F-droid or Obtainium or Github?

Draiodoir

@dhhdjbd @vtek @RandByte @gristle-cause @Johnnyloans @Dumdum @xxx @kaisernatron @littlerack @Novalissoide

Thanks very much everyone! :)

Thanks for taking time out of your day to help & for your advice. The more I've heard from you all, the less anxious I feel about the various choices. I'll do my best to be cautious and accept that I can't control everything.

DohnJoe

littlerack I would sooner go back to f-droid than do what you suggest.

People is fine with a disposable Google account for Play Store, I guess people will be fine also with disposable GitHub account as well.

Also, another workaround is izzyondroid.
A lot of applications can be found in izzyondroid repository with the same signature, usually one day later (on average).

RandByte

Dumdum You can install Fdroid apps through Obtainium as well.

I know but I don't want that! Obtainium is throttled by GitHub and I don't want to have an account for an API key.

And there are numerous examples, already cited in this thread, why F-Droid is sometimes better because it removes/disables unwanted features in apps or enable full access on other ones. Take a look at OsmAnd~ and others.

dabvi6e1

RandByte

Obtainium is only rate limited by github if you're installing from github.

Obviously if you use Obtainium to download from Fdroid or Gitlab or whatever, Github rate limits don't come into play.

(Personally I use Obtainium with about 40 apps, probably 30 or so of them are from Github, and I never got rate limited despite using a VPN and no account.)

Novalissoide

dabvi6e1 I never got rate limited despite using a VPN and no account.

How often do you search for updates?

RandByte

dabvi6e1 Obtainium is only rate limited by github if you're installing from github

I honestly don't see the point of using Obtainium outside Github or similar sites. Droid-ify is much more convenient for regular F-Droid stuff but good for you if you're happy with your setup.

Novalissoide

subwoofer

dabvi6e1 Personally I use Obtainium with about 40 apps, probably 30 or so of them are from Github, and I never got rate limited

Well we've got this answered by now, using this Stars-import feature and having gone through some of the people I've been following -my Obtainium app-stack is currently about 180 apps, most of which are not installed on my device of course. Using Muntashirakon AppManager for keeping timing of at least one hour between update searches, they all get searched with no rate-limiting.

dabvi6e1

Novalissoide Every 6 hours.

RandByte I prefer to have only one update-manager app per profile. I agree that other apps are better for F-Droid repos specifically, but with Obtainium I can manage both F-Droid and Github/Gitlab apps from a single service.

JB11

I often get apps from F-Droid or Github, and some from apkpure/apkmirror, if I feel like an app might be harmful (not because android itself wants me to think so) I'll go to virustotal dot com and if an app passes then I'll install it or I won't.

xxx

RandByte I honestly don't see the point of using Obtainium outside Github

Why not?

DohnJoe

RandByte I honestly don't see the point of using Obtainium outside Github or similar sites.

I will try to give you a reason:
In my droid-ify I am not using f-droid repository, and to keep it that way, I am installing a single app available only on f-droid (no release on github) through obtainium.
This way I achieved the very same installation without polling the f-droid repository everytime I need to check for updates just for a single app.

Apart from this, even if I personally prefer to have droid-ify + obtainium, obtainium is perfectly capable of managing other sources that are not github, and that alone might give people more chance to not clutter their profile.
If you count Graphene Store, Accrescent, Play Store, Droid-ify, Obtainium, APKUpdater, AppVerifier (Not a store, but still related to installation) and possibly others, I can understand why someone would like to try to have everything in a single place

RandByte

xxx

Obtainium and Aurora, in my view, are meant to pick apps one by one. For F-Droid apps, as I only do manual updates, I can browse the apps list to discover new apps I wouldn't thought about which popped up since the last update.

RandByte

dabvi6e1 I prefer to have only one update-manager app per profile. I agree that other apps are better for F-Droid repos specifically, but with Obtainium I can manage both F-Droid and Github/Gitlab apps from a single service.

No problem with that but that's not how I do things. I'm not fond of "one size fits all" and I'd rather use "the right tool for the right job". That's why I use Droid-ify, Obtainium and Aurora. Each have a purpose that suits my needs and workflow.

Draiodoir

@dhhdjbd @vtek @RandByte @gristle-cause @Johnnyloans @Dumdum @xxx @kaisernatron @littlerack @Novalissoide @dabvi6e1 @DohnJoe

Hello All, I'm not expecting everyone to respond, but I thought I'd include you all anyway... & apologies for the amount of text below...

Does anyone know anything about what's happening or is going to happen with the ongoing usability of Obtainium for Grapheneos due to new changes Google is making? My understanding is that Grapheneos hasn't agreed to Google's new terms due to privacy issues, so I assume Obtainium won't be usable for Grapheneos? And is this going to effect F-droid & other similar apps/repositories as well? The text below is info I found online. Also, when I downloaded the Obtainium app it popped up a warning about the changes saying Grapheneos has not agreed to Google's terms - it said the changes would happen in 2026/2027, but the info I found online pasted below says March 2026.

"Google’s mandatory developer verification policy, set to take full effect starting March 2026. Google’s new policy requires all apps installed on certified Android devices — including those sideloaded — to come from developers who have verified their identity through government ID, a Google payment profile, and proof of app signing key ownership. This change effectively blocks unverified apps, including those distributed via apps like Obtainium, on over 95% of Android devices worldwide. While Obtainium itself may continue to function, its ability to distribute apps will be severely limited. Apps distributed through Obtainium will only be installable if the developers behind them complete Google’s verification process. This poses an existential challenge for open-source app stores like F-Droid, which rely on sideloading and are central to the Obtainium ecosystem."

dhhdjbd

Draiodoir

pretty sure as a grapheneOs user, you are not affected by this

if you would use obtainium on a "normal" android device, you might be unable to install the apps you want

Johnnyloans

Draiodoir

You aren't affected. This is about official, certified android OSes--the ones from OEMs like Samsung.

GOS can take out any code they want. They even allowed us to disable "presidential emergency alerts," which is impossible on regular android.

Take care!

RandByte

Draiodoir
I'll wait and see. I own a GOS phone and also a Samsung one, although with Google apps disabled (Play Store and Play Services), so I'll see what happens in the upcoming weeks.

I'll also wait a bit for feedback before updating the Samsung. Currently using the 202601 security update without issues. I haven't yet tried the 202603 security update. I only perform manual updates on this phone by blocking traffic to the update servers.

Novalissoide

Johnnyloans emergency alerts

Oooh don't bring that up again! You'll be summoning support demons using those words.🫨

Draiodoir

@dhhdjbd @Johnnyloans @RandByte

@Novalissoide - 😀😄😁

Thanks guys. 😉

Draiodoir

Hiya,

What's the deal with downloading apps directly from the company who's product you use instead of using F-droid, Obtainum, IzzyOnDroid, etc, etc? These are just meant to be examples: Tutamail, Proton, a vpn company, or any other company's product (not just email or vpn services.)

Johnnyloans

Draiodoir

That's fine to install, double check it's the legit website.

I doubt someone saying it is unsafe double checks food brought back from the market for safe lead levels or free of Salmonella.

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