It has indeed gotten better more pleasing to look at.
I’m using F-droid and it’s still the same, I haven’t noticed any difference :P
Furthermore, there’s that annoying Google law that blocks Android apps from being installed, and downloading apps like f-droid is quite complicated after that.
I’ve just tried it. The UX is great and the downloads are faster than ever. It’s soo much better noww!
WTF, why is the download on the Fdroid front page still giving me 1.3.2?
Could be a gradual rollout.
From the website apk download link?
I don’t know, could be. I just tried downloading and I’m getting the 1.x version too.
yea I can’t figure out how to update either.
I use droid-ify. It didn’t pop any updates for F-droid, but I updated it manually, since the 2.0 version is there.
UX is much better. I wouldn’t say it’s great. At all.
But I’m really happy to see big improvements! And I’m finding things I had no idea were on the “store” before at all. Which ultimately is the goal.
I’ve been on neo store for a couple of years for the apps that have no APIs ready in git repos (for those, Obtainium is just the greatest). I tried the new F-Droid app, and it is way smoother than the last time I tried it, and the UI improvement is amazing. They still show you apps that haven’t been maintained for over a year up front, but that’s not a deal killer.
Google says “power users” can “still install” unverified apps. Here’s what that actually looks like:
Delve into System Settings, find About Phone
Tap the build number seven times to enable Developer Mode
Dismiss scare screens about coercion
Enter your PIN
Restart the device
Wait 24 hours
Come back, dismiss more scare screens
Pick “allow temporarily” (7 days) or “allow indefinitely”
Confirm, again, that you understand “the risks”
Nine steps. A mandatory 24-hour cooling-off period. For installing software on a device you own.
Worse: this flow runs entirely through Google Play Services, not the Android OS. Google can change it, tighten it, or kill it at any time, with no OS update required and no consent needed.
Worse - that 24 hour timer? You only have a short window of time once it finishes to continue, otherwise you have to wait another 24 hours.
The worst part is for non tech savvy people.
Non-tech savvy people don’t even care, don’t even think about this, and don’t know anything about it.
No, some of they do care, but just have problems learning tech stuff or were excluded from digital education at the critical age, or have in general learning difficulties.
My mom wants to still be able to install and uninstall anything she wants on her phone, but she’s elder (and is neurodivergent, too, as me) and has difficulties understanding and learning about tech stuff.
You’re making a hasty generalization based on just a composition fallacy (some non tech savvy people don’t care at all, yes, but those are not all of the non tech savvy people).
You shouldn’t be conflating both things as if it were the same, and even if they were the same (which they’re NOT), that wouldn’t make your comment less bad. They’re still victims of the Big Tech propaganda and marketing and of their massive social, cultural and political influence campaigns.
Please, don’t be such a dickhead.
… and are probably already happy with the factory installed apps.
i hadnt thought about it before but i just had the realization that im not even gonna be able to have 3rd party apps AND my banking app in the same phone (cuz it doesnt like developer options being enabled). uhm shit
I unlocked my phone’s bootloader. I’m on the oem OS, up to date, no root, just unlocked the bootloader. Now my device is “not certified” and a lot of apps that have no business caring about my “certification status” don’t work (like my phone operator app). That’s if the playstore lets me download it in the first place: “this app is not compatible with your device”
Latest Android update will hide developer options supposedly from apps. However, it’s on Android 17
This is why rooting is great and if you re worried about banking apps, KernelSU is very good at blocking detection and keyboxs for the hardware attestation get leaked weekly.
It won’t be a problem on a de-googled phone. Get it running LineageOS or GrapheneOS. Then install F-Droid (and probably Aurora store too). Some Google junk won’t work, but you’ll soon be more limited by having Google services on your phone than not having it.
If one looks at the supported devices pages (which I do regularly hoping that it supports mine) it’s easy to see that 99% of devices on the market simply can’t use them.
Hardly the point though. For us this is a bother at most, but we can cope because we’re already doing our own thing and know what we want. Imagine trying to get your non tech-savvy friends to “sideload” (install) an app from outside the Play Store. Right now it’s not a big deal, so if they’re interested in the app, they’ll likely install it. But this amount of friction and scary warnings is way more likely to stop them.
MicroG too, though.
We don’t hear this enough. Google doesn’t hear this enough.
I recently learned that this setting actually persist after migrating to another phone.
that would be only if you chose to backup and restore your android settings
Which is perfect for them to keep tying your profile information across the board in yet another way. Fuck that.
Do you create a new Google account every time you change phones? They’re already tying everything to you
Nice. There’s just a FOSS alternative for almost everything these days. I get 80% of my apps from F-Droid.
The only non foss apps that I use are banking apps and whatsapp (forced to use it…). Everything else is foss.
Look at Beeper as a alternative, let’s you bridge your WhatsApp chats.
The only way you should trust anything bridging is if you self host it.
Matrix with WhatsApp bridge is the only way to properly use that.
For many people it’s literally impossible to self host anything, whether it’s because of lack of decent hardware resources, and/or because of a lack of technical knowledge, and/or because of a lack of time, and/or because of a lack of energetic stability, and/or because of a lack of monetary resources, and/or because of a lack of mental and/or physical energy, and/or because of a lack of someone with some or any of these; and of course, all of these things can be and in fact are intersectional with each other.
