Image by computergottyt from Pixabay
Binnen F-Droid treft je alleen FOSS Android apps aan. Een mooi startpunt om je te verlossen van het BIG Tech datagraaien.
This was the first time F-Droid had an official presence at IndiaFOSS, and I honestly did not know what to expect.
We actually had quite a lot of people coming by. Most were students, and many had never heard of F-Droid before. That made it a different experience.
A lot of the conversations started with the basics. What is F-Droid? Why would someone use it? How does it work? Can I put my app on it? Are there any subscription charges like apps on Play store?
Some people stayed and talked for a while. Some came back later with friends. Quite a few came up just to say that they were glad F-Droid was there. That last part was probably the nicest surprise.
People were also asking how they could help. We need that. F-Droid needs developers, but we also need testers and people willing to spend time using things, finding problems and reporting them properly.
There was a lot of discussion about AI too: People were tired of AI being pushed into every app and every product. There was quite a bit of frustration about AI-generated code and what everyone calls “AI slop”. Some people asked whether F-Droid would have an AI policy and how applications or contributions that make heavy use of AI should be handled. Those are not simple questions. There is a difference between using AI as a tool and simply generating something that nobody has properly understood, tested or taken responsibility for.
It was interesting to hear people asking these questions already. There seems to be a desire to get back to something a little more normal: build something, read the code, test it, fix it, talk to people and ship it.
The Android conversations were interesting too: People asked about Google’s Android Developer Verification system, certified devices and what these changes could mean for developers distributing outside Google Play. We talked about LineageOS, GrapheneOS and /e/OS, and the different choices people are making around Android.
Along came the Digital Markets Act. People wanted to know what the DMA and the European Commission’s work around Android might mean for alternative app stores, and whether all of these changes would make it harder for developers to distribute software independently.
These were not really abstract policy discussions. People wanted to know what would happen to their apps, their devices and their ability to distribute software.
F-Droid 2.0 was a regular topic. Several people came with issues and the missing download button on website, sometimes simply showing us what was happening on their phones.
We also met a lot of people from other projects. Our booth was next to the XMPP folks, with Badri, Divya, Perry and the rest of the group. It was really nice being alongside them for the two days.
I already knew quite a few people at IndiaFOSS, so the booth also became a place for old conversations to continue and new ones to start.
There was a recurring reaction from people who discovered us: “Wow, F-Droid is here!”
We even got invited to UbuntuCon to give a talk and several people told us that we should set up at MumbaiFOSS in October.
There was also quite a bit of interest in F-Droid’s presence in India and Asia. Many people were happy to hear that someone from India is on the F-Droid Board, and that there are possibilities for F-Droid to do more in this part of the world.
That was particularly nice for me. F-Droid is a global project, but there is a lot happening in India and across Asia that we can connect with.
The first floor was probably the one thing that worked against us. Plenty of people simply did not come upstairs, so I am sure we missed a lot of potential visitors.
The venue itself was big, but it was also hot. We were near one of the dome-like areas, and after standing there for two days, the heat certainly added to the tiredness.
Bengaluru was another story. The food nearby was good, but the hotel room was very small and the local transport was not quite as friendly to our wallets. Some of the auto drivers seemed to realise very quickly that we were from another city, and the prices almost always reflected that.
For my spouse, though, the whole experience seemed to be quite fun.
She went to IndiaFOSS knowing little about F-Droid and ended up spending two days talking about it to complete strangers. She found the whole thing interesting, full of enthusiasm and fun. She even sold more merchandise than I did. 😀
She also watched me being interviewed by some college students. Apparently, I was quite good and honest in the interview.
Her other observation was rather amusing. She said that my side of the FOSS and FLOSS world, if it were recorded properly and shown to our family members, would probably amaze them. It is apparently a very different world from the one they normally see.
She also called me a “mini celebrity”. Very mini, I should point out.
We came back tired, with fewer stickers, less merchandise and a lot more conversations.
And apparently, my spouse is now better at running an F-Droid booth than I am. I suppose I will have to remember that for the next one. 😉
After more than a year of hard work, we are thrilled to announce the launch of F-Droid 2.0, a complete redesign of the official F-Droid app and the largest app update in 10 years.
For more than a decade, F-Droid has helped people discover and install free and open source Android apps. F-Droid 2.0 builds on that foundation with a modern interface, better app discovery, improved search, and a simpler experience that works well, whether you’re new to F-Droid or have been using it for years.
This isn’t just a visual refresh. The user experience was redesigned to integrate smoothly with current Android patterns, like Material Design, while keeping familiar F-Droid interactions in place. Key components were reworked and rewritten using Kotlin Compose, the standard toolkit these days, creating a foundation that will help us deliver improvements more quickly in the years ahead.
We are excited to begin rolling out F-Droid 2.0 to users over the coming weeks after 14 test releases.
One of our main goals for F-Droid 2.0 was to make it easier to discover, install, and maintain the apps you rely on. We simplified the main navigation into three core areas: Discover, Search and My Apps. Categories are now integrated into Discover, making it easier to browse and explore, while My Apps provides a central place to manage installed apps, updates, and potential issues. Settings and Nearby Swap are still only a tap away from the top bar, but no longer compete for space in the main navigation.
Helping people discover relevant free and open source software (FOSS) was one of the primary goals of F-Droid 2.0. As the F-Droid ecosystem has grown to thousands of applications, finding the right app has become increasingly challenging. The new release introduces improvements throughout the app from browsing and categories to search to make it easier to find software that matches your needs. And of course, F-Droid does this without tracking you, or trying to “engage” you to spend increasingly more time in the app.
