Android not much better than iPhone for APIs

Google's recently hired Android Developer Advocate Tim Bray stirred controversy today in a warning to developers that suggests Android has private APIs. Despite Android head Andy Rubin claiming that Google is more open than Apple and publishes all its developer standards, Bray has told developers that certain resources were developed only for Google's own use. Some of the Content Providers feeding data to apps should be avoided altogether and could break in the future, he said.

"The problem is, there are more Content Providers in the system than are documented in that [Android SDK] package, and while you can use them, you probably shouldn't," Bray explained. "They're there because some of the Google-provided apps use them internally to access their own data resources... For example, there's one inside the built-in Messaging (A.K.A. texting or SMS) app that it uses to display and search your history. Just because it's there doesn't mean you should use it. The Android team isn't promising that it'll be the same in the next release or even that it'll be there in the next release."

Instead, he called on developers to search for alternatives or to implement something of their own.

Google's approach is still more lenient than Apple's as the former won't ban Android apps for using its special programming interfaces where Apple regularly insists that developers hold to its publicly available guidelines. However, the move still creates a similar effect on the quality of apps as it gives first-party Android titles privileges that aren't available to outside developers.

In a Twitter response to the criticisms, Bray argued that the difference between truly private APIs and simply undesirable "hardly seems subtle." Apple however hasn't strictly tried to hide its APIs and has mostly just discouraged their uses. Rubin hasn't yet responded on his own. [via Daring Fireball]

By Electronista Staff