Apps changed the file system paradigm.

In a traditional desktop OS, the experience is file centric.

If you put data somewhere in the filesystem, it will stay static.

If you come back a year later and look at the data with the same application, it will look the same.

But Mobile OSes (and the web) are app centric.

The data simply does not exist in any meaningful way outside of the context of the app.

This is an artifact of the same-origin paradigm.

Data in apps is alive in some meaningful way.

The app that views it will likely evolve and change even when you aren't looking.

The data itself only makes sense in the context of the app, so it feels like the data changes, too.

When you leave an app for a year and come back, the experience is likely different.

Sometimes these differences are positive for the user,

For example a new useful feature that they've gained.

More often, the changes are a wash

For example an addition of a feature aimed at other users.

No value for this user, in fact a bit of a cost since it's more complexity to have to reason about.

Sometimes the changes are user hostile

E.g. changes to encourage more engagement / addiction to the app.

Or changes to do better advertising.

Changes in the app are optimized not for your ergonomics, but for someone else's economics.

How can we get some of the intelligent updating of data and apps, but entirely for the user's benefit?

A file-centric approach, with the magic evolution of apps… but just for the user.

The files should be durable. The apps are what should be ephemeral!

In the app world the data and the UX/app are inseparable, so we erroneously conclude the app is what matters. The data is!