Why can't Android allow multiple image/video selections with the Flutter package image_picker?

Question

The image_picker, has the following three methods to reference when wanting to make device XFile selections:

• pickImage()
• pickVideo()
• pickMultiImage()
• pickMultiMedia() <- this is the one i want

From their own documentation:

On Android 13 and above this package uses the Android Photo Picker . On Android 12 and below use of Android Photo Picker is optional. Learn how to use it.

But unless you're on iOS, the pickMultiMedia opens the Android file system that accepts a variety of file formats (e.g. pdf, ico). And instead of opening the device gallery like it does with iOS, it opens androids file system. I put together this quick android app that demonstrates how to use the Android Photo Picker. And for whatever reason, the image_picker package doesn't use this for its android support and i want to know why. Or is there something im doing wrong. I also have no clue how to contribute to Flutter's package repositories.

import androidx.activity.result.contract.ActivityResultContracts.PickMultipleVisualMedia

class MainActivity : ComponentActivity() {
 private val pickMediaLauncher = registerForActivityResult(PickMultipleVisualMedia()) {}
 
 override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
  ...

  pickButton.setOnClickListener {
   val request = PickVisualMediaRequest.Builder()
    .setMediaType(ActivityResultContracts.PickVisualMedia.ImageAndVideo)
     .build()

   pickMediaLauncher.launch(request)
  }
 }
}

Answer 1

The image_picker package needs two additional packages, image_picker_android and image_picker_platform_interface. Then you can continue using ImagePicker().pickMultiMedia() on both Android and iOS.

setup the main.dart file:

void main() {
 final ImagePickerPlatform implementation = ImagePickerPlatform.instance;
 if (implementation is ImagePickerAndroid) {
  implementation.useAndroidPhotoPicker = true;
 }
 
 ...
}