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August 30, 2021

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The future needs files

For many mobile users, files are like dinosaurs, a holdover from the bygone
desktop era. Sure, they “work” but, they’re mostly there because, you know,
ancient history. I’ve discussed this issue for the last 2 years and I usually
get some version of “get over it grandpa”. 

I’m not here to tell you exactly what should happen, but more what you should
want. For me, it’s a travesty that people don’t understand why files are so
powerful and more importantly, how they need to evolve for mobile. I want all
OSs, including mobile ones, to properly support real files as they are amazing,
inspiring, and possibly the future of how we build our digital future.

Note: I’m using iOS as an example throughout this post but Android (and others)
are doing nearly the same thing. Please don’t mistake this as some type of
attack on Apple, this applies to everyone.

I’m not a luddite

I can understand your skepticism. Am I the dinosaur, overly attached to the
past? In my defense, I was on the Apple Newton team in the 90s (even working on
an unreleased “Newton Phone” concept) and also managed Google’s Mobile UX team
from 2005-2009, I was there when all hell broke loose and saw firsthand how
mobile changed everything. Mobile is clearly a juggernaut far bigger than
desktop. But too many assume a market win means a perfect product. It’s never
that simple. Mobile won for a variety of reasons, but throwing away files
wasn’t one of them.

Misconception #1: Mobile already has files!

Whenever I broach this topic on Twitter I always get some smart aleck posting a
screenshot of the Apple Files app.  Sigh… Yes, there is a Files app, Bravo… But
it’s so poorly integrated into the experience that it creates confusion and
extra work. Let’s back up a bit.

In 2007, the iPhone was a radical simplification over the desktop. There were
no windows, no menu bar, and there weren’t even visible scroll bars! The iPhone
was primarily a content consumption device. This was a brilliant insight. It
didn’t rule out content creation, it just made it an edge case. The iPhone was
first and foremost focused on browsing and scrolling. In fact, it’s maniacal
focus on scrolling introduced “flicking”, which allowed a super fast scroll to
the bottom of lists. (there’s a whole blog post I could write  just on the
difference between the Newton and iPhone scrolling behaviors)

But the iPhone didn’t stop there, it radically simplified other parts of the
UI, the most notable was removing the file system entirely. Remember, this was
a consumption device, so files weren’t strictly necessary. You had file-like
things, but they were locked up inside the apps themselves. The Notes app is a
good example. 

  • [Notes1]
  • [Notes2]

And to be honest, if you have just a few notes, this isn’t bad. The problem is
that if you have lots of notes, or want to do anything interesting with these
notes (e.g. get comments on them, post to blog, or import previous work) you’re
out of luck. My issue with that initial 2007 iPhone was that while it was well
intentioned it took things too far. Instead of hiding files away, it killed
them off entirely.

But things have improved since then right? There is a Files app after all.
Notes can import from Files!

Well, not quite. Let’s just look at the most recent (2021) version of the iOS
Notes app. It’s significantly different from the original 2007 version, with
lots more functionality, but below is a screenshot of me trying to save a note
to Dropbox.

[Notes-2021-Export-700x527]Notes 2021

Notice something? There is no “Save to Files” option! Even more confusing,
Notes has its own parallel folders that don’t show up in the Files app. And if
you feel like being a smarty-pants and say “Scott, look, those are iCloud
folders!” Not so fast there buckeroo. Here’s my iCloud drive:

[YI4kG_di0flii3q8LURZVnypQ2KggBwOQG_IPFqmrn3y22V0VlYfwSdKg]Web iCloud

Those Notes folders are nowhere to be seen. They are ONLY visible in the Notes
app or the iCloud Notes app! A tight little ecosystem you can’t escape from.

To further confuse things, when I took a screenshot of the Notes app and tried
to save this to the Files app, that actually was possible! The Mac prided
itself on “learn once, use everywhere.” That’s clearly not the case for iOS
apps.

[Screenshot-savejpg-700x525]Screenshots support Files app

Side Note: You actually can use Files from Notes but it’s hidden. Instead of
“Save to Files” you have to chose “Send a copy” menu item that will export a
version into Files. So while it’s Notes does indeed support the Files app, it’s
unlike others and clearly only focuses in the Import/Export use case.

