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Apps need to exit the Play Store. I have a whole slew of apps which haven't been updated for a while now because Aurora Store isn't working because of whatever

Apps need to exit the Play Store. I have a whole slew of apps which haven't been updated for a while now because Aurora Store isn't working because of whatever Google of doing. Meanwhile the ones installed via FDroid and other means are perfectly up to date. It's a crappy state of affairs as Google continues to close the boiling Android frog.

renegat0x0 1mo ago
I think there are more and more apps on f-droid. On my end the experience was more pleasant on f-droid than on Google. On f-droid I had to manually push some things, in repositories. That I solved in a week or so. On Google end I had to verify my account. Which was not easy feat. - had to provide my ID several times, because it got rejected multiple times - I uploaded driving license - the verification process was stuck - only after help ticket google employee pushed it forward - I had to provide many more details, also had to use banking to pay substantial amount of money - I currently trying to create app, but it requires 14 testers, and it can still be rejected, if their involvement was too poor I am wondering what more things Google will invent to make my life worse. By the way my app: https://github.com/rumca-js/OfflineWebSearch https://github.com/rumca-js/OfflineWebSearch
- Ajedi32 1mo ago
  From a user perspective I think F-Droid is really good too, mainly because it only allows FOSS apps by default, which cuts out a lot of the BS you see in Play Store apps. You can go download a random, no-name app from F-Droid and be very confident it does what it says on the tin and won't be riddled with ads or spam you with notifications.
  - 2Gkashmiri 1mo ago
    Thats the only reason for at least me to use f droid and I have for the last decade I think. It "just works". As opposed to play store apps requiring "play store services" meaning having to sign into play store. It refuses to do so on a FOSS principle so I am literally cut off from a lot of apps. Aurora store helps but apps that "require play store services" don't work.
    - notpushkin 1mo ago
      > "play store services" meaning having to sign into play store Not necessarily. Most apps that require Play Services should work fine even if you’re not logged into Google. You do, however, have to have the “gapps” installed. (Some apps would also actually check whether you’ve installed them from the Google Play store and not, say, Aurora, but from my experience most don’t bother.) Also, perhaps look into microG? It reimplements the Play Services APIs, but is FOSS and only connects to Google servers when it’s necessary for some functionality (e.g. if you enable push notifications): https://microg.org/ https://microg.org/
      - 2Gkashmiri 1mo ago
        I have microg installed but it doesn't do anything? It also needs to be logged in? Gapps is what exactly. I have stock android on oneplus, just don't have play store signed in. Many apps refuse to work.
        notpushkin 1mo ago
        I’m using microG without signing in. Could you tell me a bit about what apps you’re using that you’re having trouble with? A good way to sidestep all those issues is getting your “everyday” apps from F-Droid :-) I’m only using Aurora Store for things like banking, taxi, or food delivery apps, and those are usually working great. Some banks are more trigger happy (shame on you, Revolut) while others seem to be okay. I really only miss Google Wallet. microG folks are working on Play Integrity, but it’s an ongoing battle: https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/issues/2967 https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/issues/2967
        2Gkashmiri 1mo ago
        https://ibb.co/SDR5h19f https://ibb.co/SDR5h19f
  - neves 1mo ago
    F-Droid was a blow of fresh air. Nice apps that help me do something, instead of exploding ads in my face. It's my first stop of new apps.
    - deleted 1mo ago
      [deleted]
  - paimapi 1mo ago
    I am a little wary how many of the newer apps on F-Droid seem fully vibe-coded. there's only so many 'brain training' games and 'fully offline notes' that one really needs I wish there was a 'ranking' feature that periodically (maybe daily?) pulled down star/contributor numbers so you could at least look at projects that are more likely to receive continuing support and have basic hygiene like Dependabot alerts that said, migrating off so many of the Google-native or phone manufacturer apps has been such a liberatory feeling. I do some community organizing in my free-time and am a huge FOSS evangelist in those spaces. there's so many similar values, namely anti-surveillance, and but for resistance to change and preference for hyperpalatable UX, it's such a natural fit
