“Google wanted that”: Nextcloud decries Android permissions as “gatekeeping”

Nextcloud is a host-your-own cloud platform that wants to help you “Regain control over your data.” It contains products that allow for video chat, file storage, collaborative editing, and other stuff that reads a lot like a DIY Google Workspace replacement.

It’s hard to offer that kind of full replacement, though, if your Android app can’t upload anything other than media files. Since mid-2024, Nextcloud claims, Google has refused to reinstate the access it needs for uploading and syncing other file types.

“To make it crystal clear: All of you as users have a worse Nextcloud Files client because Google wanted that,” reads a Nextcloud blog post from May 13, attributed to its team. “We understand and share your frustration,” but there is nothing we can do.”

A notice in Nextcloud’s Android app regarding file uploads.

Credit:
Nextcloud

Ars has reached out to Google for comment and will update this post with any response. A representative for NextCloud told Ars late Tuesday that the company had no update on its Android app.

Nextcloud states that it has had read and write access to all file types since its first Android app. In September 2024, a Nextcloud Android update with “All files access” was “refused out of the blue,” with a request that the app user “a more privacy aware replacement,” Nextcloud claims. The firm states it has provided background and explanations, but received “the same copy-and-paste answers or links to documentation” from Google.