This odd-man-out approach for Notes shows an underappreciated challenge for any
paradigm shift. iOS started off without files so when Apple suddenly added a
Files app a decade later, it’s not surprising that most apps didn’t immediately
start to use it uniformly. 

Of course, things may improve over time but it’s been years with little change.
I worry things are intellectually calcifying, or in Notes case, bifurcating.
Part of my motivation in writing this post is to get us fired up about the
value of files so it we appreciate this is happening.

Misconception #2: Sharing is all I need

The power of files comes from them being powerful nouns. They are temporary
holding blocks that are used as a form of exchange between applications. A
range of apps can edit a single file in a single location. On mobile, the
primary way to really use files is to “Share” between apps. This demotes files
from a powerful abstract noun into a lackluster narrow verb. 

 For example, I can import a text file into the Notes app but it’s really
nothing more than a glorified copy/paste, not an editing of an object in place.
This makes a cloud storage service like DropBox nearly useless as I’m not
editing “the thing” but a copy of the thing. I need to save it back out to
Dropbox if I want anyone else to see my changes. That’s vastly underutilizing
the power of the abstraction that comes from files. 

By sharing a file into an app you’re effectively making a copy. If I’d like to
make a few changes to a photo before posting it, each app I use makes an
internal copy of that photo. In order to pass the new photo to another app, I
have to export it out, so I get not only a copy of the photo in each app I use,
but it’s result needs to be copied out yet again to a service like Dropbox so
that I can share it back into the next app.

Of course, people don’t do this type of flow often but that’s because mobile is
mostly about consumption not creation. If we want mobile to expand and grow it
needs to handle the flows “knowledge workers” do routinely. Part of my
frustration in talking about this issue is that people are so trapped within
the present. Just because no one needs something today somehow justifies our
pain forever. If we’re talking about the future, we need to talk about new
tools and new workflows. The current model of files on mobile is drastically
restricting this.

Misconception #3: But I can share with iPhone users!

Yes, you can “Share” notes with other iOS users but that’s a very [10]
Procrustean Bed you’re making. You have to ask “at what cost”? Are you really
willing to bet your creative productivity to a single app from a single
company? Remember, this approach prevents your notes even from being used by
other iOS apps as well!

The most powerful aspect of files is that they liberate your data. Any app can
see it and do something useful to it. DropBox (et. al.) were able to seamlessly
merge with desktop usage as it required zero changes to your workflow. Files
were just magically synced to the cloud, unlocking not only multiple computers
working on the same file but multiple device types. 

The current mobile model does indeed sync your data but through the wrapper of
apps which forms a restrictive shield around your data. It’s so much more
powerful to sync your data through files.

Misconception #4: Files are just blobs of data

Files are mistakenly conceived as only content, something holding your notes,
spreadsheet data, or a photo. But files also have metadata, information about
the information. The obvious examples are the file name, creation and
modification date. The only one of these that is really used much on mobile is
modification date as when you use the ‘file picker’ on mobile, it usually
defaults to ‘most recent’ files. This actually does work well, if you’re trying
to include something you’ve just created. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t scale
much beyond that use case.

A more subtle example of metadata is the folder a file is in. This allows you
to group files from different apps, into a single place. If I’m planning a
wedding, it’s very helpful to have all wedding things together. This is data
first vs app first organization. This was extended when the Mac created the
“Desktop”, a temporary holding place for files. People needed folders for
longer term storage but it was also powerful to have a temporary ‘working area’
for recent files. The original Mac even had a [11]“Put away” command that would
return a file from the Desktop back into its original folder location (sadly
removed in OS X). This small bit of history shows how adding a tiny amount of
metadata can have a significant positive impact on a user’s workflow.

[Put-Away-700x525]Mac OS9 Put away command

The same applies to previews or content indexes (e.g. Spotlight on the Mac)
This allows the Finder to display your files in more helpful ways and even
allows you to quickly find things based on their content. This metadata is
hugely powerful and not always available on mobile. 

