exactly why do you need access to the file system? You have access to a location where you can share files between apps. Any application that supports access to file picker gives you access to any of your installed document providers like iCloud, Google Drive, Box, an attached USB drive, a network drive and the local device.
And direct access via the Files app.
The one thing missing is that admittedly there is no way to add your own music to the music library on the phone itself.
I pretty much never use it on my Mac, all the apps I use show the filesystem in a sidebar and have a fuzzy search feature. Even Apple apps (like Xcode) have that so clearly they're aware of how bad the file picker is.
