is one of the first pieces of text in the first screenshot. With the k on its own line like that. Not usually something I’d comment on, but if you’re showing off a redesign…
katzenq 2 hours ago [-]
That app itself also has some of the most revolting UI I've seen in a modern Android app (Vertical gradient filled buttons with thick gray strokes surrounded by not-quite-Material UI widgets, in a nonsensical custom control they had to go out of their way to make rather than just use a dropdown). Android developers really just don't care.
tripleee 1 hours ago [-]
its not an app you open much. I'd prefer them to spend time on the actual functionality
frereubu 4 minutes ago [-]
Good design is part of the functionality.
armadyl 2 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
nekooooo 1 hours ago [-]
bc android users are less picky
Rohansi 2 hours ago [-]
All designers only use Mac+iOS. /s
There's so much worse out there. This at least looks functional and shouldn't hurt anyones' eyes.
Anyway, this is a FOSS project. Anyone could go and work with them to clean up the design.
Flere-Imsaho 20 minutes ago [-]
Honestly I'd take that over the hostile vomit that is the google playstore. That thing is an offence to my senses...so many colors and animations trying to grab my attention.
tadfisher 2 hours ago [-]
It's annoying and easy to forget, but you have to enable the high-quality line break algorithm per Text component in Compose. Or you have to set two flags (maxLines=1 and overflow=TextOverflow.Ellipsis). I usually end up with a TitleText and BodyText component in my codebases that set these flags internally so I don't have to remember.
erikus 30 minutes ago [-]
I wasn't sure if this was a joke about Android being unintuitive so I was sad to see that enabling high quality line breaks is indeed something you have to configure:
Yeah, even AI could tell this design is not really polished.
meta-level 56 minutes ago [-]
But it's a fork, isn't it?
silverbluep 6 hours ago [-]
I have been using droid-ify on GrapheneOS for a few years now; because F-Droid ui is terrible, and the privilege extention has been such a pain to configure and get working without issues on my previous lineageOS phone. Happy to see this major overhaul; and i'm glad the FPE is being phased out.
epihelix 5 minutes ago [-]
Thank you. Used it to uninstall F-droid and roll back to v1 after trying out this new update (ooof... full-blown material ui is not for me. Those progress bars, oh my eyes!)
The old f-droid client made selecting app updates easy. With both v2 and droid-ify, you have to click through for each app. Not a great interface decision :( Why do updates always dumb interfaces down these days?
eighthave 2 hours ago [-]
I think it is great that there are multiple clients out there, so people have a choice of user experience. One thing that I think is too often overlooked look is if they have implemented the same security and privacy standards as F-Droid, if that's important to you. For example, last I checked, the third party clients where still using index-v1, which is signed using SHA1. Maybe NeoStore updated to index-v2? And there is also quite a bit of effort put into the client-side to make sure it leaks as little as possible to the servers. There are libraries of the official core pieces for third party clients to use to gain many of these protections:
https://f-droid.org/2023/05/02/three-client-libraries.html
PorciiVorbesc 5 hours ago [-]
>I have been using droid-ify
After 10 years of F-droid, I'm bummed I only found droid-ify a couple of months ago. Sooo much better than F-droid.
TutleCpt 5 hours ago [-]
Check out Neostore too. You'll love it.
mayli 46 minutes ago [-]
I run into UI glitches and crashes, and decide to not continue using it.
PhageGenerator 3 hours ago [-]
I tried Neostore. All the info it shows is pretty cool, but ultimately I felt the expierence suffered from all the extra information shown compared to the simpler UI in Droid-ify.
arcanemachiner 3 hours ago [-]
There's also Aurora Droid, last time I checked.
BaardFigur 3 hours ago [-]
There's also F-Droid Classic. For me Droid-ify never felt quite right + it never worked properly with unattended updates, for me at least.
5 hours ago [-]
dizhn 2 hours ago [-]
Me too. But more and more I am using ObtainX now and installing from Github sources. I don't need F-Droid's gatekeeping.
riedel 5 hours ago [-]
[dead]
jjice 5 hours ago [-]
What does the future of something like F-Droid look like once Google does their lock down next year?
pritambaral 5 hours ago [-]
Since F-Droid (i.e., the repositories, not the app) builds all apps, a practical solution would be for the repositories (i.e., their signing keys) to be recognized by El Goog. Whether and how much help / obstacle the "maybe we do evil" company puts up for / against this is a different question.
trinsic2 5 hours ago [-]
It seems to me this is a blocker to use if google can restrict sideloading like this. Its not going to end with just get people requiring to register their app with an identity. Wont they be able to put presser on f-droid devs to lock out software they consider a threat to some business model?
McDyver 4 hours ago [-]
> sideloading
That newspeak term should just disappeared. It only contributes to the image that downloading and installing an app is something that is outside the "happy path". Installing software of your choice on a device you own shouldn't be demonised
folkrav 4 hours ago [-]
Fully agree. Installing software is installing software, signed or unsigned, app store or not.
ragequittah 4 hours ago [-]
Surely you see how installing unvetted software on a device that holds your entire life, bank info, photos, etc. probably shouldn't be part of the "happy path" for most people. You shouldn't even install software you haven't fully vetted from the google play store. This should be drilled into non-technical people.
Those of us who want to can easily bypass it. My mom who doesn't know what she's doing and gets a phishing email with a fancy apk attached should probably have a hard time using it.
OroPla 3 hours ago [-]
> a device that holds your entire life, bank info, photos, etc.
I'd see it the other way around and say that a device running an operating system controlled by some company shouldn't hold your entire life, bank info, photos, etc.
krzyk 3 hours ago [-]
That means education for people: don't perform actions that are in emails.
Blocking apps is like blocking buying of knifes because one can hurt themselves.
halostatue 3 hours ago [-]
Because education has worked so well on Windows.
There's not an easy answer, but the non-answer of "people just need to be educated" is trivially dismissed.
Aachen 3 hours ago [-]
I'm not sure the situations are comparable when Windows doesn't have this permission system where the apps are still very limited in what they can access unless you grant specific directory access or access to the contact list or such
wizzwizz4 20 minutes ago [-]
It does, but approximately nobody uses it, because Microsoft also tried to apply loads of constraints on what kinds of program could exist when they rolled it out, as part of their "all Windows software should also work on Windows Phone and Xbox" campaign.
g-b-r 3 hours ago [-]
> a device that holds your entire life, bank info, photos, etc
That device was called personal computer for decades, and the world didn't end for the simplicity of installing software on it.
