jenson-org-arxfgm.txt (15275B)
1 [1]Skip to content 2 3 [2] Scott Jenson 4 5 Exploring the world beyond mobile 6 7 Menu 8 9 • [4]Articles 10 • [5]Most Popular 11 • [6]Talks 12 • [7]About 13 14 August 30, 2021 15 16 • [8]Article 17 • [9]Most Popular 18 19 The future needs files 20 21 For many mobile users, files are like dinosaurs, a holdover from the bygone 22 desktop era. Sure, they “work” but, they’re mostly there because, you know, 23 ancient history. I’ve discussed this issue for the last 2 years and I usually 24 get some version of “get over it grandpa”. 25 26 I’m not here to tell you exactly what should happen, but more what you should 27 want. For me, it’s a travesty that people don’t understand why files are so 28 powerful and more importantly, how they need to evolve for mobile. I want all 29 OSs, including mobile ones, to properly support real files as they are amazing, 30 inspiring, and possibly the future of how we build our digital future. 31 32 Note: I’m using iOS as an example throughout this post but Android (and others) 33 are doing nearly the same thing. Please don’t mistake this as some type of 34 attack on Apple, this applies to everyone. 35 36 I’m not a luddite 37 38 I can understand your skepticism. Am I the dinosaur, overly attached to the 39 past? In my defense, I was on the Apple Newton team in the 90s (even working on 40 an unreleased “Newton Phone” concept) and also managed Google’s Mobile UX team 41 from 2005-2009, I was there when all hell broke loose and saw firsthand how 42 mobile changed everything. Mobile is clearly a juggernaut far bigger than 43 desktop. But too many assume a market win means a perfect product. It’s never 44 that simple. Mobile won for a variety of reasons, but throwing away files 45 wasn’t one of them. 46 47 Misconception #1: Mobile already has files! 48 49 Whenever I broach this topic on Twitter I always get some smart aleck posting a 50 screenshot of the Apple Files app. Sigh… Yes, there is a Files app, Bravo… But 51 it’s so poorly integrated into the experience that it creates confusion and 52 extra work. Let’s back up a bit. 53 54 In 2007, the iPhone was a radical simplification over the desktop. There were 55 no windows, no menu bar, and there weren’t even visible scroll bars! The iPhone 56 was primarily a content consumption device. This was a brilliant insight. It 57 didn’t rule out content creation, it just made it an edge case. The iPhone was 58 first and foremost focused on browsing and scrolling. In fact, it’s maniacal 59 focus on scrolling introduced “flicking”, which allowed a super fast scroll to 60 the bottom of lists. (there’s a whole blog post I could write just on the 61 difference between the Newton and iPhone scrolling behaviors) 62 63 But the iPhone didn’t stop there, it radically simplified other parts of the 64 UI, the most notable was removing the file system entirely. Remember, this was 65 a consumption device, so files weren’t strictly necessary. You had file-like 66 things, but they were locked up inside the apps themselves. The Notes app is a 67 good example. 68 69 • [Notes1] 70 • [Notes2] 71 72 And to be honest, if you have just a few notes, this isn’t bad. The problem is 73 that if you have lots of notes, or want to do anything interesting with these 74 notes (e.g. get comments on them, post to blog, or import previous work) you’re 75 out of luck. My issue with that initial 2007 iPhone was that while it was well 76 intentioned it took things too far. Instead of hiding files away, it killed 77 them off entirely. 78 79 But things have improved since then right? There is a Files app after all. 80 Notes can import from Files! 81 82 Well, not quite. Let’s just look at the most recent (2021) version of the iOS 83 Notes app. It’s significantly different from the original 2007 version, with 84 lots more functionality, but below is a screenshot of me trying to save a note 85 to Dropbox. 86 87 [Notes-2021-Export-700x527]Notes 2021 88 89 Notice something? There is no “Save to Files” option! Even more confusing, 90 Notes has its own parallel folders that don’t show up in the Files app. And if 91 you feel like being a smarty-pants and say “Scott, look, those are iCloud 92 folders!” Not so fast there buckeroo. Here’s my iCloud drive: 93 94 [YI4kG_di0flii3q8LURZVnypQ2KggBwOQG_IPFqmrn3y22V0VlYfwSdKg]Web iCloud 95 96 Those Notes folders are nowhere to be seen. They are ONLY visible in the Notes 97 app or the iCloud Notes app! A tight little ecosystem you can’t escape from. 98 99 To further confuse things, when I took a screenshot of the Notes app and tried 100 to save this to the Files app, that actually was possible! The Mac prided 101 itself on “learn once, use everywhere.” That’s clearly not the case for iOS 102 apps. 103 104 [Screenshot-savejpg-700x525]Screenshots support Files app 105 106 Side Note: You actually can use Files from Notes but it’s hidden. Instead of 107 “Save to Files” you have to chose “Send a copy” menu item that will export a 108 version into Files. So while it’s Notes does indeed support the Files app, it’s 109 unlike others and clearly only focuses in the Import/Export use case. 110 111 This odd-man-out approach for Notes shows an underappreciated challenge for any 112 paradigm shift. iOS started off without files so when Apple suddenly added a 113 Files app a decade later, it’s not surprising that most apps didn’t immediately 114 start to use it uniformly. 