The new Discover screen helps uncover apps you might otherwise miss. In addition to highlighting newly added and recently updated apps, it now showcases the most downloaded apps in the repository. Whether you’re new to F-Droid or looking for something different, Discover provides several ways to explore the growing ecosystem of free and open source Android applications.
Categories play an important role in helping users browse the repository, so we’ve expanded and refined them significantly, including more specialized categories that make it easier to find specific types of apps, such as VPNs, firewalls, password managers, launches and navigation tools. Here is what you can expect:
First, we’ve significantly expanded the category system. Instead of relying on a small number of broad categories, F-Droid now includes many more specialized categories, helping you get closer to the kind of app you want in just a few taps, even before you start searching.
Second, to make this expanded category system easier to navigate, we’ve introduced higher-level “meta” categories in the Discover screen. These group related categories together and provide a more approachable entry point for browsing the growing F-Droid ecosystem.
Finally, categories now play a larger role throughout the app. Their names and descriptions are used to improve app discovery and help guide users toward relevant free and open source applications.
As an example of this effort, we’ve completely reworked the Games category. Rather than grouping all games together, F-Droid 2.0 now distinguishes between 17 different game genres, making it much easier to find the kinds of games you actually enjoy playing.
Search has also been significantly improved. In addition to app names, it can now search app descriptions, categories, and translated content. This makes it easier to find apps based on what they do rather than what they’re called.
We’ve also made major improvements for users searching in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. The new search system provides much better support for CJK writing systems, helping users find relevant apps more reliably in their own language.
Search also remembers your recent queries, allowing you to quickly return to previous searches without having to type them again.
Browsing and searching are only part of the story. F-Droid 2.0 also introduces powerful filtering options that help you narrow down large lists of apps to exactly what you’re looking for.
Filters can be combined using multiple criteria, such as app category, device compatibility, or anti-features. For example, you can choose to view only Action Games that are compatible with your device and exclude apps that depend on non-free network services.
To help users discover these and other advanced capabilities, F-Droid 2.0 introduces onboarding screens throughout the app. Rather than hiding features behind complex settings, the app provides contextual guidance to help both new and experienced users get the most out of F-Droid.
For the longest time, the experience of clicking install or update was forced to be second rate by Android. Now, thanks largely to pressure from the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) and anti-trust actions around the world, Android offers all app stores an option for a smoother and more automatic install and update experience than before. F-Droid 2.0 includes groundbreaking work on utilizing these new abilities. This allows F-Droid to use a unified installer for all F-Droid installs, whether built into the OS or you installed it on your device yourself. The unified installer makes use of the new pre-approval API, so that on supported devices the user can confirm right after deciding to install the app, instead of after the app was downloaded. That brings the F-Droid install experience on official Android devices much closer to what the built-in app store can provide.
A redesign of this size means making careful decisions about what belongs in the new app, what can be handled differently, and what no longer makes sense to carry forward. Some familiar features have changed, moved, or been removed as part of making F-Droid 2.0 more streamlined and easier to maintain, without sacrificing core functionality or features users rely on.
F-Droid 2.0 now fetches and installs app updates by default. If you prefer more control, no worries, your existing preferences are still respected.
Some users missed the pull-to-refresh gesture for checking all repositories for updates. In F-Droid 2.0, the pulling gesture is exclusively for scrolling. This is now possible because the app can now automatically check for updates in the background. Rather than preserving a familiar action, we focused on removing the need for it. The best refresh button is the one you never have to press.
Users who want more control still have fine-grained and manual update options available. If you used pull-to-refresh to manually trigger updates, that is now available under the action overflow menu, e.g. the “three dots”, on the My Apps screen.
F-Droid gives you control of what get’s downloaded when. This helps fit our diverse users around the world, who have varying requirements. Many users have cheap access to mobile data, while mobile data is prohibitively expensive for others. Some users have heightened privacy requirements, so they need to control their network traffic. While others are using limited devices which bog down when F-Droid updates in the background. The settings which control all this were reworked to make adapting F-Droid to your needs more intuitive.
Some F-Droid users operate in environments where simply having certain apps installed or even using F-Droid can attract unwanted attention. To help support these users, F-Droid has long included a set of privacy and security features designed to protect both the user and their data.
One key privacy tool is Tor, and F-Droid has long supported using Tor for all network connections, and using Tor Onion Services for repositories and mirrors. The landscape of how Tor is integrated into Android has changed quite a bit since Tor support was first integrated. Now there is TorVPN, Orbot, TorServices and more. We took this opportunity to simplify the settings and remove the auto-detection that was no longer reliable. If you enabled “Use Tor”, that will be migrated to generic Proxy Settings. Going forward, Tor VPN is the recommended approach for easy Tor support, and the Proxy Settings are still available for those who need manual control.
Another key part is the set of “panic” features, which allow users to quickly remove some specific kinds of sensitive information from their device in emergency situations. These features are still included in F-Droid 2.0 and remain an important part of supporting users with elevated security needs.
Notably, the F-Droid app hiding feature has been simplified, to give users an accurate idea of the kind of protection they can expect. F-Droid was one of the first apps that began providing app hiding features to protect user privacy, including our “panic” feature which disguised the F-Droid app as a simple calculator app. This simple feature was requested by many users, and since then Orbot, TorVPN, Signal and others have added such masking features. Over time, a standard design has emerged across widely used apps, and we have adopted this design in the new release as well. This feature is designed so that users can better understand the limits of the disguise. Instead of the mask looking and functioning as a simple calculator app, now the mask only affects the app icon, name and nothing else. This informs users that the F-Droid app will still appear in the “Apps” settings and would be detectable during forensic inspection. This change will hopefully make it easier for users to understand the limits of this feature, while still utilizing it when needed.