JumpCrisscross 2 hours ago [-]
> That device was called personal computer
To be fair, mobile phones being locked down probably contributed to the mass adoption of e.g. mobile payments and banking.
g-b-r 2 hours ago [-]
Web banking was offered by all banks long before banking apps, and you could of course access it from smartphones
The move to apps made things more difficult, if anything
charcircuit 3 hours ago [-]
The world may not of ended but to of people have been hurt by malware ruining their computer, cryptolocking all of their company's files for ransom, stealing all of your login credentials, stealing cryptocurrency, taking secret photos with your webcam, screen recording what you are doing on your computer, etc.
The "personal computer" has a terrible track record.
Vrondi 2 hours ago [-]
For many decades, people have been mistakenly putting diesel fuel into their gasoline cars, yet we never outlawed diesel vehicles. You can only do so much to protect people without destroying their rights to their property.
charcircuit 5 minutes ago [-]
Society moved to having it so diesel fuel pump would not fit into gasoline cars.
Society didn't ban doing it, but put up barriers that help the average person from doing something dangerous.
krzyk 3 hours ago [-]
Just like people get robbed, it is as common as that.
It doesn't mean one can't buy nice things because one is afraid of being robbed.
charcircuit 3 hours ago [-]
Except a sane society puts rules in place against robbers and then bans such people from society.
Vrondi 2 hours ago [-]
There have already been laws against scammers and hackers for a long time.
g-b-r 3 hours ago [-]
That seems to happen on phones too
charcircuit 3 hours ago [-]
It is much rarer since it needs 0 day to do these at the same level as possible on a pc. The play store scanning apps for malware is an important safety mechanism against this. Further more imposter apps like YouTube but with no ads that are Trojans that steal people's accounts.
g-b-r 1 hours ago [-]
Or the accessibility permission, or to some degree the access all files ones; but it's also enough for the app to pilfer the data you trust it with.
The Play Store's scanning is very far from perfect, and the amount of crap that's on it, combined with the trust that people have towards it, and apps' unfettered access to internet, makes malicious software easily more common than on PCs.
Even without considering as malicious the enormous data collection that almost everything on the Play Store does, encouraged by Google
catlikesshrimp 4 hours ago [-]
Block installs outside of playstore ON/OFF (ON by default) isn't any less secure. "Sideloading" is scaremongering.
redsocksfan45 53 minutes ago [-]
[dead]
wongarsu 5 hours ago [-]
If the issue Google has with sideloading is really just the rampant app piracy (and the malware that comes with cracked apps) that might be something F-Droid can accomodate.
OroPla 3 hours ago [-]
I don't think malware is the problem, as most malware comes directly via Google's ecosystem carried by ads. Just recently I had to uninstall some app from the play store since it tried to distribute malware through scary pop-ups and had it replaced with something from f-droid for someone I know.
autoexec 3 hours ago [-]
> most malware comes directly via Google's ecosystem carried by ads.
Google's own Play Store is filled with outright malware too, no ads needed. The idea that Google has to control what people are allowed to install on their phones isn't really for the protection of anyone except Google.
inquirerGeneral 4 hours ago [-]
[dead]
rom1v 4 hours ago [-]
They have to use one key per app, otherwise independent app could end up sharing some permissions (IIRC).
aquariusDue 4 hours ago [-]
The Emacs version for Android makes uses of something like this IIRC by signing a version of Termux with the same key and distributing it in the same SourceForge repo such that Emacs on Android can access CLI tooling like git for example.
creatonez 4 hours ago [-]
It seems google is going to allow an "advanced flow" that is scam resistant by requiring the user to wait 24 hours before they can start installing their own apps. It sucks, but assuming they don't change the plan again, F-Droid should be able to continue working.
reddalo 2 hours ago [-]
> assuming they don't change the plan again
Knowing Google, that's a big assumption
rdsubhas 4 hours ago [-]
Alternative app stores are mandated atleast here in the EU I believe?
someonebaggy 3 hours ago [-]
Yes but the process to enforce it is intentionally so difficult that nobody can do it.
Elfener 2 hours ago [-]
Yes, but the ability to install any software isn't. goggle can still decide to allow only "official" apps in """3rd party""" stores.
drnick1 3 hours ago [-]
There is an entire world of Android phones not controlled by Google, including GrapheneOS, LineageOS, and countless variations in China and other places where Google is effectively banned.
someonebaggy 3 hours ago [-]
The current lockdown plan is that you'll need to wait 24 hours before installing the first unauthorized app, right? So probably exactly the same as it is now except setting up a phone will take 24 hours longer.
rurban 4 hours ago [-]
Switch to GrapheneOS or HarmonyOS
tazjin 4 hours ago [-]
Currently, switching to GrapheneOS means giving Google money. Next year's Motorola-based alternative is also likely going to be several price classes above the Pixels you can currently put GrapheneOS on.
microtonal 4 hours ago [-]
Then buy a Pixel second-hand or when they hit rock-bottom prices, which usually happens after 6 months or so. At some point Google is probably not making a lot of profit from the devices anymore and they want to sell it to you for tracking and to sell Google One subscriptions, which are mostly irrelevant if you use GrapheneOS.
OroPla 3 hours ago [-]
I don't want to pay more than $150 for a phone, though. And installing an alternate OS is a real hassle.
someonebaggy 3 hours ago [-]
If the current $500 pixels are too expensive you're going to hate the $1000 motorolas.
drnick1 34 minutes ago [-]
Stretching that budget to about $350 would get you a new Pixel a-series, on sale. It's well worth it.
ghetsisharmonia 3 hours ago [-]
Not really, GrapheneOS has a nice web installer that makes all the job for the user.
g-b-r 3 hours ago [-]
I followed Pixel prices for the last year, and rock-bottom for a 256gb version (the current absolute minimum for a device without an sd, to my eyes) meant 450€.
There are occasional good deals for (unused) older models on eBay, but they're surprisingly rare.
I wonder if Google demands stores to give the old models back, after the release of newer ones; they disappear from every store extremely quickly.
flexagoon 2 hours ago [-]
There's zero reason to buy a last year phone.
burningChrome 4 hours ago [-]
Updates on this have been slowly trickling out and the best I can discern is you will be able to still install apps from stores like F-Droid, but you have to go through a manual "advanced flow" which will most likely make you wait 24 hours before installing it and make you go through other hoops.