So that’s why any managed alternative it’s still a good alternative for these people; obviously, only if they’re as transparent and reliable as humanly possible.
I myself only do use Disroot’s (and maybe Nadeko and a bit others) services because I don’t have the hardware, the money, the energy and the enviromental resources to be able to properly self host, and even more, I only use the free tiers of these services.
Absolutely, make sure to self host the bridge yourself on your own hardware!
I don’t take advantage of Beeper nearly as much as I should, I saw that they give you a Matrix handle when you sign up which I think is cool.
They give you a Matrix handle because everything is Matrix. The problem is Beeper is nothing to do with Beeper but exactly the kind of thing we saw with Apple: malice. They don’t want you to use their apps this way, and for that reason, it just sucks to use. Plus you’re lowering the privacy of whatever platform you’re using to that of Matrix.
Same. Its great!
Can anyone ELI5 for the nontechy how things are going to work once Google rolls out the new bullshit? I’m seeing so many of my apps put out notices that they will no longer work once Google goes through with the verification system. Will I still be able to install shit through f droid?
the problem here isnt that users cant do what they want, its that developers might stop developing because not enough people cant be arsed to jump through googles hoops. Everyone who can should support opensource developers more than ever now.
Will I still be able to install shit through f droid?
yeah, with extra hoops the first time though (24 hr wait etc etc)
I already have developer options turned on, are they gonna fuck me out of that again? :/
I really hate this shit
I really hate this shit
If you have Play Services running, Google owns your phone (and also tracks you, and sucks 50% of the juice for it). Just rip 'em out.
I genuinely don’t know that I’m techy enough to do that. I depend on banking apps and such and I don’t understand how to get around that. I would, if I could be taught lol
Look at Universal Andriod Debloater. Makes it very easy to remove whatever you want.
Your banking apps may not work if you remove Google Play services but i’ve found i can just log in through the browser instead.
Not as convenient but it feels good knowing Google can’t have any of your data.
Let me know if you have any questions about UAD!
How’s microG these days? Is it working with bank apps yet?
Ya there’s going to be wait periods to turn on developer options, and it sucks cause some apps don’t work with developer options turned on, like banking apps for example.
This whole thing sucks, imagine on your laptop not being able to install software and only being locked to getting everything through the Microsoft Store App.
Isn’t everybody using Droid-ify anyway?
I just use Neo Store. The best F-Droid client ever.
Change my mind.
Yes, but now I want a comparison of F-droid 2 vs Droid-ify.
I’ve just been rawdoggin it with the OG f-droid app
mines been on no updates for years after they removed the ability to downgrade apps inexplicably.
I’m using F-Droid Basic.
Foxy Droid here.
I get pretty much everything through obtainium
I love that I’ve never heard of Droidify. Open source offers a buffet of alternatives.
No. Team neo store represent
Does Neo Store have a way to make apps only use the official F-Droid repo for updates unless you downloaded them from a different one? Because it seems to just want to update from any repo, so I ended up splitting F-Droid Basic for official F-Droid apps and Neo Store for IzzyOnDroid and other third party repos.
Yeah, if you manually select it in the app releases section. Of course, the thing is that it’s only per app.
Anyways, I prefer IzzyOnDroid because imho they have a better reproducible builds system.
Neo Store also allows you to review the reproducible builds’ status for every app, and also its download statistics (total and per repo).
Also you can now maintain a local blocklist of apps you don’t want or like to see. It’s pretty neat.
Haven’t noticed it doing that, maybe they fixed it? There was a new release a few days ago
+1 for neo store. I wonder if the new f-droid overhaul catches up as neo is pretty fantastic.
Edit, just looked at the screenshots, looks better than before but I’ll stick with neo.
Honestly the new ui is nice enough I may be switching back to the official F-droid app.
We’ll see where I stay. I love the simplicity of droid-ify but sometimes have some issues with minor jank
That was the reason I switched back to F-Droid. Had serious problems with updating and stuff, no problems with F-Droid so far. I don’t use it that much anyways, most of my apps are already installed. When searching for new apps F-Droid has a big category selection which is nice.
I’ve mostly been happy to just put up with the jank but if I get a nice interface without any I won’t complain :)
Plus it feels nice for the f-droid projects own app to be in a good state and I’m excited for that ☺️
First I’ve heard of it tbh. I’ll check it out, thankyou
Yup
Been using it since the alpha came out, absolutely love what they’ve done with the app. The installation flow is much smoother with the instant prompt for confirmation, the more granular categories and improved search make browsing so much better. I tried other stores before, but I couldn’t get myself to like any of the actively maintained ones, v2.0 is good for me.
Almost exclusively use F-Droid. Great news!
So F-droid “evolves” to become F-droid Basic?
When you find an app, F-Droid 2.0 will make the installation process easier. Google has long put up roadblocks for sideloaded apps, citing the security implications. This is also the rationale behind its upcoming developer verification system. For now at least, apps will be easier to install from F-Droid thanks to the use of Google’s pre-approval API.
That answers my question if those smoother installs already account for Google’s insistence in making “sideloading” way more annoying. They do not.
I’ve only started using F-Droid recently, but it’s UI is a clusterfuck. I welcome an overhaul.
This kind of news always terrifies me. Will see though.