One feature that has not yet returned is the ability to remove and wipe apps as a response to a panic trigger app like Ripple. We recognize that some users rely on this functionality for privacy and personal safety reasons and understand it is more than a usability feature. However, it requires highly specialized work to maintain, and given the small user base, we felt it should no longer block so many other important improvements.
The app-wiping feature remains an important feature. We would especially welcome feedback from people who use it, to help us understand how and when it is used, so we can evaluate the best path forward as we continue improving F-Droid 2.0. Users who rely on the current app-wiping implementation may opt to postpone updating to F-Droid 2.0 while we evaluate bringing the feature back.
F-Droid is designed to be integrated into any version of Android or AOSP, as we can see in CalyxOS, emteriaOS, iodéOS, Lineage-for-microG and ShiftOS. Each OS can include their own repositories by default using the “additional repos” mechanism. If you use one of these OSes, these will be visible in your Repositories overview. For additional info on what changed, check out this blog post.
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.
While many of the improvements in F-Droid 2.0 are visible on the surface, some of the most important changes happened behind the scenes.
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.
One of the goals of the rewrite was to lower the barrier for new contributors. Android development has changed significantly over the past decade, and F-Droid 2.0 is now built using Kotlin, the language that has become the standard for modern Android development. This makes it easier for developers familiar with today’s Android ecosystem to contribute to the project.
The new user interface is built with Jetpack Compose, the standard toolkit for Android applications. Beyond simplifying development, this helped us align F-Droid more closely with Material Design, the design system used throughout Android. As a result, F-Droid feels more familiar to Android users while remaining true to its own identity and values.
Most importantly, these changes provide a foundation for the next decade of F-Droid development. By reducing maintenance burden and making contributions easier, we can spend more time improving the experience for users and less time fighting technical debt. Some new tools also depend on fixes in Android itself, one such fix was added in Android 7 forcing us to drop support for Android 6. As always, old F-Droid releases will continue to work on old Android versions.
F-Droid 2.0 is one of the largest and most ambitious projects in our history. Bringing it to life required much more than software development. It involved user research, design, testing, documentation, community feedback, quality assurance, lots of new code, a security audit and countless discussions about how F-Droid should evolve over the next decade.
This work was made possible by the support of many organizations and individuals. Torsten Grote’s development work on the new app was funded by NLnet through the Mobifree fund. The Open Technology Fund’s User Experience & Discovery Lab supported user research and design work, bringing in Ura Design to help conduct user testing, develop user stories, and refine our Human Interface Guidelines.
Additional support came from the Open Technology Fund’s Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Sustainability Fund, NGI, Mobifree, and the Calyx Institute, whose sponsorship helps support the ongoing maintenance and long-term sustainability of the F-Droid ecosystem.
As part of this effort, the Open Technology Fund’s Security Lab in conjunction with Convocation conducted an independent security review of F-Droid 2.0. We analysed and addressed all findings relevant to the new application, helping ensure that the release meets the high security standards our users expect. We look forward to sharing the full audit report once it has been cleared for publication.
Just as importantly, F-Droid 2.0 reflects the contributions of many volunteers. Community members contributed code, testing, bug reports, design feedback, translations, documentation, UX discussions, and countless ideas throughout the redesign process. Both long-time contributors and people making their first contribution helped shape the final result.
Finally, this work would not have been possible without your support. Donations help fund many of the less visible but essential activities that grants don’t always cover, including community management, handling the issue backlog, quality assurance, release management, and project coordination. These contributions help keep F-Droid healthy long after a specific grant-funded project has ended.
F-Droid 2.0 represents a major milestone, but it is not the end of the story. Rebuilding the app has given us a stronger foundation, yet there is still plenty of work ahead.
As the rollout reaches more users, we expect to learn a great deal from real-world usage. Community feedback has shaped F-Droid 2.0 from its earliest design discussions through many alpha and RC releases, and it will continue to guide future improvements. Some ideas did not make it into the initial release, while other features are still evolving as we gather feedback and refine their design.
In the coming months, we will continue improving performance, accessibility, app discovery, and overall usability. We’ll also keep listening to users as they adapt to the new experience and help us identify opportunities for further improvement.
Like every major F-Droid release before it, version 2.0 is not a destination, it’s the beginning of the next chapter.
One area that continues to evolve is Nearby, the feature that allows users to share apps directly between devices without relying on a central server.
The broader F-Droid 2.0 redesign gave us an opportunity to rethink Nearby from the ground up. We have been working on a new implementation based on improved connection methods that should make sharing apps more reliable and easier to use.
This work is not quite ready for inclusion in the initial F-Droid 2.0 release, but development is actively underway and the foundations are already in place. If Nearby sharing is important to you, now is an excellent time to get involved. Community feedback and testing can help shape the next generation of the feature before it reaches a wider audience.
F-Droid 2.0 is the result of thousands of hours of work from developers, designers, testers, translators, donors, and community members around the world. Now that it is reaching users, we’d love your help making it even better.
If you’re receiving the update, take some time to explore the new experience and let us know what you think. Whether you’ve found a bug, have an idea for an improvement, or simply want to tell us what works well, your feedback helps guide future development.
If you’d like to get more involved, there are many ways to contribute.
You can help test upcoming features, improve translations and documentation, review issues, contribute code, or join discussions about the future of the project. New contributors are always welcome.