115 116 Of course, things may improve over time but it’s been years with little change. 117 I worry things are intellectually calcifying, or in Notes case, bifurcating. 118 Part of my motivation in writing this post is to get us fired up about the 119 value of files so it we appreciate this is happening. 120 121 Misconception #2: Sharing is all I need 122 123 The power of files comes from them being powerful nouns. They are temporary 124 holding blocks that are used as a form of exchange between applications. A 125 range of apps can edit a single file in a single location. On mobile, the 126 primary way to really use files is to “Share” between apps. This demotes files 127 from a powerful abstract noun into a lackluster narrow verb. 128 129 For example, I can import a text file into the Notes app but it’s really 130 nothing more than a glorified copy/paste, not an editing of an object in place. 131 This makes a cloud storage service like DropBox nearly useless as I’m not 132 editing “the thing” but a copy of the thing. I need to save it back out to 133 Dropbox if I want anyone else to see my changes. That’s vastly underutilizing 134 the power of the abstraction that comes from files. 135 136 By sharing a file into an app you’re effectively making a copy. If I’d like to 137 make a few changes to a photo before posting it, each app I use makes an 138 internal copy of that photo. In order to pass the new photo to another app, I 139 have to export it out, so I get not only a copy of the photo in each app I use, 140 but it’s result needs to be copied out yet again to a service like Dropbox so 141 that I can share it back into the next app. 142 143 Of course, people don’t do this type of flow often but that’s because mobile is 144 mostly about consumption not creation. If we want mobile to expand and grow it 145 needs to handle the flows “knowledge workers” do routinely. Part of my 146 frustration in talking about this issue is that people are so trapped within 147 the present. Just because no one needs something today somehow justifies our 148 pain forever. If we’re talking about the future, we need to talk about new 149 tools and new workflows. The current model of files on mobile is drastically 150 restricting this. 151 152 Misconception #3: But I can share with iPhone users! 153 154 Yes, you can “Share” notes with other iOS users but that’s a very [10] 155 Procrustean Bed you’re making. You have to ask “at what cost”? Are you really 156 willing to bet your creative productivity to a single app from a single 157 company? Remember, this approach prevents your notes even from being used by 158 other iOS apps as well! 159 160 The most powerful aspect of files is that they liberate your data. Any app can 161 see it and do something useful to it. DropBox (et. al.) were able to seamlessly 162 merge with desktop usage as it required zero changes to your workflow. Files 163 were just magically synced to the cloud, unlocking not only multiple computers 164 working on the same file but multiple device types. 165 166 The current mobile model does indeed sync your data but through the wrapper of 167 apps which forms a restrictive shield around your data. It’s so much more 168 powerful to sync your data through files. 169 170 Misconception #4: Files are just blobs of data 171 172 Files are mistakenly conceived as only content, something holding your notes, 173 spreadsheet data, or a photo. But files also have metadata, information about 174 the information. The obvious examples are the file name, creation and 175 modification date. The only one of these that is really used much on mobile is 176 modification date as when you use the ‘file picker’ on mobile, it usually 177 defaults to ‘most recent’ files. This actually does work well, if you’re trying 178 to include something you’ve just created. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t scale 179 much beyond that use case. 180 181 A more subtle example of metadata is the folder a file is in. This allows you 182 to group files from different apps, into a single place. If I’m planning a 183 wedding, it’s very helpful to have all wedding things together. This is data 184 first vs app first organization. This was extended when the Mac created the 185 “Desktop”, a temporary holding place for files. People needed folders for 186 longer term storage but it was also powerful to have a temporary ‘working area’ 187 for recent files. The original Mac even had a [11]“Put away” command that would 188 return a file from the Desktop back into its original folder location (sadly 189 removed in OS X). This small bit of history shows how adding a tiny amount of 190 metadata can have a significant positive impact on a user’s workflow. 191 192 [Put-Away-700x525]Mac OS9 Put away command 193 194 The same applies to previews or content indexes (e.g. Spotlight on the Mac) 195 This allows the Finder to display your files in more helpful ways and even 196 allows you to quickly find things based on their content. This metadata is 197 hugely powerful and not always available on mobile. 