To install apps under Android, you will usually use the Google Play Store. But there are some interesting alternatives, with a unique offering of their own. A popular example is F-Droid. In this app store you will mainly find free and open source apps, which are often privacy-friendly or aimed at power users.
For Android apps, you normally go to the official Google app store, or the Google Play Store. That is trusted and the apps are checked for vulnerabilities – to a certain extent. But there are also alternative app stores. Amazon, for example, has its own app store, which focuses on Amazon Kindle devices, but also on your android device works (that will soon also be the appropriate app store to make Android apps work under Windows, through an integration in Windows 11). Another well-known alternative is Aptoide, with a fairly complete but sometimes somewhat shadowy offer. We focus here on F-Droid, which is mainly focused on providing free open source apps, which you can generally trust because the source code is public.
1 Installation
F-Droid is one of the most popular and well-known ‘alternative’ app stores for Android. With the F-Droid app you can of course browse through the range of this app store and also install apps and keep them up-to-date. However, the app itself cannot be found in the Play Store, because Google does not allow third-party app stores. To install the app, on the device you want to start using F-Droid on, browse your browser to www.f-droid.org. Here you can directly download the apk file, which is basically an installation file for Android. Before you can download, you may still need to give permission to install apps from unknown sources. To do this, open the settings and go to the section Security. You can browse the range of apps on the F-Droid website mentioned. You will also find a forum where you can ask questions and also a lot of background information and news items about F-Droid.
2 Navigation
As mentioned, in F-Droid you will find free and open source apps, for which the term FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) is also used. Usually, the source code for these apps is also public. Thanks to that openness, you will come across many privacy-friendly alternatives to popular apps in F-Droid. The offer has many niche apps and apps aimed at power users. Some of the offers can also be found in the Google Play Store, but some are not because they are not allowed due to Google’s policy. The F-Droid app is easy to use, although it doesn’t look exciting graphically. When you open the app, you will see on the tab Newest of course the latest apps. You can refresh this list by ‘pulling’ the screen downwards. You can search for apps by name using the search button at the bottom right. below Categories you can logically browse through categories such as Security, Connectivity, Money, Graphics, Internet and Reading. You can see how many apps are available per category. If there are updates, you will find them in the tab of the same name, and finally there is a tab Institutions that we will discuss later.
3 Information
Detailed information can be found about each app, such as the latest novelties, information about the possibilities of the app, screenshots and useful references. This is how you will find Left a reference to the public source code. And if it is not available, it will be explicitly stated. below Permissions you can see what the app has access to on the device. below Versions In addition to the current version, you can also install previous versions, which is useful if, for example, the latest update causes problems. You can see that there is a lot of attention for your privacy, and that it is always clearly indicated which properties may conflict with it. For example, anti-functions are shown. If an app offers anti-features, this basically means that the app, for example, shows advertisements, contains one or more trackers that can track your activities, does not offer public source code, contains certain vulnerabilities or requires a paid service. In the description of an app, it is always clearly indicated if there are certain anti-functions and also which ones they are.
4 Best Apps
There are many notable apps in F-Droid, as mentioned, especially when it comes to privacy-friendly apps. Examples include the podcast player AntennaPod, the DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser, and SimSocial for Facebook (a lightweight alternative to the Facebook app). You will also find apps that are not in the Play Store. Recommended are, for example, NewPipe, a super-fast YouTube app that you can use without an account. There is also Aurora Store, which you can consider as an alternative to the Google Play Store. You can also use this app anonymously and the app store also shows which trackers are hidden in apps. For this it works together with Exodus Privacy. This app store is also used on devices on which the official Google Play Store is not available.
5 Settings
On the tab Institutions you can find some useful settings and options. This is how you can Manage installed apps Request an overview of apps that you have installed via F-Droid and can easily remove them from the overview. You can also set the download behavior for Wi-Fi and mobile, indicate whether updates should be installed automatically, and change the theme from light to dark. You can also turn on the expert mode, which gives you some extra settings. In the settings you can also indicate whether apps with anti-functions may be shown. In general, you will want to, because you can always see which anti-functions there are and especially what they do in the description per app.
