On a desktop browser, if a web site wants me to upload photos, I click the "upload" button, and then the browser displays a file picker. The web site only ever sees the files I choose.
The web has this because it has to. Obviously you can't just give a web site permission to see your whole hard drive just to open one file.
But this kind of "privileged picker" approach does not seem to be the norm for mobile apps. I'm actually not even sure if iOS and Android even offer such a UI, or if apps simply have no choice but to request full access and implement their own picker.
If they do offer a picker, I would guess the reason the Google Photos app doesn't use it is not because Google's trying to invade your privacy, but rather because a product manager did not like the fact that they couldn't control the look and feel of the UI. It probably is significantly uglier and clunkier than what the Photos app itself can provide. And unfortunately, most users don't care about granting permissions. So the sleeker UX wins out. (I hate this.)
The web has this because it has to. Obviously you can't just give a web site permission to see your whole hard drive just to open one file.
But this kind of "privileged picker" approach does not seem to be the norm for mobile apps. I'm actually not even sure if iOS and Android even offer such a UI, or if apps simply have no choice but to request full access and implement their own picker.
If they do offer a picker, I would guess the reason the Google Photos app doesn't use it is not because Google's trying to invade your privacy, but rather because a product manager did not like the fact that they couldn't control the look and feel of the UI. It probably is significantly uglier and clunkier than what the Photos app itself can provide. And unfortunately, most users don't care about granting permissions. So the sleeker UX wins out. (I hate this.)