Known Issues on Android Q

[Martin]

This posts lists the currently known issues on Android Q. Please note that Q is still in beta and might change quite a lot in the next few months. Please note that the list is not complete. Please let me know if you should know of any other issue or rumors about issues on Android Q. You can send issue reports either as a reply to this post or send a mail to info@automagic4android.com.


Background activity starts
Automagic will not be allowed to start activities anymore from background (when the UI of Automagic is not currently displaying in foreground).
This will affect many actions like Start Activity, Launch App, Launch Shortcut, Open URL in Browser, Input Dialog, Message Dialog and conditions Debug Dialog and Confirmation Dialog and likely some additional actions and conditions. Google changed its mind and starting with beta 4 of Q you can now grant permission Draw over other apps to Automagic to allow background activity starts again.
Link: https://developer.android.com/preview/p ... ity-starts
Required change: v1.38 of Automagic asks for permission Draw over other apps for the affected actions.
Related issues: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/128511873

Clipboard data
Automagic can not read the clipboard anymore when the UI of Automagic is not currently displaying in foreground and has input focus. This means that action Copy Text from Clipboard and trigger Clipboard Changed will be mostly useless when no workaround can be found.
Link: https://developer.android.com/preview/p ... board-data
Workarounds: not known yet, just an idea for a workaround that could make the action work again, but not the trigger
Related issues: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/123461156

Enable and disable Wi-Fi
Automagic will likely not be able to enable/disable WiFi anymore.
Many WiFi related actions will likely stop working sooner or later. Likely affected: Add/Remove WiFi Access Point, Enable/Disable WiFi Access Point, Set WiFi Access Point Priority, WiFi Reassociate
It looks like Google will allow apps to toggle WiFi when the app targets Android P or older: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/ ... #comment18 so the feature will stop working as soon as Automagic targets Android Q.
Link: https://developer.android.com/preview/p ... sable-wifi
Workarounds: not likely
Related issues: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/128554616

Scoped storage
Apps will not have access to files in general on external storage anymore except when the file access is done via the storage access framework so a workaround should be possible (but untested).
Please note that beta 1 of Android Q does not enforce scoped storage except when it's turned on via adb command adb shell sm set-isolated-storage on. For later betas and when turned on via adb: As soon as you freshly install Automagic, scoped storage might be enforced and files on the primary external storage (a.k.a. internal storage) might not be accessible to Automagic anymore since Automagic can only see the sandbox containing the files of Automagic itself. Android also deletes the files in the sandbox when Automagic is uninstalled so please have a backup of your flows/widgets ready if you use the Q betas. I'm working on support for scoped storage so the situation should improve and access to the storage should become possible again.
Link: https://developer.android.com/preview/p ... ed-storage
Workarounds: v1.38 uses SAF for file access on Q so the problem should be fixed. Google seems still to change quite some things in this area so more changes might be required with newer Q beta versions.
Related issues: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/128591846, https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/129629193

Non-resettable hardware identifiers
Access to some device identifiers will be limited (MAC address, IMEI etc.).
Link: https://developer.android.com/preview/p ... dentifiers
Workarounds: not likely

Feel free to check out the developer documentation that contains all disclosed restrictions:
https://developer.android.com/preview.

The checklist page also summarizes the restrictions quite well:
https://developer.android.com/preview/privacy/checklist.

Thanks & Regards,
Martin

[elektroinside]

"This behavior change helps minimize interruptions for the user and keeps the user more in control of what's shown on their screen."

But we are in control of these. In fact, we never have been more in control, thanks to AM.

Am I the only one feeling that Google's Android is heading towards Apple's iOS mentality?

Something has to be done, I really don't want another iOS copy on my future phones. And I also don't want to use Google's Home to automate my life, if the goal is to forcibly migrate Android users to Google Home & Google Assistant, cause I suspect these will work just fine with Q.

Google, I'm telling you, if you f**k up my AM flows, I'll stop buying your software and stop using your services. You've been warned. You hear me, you Google bot crawling this forum? Tell this to your master.

Oh, I bet I'll not be alone on this boat.

[ariloc]

No more launching apps or activities? That's unacceptable from Google. Ok, limit some info known about calls to other apps. Allright, limit access to the clipboard, that's something useful, but not a dealbreaker for me. But launching apps and even Input Dialog gets broken? They're going off hand. It's supposed that updates are made to implement new features, not to delete them. Google is killing what made Android a better option. That may have done Android a bit less secure than iOS, but restricting things with no common sense is just not the way to go.

