The Play Store is a great store for Android apps, but it’s not the only way to get software for Google and the F-Droid is another one more interesting options as an alternative or additional storage.

Digital distribution platforms for mobile applications grew at an incredible rate as sales of smartphones and tablets that needed applications and games to take advantage of them grew. Apple’s App Store is the largest exponent of all of them, the most profitable (by far) on the planet and an essential part of Apple’s multimillion-dollar mobility business.

Google’s Android counterpart is the Play Store. As an official store, it is a reference page for obtaining software for the system thanks to its ease of use, security, tens of thousands of solutions to choose from (many of them for free) and, of course, Google support. However, there are a number of other resources for Android software, especially if you deviate from the standard and use your own ROMs to help extend the life of your smartphone.

F-Droid and commitment to FOSS

Technically, the F-Droid is not an “app store” because like free and open source software repository (FOSS) or “Catalog of free software applications for Android” as they quote, it is the opposite of a commercial platform. Although it is possible to donate, everything included is completely free.

What makes open source software unique is that its code is freely available to anyone. In addition, it can be audited and improved by any developer. FOSS goes further and also includes free software, different from open source, but undoubtedly interconnected open source.

FOSS developers are also generally interested in the ethics and morals of software distribution, making the F-Droid a popular app store for some of the most popular alternative ROMs for Android.

The F-Droid is independent of Google

One of the big differences between an official store and this platform is Google independencebecause F-Droid applications can work without Google Play servicesGoogle’s mobile service, which includes a set of Google apps that are typically pre-installed or pre-installed on smartphones or tablets sold with Android.

Perhaps for this reason, it is common to see the F-Droid as the preferred store for applications in its own ROMs, such as LineageOS and GrapheneOSwhich by default do not include these Google Play services and the common applications that depend on them to work properly.

If you’re looking for alternatives to Google, more privacy and a mobile experience with enhanced security, the F-Droid makes it possible. Note that it is possible to download FOSS applications from other websites, but this platform makes it easier to find, install and update them. it is much easier to find them.

How to use the F-Droid

It’s as easy as downloading a client (executable APK) from their website and install it like any other Android application. If you are using a “standard” mobile phone with Play services installed and have not modified it, you may need to grant additional permissions to install the software from alternative sources.

The application is configured and designed like most applications. other app stores. There is a “Latest” tab for new apps, a “Categories” tab for browsing by genre, a “Nearby” tab that allows you to install apps from other devices or browse the storage or mirrors on your SD card, and a “Notification” tab that displays application. which updates are available.

There is also a search and download feature that can be enforced through the TOR network (requires Orbot) to improve privacy. Have user forum and various help documents including tools for creating additional or alternative repositories for publishing applications or assisting in creating, testing, and submitting metadata to the main repository.

Some applications are labeled “Anti-Feature”, which explains that such software may not be particularly welcome for privacy users, and may include location tracking, advertising, in-app purchases, or source code that is no longer available compared to standard of all FOSS motion software.

To install the application, visit its page directly or search for it by searching, click install and that’s it. It should be mentioned, although you already know that number of applications available on the F-Droid (over 3,000) is far from the three million offered by Google Play.

Obviously this is not an alternative for most, but if you want to get rid of the official store and / or supplement it and you can survive in mobility without Google, the F-Droid is the best you will find and a good way to try other things beyond what internet giant offers.