In short, google has referred to this as "increased user friction" to try and deter people from doing this. Essentially not making it impossible; just really frustrating for users so they get sick of the process and just install verified apps through them.
The only way I know around this is to install a custom rom like GrapheneOS or Lineage OS since this change targets Because the policy targets the Google Mobile Services (GMS) framework rather than the foundational Android Open Source Project (AOSP).
iamjackg 4 hours ago [-]
Wait, it's not 24 hours per app though, is it? Isn't it 24 hours before the "allow installing apps from .apks" setting turns on once and for all?
krzyk 3 hours ago [-]
If I'm a developer I also need to wait 24hrs to test my app?
OutOfHere 5 hours ago [-]
Isn't it possible, however complicated, for users to undo the lockdown to install an app? The required 9 steps are noted at https://keepandroidopen.org/ for devices that use Google Play Services.
Irrespective, people should probably be migrating to a GrapheneOS or similar OS asap once the OS ships with a device.
jjice 5 hours ago [-]
Ah this is good to know. Awful it's required, but glad there is a work around.
autoexec 3 hours ago [-]
Honestly not as bad as I feared it would be. Still not great and it's moving us farther from the idea that people who paid for the device should be allowed to install what they want on it, but as it stands it's a workable process. We'll see how quickly it takes Google to make it worse
Brian_K_White 4 hours ago [-]
no root on graphene, non starter
temphaaa 4 hours ago [-]
Can someone recommend a good F/OSS ebook reader on F-Droid? The existing ones I have tested have too many knobs and options and are not really user-friendly.... My wife started to get into reading, but I could not get her to get out of the Kindle/Play Books ecosystem because of the user-friendliness and easy synchronisation across devices that Kindle gives.
wingmanjd 4 hours ago [-]
KOReader [1] is my favorite reader. Pairs well with my syncthing library of ebooks (I just keep the phone's copy in read-only mode).
Koreader interface with syncthing is not that user friendly to non techs, very powerful can do anything but i don't think i would advise that to non techie
Just to add, KOReader might not look super use friendly at first, but I highly recommend giving it a try. It’s an amazing reader.
Once your used to it, the controls are a lot better than stock kindle as well imo.
OptionX 4 hours ago [-]
To add to this, since the original comment mentioned kindle, you can jailbreak many of the models and install KOReader in them if you want to keep using the hardware.
tukunjil 3 hours ago [-]
Using readera with network connection disabled. Super app.
antinomicus 28 minutes ago [-]
Try storyteller. It’s an awesome app that does the whispersync thing where you get the audiobook and ebook together, can switch between the two and not lose place, can read both at the same time where the ebook underlines what’s being said. All self hosted though so you need to have a way to…obtain drm free e/audio books.
wilsonnb3 39 minutes ago [-]
Even if you have a FOSS ereader app with good sync, where are you gonna get books to read on it?
The only options are stripping the DRM from kobo books or piracy, last I checked.
AdManusMedici 4 hours ago [-]
It depends.For me it’s not on app
For a dedicated device(phablet/tablet) - KoReader.
For Smartphone (no longtime reading) - Librera Reader
luqtas 2 hours ago [-]
i would say Librera FD, much better on Android than KOR, specially for images
brnt 4 hours ago [-]
I actually use MuPDF for epubs, as well as pdfs.
asnelt 2 hours ago [-]
Me too. It seems to be the only one that does not litter the sdcard directory.
aaronax 3 hours ago [-]
I run Calibre Content Server on a VM. So my ebook reading is just accessing that in the browser. Works great.
andrepd 3 hours ago [-]
Honestly I use Lithium with no network permissions. It's not Foss but it's good enough for me.
Muhammad523 2 hours ago [-]
Finally a submission at the top of the page that isnt about AI!
jazzabeanie 2 hours ago [-]
But the first comment I read is :'(
lutoma 2 hours ago [-]
Hah, I had the exact same thought. Hacker News has become so exceedingly uninteresting recently
pkulak 2 hours ago [-]
Eh, I bet the luddite boards were all loom talk at the end too.
haha, I kid. I... kid. :(
rom1v 5 hours ago [-]
In addition to F-Droid on the device, I'd love an F-Droid "package manager client" on a computer, that allows installing apps on an Android device via adb:
# update repo lists
fdr update
# upgrade all apps on the connected device
fdr upgrade
# search packages
fdr search vlc # lists org.videolan.vlc
# install on the device
fdr install org.mozilla.firefox
# download the apk
fdr download org.mozilla.firefox
# uninstall
fdr uninstall org.mozilla.firefox
Of course, all operations would verify the signatures first.
Cool! Unfortunately I switched to Obtanium a year or so ago. I get all my apps from GitHub releases straight from the developers now.
yjftsjthsd-h 5 hours ago [-]
I use F-Droid precisely because I don't want that. When https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38505229 happened - and when the same thing happens again in the future, because it will - I explicitly want F-Droid doing some basic due diligence on updates before shipping them to me. Cutting out the middleman is the opposite of what I want.
greeniskool 5 hours ago [-]
Counterpoint: I use NewPipe pretty much daily for watching YouTube. One day, YT introduced an API change that broke NewPipe, and so I patiently waited for an update.
A few days passed, and I eventually get a notification from NewPipe prompting for an update. But I can't install it just yet, because of mismatching signatures between the F-Droid and GitHub versions (yes, that's the point, I know...). The F-Droid build took so long to release, that in the meantime, another version of NewPipe came out...
amlib 5 hours ago [-]
This issue happens to some extent within liunux distros too. I think specifically for youtube maybe it would be beneficial for a single core library that deals with the API and is shared by every single project that cares to interface with youtube. Rather than dozens of projects trying to chase youtube changes and overburdening repository maintainers, there would only be a single library whose updates would be fast tracked. This also requires there to be no embedding it in anything too, I don't know how feasible this would be on android/f-droid, but it kinda already happens with yt-dlp in linux distros, but yt-dlp isn't a proper library nor does it deals with all youtube endpoints that a proper youtube frontend would require.
It would perhaps be nice if yt-dlp could eject it's youtube api handling into it's own project that is then augmented to handle anything youtube related and turns into THE library for dealing with youtube.. maybe even call it libyt :)
deng 5 hours ago [-]
Have you added the NewPipe repo in F-Droid? I get updates this way pretty quickly.
