| The theory seems great. The reality is not. When you do that, you delegate your UX and proper functionning of your app to a third-party app. The UX can vary according the app. One thing is certain, it won't always be consistent with your app. It is also going to be more complicated for the user (more actions to make, more choices, just because you don't want to add permissions). The proper functionning is even worse. Did you ever heard about the fragmentation of Android? Well, Intents are where it's worse. Some apps plainly don't work, or are buggy. Intents are great to save time prototyping something. However, if a feature is central to your app, you are better off ensuring yourself that it works well and is easy to use, something that Intents can't guarantee. Of course, the permission system is far from ideal, and some people will not install your app because you ask for some permissions. I'd say that's a price to pay for developping on Android. P.S.: some examples of Intents that don't work so well: 1) sending a mail. Good luck finding how to properly use an Intent that is not handled by text apps and allow you to put attachments 2) picking a photo from gallery and resize. A lot of photo apps are plain broken for that Intent. And I'm not talking about some obscure device on a rooted Android, I'm talking about Google's Nexus, with stock apps. |
We all eventually accepted that you should let the OS do its native thing. Android is no different.