But it’s helpful to remember that this metadata only went so far. Using “just
files” started to break down with apps like iPhoto and iTunes, which tried to
have it both ways. Both used the file system to store the many large files
needed but they also required an app to add additional metadata to group and
sort the content. This created a schism, splitting the metadata between two
different masters. This meant you couldn’t just ‘reach into’ your iTunes
folders with the Finder to rearrange things (or convert the files from WAV to
MP3) without causing serious app confusion. In some cases, if you did this the
music would simply disappear from iTunes.

2002 iTunes 2.0.4 CD on OS9 - Take 2 | AppleToTheCore.me

There were attempts to fix this. BeOS allowed arbitrary data to be added to
files and this was reflected it’s Tracker (file browser) app. This allowed
iPhoto-like ‘apps’ to exist entirely within Tracker. [12]WinFS from Microsoft
carried this even further with a more robust metadata mechanism. Both were
valiant attempts but most people have no idea either existed and have ended up,
like Dvorak keyboards, to be considered a mostly ignored branch of computer
history. This is too bad as we’ve already seen that things like Mac Spotlight
are incredibly helpful. I strongly feel that we should be looking harder at
bringing back metadata systems like WinFS/BeOS. But not for me, for the AI.

Our AI Future

My goal isn’t to talk about “fixing mobile”. Mobile will, eventually, get
there. Too many people think “Mobile is the Future” but we are so far past
that. Mobile is the present. We need to actually be thinking about the future
that is coming and what we are going to need.

Mobile started off as a consumption device. That brilliant simplification
unlocked an explosion of basic consumption tasks. But if we want to move
everyone over to phones and tablets, we clearly have a long ways to go. Yes,
there are small niches of people, like writers that are using their iPad for
creation. But that isn’t a very high bar, [13]extremely simple devices have
existed for this for a long time. Besides, how many companies have successfully
migrated their entire company to tablets? I’m sure a few exist but it’s not
exactly an avalanche is it?

I’m talking about moving from consumption to creation and not just for today’s
tasks, but for the tools we are just starting to use. I’m referring to Machine
Learning systems. These are the type of agents that can run through the data on
my phone making inferences, corrections, and suggestions that make my life
easier and more productive. Things like:

  • Cleaning up my contacts (and searching for additional info on them)
  • Tagging my photos with text inside them
  • Proofreading my writing
  • Indexing and linking “statistically significant” words in audio/video files
  • Creating semantic links between all of my work

These are just baby, brainstorm-ish ideas. We know this will evolve to be so
much more nuanced and impactful. Relegating these services to the OS is a safer
option, certainly from the security point of view, but that creates an
innovation chokepoint. If we’ve learned anything from our history, we need to
have more open systems to create an opportunity to try out many many different
services. Not just a few more but orders of magnitude more, which is far more
than any OS can provide. If we’re happy with Dropbox, we should have no
problems with 3rd party ML systems scouring our data, especially if we have
folders as a mechanism to gate access.

This isn’t some feeble political statement to liberate my data from a company. 
I want files to liberate my data from my own apps and create an ML explosion of
activity! Files are at some level a hack, I get that, there are limits but they
are an extremely useful and flexible hack. Like the QWERTY keyboard, they are
“good enough” for most tasks. Files encapsulate a ‘chunk’ of your work and
allow that chunk to be seen, moved, acted on, and accessed by multiple people
and more importantly external 3rd party processes. It is a fever dream to think
mobile is adequate today. It isn’t adequate and we desperately need the power
of files to unlock the future on mobile.

Special thanks to Gordon Brander whose musings on his new app [14]Subconscious 
revived this 2 year old idea into this blog post. If you’re not reading Gordon,
you’re missing out.

Retrieved March 4, 2024 at 4:09 pm (website time).

Available at: jenson.org/?p=1011

Scott Jenson (@scottjenson@social.coop)


References:

[1] https://jenson.org/files/#content
[2] https://jenson.org/
[4] https://jenson.org/category/article/
[5] https://jenson.org/category/popular/
[6] https://jenson.org/talks/
[7] https://jenson.org/about-scott/
[8] https://jenson.org/category/article/
[9] https://jenson.org/category/popular/
[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procrustes
[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
[12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinFS
[13] https://getfreewrite.com/
[14] https://subconscious.substack.com/