And if you’re able, please consider supporting F-Droid financially. Donations through Liberapay or OpenCollective help fund the ongoing work that keeps the project healthy between major releases, from infrastructure and quality assurance to community support and project coordination.
F-Droid 2.0 is a major milestone, but the work continues. Thank you for helping us build a free, open, and sustainable app ecosystem for Android.
Thanks to @linsui, we’ve unlocked a new way to add developer signed packages to apps for which we already provide packages signed by us. Historically, we’ve had two ways to setup reproducible builds. The first way, we host only the upstream package after we verify it to be reproducible. The second way, we get the signature of an upstream package, combine it with our locally built package and if they verify reproducibility, we host both our signed package and the upstream one.
The first path works better when the app is freshly included in F-Droid, so all new installs get the same package. But if we want to switch from the F-Droid version to the upstream signed one via this method, users need to backup, uninstall, reinstall and restore. We regularly announce such switches in these weekly posts.
The second path allows us to add the upstream package alongside our own, so new users get the new upstream signed one and old users get updates from us as usual. No uninstall, no backups, nothing changes. One issue is that for each new version somebody needs to extract the signature and open a merge request, no metadata autoupdate available (for now, help welcomed!).
The new third path - announced on this post - is a combination of the above two. It adds the upstream signed package alongside ours, like the second path above, but we use it directly. There is no need to extract signatures and metadata auto-updates are available. We keep the upstream package intact, since it needs to verify reproducibility, but we modify our own package with a lower versionCode so they don’t conflict.
Packages that are setup like this today:
2.20.3+free4.0.0 (Huge update by the way, see the developer post)1.6.8 this weekThis is not all perfect yet unfortunately as this method kinda “hacks” our metadata structure. We are tracking an issue about the way the preferred first installs are offered. The first two methods prioritize upstream packages, this one needs a fix to do so.
For now, we can guide users that want to install these apps for the first time to expand Versions in F-Droid client and install the top most version that is compatible with their devices even if the “suggested” label points to a lower versionCode until we fix it.
Librera Reader was updated to 9.6.17-fdroid and if the previous update made the app crash we’ve now fixed our build recipe. This version also brings an updated UI design.
0.14.30.120.10.00.14.12.5.13.1.21.2.50.30.76.6.40.8.180.13.01.6.11.12.11.61.5.131.0.97.2.31.6.11.2.30.18.3-beta6.1.01.15.31.3.41.12.11.1.50.94.0-banglejs91.0.080.0.03.172.4.00.4.02.3.01.0.611.75.41.1.11.0.572.4.52.3.23.6.0297881501.4.71.0.71.0.12.3.7.foss1.2.182.3.22.20.30.3.101.9.95.2.6-rc03.9.7.43.5.1642.9.41.0.20.2.45.1.01.0.13.1.12.11.33.Metav5.3.03.3.00.19.12.3212.0V0.1.0-RC11.17.06.8.01.19.111.5.22.32.15.1v1.0.0-beta.23.4.02.7.71.2.20.5.61.1.03.0.01.5.02.4.04.2.0 (Nounou)0.4.32.3.21.0.155.294.10.9.157.417.02.1.03.0.216.7.00.9.52.1.51.0.962.01.5.00.0.19-beta_hotfix13.5.01.6.01.23361.0.30.7.11.0.163.43.42.23.12.23.10.0.30_alpha1.31.5.4beta-14.03.2.772.8.00.5.62.2.64.4.72.9.51.8.01.7.312.10.3.012.10.6.086241.8.43.4.00.94.02.114.331.33.1.31.4.01.8.01.8.653.6.3.stable12.10.20.9.00.3.01.2.00.2.0-alpha071.6.155.89.00.13.1572.10.193.02.3.01.0.21.0.11.14.1323.0.0.92.6.11.9.10.6.04.3.02.7.3jmp-v1.7.23.1.18-FOSS0.2172.123.01.92026.09.121.35.164.5.44.4.0-foss1.2.12.1.44.0.52.6.00.19.31.1.71.41.0-fdroid0.0.25-beta4.2.31.5.02.5.82.5.01.2.0-beta.21.3.0\1.13.00.21.02.6.0-rc.20.17.01.12.3-release2.4.04.4.70.3.25.1.0.351.6.00.3.02.24.0670.1.64.11.61.2.51.5.01.0.23.24.02026.540.6.31.0.932.44.01.0.41.0.61.11.21.18.72.0.02.0.83.8.03.8.01.25.30.3.21.0.246.22.00.21.01.4.12.22.08-fdroid-160.41.3.01.7.11.50.9.51.5.21.3.62.0.51.0.3112.5.00.17.92026.91.28.4a1.28.4a1.2.31.8.17.5.1-f1.13.1v1.0.0-alpha552.12.11.4.11.2.01.1.94.6.82.0.015.0.035.0.02026091735.0.00.32.01.2.125.0.01.13.012.7.11.0.0-fdroid1.19.03.11.02.11.342.44.15.00.6.131.5.21.6.1714.0.90.6.00.8.51.0.311.14.0v6.9.11.2.126.09.62-fdroid2.2.00.30.2.01.382.8.01.8.11.5.00.97.12.2.31.8.301064.1.12.0.22.0.1v9.8.02.2.4-rc02.0.04.5.03.4.12.131.12.11.0.15.3.11.3.03.3.2512.11.01.2.31.431.3.42.1.81.4.12026.09.1191.02.0.32.11.01.0.81.2.132026.09.15.2371.1.501.0.180.2.12.0.41.7.00.45.00.1.1850.7.922.171.2.91.4.01.87.367.0.65.4.00.39.2 F-Droid1.0.20.0.423.30.17.33.8.10.6.03.1.1alpha-0.8.11.52.024.6.46.72.17.01.051.14.13.8.42.0.5:Apollo1.11.7.026.09.153.2.4432.473.6.50.0.8-alpha1.140.4.45.161.17.03.202.70.8.111.5.61.50.9.21.6.21.14.02.1.01.7.115-lite-fdroid0.7.019.0.11.6.11.0.432.2.21.102.4-t3caf7d9e7-g8fbef364a1.9.02.0.515.122.1.21.5.04.26.82.3.32.2.50.8.02.7.024.0b223.02.1.0-fdroid7.7.02.2.10.6.9841.0.7MatriX.143.FOSS2.19.12.3.11.4.12.3.10.9.621.3.21.14.1-store4.22.00.181.18.00.51.11.6.21.1.41.6.41.19.00.7.00.58.01.0.31.9.02.49.11.17.04.3.01.0.421.0.173.2.380.30.00.26.19r/50606-r-2026-09-09r/50606-r-2026-09-091.22.0559977.45.22.8.20.8.177.4.21.30.0.71.63.13.0Thank you for reading this week’s TWIF 🙂
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To help support F-Droid, please check out the donation page and contribute what you can.