Notably, this is still cutting out the middleman and bypassing the extra review that that entails. It's fine as long as you trust everybody involved in publishing the repo, which is probably fine here, but a thing to keep in mind.
autoexec 2 hours ago [-]
I ran into the same issue. The good news is that app is the only one I've had to uninstall and reinstall from an apk because fdroid was so insanely slow. I wish they made an effort to keep up with apps where they need to be updated frequently and stop working entirely if they aren't updated. I can't imagine there are too many apps like that
mintplant 3 hours ago [-]
I've never actually had this issue, for whatever reason. In-app updates to NewPipe (and the various forks) install just fine even if I originally downloaded from F-Droid. Not sure how that works exactly.
yjftsjthsd-h 5 hours ago [-]
True. And especially for that use, I can imagine that the slow return around is actually a breaking problem. I think there are relatively few apps that need that kind of quick update, and I'm more concerned with malicious authors than that, but it would depend on precisely what you need out of your apps.
5 hours ago [-]
flexagoon 2 hours ago [-]
F-Droid doesn't do any due dilligence on updates aside from blocking proprietary code
Haven't yet used it, but I will say that's a great project name
szszrk 6 hours ago [-]
Do you use a lot of apps with that?
I tried it with 3 random apps for a while, but instantly got into issues. Two stopped updating due to Obtanium falling behind how app releases - for instance, developer changed version numbering scheme but Obtanium didn't expect that, so an outdated version was always presented. It wasn't fixed for quite a while.
aorth 5 hours ago [-]
I have 23 currently. It's surprising how fast it happened... I don't have any problems, but I don't pay much attention to it and apps seem to update automatically sometimes and after a manual refresh other times.
Gander5739 4 hours ago [-]
I've found Droid-ify more reliable at doing background updates, though it still only manages it sometimes (possibly due in some way to how I installed the apps). Hopefully Fdroid's app will be better at this.
asdfqwertzxcv 5 hours ago [-]
Same for me. I typically search on F-Droid to find the apps and then add the github to Obtanium.
fghkjlhb 5 hours ago [-]
I tried Obtainium a while back and didn't like it too much, finding apps seemed difficult.
Then I discovered https://apps.obtainium.imranr.dev/ which makes it very easy. I feel like Obtainium should make this more obvious. It would help adoption a lot.
OutOfHere 5 hours ago [-]
Fwiw, that link is documented in the readme at https://github.com/ImranR98/Obtainium so it's not hard for someone to find again. It's also prominent in the Obtainium app UI itself.
fghkjlhb 3 hours ago [-]
I know it is there in Obtainium, but I don't think it's prominent enough and it is easy to miss. I missed it my first time.
pkal 6 hours ago [-]
What do you do for apps that don't have GitHub releases?
s2l 4 hours ago [-]
The other way is to use fdroid as source within obtainium.
The benefit is to maintain app list at one place, so you can export/import to another device, when needed.
fghkjlhb 3 hours ago [-]
https://apps.obtainium.imranr.dev/ has plenty of apps that don't have F-Droid releases. Many of them come from the developers own website.
And if you see anything is missing, you can always add it!
asdfqwertzxcv 5 hours ago [-]
You can use it with non-github releases too, but it's super rare when one isn't available. In the case when Obtanium doesn't work, I just use F-Droid.
Aachen 3 hours ago [-]
Super rare? The government seems to release only on an obscure source called Play for some reason. I don't want to play a game, just to ride the transit system. There seem to be a lot of apps that don't release on such an addable source..
asdfqwertzxcv 1 hours ago [-]
I think I’ve encountered 1 or 2 apps that didn’t work on Obtanium so YMMV.
zeandcode 5 hours ago [-]
Didnt know this! Thanks for sharing !!
lawn 5 hours ago [-]
Same, Obtanium is great.
lanfeust6 5 hours ago [-]
The update turnover is so fast for certain apps that I switched back to Fdroid.
outadoc 6 hours ago [-]
Very cool, the visual redesign was very much needed and I had been using Droid-ify for a while because of this. I'll switch back to the official app, congrats to the contributors!
Scene_Cast2 6 hours ago [-]
The official page still downloads 1.23.2. I wonder when this will go live, and if the old app will auto-update.
szszrk 5 hours ago [-]
Try F-Droid basic, it has this for a few weeks.
Dwedit 24 minutes ago [-]
Can I finally block those bible apps?
henearkr 2 hours ago [-]
Since this made into HN first page, I've been trying to find the APK of this version 2.0...
Am I missing something stupid?
Lammy 2 hours ago [-]
e: my bad, was on desktop and didn't actually try it on my phone (I use Droid-ify anyway)
henearkr 35 minutes ago [-]
Thank you, but this APK is not the v2.0.
luoc 47 minutes ago [-]
mhm, that's just loading v1 for me
prima-facie 5 hours ago [-]
Amazing news! I mainly use the F-droid Basic version which does automatic updating of apps. The regular one needs user confirmation for updates if I remember correctly.
eighthave 2 hours ago [-]
F-Droid and F-Droid Basic are the same code base, even more so with 2.0. So the automatic updating support is the same for both.
hobo123 3 hours ago [-]
Is it not available yet? Fdroid doesn't update, and downloading and re installing leaves me with the usual app.
Still, excited for when it'll be ready.
amiga386 1 hours ago [-]
Great! But why hasn't 2.0 installed automatically on all devices that already have F-Droid?
- go to F-Droid -> Updates. "Congratulations! Your apps are up to date."
- refresh the repositories. "Congratulations! Your apps are up to date."
- search directly for f-droid in apps. "This app was built for an older version of Android and cannot be updated automatically."
*facepalm* never change, F-Droid. You might not be able to automatically update the app because of Android API restrictions, but there's no reason your app can't tell me it knows there's an updated version I could be asked to apply manually, is there?
EDIT: it still says version 1.23.2 is "Suggested" even when 2.0 is installed. Perhaps this is a reason? Nonetheless, there's no setting to choose a different version policy, i.e. install 2.0 because it's newer, even if not "Suggested"
What does "Suggested" even mean? According to https://forum.f-droid.org/t/how-does-f-droid-suggest-a-versi... it's set manually by the person maintaining the metadata, which makes it even more of a facepalm if F-Droid are announcing 2.0 on their homepage but nobody set CurrenVersion=2.0 in their own metadata.
luoc 45 minutes ago [-]
According to the post they only start to roll this out now, gradually...