  - smashed 1mo ago
    This. I was looking for a quick Dart board score tracker app to keep scores for family games. The play store results were ATROCIOUS and user hostile, forcing account creation, full screen video ads and other BS. I remembered I had f-droid and I found a perfect, no bullshit app that does exactly what I needed and no ads.
- Fabricio20 1mo ago
  On the user side my experience with F-Droid is auto updates dont work and I constantly get a "repository not reachable" f-droid error every now and then popping up on my phone (that little small middle-of-screen toast) when im doing something else completely unrelated. Might be a regional thing.
  - nisiddharth 1mo ago
    I use the Droid-ify client and rarely get issues: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.looker.droidify/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.looker.droidify/
  - yjftsjthsd-h 1mo ago
    You might consider one of the alternative front ends. Won't fix the repos being unavailable, but will fix notifications about it.
  - ryukoposting 1mo ago
    I get the F-Droid toasts once every few weeks or so. To me, it's worth it. Finding a tolerable weather app on the Play Store is impossible nowadays. Finding one on F-Droid is easy.
  - tcfhgj 1mo ago
    I have never seen this error, and auto updates do work for me. They are a blessing when auto updates were finally possible with the official F-Droid app.
  - goobatrooba 1mo ago
    Same problem here, but only for a few apps (e.g. signal)
- echelon 1mo ago
  F-Droid is a nerd solution and will be used by 0.00001% of the total market. There are more people that will use Linux on desktop than will use F-Droid. We need governments to mandate both Apple and Google to allow web installs of apps. No requirement for Apple/Google pay, Apple/Google login, or Apple/Google services. Total freedom for users, for developers, and for competitors. This duopoly has fucked over America and the EU by training us to think only these two companies have the right to decide what gets to be on your phone that you pay for. They've created a moat so strong that it's impossible to compete with Android/iPhone, so the market cannot even have healthy competition. F-Droid is not the answer. Regulation is. And I'll have none of this fangirl/fanboy "but my grandma will fall for scams" nonsense. Google and Amazon and all the platforms have scammy ads on their platforms. Nobody's doing anything about that. Technology can be sandboxed, permissioned, signed, fingerprinted, attested, scanned, and blacklisted. It's easy to make this safe in the year of our lord 2026. Don't pretend we don't have a million ways to make this safe for your meemaw. She's more likely to fall down the stairs or get a scam call. Regulate Google. Regulate Apple. Make our phones free.
  - Ajedi32 1mo ago
    Google already allows web installs on Android, no regulation required. But yes, iOS allowing that would be excellent.
    - echelon 1mo ago
      Behind eight menu settings, a scare wall, and unfriendly UX with additional constant scares. Oh, and also they're rolling it back by adding additional hurdles. Directionally, they're starting to remove it.
  - voakbasda 1mo ago
    The government is not going to regulate them, any more than they are going to fix the countless other cartels that operate with impunity.
    - echelon 1mo ago
- majorchord 1mo ago
  There are downsides to F-Droid too: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/android/obtaining-apps/?h=f+droid#f-droid https://www.privacyguides.org/en/android/obtaining-apps/?h=f...
varispeed 1mo ago
Crappy state of affairs is that the tax payer funded regulators twiddle their thumbs and do nothing about it. Corporation like Google should have been fined to the edge of bankruptcy for such predatory behaviour.
- ApolloFortyNine 1mo ago
  >Corporation like Google should have been fined to the edge of bankruptcy for such predatory behaviour. Google has an alternative at least (can download other app stores, apks, and have been able to for 15 years), I have no idea how Apple has been allowed to get away with what they do.
  - mrkstu 1mo ago
    Better framing in their lawsuits- being a ‘market’ is less a thing in a monoculture- i.e. the market for Apple phones vs the market for all Android phones from a variety of makers. Also in the worldwide market it most definitely isn’t a monopoly in phones at all- which is exactly why the EU had to reform their laws (DMA ect)to get regulatory powers over them.
    - AnthonyMouse 1mo ago
