An abundance of built-in trackers in android apps
When downloading and using apps on your android mobile phone from Google Play Store, you give in substantially to controlling your online privacy and security. The store has an abundance of built-in trackers, and app developers implement malware to serve retail marketing purposes. With F-Droid, you can get an alternative store as they only list free open source software apps for your android device.
Not enough transparency about filtering out malware
While it is true that Google filters out malware before making apps available on Play Store, this is essentially an automated process and not 100% bulletproof. Transparency for the end-user remains insufficient. Moreover, the big tech giant stimulates online user behavior tracking through its developer tools and ad services. By using open source code, the app developers’ community can help to evaluate privacy and security risks.
Free open source software apps contain no tracking code
The free and open source software apps (FOSS apps) when using F-Droid, guarantee there is no tracking or hidden malware to be found in the listed applications. If an app contains non-compliant features, it will not be available in its catalog. Furthermore, F-Droid regularly undergoes external security audits, and it has a proven history of addressing security vulnerabilities. Concerning privacy, all communication is sent through HTTPS, and no browsing data is recorded on their servers.
Apps on F-Droid go through a strict auditing process
As F-Droid uses a more strict auditing process, the open source software apps list is far smaller than the millions of apps on the Google Play Store. But the choice of apps is excellent. Some but not all of the software applications earlier reviewed on this website can be downloaded through F-Droid. To name a few: the Tutanota email app and the DuckDuckGo privacy browser. As most likely you will continue to use Play Store in combination with F-Droid, make sure to enable Google Play Protect on your mobile device.
Recommendation to install the F-Droid app
While you can download and install android apps as APK-files directly from the F-Droid website, this would rule out taking advantage of the project: you would miss out on update notifications and security screenings. Therefore it is recommended to install the F-Droid app on your mobile device. On older android devices, you will have to allow to install software from unknown sources. From android 8 onward, you can enable only certain apps to install APKs.
A clear interface to find open source software apps
Once installed, you can start browsing the F-Droid to find the free open source software apps you would like the use. The UI has an easy-to-use functional approach. At the bottom of the screen, a menu lets you select between the latest added apps or per category. The nearby icon enables you to share and download an app from a device near you over Bluetooth or Wifi. You will also receive update notifications whenever a new version of an installed app becomes available.
Update options can be amended in the settings
In the settings menu, you can adjust some update options, for example, the interface update interval, or update only via Wifi. For advanced users, you can also add external repositories to look for apps. Of course, you will need to pay extra attention when downloading from third-party app stores.
Only descriptions of the FOSS apps without comments or ratings
A missing feature on F-Droid is the lack of comments and ratings. This makes it rather hard to figure out if an app is of decent quality or not without installing it. There is also no number of downloads, so you have no indication of the app’s popularity. On a positive note, all descriptions of the listed free open source software apps are written by the F-droid maintainers. As such, you will not find any biased promotional lingo by the app developers.
Try F-Droid Now
Click the banner to access the F-Droid website.
Increase your online privacy
As F-Droid only lists open source software apps after a strict auditing process, the choice is limited compared to what is available on the Play Store. For that reason, most people will not choose to use the F-Droid app exclusively. But all in all, it is a good starting point to enhance your online privacy by ruling out some tracking and protecting you from malware.