Our fight with categories has been long and fruitful, more were added, soon more will be removed, perfection needs shuffling apps around in the hopes users find it easier to locate good apps that fulfill their needs.
Thanks to @linsui for aggregating the metadata and taking time to hunt appropriate apps. The new categories are:
CoMaps - Hike, Bike, Drive Offline with Privacy was updated to 2026.08.31-14-FDroid with some nice changes. One innovative new feature, that FLOSS maps users have been asking for year by now, is the integration of Mangrove user reviews for points of interest. For now they can only be seen, there’s work in progress to add edit options too. You can take a sneak peak on how many of these are in your area, using this page (zoom it). Also TIL: MapComplete has a way to view/edit reviews. The more the merrier!
Joplin was updated to a new major version, 3.7.8. The changelog looks enticing, so make sure both your server and app are updated in order to enjoy the enhancements. Of note, the server has an integrated MCP server that allows your notes to be processed by… you know what, if you wish so.
LocalSend Kotlin, An unofficial, lightweight Kotlin LocalSend client for older devices, is now in F-Droid. LocalSend is a great app for transfers between many devices, it’s written in Flutter and supports Android 7 and later. But at 46Mb it’s rather hefty, and maybe you need transfers to/from your older devices too. Here is where the new Kotlin app shines, it’s lightweight in size, 10 times smaller (no joke), but still allows fast & secure transfers, and it supports Android 5 and 6 too.
Monica F-Droid, Open-source password manager: local encryption, autofill, TOTP, Passkey, was just added. We have more than 60 apps in the Password & 2FA category, but while AIPOS Password Manager, updated to 1.2.2 this week, and PassVault could import Bitwarden data, this new app is the first one that can also sync that data (with self-hosted Vaultwarden instances) too.
OsmAnd~ was updated to 5.4.4 with a huge update. Just read the release post to get the full view on what’s new. My favorite fix: “Fixed navigation incorrectly ending after switching to another app and returning to OsmAnd”, wow, that was really annoying. For our Magyar users, it appears that your map issue has been fixed, do test! NOTE: The cleaning procedure for OSMAnd~ publishing is extensive, we don’t immediately push new updates to everyone, so brave users get a chance to drive it around and report any issues. If you want to install it now, you can go to the app page in F-Droid client, expand Versions and manually update or enable “Allow beta” in the upper right menu.
We know that OSMAnd~ while being feature full it’s also very heavy resource wise, we have more OpenStreetMap based maps apps, like CoMaps above and Organic Maps・Offline Map & GPS, updated to 2026.08.27-18-FDroid this week, and you might find them better for your use case/device.
SimpleX Chat was updated to 7.0.2 and missed last week was the announcement of the start of their crowdfunding campaign. Do read how to get a stake in SimpleX and a testimonial from an early investor. Also, don’t forget to bookmark the September 15 livestream event and the December 12 domains countdown.
Sky Map was updated to 2.0.3:Apollo with a full rewrite. Many things have changed and this opens the path for better development and nicer features.
If Sky Map seems too simple for your view of the Universe, Celestia was updated to 26.8.1 and brings you the full 3D experience of Space.
Taler Wallet was updated to 1.6.7 with important security fixes, so make sure you update soon.
Tsacdop - Podcast Player was updated to 1.0.2 after a five year pause, welcome back!
@shuvashish76 digs deep into the kernel:
AnkiDroid: Flashcards was updated to 2.24.1 fixing some security issues and more, do update as soon as possible. If your friends use some other centralized store, make sure they update too, or if they can’t (update not available, or… app gone) then do guide them to get the app from F-Droid.
App Manager was updated to 4.1.1, adding an interesting feature “Revoke Internet Permission via eBPF”. You need to read the news about how that works and its limitations. Our Firewall category has more than twenty apps, yet not everyone can use their local VPN method, so any new tricks might help. As usual, keep in mind that apps might use other ways to get access to or info from the Internet, like using other apps (Google Services, UnifiedPush provider, etc) so don’t be surprised when this happens.
If we talk about centralized stores, Fedilab was updated to 3.43.3 with fixes. What’s more noteworthy is that F-Droid is now the only place for users to get the app, as the other store asked the dev to censorship competing services and more awful things. The backup and restore process to switch to F-Droid is easy, so get started and announce your Fedi friends too! Notifications worry you? We have plenty of UnifiedPush apps that will take care of that.