      "It's not a monopoly" is exactly the framing. Antitrust isn't inherently concerned with monopolies, it's concerned with market power. It's just that a monopolist has no room to move in claiming that they don't have market power. They also play this trick where they pretend the only market is "phones" and ignore all of the complementary markets they're tying together with their phones, like app distribution and browser engines etc., since the market definitions for those shouldn't be the same as it is for "phones" when an app store that can be used on Google and Samsung phones can't be used (and therefore doesn't compete) on Apple phones and vice versa.
  - trashcan_man 1mo ago
    I never understood the argument that Apple's hostility to developers was unfair. The business proposition is simple: "Buy our overpriced hardware with our famously inflexible and invasive software and sign this massive, legally-binding contract agreeing that you understand all of the above to extract further value out of the Apple ecosystem." The "App Store" is just a natural extension of the club. As far as I'm concerned, they can gatekeep and sloppify as much as they want. Apple users agree to this. I've never felt slighted that I couldn't hack apart my iPad - though I will absolutely do it once somebody cracks the code and gets a proper Linux kernel running.
Markoff 1mo ago
it certainly worked few days ago, I see last successful updates on August 26, tried just now and it doesn't work now
ajross 1mo ago
This just should not be the top comment here. HN being HN, it's way, way too bent out of shape about the company name attached to the app store and not the minutiae of tax policy, which is what this is really about. The app in question declares itself this way: AnkiDroid is a free, open-source flashcard app for Android with over 10 million installs, used worldwide for various purposes, primarily in medical education and language learning. But it's registered as a 501(c)(6) non-profit, which is a designation for a "business league or industry association". This is what you use if you're a Chamber of Commerce, not a flash card app! Obviously we're all reading this expecting that Anki is a 501(c)(3) charity, like most open source organizations, and it's just not. And the distinction is definitely impactful for tax purposes, something a payment processor is going to care about. Both organizations are exempt from tax themselves, but charitable donations are also deductable, and Anki isn't a charity. Likely Google isn't set up to record the distinction in an auditable way. The bottom line is that Anki's lawyers messed up. Or plausibly are running some kind of scam (e.g. they take the "donations" and then hand them over to a for-profit "member" company). They need to fix their registration if they want to take money from people, this isn't how you do it and this is surely not the only problem they'll have. Seriously, my Fraud Meter is dinging at about 19.6% here...
- kam 1mo ago
  Google is not the payment processor. This is about the app including a link to a donation page on opencollective.com. Other 501(c)(6) organizations you might have heard of include the Linux Foundation and the Rust Foundation.
  - ajross 1mo ago
    Do LF and Rust solicit individual donations via phone apps (or at all, really)? Indeed, those are structured as corporate-funded consortiums of exactly the type you'd be very suspicious of if, say, your kernel or compiler logs started stuffing a donation link into the stream! Note that GNU software does historically mention donations (not in the logs AFAIK), and indeed the FSF is a 501(c)(3).
    - 1mo ago
riedel 1mo ago
90% of my apps (all except for banking, streaming and ev charging app) are installed without play store. Beyond FDroid with custom repos, I actually came to like Komi-Store in combination with obtainium. I really wonder what will happen when Google enforces their own registered developer signatures. I hope there is a crucial mass of apps outside of Play store until then to generate some heard protests.
- elAhmo 1mo ago
  If you think average person buying an Android smartphone will use something like Komi-Store, obtanium or anything like that, you are in for a treat.
notatoad 1mo ago
if i had a commercial app that i wanted to distribute off the play store, what are the options?
- megagpt3 1mo ago
  Put an APK file download on your website, but it won't help discoverability.
  - Matumio 1mo ago
    You can also publish your own f-droid repository, like Threema did. (And ask users to buy a license.)
- mvdtnz 1mo ago
  Build it on the web. Almost no software needs to be in an app.
megagpt2 1mo ago
Apps can only exit the store after users do.
- ranger_danger 1mo ago
  Not everyone publishes apps to make money or get the highest number of users though.
- skeledrew 1mo ago
  But users won't exit while they can find apps they want there. It's the apps doing the primary pulling.
OsrsNeedsf2P 1mo ago
I've started to see more B2C business apps not be on the Play Store, like Veed is online web

