Improve User Feedback During File Retrieval

[alperozturk96]

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When a user attempts to open a document or file in the Files app from another application (e.g., the Talk app), the Files app may need to perform several operations before the file is displayed:

1. Launch the Files app if it is not already running
2. Retrieve the file if it does not yet exist locally
3. Load and open the file once it becomes available

Depending on device performance or server responsiveness, these operations can take a considerable amount of time (e.g., 90 seconds on slow instances). During this period, the UI currently shows a brief "retrieving" snackbar message, after which no further feedback is visible. This can make the app appear unresponsive or stalled, leading to user confusion.

[alperozturk96]

@jancborchardt @kra-mo From UI/UX perspective what should we show? Should we display a blocking or non-blocking loading indicator?

When the user selects the “Open in Files app” action for any document, the Files app launches and must perform several background operations before the file can be displayed.

Currently, user just sees snackbar message (retrieving file).

[jancborchardt]

@alperozturk96 I think a blocking loading indicator would be best, as when opening a file from Talk, I actually don’t care that the Files app gets loaded.

It should be a classic emptycontent loading screen, with filetype icon (or even better file preview) front and center, file name below, and loading progress or indicator below that.

[alperozturk96]

@jancborchardt

We also don’t expect the user to care about what the Files app is technically doing in the background, and as users ourselves, we wouldn’t care either because we are also using the application.

I shared the technical details here so you can understand what’s happening in the background and so that we can have meaningful UI/UX.

For example, if one of those operations fails, what should we show to the user?

From what I understand, you’re suggesting a full-page blocking UI, similar to loading a directory, such as:

Loading… → File opened
or
Loading… → Failed

Right?

[jancborchardt]

@alperozturk96 yup, exactly! :)