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F-Droid is my go-to place for no-nonsense Android apps. By no-nonsense, I mean "typically lightweight and not forcing me to create an account merely to use the

F-Droid is my go-to place for no-nonsense Android apps. By no-nonsense, I mean "typically lightweight and not forcing me to create an account merely to use the core functionality." They may not be very pretty or polished, but they tend to do their job well. Obviously that's not true 100% of the time. But surprisingly often.

slezyr 9y ago
"Yalp Store" allows you to install apps from google store without google account.
- forapurpose 9y ago
  I know of many such stores. Usually they are proxies: They download the app from the Google store, you download it from the proxy. The question is, how do you know they haven't inserted malware? It seems like a very obvious vector for attack. You could authenticate signatures or hashes, but where do you find the authoritative signature/hash? For those interested in taking a shot at using these services, here are a couple of the more credible ones I've run into in the last couple years (I haven't used them in at least 6 months, so possibly their status has changed). Use at your own risk!: - APK Downloader: By someone on XDA-forums, a leading Android dev community. It comes in several versions and forks by other XDA members, and for several platforms. I don't have time to sort them out now, sorry. Beware of malware-infected hosted implementations. http://codekiem.com/2014/08/07/official-apk-downloader-v2-download-apk-files-from-google-play-store-to-pc http://codekiem.com/2014/08/07/official-apk-downloader-v2-do... / http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1515021 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1515021 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1809458 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1809458 https://github.com/Lekensteyn/apk-downloader https://github.com/Lekensteyn/apk-downloader - Racoon: Desktop OS client for Play Store (along with its Github and XDA links) http://raccoon.onyxbits.de http://raccoon.onyxbits.de / https://github.com/onyxbits/Raccoon https://github.com/onyxbits/Raccoon / https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2772436 https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2772436
  - _1tan 9y ago
    Yalp downloads directly from Google Play using included "fake" credentials (you can also supply your own).
    - forapurpose 9y ago
      > Yalp downloads directly from Google Play ... How do you know? Why do you trust it?
      - LukeShu 9y ago
        Because it's a FOSS application, and you can read the source and verify that the Yalp app is indeed talking directly to Google Play servers?
  - LukeShu 9y ago
    Yalp is a FOSS Android app available from F-droid. The Yalp app on your phone talks directly to the Google Play servers.
    - forapurpose 9y ago
      Thanks. That helps! For those who want to know more; here's what I found: https://github.com/yeriomin/YalpStore https://github.com/yeriomin/YalpStore - The readme is a great place to start. On F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/packages/com.github.yeriomin.yalpstore/ https://f-droid.org/packages/com.github.yeriomin.yalpstore/ EDIT: It looks great!
- ATsch 9y ago
  I think what OP meant was having to make an account inside the app
- yellowapple 9y ago
  Not sure if that's really relevant to the quality of the apps themselves. Since everything (at least by default) through F-Droid is FOSS, there is a significant lack of ads and other misfeatures. Apps that depend on an account with a non-free third-party service are clearly marked as such. Most apps aren't foolishly tied at the hip to Google Play Services. Malware is non-existent.
choward 9y ago
To pile on to the no non-sense, it also means it doesn't try to do social networking and share my information publicly by default.
roywiggins 9y ago
It's the only place I can be pretty sure a "flashlight app" is actually a flashlight app and not going to ask me for extraneous permissions. It's great.
- Feniks 9y ago
  Oh yeah after ditching Swiftkey I was looking for a new keyboard on my phone. So rare to see apps without asking for permissions these days. Don't see that with Gplay.
  - taneq 9y ago
    Did you find a Swype-ish replacement on F-Droid? Gesture typing is the one thing I miss about running stock Android.
    - minty_phoenix 9y ago
      Are you opposed to Google Keyboard/Gboard? It's had gesture typing for a while, and not too long ago added some nice gestures which use the spacebar to control cursor position and backspace key to delete one or more words at a time rather than character-by-character.
      - andrewjw 9y ago
        Its gesture-interpretation algorithm has gotten absolutely terrible for me recently, to the point that I frequently have to type out whole messages letter by letter because it will keep spitting out really strange guesses when I gesture. (It used to work a lot better, and when I revert to old versions they work great.)
    - 482794793792894 9y ago
      There's some progress happening for this in AnySoftKeyboard: https://github.com/AnySoftKeyboard/AnySoftKeyboard/issues/264 https://github.com/AnySoftKeyboard/AnySoftKeyboard/issues/26...
    - 9y ago

slezyr 9y ago

"Yalp Store" allows you to install apps from google store without google account.

