- Edited
Accrescent is a new appstore with the following (non exclusive) benefits:
- app signatures are verified so you can trust that the APKs are legit
- a minimum app version is required
- accrescent can be installed from the GrapheneOS "Apps" store, so you have the root of trust in the OS, and the source of Accrescent is safe
This means Accrescent is very valuable to fix the issue of not knowing the integrity of an app when you first install it.
The following updates are unproblematic and can be done from various appstores, Obtainium (Github releases etc), F-Droid repos and more.
The Android package manager will only allow updates if the app comes from the same developer.
There seem to be issues with shipping the current version of apps to Accrescent. Many people have experienced that some apps are not regularly updated, while Obtainium shows updates. So I recommend the following:
- Research the app. Accrescent has no metadata, like opensource/proprietary, tracking libraries used, size, status, etc.
- Install the App through Accrescent
- Add a second updating mechanism, like Obtainium (with this site for configs) or a 3rd party F-Droid repo with the "F-Droid Basic" Client. Apps may also update themselves.
This ensures that you get fast updates if they come from the same developers, it will be unproblematic.
You may get a warning "this app was installed through Accrescent, update anyways?" which you need to ignore.