I feel like I've written this one before.
Time goes by and life catches up to us all, and I am no exception. I've been away from posting for a while, but have not been away from development. In fact, I've been working for the past couple of months re-architecting all of the pyamsoft applications to use a fancy new View-Ui-Component architecture that was introduced by Netflix at a Droidcon in 2018. It's been a wild ride and has opened up new ways for me to think and design applications.
Speaking of the applications, I've spent the last few months working on PadLock, and was hoping to release an update once I was satisfied with the codebase. However, with the recent Android Q beta announced, I find myself halted in my tracks by the big G themselves.
Android Q will be fantastic I'm sure, but it brings a change that is fundamentally incompatible with how PadLock operates. This change in how Activities can be launched from the background is the death knoll for PadLock and possibly many other applications. While I avoided the SMS fiasco, no man is safe forever.
As such, I am ceasing PadLock development. Sadly, while I am sure I could use a system level OVERLAY_WINDOW to get around the current background requirements, I am sure a future day will come where that is deprecated too in favor of PiP mode, or some official overlay API. Neither would work for PadLock's case - as its job is to be a full screen locker and directly intrude on the usage cycle of a nefarious user. With Android's continued lock down on the ability for applications to do unique and complex things across the device, PadLock is no longer a welcome application in the new world ecosystem.
I will still release updates for the other applications, but please note that once you upgrade your device to the shiny new Android Q later this year PadLock will cease to work at all. It saddens me to admit this, but it was fun while it lasted. I hope many of you found use of the tool I created.
Stay tuned.
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