Users can finally breathe a sigh of relief, because the long awaited Apps2SD has finally arrived. Google’s Android 2.2 update, Froyo has brought a plethora of features to the table, and with the updates rolling out as we speak it has been an exciting time for Froyo.
The implementation of Apps2SD on Froyo is extremely simple and straight forward; all you need to do is go click on the move to SD in the options. But some may argue that this implementation is slightly handicapped. Developers can control if the Application is to be installed on the memory card or not, which may seem like a peculiar decision by Google, but with further thought it appears to make sense.
Some apps are designed to work faster when installed on the phone memory. For developers to optimize this to work on an SD card could require a complete revamp. Until they decide to do that the app may have to be installed on the inbuilt phone memory alone. The choice given to the developers is probably for the best of the phone and its optimum functioning. Users are only at a disadvantage if developers decide against updating their software to allow it to be installed on a SD card, but then again why wouldn’t a developer allow such a thing sooner or later.
There is an issue when the phone is connected to another computer and the user mounts the sd card as a mass storage device. When that happens, it’s as if the sd card has been removed: apps stored there are unavailable to the system. Because of this, Android’s documentation recommends that apps that use certain features (such as services, alarm services, live wallpapers or folders, widgets, and others) should not be eligible to be installed on external storage. Games and other apps not deeply integrated with the system will be the best candidates for external installation.
No current apps at the store can installed externally but updates will come none the less. Private user data is never stored on external storage, even if the app it is associated with is, and the documentation claims that “there is no effect on the application performance so long as the external storage is mounted on the device,” with no mention of requirements for the SD card’s transfer speed.
Update
From developer.android.com
Beginning with API Level 8, you can allow your application to be installed on the external storage (for example, the device’s SD card). This is an optional feature you can declare for your application with the android:installLocation manifest attribute. If you do not declare this attribute, your application will be installed on the internal storage only and it cannot be moved to the external storage.
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