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Bad UX in Gallery app: easy to accidentally delete a picture
- /e/ version: 0.9-o-2020051454222-dev-angler
- Device model: Nexus 6P
- When it started to occur: first encountered (by accident) 2020-06-05
- Reproducible with the last /e/ version: yes
- Reproducible with LineageOS: not tested
Summary
The Gallery app can delete pictures accidentally when viewing an Album. Swiping a picture vertically causes it to be deleted with no warning and no request for confirmation.
- The device is unusable
- The bug is the source of a data loss or a big waste of time
- The bug concerns a third party app
- The bug concerns security
- The bug concerns privacy
The problem
Steps to reproduce
- Use OpenCamera to take some pictures you don't care about.
- Tap the Home button, then tap on the Gallery app.
- Activate the Album view and tap on the OpenCamera album.
- Tap on one of the pictures you don't want to keep.
- Pinch zoom to shrink the picture so that adjacent pictures are partially visible.
- Swipe the picture vertically. It will disappear, never to be seen again.
What is the current behavior?
As described in step 6 above, the picture is removed from the album and apparently completely and unrecoverably deleted.
What is the expected correct behavior?
Swiping vertically is easy to do accidentally; or a naive user (like me) may try it to see what happens, expecting (perhaps) to switch albums or something.
It should not be so easy to unrecoverably delete a picture without warning or confirmation. One reasonable alternative would be to notify the user the picture will be deleted and ask for confirmation. Another would be to move it to a collection of "scrap pile" images, from which the user can either recover it or permanently delete it. For this alternative, there should be a visual indication (perhaps show tiny thumbnails of pictures in the "scrap pile" collection, with the deleted picture at the beginning).
Gallery is one of the default apps in /e/. It should be easy and intuitive to use, and bring joy to the user. I did not feel joy when I accidentally deleted a picture I wanted to keep.
Technical informations
Relevant logs (adb logcat)
Log is not relevant.
Relevant screenshots
Solutions
Workaround
There is no obvious workaround other than to be careful not to swipe vertically.
Possible fixes
Easy fix (probably): ask for user confirmation before deleting an image by swiping vertically.
More difficult fix: implement a "scrap pile" for images, from which they can be recovered or permanently deleted.