Publish on F-Droid

[dror3go]

Would it be possible to make the required steps to include the application in F-Droid?

Thank you

[kaplanlior]

Thanks @dror3go for the idea.

From your point of view what you be the benefit ? How many people (rough estimation) would use that instead of Google Play ?

[rr9845]

Thanks @dror3go for the idea.

From your point of view what you be the benefit ? How many people (rough estimation) would use that instead of Google Play ?

Many second hand phones and some high end some chinese phones are lacking or hiding google apps , and relay on external repositories such as f-droid and the built in vendor app store.

Some older devices specifically Huawei ones, are banned from using Google Apps since 2019. While other tablets and phones simply no longer get an Android update and as such do not have access for google play.

[kaplanlior]

Thanks for the fast replay to my question. I'll ask this issue to be considered.

[emanuelb]

2 options:

1. Publish to Fdroid main repo (better) https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Submitting_to_F-Droid_Quick_Start_Guide

Pros:

• official repo, bundled when the fdroid app is installed.
• apps are passed reproducible-tests https://verification.f-droid.org/
• only Open-Source code is allowed
• apps are marked with anti-features (tracking/ads/non-free-network-services/non-free-dependecies/etc.) https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Anti-Features/
• require passing some review by human from fdroid community.
• app included in main repo increase the trustworthiness factor of the app

If the app use non open-source code (or libraries) it won't be accepted (which is probably the case) what many projects do is adding fdroid build flavour, which will use only open-source code/libraries (nextcloud is one example of this)

2. Setup own repo (will need to be added manually in the app)

see for example the guardianproject page: https://guardianproject.info/fdroid/ Tool RepoMaker can be useful for the setup https://f-droid.org/en/repomaker

Pros: People who use it will receive updates.

Cons:

Require full trust of developers/infra/etc, app downloaded may contain closed-source stuff.

Regarding users:

• some phones don't come with google-play / google play services
• some users intentionally don't install it (security/privacy/performance reasons)
• There are Android based OS which GooglePlayServices cant be installed in (GrapheneOS,etc..)

While some of above users may use apps such as AuroraOSS to install apps directly from google-play, fdroid is more trusted/reviewed app and it's what recommended to use instead if possible.

[emanuelb]

Recent article on process for building ReactNative app for adding it into fdroid main repo: https://f-droid.org/en/2020/10/14/adding-react-native-app-to-f-droid.html