@sidhant947 leaves us puzzled:
Puzzle Games was updated to 2.0.1 summing more than 300 games over 6 cognitive domains. Solving puzzles appears to be a very healthy way not only to pass time, but also help maintain your brain at any age. And it beats doomscrolling any day!
0.12.20.6.51.6.31.13.21.0.6v6.5.03.4.32.1.03.0.11.6.10.30.56.6.10.12.02.2.93.12.11.11.3v0.360.7.21.1.40.3.41.5.121.0.81.37.1.91.18.52.6.01.20.17.6-beta1.15.11.1.490.2.079.2.03.132.1.21.7.22.2.12.01.0.526.1.01.5.02.0.21.0.531.2.02.5.04.0.71.4.03.5.02.21.0.61.31.121.2.172.20.12.3.11.2.30.65.05.2.5-rc01.4.01.4.43.5.141.2.342.8.12.11.31.1.710.5.01.634.8.01.021.23.10.16.10.3.291.16.03.0.36.0.52.20.2+free2.04.1.1.1v0.12.0-alpha3.3.01.5.31.77.1-Datenspuren-Edition4.5.20-beta.1-ose2.7.52.19.02.8.22.7.02.2.04.1.4 (Labyrinth)0.7.71.0.140.4.35.292.15.5.03.0.01.1.116.6.01.0.41.0.3226.09.10.7.02.1.01.3.633.4.059.01.0.55-oss0.0.19-beta1.5.00.17.561.23331.31.6.01.0.141.77.2-FediDay-Edition1.17.1155.0.01.5.23.10.13.2.752.6.51.3.01.7.52.9.12.0.02.1.1220.4.14.4.42.9.41.7.22.3.212.10.2.01.1.11.8.41.0.41.46.11.0.162.114.180.1.52.5.51.5.10.2.91.9.00.2.01.241.2.23.8.15.87.776.394.9.50.13.1561.26.42.9.01.4.1189.01.8.01.14.116.04.1.0-foss23.0.0.81.9.191.77.2-InselChaos-Edition2.6.0build107.2.20.5.50.1.8v0.2.51.8.101.0.411.62.00.20.33.2.01.82026.09.054.5.32.4.41.2.01.1.11.1.00.1.14.0.42.5.02.3.31.4.00.994.2.21.3.12.11.50.3.02.5.30.85.02.3.326.2.6.39.5.7-fdroid0.2.64.8.02.6.0-rc.00.15.01.12.0-release0.9.11.5.00.10.1651.2.32026.530.6.21.0.872.37.42.5.02.13.31.0.41.17.12v4.0.61.0.11.5.012.10.1.112.10.1.16.19.10.20.01.33.9.53.12.18.02.0.31.2.81.41.3.61.3.53.9.7.31.8.45.5.12-release2.4.01.7.00.17.21.77.1-MRMCD-Edition1.12.0 Build 11.2.210.4.03.7.11.13.0v1.0.0-alpha512.11.01.3.152.4.12.2.04.6.71.15.014.5.835.0.0 RC1202609090.31.03.2.12.4.21.12.15.0.23.7.01.0.50.8.103.4.123.0.01.0.30.6.111.4.26.11.6.152.10.000.8.41.0.261.13.04.3.13.24.19.13.5.1.143.1.30.6.31.3.01.37v4.28.3irreproduciblev4.28.32.7.30.7.652.4.40.97.00.7.04.8.42.2.20.59.41.8.292026-09-08991.0.681.1.02.0.00.5.01.7.01.3.2231.97v9.7.72.2.3-rc01.9.04.4.12.121.2.11.123.0.00.4.72.8.01.1.103.3.211.151.4.20.9.812.9.41.8.51.4.32026.09.034.6.087.05.20.21.02.10.71.8.12.4.15.2.04.31.2.05.8.51.5.01.2.121.5.140.11.00.12.03.1.11.4.35.1.31.5.042.101.3.00.1.1575.5.480.1260-fdroid1.2.72.2.01.3.04.121.87.320.2609076.7.15.3.02.1.2a1.15.01.8.12.1.0-rc04.0.130.0.390.13.101.34.00.2.262.04.8.11.1.01.2.72.16.01.13.212.0.03.8.31.2.11.6.226.09.054.032.381.1.351.1.01.5.02.21.03.0.20.9.02.0.01.16.02.1.463.202.11.5.40.8.11.9.02.0.33.2.51.7.111-lite-fdroid1.86.1-fdroid1.3.318.21.21.0.822.1.5.01.27.61.0.422.2.11.6.30.2.74.26.11.2.26.5.2l5.1.1724.0b11.0.61.10.07.6.00.6.9822.4.11.9.1Beta-arm64-v8a2.19.03.28.2.02.3.01.3.12.3.03.3.120.9.610.5.82.26.51.3.0-12.47359.260904.0359.260904.01.52026.181.8.14.21.182.1.01.16.01.51.3.00.51.01.0.0-rc21.1.21.6.35.1.21.15.02.0.00.3.30.6.21.0.21.282.5.21.4.81.0.22.49.01.16.14.2.01.0.163.2.3441.1.13.0.02.00.4.4r/50605-r-2026-09-084.34.33.01.17.11.6.60.1.220.8.161.5.12.60.10.9.6-alpha8.2.11.4.16.5.17-FOSS1.9.00.69.04091.23.11.01.10.0Thank you for reading this week’s TWIF 🙂
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F-Droid and F-Droid Basic were updated to 2.0-rc1 with a fixes focused changelog. After our last TWIF we’ve sneakily promoted 2.0-rc0 as suggested for Basic updating all its users to our latest code. This made users happy to experience our improved app and made us happy to receive more crashes and issues reports. Having more people to test the UX and more devices/Android combinations to run the app help F-Droid get better.