renegat0x0 1mo ago

I think there are more and more apps on f-droid. On my end the experience was more pleasant on f-droid than on Google. On f-droid I had to manually push some things, in repositories. That I solved in a week or so. On Google end I had to verify my account. Which was not easy feat. - had to provide my ID several times, because it got rejected multiple times - I uploaded driving license - the verification process was stuck - only after help ticket google employee pushed it forward - I had to provide many more details, also had to use banking to pay substantial amount of money - I currently trying to create app, but it requires 14 testers, and it can still be rejected, if their involvement was too poor I am wondering what more things Google will invent to make my life worse. By the way my app: https://github.com/rumca-js/OfflineWebSearch https://github.com/rumca-js/OfflineWebSearch

Ajedi32 1mo ago
From a user perspective I think F-Droid is really good too, mainly because it only allows FOSS apps by default, which cuts out a lot of the BS you see in Play Store apps. You can go download a random, no-name app from F-Droid and be very confident it does what it says on the tin and won't be riddled with ads or spam you with notifications.
- 2Gkashmiri 1mo ago
  Thats the only reason for at least me to use f droid and I have for the last decade I think. It "just works". As opposed to play store apps requiring "play store services" meaning having to sign into play store. It refuses to do so on a FOSS principle so I am literally cut off from a lot of apps. Aurora store helps but apps that "require play store services" don't work.
  - notpushkin 1mo ago
    > "play store services" meaning having to sign into play store Not necessarily. Most apps that require Play Services should work fine even if you’re not logged into Google. You do, however, have to have the “gapps” installed. (Some apps would also actually check whether you’ve installed them from the Google Play store and not, say, Aurora, but from my experience most don’t bother.) Also, perhaps look into microG? It reimplements the Play Services APIs, but is FOSS and only connects to Google servers when it’s necessary for some functionality (e.g. if you enable push notifications): https://microg.org/ https://microg.org/
    - 2Gkashmiri 1mo ago
      I have microg installed but it doesn't do anything? It also needs to be logged in? Gapps is what exactly. I have stock android on oneplus, just don't have play store signed in. Many apps refuse to work.
      - notpushkin 1mo ago
        I’m using microG without signing in. Could you tell me a bit about what apps you’re using that you’re having trouble with? A good way to sidestep all those issues is getting your “everyday” apps from F-Droid :-) I’m only using Aurora Store for things like banking, taxi, or food delivery apps, and those are usually working great. Some banks are more trigger happy (shame on you, Revolut) while others seem to be okay. I really only miss Google Wallet. microG folks are working on Play Integrity, but it’s an ongoing battle: https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/issues/2967 https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/issues/2967
        2Gkashmiri 1mo ago
        https://ibb.co/SDR5h19f https://ibb.co/SDR5h19f
- neves 1mo ago
  F-Droid was a blow of fresh air. Nice apps that help me do something, instead of exploding ads in my face. It's my first stop of new apps.
  - deleted 1mo ago
    [deleted]
- paimapi 1mo ago
  I am a little wary how many of the newer apps on F-Droid seem fully vibe-coded. there's only so many 'brain training' games and 'fully offline notes' that one really needs I wish there was a 'ranking' feature that periodically (maybe daily?) pulled down star/contributor numbers so you could at least look at projects that are more likely to receive continuing support and have basic hygiene like Dependabot alerts that said, migrating off so many of the Google-native or phone manufacturer apps has been such a liberatory feeling. I do some community organizing in my free-time and am a huge FOSS evangelist in those spaces. there's so many similar values, namely anti-surveillance, and but for resistance to change and preference for hyperpalatable UX, it's such a natural fit