AdmiralAsshat 3 hours ago [-]
I hope the new redesign makes the store easier to navigate on TVs. It's a nightmare trying to install/update apps on F-Droid on either my Nvidia Shield Pro or my Onn 4K TV using the tv remote. The cursor gets lost all the time and it's often impossible to see what option is currently in focus when you click Ok on the remote.
NewJazz 3 hours ago [-]
Have you filed a bug? That's niche enough that i wouldn't necessarily expect the devs to have tested such scenarios.
juiceland 6 hours ago [-]
For people who are die-hard F Droid users, do you get all your apps from it? I have tried in the past but it seemed like even when I restricted my use to basics it was missing things I needed to make my phone feel useful. Wonder if it has gotten better.
miloignis 6 hours ago [-]
Most of them, yeah. My main non-F-Droid apps are YT-Music, Google Maps, Duo auth, Bible, and my bank app. Firefox, podcasts, local music player, ebook reader, RSS reader, email client, Matrix client, XMPP client, audiobook player, calendar sync, KeePassDX, SyncThing, Nix terminal, etc are all F-Droid.
mzajc 6 hours ago [-]
Yes, essentially. I do have the Guardian Project repository and I get a handful of applications from the Play Store (via Aurora Store), but everything else comes from F-Droid. If you want even more, you can add the IzzyOnDroid repository[0], but bear in mind that unlike F-Droid, applications are built by developers themselves, and the rules on FOSS-only licensing are less strict.
does Aurora still work? Last few times I tried, I couldn't install anything.
Wicher 5 hours ago [-]
It did yesterday, for me.
Sometimes it doesn't work for a while and the dev needs some time catching up to what Google deliberately or inadvertently or indifferently put in the way of access to the place where apps are published (and they are published there, not because app creators deliberately chose Google out of many app distributors in some healthy competitive market; there is no choice).
The Aurora project accepts donations, if you want to hurry things along some time! And they have a donation button right there in the app listing, try doing that for yourapp in the PlayStore and see who comes knocking in 3...2..1 to make you a non-person.
tukunjil 5 hours ago [-]
Last used yesterday found no problem to install random application.
NoboruWataya 6 hours ago [-]
What do you find is missing? The main apps I need Google Play for are apps that are tied to a specific company or government service (eg, banking apps, or HMRC). For pretty much all basic functions I think F-Droid does the job.
HeatrayEnjoyer 3 hours ago [-]
Store and restaurant apps, discord, streaming apps, most games, payment apps, apps for school, ride-sharing. I tried the "degoogle" way and tossed after two days because that's impossible unless you're willing to adopt a more expensive boomer/millennial lifestyle.
flexagoon 2 hours ago [-]
Aside from payment apps, you can (and probably should) just use the web browser for most of those things
tgsovlerkhgsel 2 hours ago [-]
I only use it to install the apps that aren't available on the Play store (e.g. Öffi, an excellent public transit app that gave up on dealing with the Play store after one too many arbitrary removals, Termux, and NewPipe).
The user experience was just too broken for too long to consider it usable (didn't support background updates for about two years after Google made it available, and generally just too much jank and random errors/failures). I might look into it the next time I'm setting up a device, but I think for the majority of apps I'll still go through the Play store - I don't trust F-Droid to be stable/reliable enough yet.
someonebaggy 3 hours ago [-]
Fossify Clock has the best accidental feature: when your alarm is going off, there's no way to stop it except for unlocking your phone, opening the app, finding the current alarm in the list of alarms, and disabling it.
This means you're definitely awake.
I'm being sarcastic.
QuantumNomad_ 6 hours ago [-]
I have a slow, crappy tablet I bought on Temu.
It is not my main device, nor even my secondary device. It’s basically just a device I bought for cheap hoping that maybe I was lucky and it was actually pretty snappy. It’s not snappy :(
I occasionally watch a couple of YouTube videos on it and read a couple of HN posts on it, when my phone is out of battery or when I’m doing a backup of my phone and have left the phone on the table for that.
Anyway, aside from YouTube the other apps I have installed on it myself are all from F-Droid, including the DuckDuckGo browser that I use on it. I also have Signal on it, which I don’t remember if I installed from F-Droid or from Google Play.
My main device that I actually use a lot is an iPhone. And like I said I basically only use the tablet like a couple of hours a week and only to watch a couple of YouTube videos and read a couple HN threads, when I am not able to use my phone for those things.
demo4567 6 hours ago [-]
I do, but then there is aurora store on f-droid for the gplay only apps.
someonebaggy 3 hours ago [-]
Note it doesn't work very well, and Graphene recommends using Graphene's sandboxed Play Store instead.
Aachen 3 hours ago [-]
Aurora works fine for me, and Google's software needn't chug along in a background sandbox no matter if all it can do is install apps, ping back to the mothership what your IP address currently is, and act as a proxy for other apps whose direct internet access you try to deny
sandreas 6 hours ago [-]
No... I use a combination of Aurora, Obtainium and F-Droid.
Unfortunately there are APP providers actively preventing their apps to work on graphene OS, so i own an extra use@home cheap broken glass iphone for these mandatory but non-graphene apps.
It is a pain and it is getting worse... I'm really tempted to get back to the Apple ecosystem for less shens but currently i cannot do this yet... It just feels wrong but the pain is real. I'm Lösung the fight of investing too mich of my time in things that just should work.
silverbluep 6 hours ago [-]
I use droid-ify as frontend; and it's been fine to use f-droid repos for most of my needs. I try to install my apps from there in general. Biggest issue for me is android auto capability usually requires the app to be installed from play store (CoMaps) and my music player app (GoneMAD) has a companion unlocker that is from paid app store.
I need banking and bunch of vendor related apps. I need play store for them; so not full on f-droid repos. But close-ish when it comes to phone functionality.
fghkjlhb 5 hours ago [-]
No I have Obtainium side by side with F-Droid. There are some closed source apps or apps that are not published on F-Droid (like Wireguard) that unfortunately I need. Obtainium is great for that.
Gander5739 4 hours ago [-]
What features does the wireguard app have that alternatives like WG Tunnel or KabelWacht lack?
fghkjlhb 3 hours ago [-]
I didn't know those apps existed.
rurp 5 hours ago [-]
Similar experience for me. I find f-droid a great supplement store but cutting out the default store entirely has felt like more of a commitment than I'm interested in so far.
6 hours ago [-]
drnick1 6 hours ago [-]
I wouldn't use F-Droid exclusively. Many apps can simply be downloaded from their respective webpages. GrapheneOS also has also its own very basic app store.
rhamzeh 5 hours ago [-]
FDroid offers the guarantee that the apk was built from source, and at least some marginal safety in terms of having passed their security and analytics/ads checkers.
