SeedVault: Show in launcher, as "Backup"

[chirayudesai]

• Without this, you have to go to Settings -> System -> Advanced - Backup
• That can be a bit too deep sometimes, and those who don't know about this
  may not find it.
• Let's add a Launcher icon so that this is easier to find.
• We call it Backup because people may not know the same SeedVault and thus
  get confused.
• Those who know the name SeedVault probably already know to look for it in
  Settings.

Change-Id: I0d21ed2a9f77786ffab482924b7c1b2cbbf050a9

[chirayudesai]

Works fine when SeedVault is enabled.

Need to see what happens when it's not, aka when it isn't the backup transport.

[julianfoad]

TL;DR: In my opinion it is probably best NOT to add a launcher icon by default, because that is not in the best interest of the ordinary user in their ordinary every-day activities. Basically, my argument is that an Ordinary User will treat it as set-and-forget settings, and will want to ignore it for nearly all of their life, so we shouldn't insert an icon for it among their user apps.

At first I included a long explanation here. In the interests of both being concise here and owning my own writings, I have now moved the long explanation to my blog post and left just the TL;DR and the concrete suggestions here.

Now on the topic of making Seedvault easier to access for those users and those times when that's needed, a few minor suggestions:

• Enhancement: I noticed that searching the system settings for "backup" finds Seedvault's UI, while "seedvault" does not find it. Conversely, searching for "seedvault" does find Seedvault's "App info" screen, whereas searching for "backup" does not. Let's at least add "seedvault" to the searchable string used for its settings UI, and add "backup" to the searchable string used by its "App info", to make these consistent and more discoverable.

• Enhancement: when the "Seedvault: backup running" notification is showing, clicking this should open the Seedvault UI. It currently doesn't do anything when I touch it.

• Minor enhancement of interest to power users: without adding this to the launcher, just to mark the UI activity as launchable, so that an "Open" button appears on its "app info" screen where currently there are only the Uninstall and Force Stop buttons.

Maybe we can think of more ways to make it findable when it's needed without showing anything when it's not needed.

(My versions: Seedvault 11-1.2, on LineageOS-for-microG 18.1 3-September-2021, on a OnePlus 6 "enchilada")

[chirayudesai]

TL;DR: In my opinion it is probably best NOT to add a launcher icon by default, because that is not in the best interest of the ordinary user in their ordinary every-day activities. Basically, my argument is that an Ordinary User will treat it as set-and-forget settings, and will want to ignore it for nearly all of their life, so we shouldn't insert an icon for it among their user apps.

The reason for having an icon is because currently it's hidden in Settings, and not all users seem to know this functionality is available. That is also the reason it's called Backup, since that is a generic term.

At first I included a long explanation here. In the interests of both being concise here and owning my own writings, I have now moved the long explanation to my blog post and left just the TL;DR and the concrete suggestions here.

Now on the topic of making Seedvault easier to access for those users and those times when that's needed, a few minor suggestions:

• Enhancement: I noticed that searching the system settings for "backup" finds Seedvault's UI, while "seedvault" does not find it. Conversely, searching for "seedvault" does find Seedvault's "App info" screen, whereas searching for "backup" does not. Let's at least add "seedvault" to the searchable string used for its settings UI, and add "backup" to the searchable string used by its "App info", to make these consistent and more discoverable.

This should be fixed.

• Enhancement: when the "Seedvault: backup running" notification is showing, clicking this should open the Seedvault UI. It currently doesn't do anything when I touch it.

Same.

• Minor enhancement of interest to power users: without adding this to the launcher, just to mark the UI activity as launchable, so that an "Open" button appears on its "app info" screen where currently there are only the Uninstall and Force Stop buttons.

Doesn't hurt, but having it available from "App info" doesn't really help that much.

Maybe we can think of more ways to make it findable when it's needed without showing anything when it's not needed.

Suggestions welcome. I still do think that an icon is good to make it easily discoverable for the user.

I believe something similar can be said for microG Settings which you mentioned on your blog - it's good to have that icon to make it easier to access, even though for that most users may just set it up once and keep using it like that afterwards.

[chirayudesai]

Sadly this won't work with #287

@flawedworld thoughts?

I don't see a way to let Launcher launch it while not letting anything else.

System launcher could be given the permission but then third party apps wouldn't be able to open it.

[ASerbinski]

Some applications have the ability to show and hide their launcher icon, I understand it to be through enabling/disabling the launch activity/component.

I would suggest setting it up so that it shows by default and until it has been configured for use. First launch include a big alert dialog that explains where to find it to the user, and disappears it.

[chirayudesai]

Closing this here for now.