198 199 But it’s helpful to remember that this metadata only went so far. Using “just 200 files” started to break down with apps like iPhoto and iTunes, which tried to 201 have it both ways. Both used the file system to store the many large files 202 needed but they also required an app to add additional metadata to group and 203 sort the content. This created a schism, splitting the metadata between two 204 different masters. This meant you couldn’t just ‘reach into’ your iTunes 205 folders with the Finder to rearrange things (or convert the files from WAV to 206 MP3) without causing serious app confusion. In some cases, if you did this the 207 music would simply disappear from iTunes. 208 209 2002 iTunes 2.0.4 CD on OS9 - Take 2 | AppleToTheCore.me 210 211 There were attempts to fix this. BeOS allowed arbitrary data to be added to 212 files and this was reflected it’s Tracker (file browser) app. This allowed 213 iPhoto-like ‘apps’ to exist entirely within Tracker. [12]WinFS from Microsoft 214 carried this even further with a more robust metadata mechanism. Both were 215 valiant attempts but most people have no idea either existed and have ended up, 216 like Dvorak keyboards, to be considered a mostly ignored branch of computer 217 history. This is too bad as we’ve already seen that things like Mac Spotlight 218 are incredibly helpful. I strongly feel that we should be looking harder at 219 bringing back metadata systems like WinFS/BeOS. But not for me, for the AI. 220 221 Our AI Future 222 223 My goal isn’t to talk about “fixing mobile”. Mobile will, eventually, get 224 there. Too many people think “Mobile is the Future” but we are so far past 225 that. Mobile is the present. We need to actually be thinking about the future 226 that is coming and what we are going to need. 227 228 Mobile started off as a consumption device. That brilliant simplification 229 unlocked an explosion of basic consumption tasks. But if we want to move 230 everyone over to phones and tablets, we clearly have a long ways to go. Yes, 231 there are small niches of people, like writers that are using their iPad for 232 creation. But that isn’t a very high bar, [13]extremely simple devices have 233 existed for this for a long time. Besides, how many companies have successfully 234 migrated their entire company to tablets? I’m sure a few exist but it’s not 235 exactly an avalanche is it? 236 237 I’m talking about moving from consumption to creation and not just for today’s 238 tasks, but for the tools we are just starting to use. I’m referring to Machine 239 Learning systems. These are the type of agents that can run through the data on 240 my phone making inferences, corrections, and suggestions that make my life 241 easier and more productive. Things like: 242 243 • Cleaning up my contacts (and searching for additional info on them) 244 • Tagging my photos with text inside them 245 • Proofreading my writing 246 • Indexing and linking “statistically significant” words in audio/video files 247 • Creating semantic links between all of my work 248 249 These are just baby, brainstorm-ish ideas. We know this will evolve to be so 250 much more nuanced and impactful. Relegating these services to the OS is a safer 251 option, certainly from the security point of view, but that creates an 252 innovation chokepoint. If we’ve learned anything from our history, we need to 253 have more open systems to create an opportunity to try out many many different 254 services. Not just a few more but orders of magnitude more, which is far more 255 than any OS can provide. If we’re happy with Dropbox, we should have no 256 problems with 3rd party ML systems scouring our data, especially if we have 257 folders as a mechanism to gate access. 258 259 This isn’t some feeble political statement to liberate my data from a company. 260 I want files to liberate my data from my own apps and create an ML explosion of 261 activity! Files are at some level a hack, I get that, there are limits but they 262 are an extremely useful and flexible hack. Like the QWERTY keyboard, they are 263 “good enough” for most tasks. Files encapsulate a ‘chunk’ of your work and 264 allow that chunk to be seen, moved, acted on, and accessed by multiple people 265 and more importantly external 3rd party processes. It is a fever dream to think 266 mobile is adequate today. It isn’t adequate and we desperately need the power 267 of files to unlock the future on mobile. 268 269 Special thanks to Gordon Brander whose musings on his new app [14]Subconscious 270 revived this 2 year old idea into this blog post. If you’re not reading Gordon, 271 you’re missing out. 272 273 Retrieved March 4, 2024 at 4:09 pm (website time). 274 275 Available at: jenson.org/?p=1011 276 277 Scott Jenson (@[email protected]) 278 279 280 References: 281 282 [1] https://jenson.org/files/#content 283 [2] https://jenson.org/ 284 [4] https://jenson.org/category/article/ 285 [5] https://jenson.org/category/popular/ 286 [6] https://jenson.org/talks/ 287 [7] https://jenson.org/about-scott/ 288 [8] https://jenson.org/category/article/ 289 [9] https://jenson.org/category/popular/ 290 [10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procrustes 291 [11] https://www.google.com/books/edition/Mac_OS_9/wdtjgTMbi4kC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=mac+desktop+%22put+away%22&pg=PA35&printsec=frontcover 292 [12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinFS 293 [13] https://getfreewrite.com/ 294 [14] https://subconscious.substack.com/