You lose all that if you go directly to source.
fghkjlhb 3 hours ago [-]
Obtainium makes it easy to download apps directly from their webpages. Many of them have ready configurations you can simply add: https://apps.obtainium.imranr.dev/
vrganj 6 hours ago [-]
When I need some category of app - say a note app or an audiobook player - I generally check F-Droid first.
If there's a good enough app on there, I generally stick with that as opposed to trying what Google Play has to offer.
I like having that prefiltering, knowing that the app will be open source, not trying to pull anything shady and not have ads or sell my data. On the Play Store, more often than not, at least one of those is not true.
lol @ 'ai;dr' to a 2 line PR, anti-ai people really are just bullies now
zephiel7 6 hours ago [-]
This is very good to see. Classic F-Droid always seemed to fail at updating repos at least every week or so.
RicoElectrico 6 hours ago [-]
Repo timestamp expected blah blah... toast coming out of nowhere is such a bad design. Really, the architecture in which you absolutely have to download the multi-MB index is as well.
mzajc 6 hours ago [-]
> Also, F-Droid Privileged Extension (FPE) is not currently supported by 2.0. That means even if FPE is installed, F-Droid 2.0 won’t use it. This overhaul focused on full featured support for the Android “session” installer. That lets F-Droid run background updates on any recent Android version without requiring FPE. Like with any of the changes here, we welcome feedback.
This is a shame. Is the privileged extension a large maintenance burden?
eighthave 2 hours ago [-]
When Google added the "session" installer to AOSP, we thought it would replace F-Droid Privileged Extension (FPE). So we stopped development on it. The answer now is that the "session" installer mostly replaces FPE, but not fully. So we're exploring reviving development:
https://gitlab.com/fdroid/privileged-extension/-/work_items/...
someonebaggy 3 hours ago [-]
I wonder how they got access to the ordinarily Google-locked "session" installer. Did Google open it up because of EU rules? I doubt it.
Even greater HN conversation about all the to-me-unknown alternatives. I used neostore as a replacement, but maybe time to try f-Droid again
tukunjil 3 hours ago [-]
Not any super user but about three/four months, I'm using my device without any google account. Also not using any G service apps such as mail/yt/maps and of course play store. Instead of play store I found aurora store very helpful. "Very" because of the anonymous login future. But sometimes the store disturbs. Newly added apps on Play store doesn't appears on aurora. Also many applications fails to be installed without showing any reason. Some shitty apps redirect to the play store app (which I'm unable to disable but uninstalled her! Updates) and just doesn't works anything more then redirecting me. So I'm still not a fan of Aurora. But it's going not bad. But sometimes I should browse other sites to get old/delated from Play store apps. Also for mod/adless version of some apps.
I heard of fdriod but what I think it may only serves feature less, low UI/UX optimized apps. So didn't installed it yet. But something should be available where people can find all Play store apps (as aurora supplies) + premium/adsense deleted modified apps (random website) + Open source apps (fdroid)…… this will make android insane
1970-01-01 3 hours ago [-]
Fitting, as there really are only 2.0 trustworthy app stores for Android.
cf100clunk 6 hours ago [-]
That page uses the term ''repository''' singular. Can additional repos be added in the way Neo Store allows?
szszrk 6 hours ago [-]
Yes. F-droid allows that, you can have multiple repositories and ... a few of those even exist :)
I'm using that with 2.0 (or rather with F-droid Basic, but I noticed Basic was updated to the same that is described in article, but a while ago). It works just fine.
reddalo 6 hours ago [-]
It's always been possible on F-Droid, I doubt they would change something like that.
97laos 4 hours ago [-]
Love it new design fdroid basic really smooth in my ancient phone.
magnat 5 hours ago [-]
And still no popularity rating, download count or any user review system whatsoever.
Velocifyer 5 hours ago [-]
Except the 2.0 does have a most popular apps section.
OutOfHere 5 hours ago [-]
Can't you at least see and file issues and discussions on the respective app's code repo site? This is often although not always sufficient, as the repo owner can censor issues and discussions.
Google has for years censored app reviews anyway on its Play Store, and also allowed too many low-value reviews which drown out useful reviews.
redsocksfan45 5 hours ago [-]
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echelon 5 hours ago [-]
Because nobody uses it except a handful of uber-nerds who can put up with wasting hours of time for "altruism".
The answer to freedom isn't another marketplace. It's legislation that requires Google and Apple to allow web installs without scare walls or deeply hidden permission toggles.
You should be able to just download an app. And Grandma should be able to do it.
There's nothing insecure about it in a world of sandboxing, permissions, scanning, blacklisting, etc. When the tech giants are more than happy to sell ads to malware, you know their "safety" stance is just economic moat protectionism.
---
Edit because of rate limits:
This is not derogatory. This is making the point that the wrong battle is being fought. F-droid fans are cheering a small victory, yet losing the entire war.
F-droid does not matter in the grand scheme of things. It's not the point. The point is the app store monopoly. That there are only two platforms and that both are almost completely locked down.
F-droid users don't even see that Google is purposefully allowing this as an antitrust sponge in their calculus. Google doesn't mind because 0.0001% of their users will install this. If they had a sense that the regulators wouldn't bother them, they'd just as well close this loophole. And they probably will eventually.
This isn't beachhead, and even if it was, it isn't sound footing or a stable foundation. It can easily go away.
rpdillon 5 hours ago [-]
> Because nobody uses it except a handful of uber-nerds who can put up with wasting hours of time for "altruism".
This seems weirdly derogatory towards people that use F-Droid.
nazgulsenpai 5 hours ago [-]
As an F-Droid user for idk how many years now, I'd say it's spot on!
rpdillon 3 hours ago [-]
Really? I don't understand
> put up with wasting hours of time for "altruism".
at all. I feel like I install apps from the store, and use them. So I'm confused by both "hours of time" and "altruism".
yjftsjthsd-h 5 hours ago [-]
> Because nobody uses it except a handful of uber-nerds who can put up with wasting hours of time for "altruism".
What? I'm not sure how you would manage to waste hours installing a single app and then using it to install other apps, and I'm not using it because of "altruism" (what does that even mean?), I'm using it because it's the best way to get apps.
> You should be able to just download an app. And Grandma should be able to do it.
