The following use-cases are superficially similar to content hand-over, but have somewhat different requirements. We recommend that they are examined separately.

Use-cases examined on separate pages

Monitoring status

An application author wishes to indicate whether calling and/or SMS are currently available. ()

  • The platform must make this information available.
    • We recommend implementing this by making it available as a C API in the platform, perhaps implemented in terms of oFono’s D-Bus API or an intermediary service such as Beckfoot. We recommend treating this as unrelated to content handover.
    • This feature needs a security model: is it available to all apps, or only to apps with a particular privilege listed in their manifests?

An application author might be interested in the status of features of another application bundle. ()

  • If this is required, a clear security model is needed, and should be documented. Otherwise there is a risk of unintended cross-app data disclosure.
  • We recommend that this should not be considered unless specific use-cases can be found. If it is required, we recommend not including this feature in the scope of content handover. As a general design point, we recommend avoiding premature generalization; accordingly, we suggest designing this facility on a case-by-case basis (perhaps by having the status-advertising application export its own D-Bus API with signals and properties), and only considering a more general SDK API if there are several use-cases with notably similar requirements.