Search has been one area that was greatly improved, with a better UX, better filtering and great results that pull info from categories and app data. So imagine our surprise when the user feedback was “search results make no sense” or worse “I get no results at all”.
We’ve posted a few days ago two test queries to exemplify how search should look. If you’ve updated to latest 2.0-rc1 and you don’t see any results, we are tracking this issue here. We’ve rarely seen random or unrelated search results in our testing before, and a fix was deployed for such cases, a database cleaning procedure that should run by itself daily, if necessary. The challenge for us now is to find out why some Android devices don’t run the fix, and we are gathering info in this issue. If you encounter any of these or any other problem, make sure you add your device info (model and Android version) to the existing open issues or to new ones. If Gitlab is grumpy and you can’t, you can still ping us on Fedi, Forum or anywhere else.
As part of our NLnet-funded GNU Taler project, we’ve completed a deliverable: exploring and implementing Taler support in the F-Droid client. App developers can try this now by getting an account for receiving Taler-based donations and publishing their Taler donation link in app metadata.
Catima — Loyalty Card Wallet was updated to 2.45.0 (F-Droid) and its dev, TheLastProject, wanted to add some news:
Catima 2.45.0 was released with Wear OS support (and switched to Reproducible Build on F-Droid). This marks the first time a Wear OS application is released to F-Droid.
Although Wear OS is a proprietary platform with no FOSS custom ROMs like Lineage and the likes available for it, it is based on Android and therefore you can basically write apps for it the same way you do for Android.
While there is no F-Droid client which supports Wear OS at this point, you can install the Wear OS Catima companion app from F-Droid (v1.0.0 Wear OS), enjoying the same general F-Droid confirmation that the app really is FOSS. Alternatively, if you have a smartphone that’s supported by Gadgetbridge, you can use Gadgetbridge support in Catima, which has existed since 2013 and is much more private than Wear OS is: Loyalty cards / passes.
For those curious about writing Wear OS apps without proprietary Google libraries, see our documentation.
Do you use Wear OS and how do you currently find FOSS apps for it and how do you install them? Let us know!
NOTE: Based on the lower versionCode of the Wear app, it will end up in the Archive repo at some point
Daniel Gultsch, the developer of Conversations has posted a 15 minute piece that’s worth a read, about digital independence and what 25 years of XMPP brings us. While we can hear echoes that very much define F-Droid too, like self-hosting, decentralization and federation, we have yet to dream of an IETF standard for “app distribution”. But if that time comes, will we have your vote?
GPSTest was updated to 3.10.6 after more than one and a half years. The changes are meant to maintain the app running in tip top shape.
Status - Chat, Wallet, Browser, Privacy super app with messenger, crypto wallet, browser, communities & more, was just added. Does the name seem familiar? It should, this is the brand new version of the app, a total rewrite as a separate app. You can read the introduction and migration post, and yes, you saw that date right, we’ve been collaborating with the developer since January to bring this app to F-Droid, and built reproducible! Since the old version a lot has changed, more than we could cover here, so do a deep-dive in past posts to get yourself up to date.
@ROllerozxa jumps on voxels to bring us the news:
Luanti was updated to 5.17.0 and users are advised to update immediately as it fixes security vulnerabilities affecting both the client and server. You can read the change-log here. Also please make sure your friends and game peers also update, specially users that have the app installed from other centralized stores, as we heard rumors not only that the update is not available there but that the app was outright removed on baseless accusations. Did anyone mumble “keep android open“?
Being busy with daily updates, fixes, reports, upstream feedback, client 2.0 development and more, did slow down our rate of new apps inclusion. Yes, the backlog is huge, but we thank the contributors helping to review and the developers for having patience with us.