> There's nothing insecure about it in a world of sandboxing, permissions, scanning, blacklisting, etc. When the tech giants are more than happy to sell ads to malware, you know their "safety" stance is just economic moat protectionism.
Even if you 100% trust Android's sandboxing and permissions, which is... not a choice I would personally make, I like it when my apps don't have scams or ads internally, either. I'm not worried about Grandma downloading any app off F-Droid; I am a little concerned about what happens if she can download any app being pushed by any random website.
imzadi 5 hours ago [-]
I wish they would add ratings or even just comments
Thev00d00 4 hours ago [-]
Urgh such a shame to be written by LLM
renszarv 6 hours ago [-]
If only they improve the AndroidTV experience a bit
sharktheone 4 hours ago [-]
so nice. FDroid always looked a bit dated to me
cyberax 6 hours ago [-]
Dear F-Droud, please stop redirecting me to the Mandarin version automatically without an option to read the original message. Just because I have a Chinese keyboard layout available.
zaik 4 hours ago [-]
What Accept-Language header are you sending?
cyberax 4 hours ago [-]
Not sure, it happened on mobile Firefox. My point is that there should be a way to disable it and switch to a different language manually.
First hit for 'check http headers', in case that helps find out why websites think you want Chinese content. Maybe it's a bug in the website; maybe it's set as your first preference. Please report the bug if there is one!
cyberax 2 hours ago [-]
And I'm actually stumped. Firefox is just sending `en-US` on mobile.
I have no idea why it selected Mandarin. I can switch back to English by using the "desktop site" feature that _does_ have a language dropdown.
Telaneo 5 hours ago [-]
It's nice to see F-Droid going places.
6 hours ago [-]
Kellyabia 13 minutes ago [-]
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imshaikot 1 hours ago [-]
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Kellyabia 13 minutes ago [-]
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laruss5 5 hours ago [-]
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hathym 2 hours ago [-]
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zb3 6 hours ago [-]
> All new code in this effort uses modern Android code standards and designs. This gives us a codebase that is easier to maintain, test, and easier to extend with new features in the future.
No, this increases the overall complexity of the system. Android will hopefully eventually collapse under its own weight.
OutOfHere 5 hours ago [-]
Once GrapheneOS ships on devices, it and Samsung can in time pick up where Android stops.
mightysashiman 4 hours ago [-]
Did they implement any GrapheneOS security complaints for it to be deemed actually secure?
someonebaggy 3 hours ago [-]
GrapheneOS security complaints about F-Droid are a load of nonsense except for one: the APK on the website is signed by a different key from the one that F-Droid updates itself with.
eighthave 2 hours ago [-]
> the APK on the website is signed by a different key from the one that F-Droid updates itself with
There's so much worse out there. This at least looks functional and shouldn't hurt anyones' eyes.
Anyway, this is a FOSS project. Anyone could go and work with them to clean up the design.
https://developer.android.com/develop/ui/compose/text/style-...
The old f-droid client made selecting app updates easy. With both v2 and droid-ify, you have to click through for each app. Not a great interface decision :( Why do updates always dumb interfaces down these days?
After 10 years of F-droid, I'm bummed I only found droid-ify a couple of months ago. Sooo much better than F-droid.
That newspeak term should just disappeared. It only contributes to the image that downloading and installing an app is something that is outside the "happy path". Installing software of your choice on a device you own shouldn't be demonised
Those of us who want to can easily bypass it. My mom who doesn't know what she's doing and gets a phishing email with a fancy apk attached should probably have a hard time using it.
I'd see it the other way around and say that a device running an operating system controlled by some company shouldn't hold your entire life, bank info, photos, etc.
Blocking apps is like blocking buying of knifes because one can hurt themselves.
There's not an easy answer, but the non-answer of "people just need to be educated" is trivially dismissed.
That device was called personal computer for decades, and the world didn't end for the simplicity of installing software on it.
To be fair, mobile phones being locked down probably contributed to the mass adoption of e.g. mobile payments and banking.
The move to apps made things more difficult, if anything
The "personal computer" has a terrible track record.
Society didn't ban doing it, but put up barriers that help the average person from doing something dangerous.
It doesn't mean one can't buy nice things because one is afraid of being robbed.
The Play Store's scanning is very far from perfect, and the amount of crap that's on it, combined with the trust that people have towards it, and apps' unfettered access to internet, makes malicious software easily more common than on PCs.
Even without considering as malicious the enormous data collection that almost everything on the Play Store does, encouraged by Google
Google's own Play Store is filled with outright malware too, no ads needed. The idea that Google has to control what people are allowed to install on their phones isn't really for the protection of anyone except Google.
Knowing Google, that's a big assumption
There are occasional good deals for (unused) older models on eBay, but they're surprisingly rare.
I wonder if Google demands stores to give the old models back, after the release of newer ones; they disappear from every store extremely quickly.
In short, google has referred to this as "increased user friction" to try and deter people from doing this. Essentially not making it impossible; just really frustrating for users so they get sick of the process and just install verified apps through them.
The only way I know around this is to install a custom rom like GrapheneOS or Lineage OS since this change targets Because the policy targets the Google Mobile Services (GMS) framework rather than the foundational Android Open Source Project (AOSP).
Irrespective, people should probably be migrating to a GrapheneOS or similar OS asap once the OS ships with a device.
[1] https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.koreader.launcher.fdroid...
https://github.com/Aryan-Raj3112/episteme
Once your used to it, the controls are a lot better than stock kindle as well imo.
The only options are stripping the DRM from kobo books or piracy, last I checked.
haha, I kid. I... kid. :(
A few days passed, and I eventually get a notification from NewPipe prompting for an update. But I can't install it just yet, because of mismatching signatures between the F-Droid and GitHub versions (yes, that's the point, I know...). The F-Droid build took so long to release, that in the meantime, another version of NewPipe came out...
It would perhaps be nice if yt-dlp could eject it's youtube api handling into it's own project that is then augmented to handle anything youtube related and turns into THE library for dealing with youtube.. maybe even call it libyt :)
https://newpipe.net/FAQ/tutorials/install-add-fdroid-repo/
I tried it with 3 random apps for a while, but instantly got into issues. Two stopped updating due to Obtanium falling behind how app releases - for instance, developer changed version numbering scheme but Obtanium didn't expect that, so an outdated version was always presented. It wasn't fixed for quite a while.
Then I discovered https://apps.obtainium.imranr.dev/ which makes it very easy. I feel like Obtainium should make this more obvious. It would help adoption a lot.