I hope they check for certain apps that their main functionality is based on this and try to make exceptions, but they should manage them much better than last time. Or even just let the user choose what permissions wants for an app in a better, comprehensive way, where they are explicitly acknowledged about what they are permitting.

Anyway, thanks Martin for letting us that early what's changing in the next Android version, pretty good you could get your hands on the beta!

[Desmanto]

I am calculating the damage projections if this restriction implemented (as per now)
Copy Text from Clipboard : 15
Start Activity : 39
Launch App :25
Launch Shortcut : 5
Open URL in Browser : 16
Input Dialog : 117
Message Dialog : 17
Total 234 actions (from 1698 actions, 13,78%)

Debug Dialog : 106
Confirmation Dialog : 32
Total 138 conditions (from 853 conditions, 16,18%)

This will most likely affects more than half of my total flows (219), which is about 100 flows, as I use Input Dialog a lot.

BTW, I read at the activity restriction, the 3rd lines :
Enable restrictions by turning off the Allow background activity starts developer option
I wonder if this going to be expanded/stayed until the Q released

@elektroinside : You are not alone, even Automagic's users are not alone. Other tasker, automation app and many useful legitimate app also faced the same problem. Someone should make an issue tracker to reverse this action. Or at least, request to provide a proper restriction method as permission,
"Allow app to start background activity"
"Allow app to read clibpoard in background"
These will be much better solution, rather than restrict everything altogether.

During 2,5 years, I have seen Automagic threaten by the Accessibility restriction (2017), call/sms restriction (2018), and this year will be clipboard and background activity. After the call/sms drama has just passed, Google is pulling new trick again on these 2. Google (or should I call skynet) really turning more iOS from year to year.

[Horschte]

Is there some hope for the activities starts from background?

https://developer.android.com/preview/p ... ity-starts

Apps running on Android Q can start activities only when one or more of the following conditions are met:
...
...
...
The app has been granted the SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW permission by the user.

[Martin]

Yes, you are correct. The EAP version of Automagic already incorporates this mechanism on Q so the affected conditions and actions ask for the system alert window permission (Draw over other apps).
I'll update the first post to incorporate the current state.

Regards,
Martin

[hockeyduck3]

Not sure if anyone was made aware of this or not. On Android Q Beta 5 the SMS permission on Automagic got removed, at least on my Pixel 2 it did. Not sure if this was made because of some new API or something? I just wanted to make sure this was known.

[Martin]

Thanks for mentioning.
I had to uninstall and reinstall Automagic on Q beta 5 to grant the permission again. Let's hope that this was just a beta upgrade glitch and not first signs of a new Google permission/privacy "optimization".

[canadaDry]

I am calculating the damage projections if this restriction implemented (as per now)
This will most likely affects more than half of my total flows (219), which is about 100 flows, as I use Input Dialog a lot.
Google is pulling new trick again on these 2. Google (or should I call skynet) really turning more iOS from year to year.

Yah, I suspect Pie will be the last version of Android I'll be using for a long time!

I can't imagine the pain that Martin (and Joao) go through trying to deal with, and work around the constantly moving target that is android!!

Speaking of 'Skynet': I thought this was an interesting analysis of how android sends data back to google - even when you've managed to find and 'turn off' all the privacy controls.
https://digitalcontentnext.org/wp-conte ... -Paper.pdf

[moonspeak]

Background activity starts
Automagic will not be allowed to start activities anymore from background (when the UI of Automagic is not currently displaying in foreground).
This will affect many actions like Start Activity, Launch App, Launch Shortcut, Open URL in Browser, Input Dialog, Message Dialog and conditions Debug Dialog and Confirmation Dialog and likely some additional actions and conditions. Google changed its mind and starting with beta 4 of Q you can now grant permission Draw over other apps to Automagic to allow background activity starts again.
Link: https://developer.android.com/preview/p ... ity-starts
Required change: v1.38 of Automagic asks for permission Draw over other apps for the affected actions.
Related issues: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/128511873

I'm noticing that on the final release of Android 10 (or at least on Oxygen OS 10, but I doubt OnePlus made any extra changes here to lock this down) that the "Show Input Method Selector" Action is not working with Automagic in the background, even with the draw over other apps permissions enabled. The developers documentation still clearly states that this should work, so I don't think they reverted that decision. Any idea what's up with it?