forapurpose 9y ago
I know of many such stores. Usually they are proxies: They download the app from the Google store, you download it from the proxy. The question is, how do you know they haven't inserted malware? It seems like a very obvious vector for attack. You could authenticate signatures or hashes, but where do you find the authoritative signature/hash? For those interested in taking a shot at using these services, here are a couple of the more credible ones I've run into in the last couple years (I haven't used them in at least 6 months, so possibly their status has changed). Use at your own risk!: - APK Downloader: By someone on XDA-forums, a leading Android dev community. It comes in several versions and forks by other XDA members, and for several platforms. I don't have time to sort them out now, sorry. Beware of malware-infected hosted implementations. http://codekiem.com/2014/08/07/official-apk-downloader-v2-download-apk-files-from-google-play-store-to-pc http://codekiem.com/2014/08/07/official-apk-downloader-v2-do... / http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1515021 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1515021 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1809458 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1809458 https://github.com/Lekensteyn/apk-downloader https://github.com/Lekensteyn/apk-downloader - Racoon: Desktop OS client for Play Store (along with its Github and XDA links) http://raccoon.onyxbits.de http://raccoon.onyxbits.de / https://github.com/onyxbits/Raccoon https://github.com/onyxbits/Raccoon / https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2772436 https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2772436
- _1tan 9y ago
  Yalp downloads directly from Google Play using included "fake" credentials (you can also supply your own).
  - forapurpose 9y ago
    > Yalp downloads directly from Google Play ... How do you know? Why do you trust it?
    - LukeShu 9y ago
      Because it's a FOSS application, and you can read the source and verify that the Yalp app is indeed talking directly to Google Play servers?
- LukeShu 9y ago
  Yalp is a FOSS Android app available from F-droid. The Yalp app on your phone talks directly to the Google Play servers.
  - forapurpose 9y ago
    Thanks. That helps! For those who want to know more; here's what I found: https://github.com/yeriomin/YalpStore https://github.com/yeriomin/YalpStore - The readme is a great place to start. On F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/packages/com.github.yeriomin.yalpstore/ https://f-droid.org/packages/com.github.yeriomin.yalpstore/ EDIT: It looks great!
ATsch 9y ago
I think what OP meant was having to make an account inside the app
yellowapple 9y ago
Not sure if that's really relevant to the quality of the apps themselves. Since everything (at least by default) through F-Droid is FOSS, there is a significant lack of ads and other misfeatures. Apps that depend on an account with a non-free third-party service are clearly marked as such. Most apps aren't foolishly tied at the hip to Google Play Services. Malware is non-existent.

choward 9y ago

To pile on to the no non-sense, it also means it doesn't try to do social networking and share my information publicly by default.

roywiggins 9y ago

It's the only place I can be pretty sure a "flashlight app" is actually a flashlight app and not going to ask me for extraneous permissions. It's great.

Feniks 9y ago
Oh yeah after ditching Swiftkey I was looking for a new keyboard on my phone. So rare to see apps without asking for permissions these days. Don't see that with Gplay.
- taneq 9y ago
  Did you find a Swype-ish replacement on F-Droid? Gesture typing is the one thing I miss about running stock Android.
  - minty_phoenix 9y ago
    Are you opposed to Google Keyboard/Gboard? It's had gesture typing for a while, and not too long ago added some nice gestures which use the spacebar to control cursor position and backspace key to delete one or more words at a time rather than character-by-character.
    - andrewjw 9y ago
      Its gesture-interpretation algorithm has gotten absolutely terrible for me recently, to the point that I frequently have to type out whole messages letter by letter because it will keep spitting out really strange guesses when I gesture. (It used to work a lot better, and when I revert to old versions they work great.)
  - 482794793792894 9y ago
    There's some progress happening for this in AnySoftKeyboard: https://github.com/AnySoftKeyboard/AnySoftKeyboard/issues/264 https://github.com/AnySoftKeyboard/AnySoftKeyboard/issues/26...
  - 9y ago