- smashed 1mo ago
  This. I was looking for a quick Dart board score tracker app to keep scores for family games. The play store results were ATROCIOUS and user hostile, forcing account creation, full screen video ads and other BS. I remembered I had f-droid and I found a perfect, no bullshit app that does exactly what I needed and no ads.
Fabricio20 1mo ago
On the user side my experience with F-Droid is auto updates dont work and I constantly get a "repository not reachable" f-droid error every now and then popping up on my phone (that little small middle-of-screen toast) when im doing something else completely unrelated. Might be a regional thing.
- nisiddharth 1mo ago
  I use the Droid-ify client and rarely get issues: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.looker.droidify/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.looker.droidify/
- yjftsjthsd-h 1mo ago
  You might consider one of the alternative front ends. Won't fix the repos being unavailable, but will fix notifications about it.
- ryukoposting 1mo ago
  I get the F-Droid toasts once every few weeks or so. To me, it's worth it. Finding a tolerable weather app on the Play Store is impossible nowadays. Finding one on F-Droid is easy.
- tcfhgj 1mo ago
  I have never seen this error, and auto updates do work for me. They are a blessing when auto updates were finally possible with the official F-Droid app.
- goobatrooba 1mo ago
  Same problem here, but only for a few apps (e.g. signal)
echelon 1mo ago
F-Droid is a nerd solution and will be used by 0.00001% of the total market. There are more people that will use Linux on desktop than will use F-Droid. We need governments to mandate both Apple and Google to allow web installs of apps. No requirement for Apple/Google pay, Apple/Google login, or Apple/Google services. Total freedom for users, for developers, and for competitors. This duopoly has fucked over America and the EU by training us to think only these two companies have the right to decide what gets to be on your phone that you pay for. They've created a moat so strong that it's impossible to compete with Android/iPhone, so the market cannot even have healthy competition. F-Droid is not the answer. Regulation is. And I'll have none of this fangirl/fanboy "but my grandma will fall for scams" nonsense. Google and Amazon and all the platforms have scammy ads on their platforms. Nobody's doing anything about that. Technology can be sandboxed, permissioned, signed, fingerprinted, attested, scanned, and blacklisted. It's easy to make this safe in the year of our lord 2026. Don't pretend we don't have a million ways to make this safe for your meemaw. She's more likely to fall down the stairs or get a scam call. Regulate Google. Regulate Apple. Make our phones free.
- Ajedi32 1mo ago
  Google already allows web installs on Android, no regulation required. But yes, iOS allowing that would be excellent.
  - echelon 1mo ago
    Behind eight menu settings, a scare wall, and unfriendly UX with additional constant scares. Oh, and also they're rolling it back by adding additional hurdles. Directionally, they're starting to remove it.
- voakbasda 1mo ago
  The government is not going to regulate them, any more than they are going to fix the countless other cartels that operate with impunity.
  - echelon 1mo ago
majorchord 1mo ago
There are downsides to F-Droid too: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/android/obtaining-apps/?h=f+droid#f-droid https://www.privacyguides.org/en/android/obtaining-apps/?h=f...