And if you see anything is missing, you can always add it!
Am I missing something stupid?
Still, excited for when it'll be ready.
- go to F-Droid -> Updates. "Congratulations! Your apps are up to date."
- refresh the repositories. "Congratulations! Your apps are up to date."
- search directly for f-droid in apps. "This app was built for an older version of Android and cannot be updated automatically."
*facepalm* never change, F-Droid. You might not be able to automatically update the app because of Android API restrictions, but there's no reason your app can't tell me it knows there's an updated version I could be asked to apply manually, is there?
EDIT: it still says version 1.23.2 is "Suggested" even when 2.0 is installed. Perhaps this is a reason? Nonetheless, there's no setting to choose a different version policy, i.e. install 2.0 because it's newer, even if not "Suggested"
What does "Suggested" even mean? According to https://forum.f-droid.org/t/how-does-f-droid-suggest-a-versi... it's set manually by the person maintaining the metadata, which makes it even more of a facepalm if F-Droid are announcing 2.0 on their homepage but nobody set CurrenVersion=2.0 in their own metadata.
[0]: https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/
The Aurora project accepts donations, if you want to hurry things along some time! And they have a donation button right there in the app listing, try doing that for yourapp in the PlayStore and see who comes knocking in 3...2..1 to make you a non-person.
The user experience was just too broken for too long to consider it usable (didn't support background updates for about two years after Google made it available, and generally just too much jank and random errors/failures). I might look into it the next time I'm setting up a device, but I think for the majority of apps I'll still go through the Play store - I don't trust F-Droid to be stable/reliable enough yet.
This means you're definitely awake.
I'm being sarcastic.
It is not my main device, nor even my secondary device. It’s basically just a device I bought for cheap hoping that maybe I was lucky and it was actually pretty snappy. It’s not snappy :(
I occasionally watch a couple of YouTube videos on it and read a couple of HN posts on it, when my phone is out of battery or when I’m doing a backup of my phone and have left the phone on the table for that.
Anyway, aside from YouTube the other apps I have installed on it myself are all from F-Droid, including the DuckDuckGo browser that I use on it. I also have Signal on it, which I don’t remember if I installed from F-Droid or from Google Play.
My main device that I actually use a lot is an iPhone. And like I said I basically only use the tablet like a couple of hours a week and only to watch a couple of YouTube videos and read a couple HN threads, when I am not able to use my phone for those things.
Unfortunately there are APP providers actively preventing their apps to work on graphene OS, so i own an extra use@home cheap broken glass iphone for these mandatory but non-graphene apps.
It is a pain and it is getting worse... I'm really tempted to get back to the Apple ecosystem for less shens but currently i cannot do this yet... It just feels wrong but the pain is real. I'm Lösung the fight of investing too mich of my time in things that just should work.
I need banking and bunch of vendor related apps. I need play store for them; so not full on f-droid repos. But close-ish when it comes to phone functionality.
You lose all that if you go directly to source.
If there's a good enough app on there, I generally stick with that as opposed to trying what Google Play has to offer.
I like having that prefiltering, knowing that the app will be open source, not trying to pull anything shady and not have ads or sell my data. On the Play Store, more often than not, at least one of those is not true.
This is a shame. Is the privileged extension a large maintenance burden?
F-Droid took until now to use those APIs.
https://web.archive.org/web/20260924152713/https://f-droid.o...
Even greater HN conversation about all the to-me-unknown alternatives. I used neostore as a replacement, but maybe time to try f-Droid again
I heard of fdriod but what I think it may only serves feature less, low UI/UX optimized apps. So didn't installed it yet. But something should be available where people can find all Play store apps (as aurora supplies) + premium/adsense deleted modified apps (random website) + Open source apps (fdroid)…… this will make android insane
I'm using that with 2.0 (or rather with F-droid Basic, but I noticed Basic was updated to the same that is described in article, but a while ago). It works just fine.
Google has for years censored app reviews anyway on its Play Store, and also allowed too many low-value reviews which drown out useful reviews.
The answer to freedom isn't another marketplace. It's legislation that requires Google and Apple to allow web installs without scare walls or deeply hidden permission toggles.
You should be able to just download an app. And Grandma should be able to do it.
There's nothing insecure about it in a world of sandboxing, permissions, scanning, blacklisting, etc. When the tech giants are more than happy to sell ads to malware, you know their "safety" stance is just economic moat protectionism.
---
Edit because of rate limits:
This is not derogatory. This is making the point that the wrong battle is being fought. F-droid fans are cheering a small victory, yet losing the entire war.
F-droid does not matter in the grand scheme of things. It's not the point. The point is the app store monopoly. That there are only two platforms and that both are almost completely locked down.
F-droid users don't even see that Google is purposefully allowing this as an antitrust sponge in their calculus. Google doesn't mind because 0.0001% of their users will install this. If they had a sense that the regulators wouldn't bother them, they'd just as well close this loophole. And they probably will eventually.
This isn't beachhead, and even if it was, it isn't sound footing or a stable foundation. It can easily go away.
This seems weirdly derogatory towards people that use F-Droid.
> put up with wasting hours of time for "altruism".
at all. I feel like I install apps from the store, and use them. So I'm confused by both "hours of time" and "altruism".
What? I'm not sure how you would manage to waste hours installing a single app and then using it to install other apps, and I'm not using it because of "altruism" (what does that even mean?), I'm using it because it's the best way to get apps.
> You should be able to just download an app. And Grandma should be able to do it.
> There's nothing insecure about it in a world of sandboxing, permissions, scanning, blacklisting, etc. When the tech giants are more than happy to sell ads to malware, you know their "safety" stance is just economic moat protectionism.
Even if you 100% trust Android's sandboxing and permissions, which is... not a choice I would personally make, I like it when my apps don't have scams or ads internally, either. I'm not worried about Grandma downloading any app off F-Droid; I am a little concerned about what happens if she can download any app being pushed by any random website.
First hit for 'check http headers', in case that helps find out why websites think you want Chinese content. Maybe it's a bug in the website; maybe it's set as your first preference. Please report the bug if there is one!
I have no idea why it selected Mandarin. I can switch back to English by using the "desktop site" feature that _does_ have a language dropdown.
No, this increases the overall complexity of the system. Android will hopefully eventually collapse under its own weight.
Could you explain? I don't understand what you mean here. https://f-droid.org/F-Droid.apk is signed by the same key that signs https://f-droid.org/repo/entry.jar