Android
The new home of /r/Android on Lemmy and the Fediverse!
Android news, reviews, tips, and discussions about rooting, tutorials, and apps.
πUniversal Link: !android@lemdro.id
π‘Content Philosophy:
Content which benefits the community (news, rumours, and discussions) is generally allowed and is valued over content which benefits only the individual (technical questions, help buying/selling, rants, self-promotion, etc.) which will be removed if it's in violation of the rules.
Support, technical, or app related questions belong in: !askandroid@lemdro.id
For fresh communities, lemmy apps, and instance updates: !lemdroid@lemdro.id
π¬Matrix Chat
π°Our communities below
Rules
-
Stay on topic: All posts should be related to the Android OS or ecosystem.
-
No support questions, recommendation requests, rants, or bug reports: Posts must benefit the community rather than the individual. Please post to !askandroid@lemdro.id.
-
Describe images/videos, no memes: Please include a text description when sharing images or videos. Post memes to !androidmemes@lemdro.id.
-
No self-promotion spam: Active community members can post their apps if they answer any questions in the comments. Please do not post links to your own website, YouTube, blog content, or communities.
-
No reposts or rehosted content: Share only the original source of an article, unless it's not available in English or requires logging in (like Twitter). Avoid reposting the same topic from other sources.
-
No editorializing titles: You can add the author or website's name if helpful, but keep article titles unchanged.
-
No piracy or unverified APKs: Do not share links or direct people to pirated content or unverified APKs, which may contain malicious code.
-
No unauthorized polls, bots, or giveaways: Do not create polls, use bots, or organize giveaways without first contacting mods for approval.
-
No offensive or low-effort content: Don't post offensive or unhelpful content. Keep it civil and friendly!
-
No affiliate links: Posting affiliate links is not allowed.
Quick Links
Our Communities
- !askandroid@lemdro.id
- !androidmemes@lemdro.id
- !techkit@lemdro.id
- !google@lemdro.id
- !nothing@lemdro.id
- !googlepixel@lemdro.id
- !xiaomi@lemdro.id
- !sony@lemdro.id
- !samsung@lemdro.id
- !galaxywatch@lemdro.id
- !oneplus@lemdro.id
- !motorola@lemdro.id
- !meta@lemdro.id
- !apple@lemdro.id
- !microsoft@lemdro.id
- !chatgpt@lemdro.id
- !bing@lemdro.id
- !reddit@lemdro.id
Lemmy App List
Chat and More
view the rest of the comments
We really need a compelling alternative to the Play Store, both as users and developers.
F-Droid
Yeah, I have it, but I can't install 3/4 of the apps I use on a daily basis from there.
Wouldn't that be the same for any other alternative? That's what a monopoly does.
It means 3/4 of the apps you use aren't free software which is not an issue with F-Droid.
The security model or lack of same concerns me.
That's valid. In theory, because you're downloading open source on there, you could audit the apps you download, but don't know anyone who does that unless it's their job.
My main issue is everything signed with the same key, and the way updates can go through without review.
Obviously Play store isn't safe or wonderful, but it does have better review policies.
You can download directly from the repo with Obtainium.
That actually looks useful, particularly since github has a clearer security policy than f-droid.
I would prefer to see a wider embrace of PWAs.
This is what really, really pissed me off about the iPhone. When it launched and they gave it a desktop-class web browser engine and told people they were going all-in in PWAs (though I don't think the term existed at the time). Then v2 came out and they went sike! native apps, must be developed on our PCs, must be distributed by us, you must pay us to be allowed to develop, we take a cut of your income, and we're going to cripple the PWA engine to make universal, open apps all but unusable.
Dicks.
Can PWAs perform just like native apps when it comes to smoothness and optimization?
Yes, if the underlying engine is designed to support it. There are standard web APIs for accelerated graphics, compute, offline storage, Bluetooth, push notification, environmental sensors, phone book access, camera, local storage access, and so on... A decent PWA is indistinguishable from a native app.
I'd probably agree if I didn't work as an Android developer. :-)
Is there any way of "installing" PWAs to the app drawer rather than been limited to a shortcut on the home screen?
Depends on the PWA, if they have the manifest setup properly it should give the option by itself and even the add to desktop button should change to install the app, but very few sites support it (among the ones I use)
In what ways do the existing alternatives fall short of compelling?
Can you elaborate on "limited"? Surely that is what we want. One of the problems with the Play store is certainly not that it does not have a wide enough selection, but rather that it is full of harmful, hostile, dangerous, exploitive software. Any solution to that problem is necessarily going to limit (or one might prefer to say curate) its contents. That is exactly why I use F-Droid. It is limited to software that is not trying to hurt me.
Those products that you "need" to function as professionals are never going to be available in a way that does not exploit you and put you at risk. You're always going to be trapped with the incumbent marketplace's shitty practices until you take steps to meet those needs in some other way.
You do not have to personally audit every application you use. After all, you DON'T audit closed applications, and neither does anyone else. At least with an application with code available under a public license, other people have the ability to review it and raise concerns. I can't see how you can cast that as a disadvantage, just because you don't personally want to audit the software yourself.
Personally, I'm not comfortable predicating my very livelihood on closed, commercial software that somebody else owns and leverages with the specific intention of exploiting me. That sounds like fucking madness to me.
Can I get my banking app on F-Droid? How about my home security system app? How about a dozen other apps that I want or need, and can't be replaced by loading a website in Firefox?
This is entirely on the companies. There's no technical reason or requirement for this happening.
Fdroid works great and is the most likely thing to be adopted, in my opinion. It's easy enough for anyone to spin up their own fdroid server and distribute their own app.
If you're wanting to use a new store, you're going to have to wade through the growing pains of adoption. It's just a fact of life.
I'm still waiting for Linux on desktop to be a big thing like I thought back in 2004. I suspect the third party app stores will be just as quick.
Wait, I assume if you install a banking app through Aurora it still works? Totally fair if that doesn't work for your needs (you kinda need a google account, even if a blank one, to have it work right now) but I assume installing apps through it doesn't limit them or make them less functional for having been installed through Aurora?
Works on Calyx! My banks didn't work on Lineage through aurora. I think it only checks for a locked bootloader?
There are in fact banking apps and home security apps on F-Droid.
Here's the ones I looked for:
Not one of them was available on F-Droid. Care to share the ones that you know of?
Cool! I'll just call my bank and tell them that.
Accrescent is in early alpha, but it looks like it's on its way to be a great, modern app store.
checked it out and it needs a lot of time to become a proper competitor
Aurora store worked well but google got their way recently
[This comment has been deleted by an automated system]
The only hope here is that EU will force google to allow other stores.
Since when are third party apps disallowed?
We're talking about stock android having 3rd party app store with permissions to install apps in the background. Yes, you can install f-droid but on a stock android it can't update apps automatically. It's not an alternative for normal users. And as long as 3rd party stores are not used by normal users app developers will not care about publishing apps there. What needs to happen is that EU needs to force google (and apple) to allow alternative stores, some heavy weights have to support it and developers need to start publishing apps there.
Ok, I see what you mean.
Droid-ify can install apps in background (or at least without the package installer popup. The main f-droid app is still targeting too low of an android version to do it.
f-droid can install app in the background on my iode OS. It's not a technical problem, it's a legal issue. Google and apple don't allow 3rd app stores preinstalled on the phones.
Thats because the fdroid extension is installed. By default it cant do that. Google added the ability for app stores that target android 12 and above to update apps that also target android 12 or above without the package installer.