varispeed 1mo ago

Crappy state of affairs is that the tax payer funded regulators twiddle their thumbs and do nothing about it. Corporation like Google should have been fined to the edge of bankruptcy for such predatory behaviour.

ApolloFortyNine 1mo ago
>Corporation like Google should have been fined to the edge of bankruptcy for such predatory behaviour. Google has an alternative at least (can download other app stores, apks, and have been able to for 15 years), I have no idea how Apple has been allowed to get away with what they do.
- mrkstu 1mo ago
  Better framing in their lawsuits- being a ‘market’ is less a thing in a monoculture- i.e. the market for Apple phones vs the market for all Android phones from a variety of makers. Also in the worldwide market it most definitely isn’t a monopoly in phones at all- which is exactly why the EU had to reform their laws (DMA ect)to get regulatory powers over them.
  - AnthonyMouse 1mo ago
    "It's not a monopoly" is exactly the framing. Antitrust isn't inherently concerned with monopolies, it's concerned with market power. It's just that a monopolist has no room to move in claiming that they don't have market power. They also play this trick where they pretend the only market is "phones" and ignore all of the complementary markets they're tying together with their phones, like app distribution and browser engines etc., since the market definitions for those shouldn't be the same as it is for "phones" when an app store that can be used on Google and Samsung phones can't be used (and therefore doesn't compete) on Apple phones and vice versa.
- trashcan_man 1mo ago
  I never understood the argument that Apple's hostility to developers was unfair. The business proposition is simple: "Buy our overpriced hardware with our famously inflexible and invasive software and sign this massive, legally-binding contract agreeing that you understand all of the above to extract further value out of the Apple ecosystem." The "App Store" is just a natural extension of the club. As far as I'm concerned, they can gatekeep and sloppify as much as they want. Apple users agree to this. I've never felt slighted that I couldn't hack apart my iPad - though I will absolutely do it once somebody cracks the code and gets a proper Linux kernel running.

Markoff 1mo ago

it certainly worked few days ago, I see last successful updates on August 26, tried just now and it doesn't work now

ajross 1mo ago

This just should not be the top comment here. HN being HN, it's way, way too bent out of shape about the company name attached to the app store and not the minutiae of tax policy, which is what this is really about. The app in question declares itself this way: AnkiDroid is a free, open-source flashcard app for Android with over 10 million installs, used worldwide for various purposes, primarily in medical education and language learning. But it's registered as a 501(c)(6) non-profit, which is a designation for a "business league or industry association". This is what you use if you're a Chamber of Commerce, not a flash card app! Obviously we're all reading this expecting that Anki is a 501(c)(3) charity, like most open source organizations, and it's just not. And the distinction is definitely impactful for tax purposes, something a payment processor is going to care about. Both organizations are exempt from tax themselves, but charitable donations are also deductable, and Anki isn't a charity. Likely Google isn't set up to record the distinction in an auditable way. The bottom line is that Anki's lawyers messed up. Or plausibly are running some kind of scam (e.g. they take the "donations" and then hand them over to a for-profit "member" company). They need to fix their registration if they want to take money from people, this isn't how you do it and this is surely not the only problem they'll have. Seriously, my Fraud Meter is dinging at about 19.6% here...

kam 1mo ago
Google is not the payment processor. This is about the app including a link to a donation page on opencollective.com. Other 501(c)(6) organizations you might have heard of include the Linux Foundation and the Rust Foundation.
- ajross 1mo ago
  Do LF and Rust solicit individual donations via phone apps (or at all, really)? Indeed, those are structured as corporate-funded consortiums of exactly the type you'd be very suspicious of if, say, your kernel or compiler logs started stuffing a donation link into the stream! Note that GNU software does historically mention donations (not in the logs AFAIK), and indeed the FSF is a 501(c)(3).
  - 1mo ago

riedel 1mo ago

90% of my apps (all except for banking, streaming and ev charging app) are installed without play store. Beyond FDroid with custom repos, I actually came to like Komi-Store in combination with obtainium. I really wonder what will happen when Google enforces their own registered developer signatures. I hope there is a crucial mass of apps outside of Play store until then to generate some heard protests.

elAhmo 1mo ago
If you think average person buying an Android smartphone will use something like Komi-Store, obtanium or anything like that, you are in for a treat.

notatoad 1mo ago

if i had a commercial app that i wanted to distribute off the play store, what are the options?

megagpt3 1mo ago
Put an APK file download on your website, but it won't help discoverability.
- Matumio 1mo ago
  You can also publish your own f-droid repository, like Threema did. (And ask users to buy a license.)
mvdtnz 1mo ago
Build it on the web. Almost no software needs to be in an app.

megagpt2 1mo ago

Apps can only exit the store after users do.

ranger_danger 1mo ago
Not everyone publishes apps to make money or get the highest number of users though.
skeledrew 1mo ago
But users won't exit while they can find apps they want there. It's the apps doing the primary pulling.

OsrsNeedsf2P 1mo ago

I've started to see more B2C business apps not be on the Play Store, like Veed is online web