iOS 11’s Streamlined, Yet Extensible File Management
Notably, while some Mac users may scoff at my delight in iOS 11’s document browser and third-party storage locations, I think it’s remarkable how what I described above can be accomplished just by installing apps and extending the system without questionable installers or system modifications. Yes, I could probably save time by performing the same actions with a shell script on macOS, but I prefer having an intuitive GUI and a file manager that can be extended just by downloading new apps from the App Store. While not perfect, the document browser and file provider extensions are some of the most exciting changes in iOS 11 with a lot of untapped potential because they are deeply integrated with the system and consistent with iCloud Drive.
Which is why I’d like Apple to improve some aspects of this workflow: it’d be great, for instance, if Working Copy could show colored indicators for documents that haven’t been committed in the document browser, or perhaps offer a button to refresh the contents of a repository and update its contents inline within the Files view. Similar features are available in the Mac’s Finder; Apple should continue to borrow from it as they work on what’s next for Files.