0.11.11.131.13.10.9.04.00.7.04.2.01.2.40.0.311.2.01.5.00.30.42.4.16.5.20.11.01.0.162.4.46.76 Stable1.5.03.12.01.10.00.7.10.6.415.0.515.0.515.0.515.0.51.0.43.2.76.5.07.1.81.6.01.18.42.4.02.5.51.2.61.11.51.8.81.2.51.3.23.389.2.178.2.13.121.7.12.2.01.9.42.24.2.02.1.41.75.31.1.00.2.113.13.71.0.21.0.475.6.11.0.31.13.04.0.63.3.0297824556.2.2_freenet1.6.02.11.15.1.233.51.0.51.4.01.112.3.6.foss1.2.152.19.32.3.05.2.4-rc01.3.03.9.73.5.1242.7.11.0.12.11.21.1.51.27.1a.262.6.11.14.010.4.04.4.14.2.04.93.1.02.11.32.Meta3.2.00.3.272.0.1B0.0.201.15.01.1.46.0.42.2.114.6.31.20.61.0.56.0.00.51.7.00.6.82.1.2v0.8.2-alpha3.2.14.0.430.9.12.2.02.7.10.1.170.77.02.59.11.5.01.2.11.0.01.3.02.2.32.1.31.4.80.0.104.1.2 (Labyrinth)1.60.10.7.62.3.12.2.72.21.01.0.130.4.25.292.01.1.62.0.11.261.1.024.08.2026@0.1.116.5.04.8.126.08.131.10.14.01.0.81.3.611.0.53-oss0.0.17-beta_hotfix12.1.40.17.552.0-rc12.0-rc11.23320.10.03.43.21.16.20.0.29_alpha1.2154.0.02.0.0alpha-43.9.93.2.0-foss1.0.0v2.6.81.0.192.0.763.2.7416.32.6.31.7.41.15.12.5.32.1.1160.4.05.10.34.4.13.2.31.7.12.3.10.16.20.16.21.9.31.1.00.13.012.10.1.012.10.2.01.3.03.3.03.2.09.8.11.45.00.52.12.114.110.1.41.8.06.7.12.5.32.3.01.4.21.8.630.2.75.04.7.2.stable12.9.2.11370.2.21.1.23.0.56.0.71.2.13.7.11.11.03.9.41.1.60.2.0-alpha065.87.714.9.04.11.1.00.13.1531.25.02.6.14.211.9.131.814.7.02.3.131.11.01.14.43.1.01.4.51.9.170.80.8.1build107.2.11.8.21.1.02.7.20.19.101.8.9jmp-v1.7.111.51.93.1.01.45.12026.08.294.5.12.1.02.2.126.08.11.1.02.1.12.1.34.0.11.3.02.4.00.1.261.4.12.3.28.068.061.2.00.30.00.0.24-beta_hotfix11.84.1.51.0-beta71.2.0-beta.132.10.26.42.2.10.20.00.2.44.7.02.6.0-beta.60.7.00.13.01.11.20-release1.18.23.94.4.61.1.01.9.0-community1.5.22.4.10.2.661v2.6.8v2.6.8v2.6.8v2.6.8v2.6.8v2.6.8v2.6.81.60.1.54.10.11.2.01.0.13.20.02026.510.5.50.62.71.2.241.0.792.35.01.0.31.3.02.4.61.0.31.11.11.17.111.6.32.43.11.1.181.4.21.25.22712.9.2.52.8.1 (29321949) fdroid6.18.00.19.12.13.71.3.12.0.22.20.01.2.11.61.3.41.4.35.5.11-release2.2.10.16.12.12026-08-11-release1.6.01.28.3a1.28.3a10.3.23.7.04.1.1.21.6.11.8.05.1.07.4.7-f1.12.12.9.01.3.134.9.71.1.04.6.60.29.11.14.014.5.734.1.11.26.3202608280.9.9.9634.0.10.29.124.0.40.1.71.12.03.6.02026.08.262.2.10.8.90.1.133.4.100.6.101.4.06.00.19.2v2.10.01.6.142.9.911.1.10.5.00.8.31.0.191.12.41.2.026.08.82-fdroid1.7.64.10.03.3.04.18.00.6.21.2.21.34v4.28.2irreproduciblev4.28.22.7.11.23.00.96.30.59.33.8.1v8.00.7.01.8.282026-08-23914.1.01.0.671.1.0-rc12.2.11.12.01.21.02.0.01.6.02.19.0v9.7.61.8.04.4.02.103.0.2-oss2.12.725.3.01.1.95.2.10.3.03.3.61.141.4.12.5.103.312.7.11.01-89-fdroid2026.08.161.4.21.055.20.8.02.8.02.0.02.10.61.0.72.3.95.1.04.1.11.1.05.8.41.4.21.2.101.5.132026.08.24.2331.1.445.51.0.173.1.01.262.11.3.25.2.01.0.211.5.00.38.00.1.150v0.5.67.0.35.4.468.1233-fdroid0.7.911.2.63.1.02026.2.34.110.2.11.87.303.160.116.6.11.36.12.1.20.38.0 F-Droid1.14.01.82.0.4-rc04.0.120.0.270.13.90.17.20.2.256.10.1.90.5.11.52.014.6.31.3.61.0.46.62026.8-free1.31.17.0.12.0.01.13.203.8.21.18.1:Eclipse1.41.2.026.08.282.0.11.8.01.5.01.1.341.41.1.00.0.7-alpha7.0.30.7.01.0.01.3.61.3.65.156.1.31.15.02.1.432.143.202.11.0.61.5.31.4.00.7.21.7.01.10.13.2.41.7.107-lite-fdroid1.84.3-fdroid0.17.518.21.11.6.01.0.781.27.31.0.411.102.3-t9329c3677-gf193728631.6.31.7.00.1.280.3.02.0.415.103.3.24.25.50.9.20.6.52026.81.19.274.042.6.522.01.9.21.4.4-fdroid0.2026.81.5.02.2.02.3.54.1.0032.11.0.291.9.0Beta-arm64-v8a3.8.41.3.05.1.62.2.51.0.2850.9.602.26.40.10.12.46.3357.260824.1357.260824.10.9.02026.172026.131.8.04.21.141.0.371.10.01.30.50.12.3.12026.8.221.2.31.5.11.7.50.3.23.5.01.262.5.11.4.61.8.31.8.02.48.51.15.13.11.14.1.11.0.143.2.331.0.30.3.12.1.00.1.31.91.5.21.182.111r/50603-r-2026-08-25r/50603-r-2026-08-254.32.04.12.11.0131.21.17.07.45.11.6.41.11.10.1.170.8.131.5.012.6.02.59.40.10.80.9.4-alpha8.2.00.24.16.5.3-FOSS3.0.33.10.21.35.132.10.47.6.0Thank you for reading this week’s TWIF 🙂
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You are welcome to join the TWIF forum thread. If you have any news from the community, post it there, maybe it will be featured next week 😉
To help support F-Droid, please check out the donation page and contribute what you can.