Downloading .apk files direct / Guides / Advice

defidawg

What's the best way of getting Apps .apk's without using an APP stores all together ?

Could anyone please help me, with how they do it, It's my understanding getting apks from the source has no counterparty risk,

Is there a guide for newbies like myself ?

Thanks in advance

jarelllama

You can download directly from the app's GitHub page. You can set up an RSS feed to be notified of updates. Just copy the URL for the releases page and add a .atom behind. For example, https://github.com/GrapheneOS/Auditor/releases.atom

You can also get apps from APKMirror. They provide an RSS feed for app updates too. I'm not quite sure of the security implications of using that site. Please do your own research too.

Personally though, I am curious to why you don't want to use an app store like Aurora?

defidawg

jarelllama I thought using aurora store is just like using google play store

The whole reason I went GrapheneOS was to ditch anything to do with google

MetropleX

defidawg Aurora is a Google Play front end but using anonymous accounts. However we recommend using it if you need apps available on it and advise against using places like APKPure / APK Mirror et al

Understand any apps where Play was the original source contains Google libraries which don't require Play Services to be installed to use some functionalities.

If you want a purely FOSS approach to apps using GitHub as mentioned by jarelllama is a good start, or using dev maintained F Droid repos using a more current SDK targeting app like Droid-ify.

A good article to read to make sure you are using F Droid from an informed position is: https://privsec.dev/apps/f-droid-security-issues/

defidawg

MetropleX Thanks for replying, Yes Minimizing the counterparty risk and trusted parties is what I'm looking for, after a good few hours reading these forums alot of your replies and watching a really helpful guy on youtube (SOB), I think using the F-droid website to find the source code github link and getting the apk from there using the RSS method for updating seems to be the closest link between me and the creator (developer)

Thanks for sharing the privsec.dev F-droid article this is why I was cautious to just use a 3rd party provider to begin with, so it's appreciated along with your thoughts on apkpure/mirror etc, I was skeptical about these, so thanks.

One of the app's im struggling with is telegram, they have the apk on their website here : https://telegram.org/android but I can't seem to find the "Offical" .apk on github that i can setup rss on
.... Any suggestions/help ?

Also I'm loving the whole graphene experience and community and your a great moderator, thanks heaps.

MetropleX

defidawg Telegram and others like Twitter offer PWA (Progressive Web Apps) which is what I use. When you visit their websites and tap the 3 dot menu in Vanadium you should see Install appear. (You may need to sign in.) Downsides are notifications but on the plus side you get the added sandboxing Vanadium offers.

Downloading Telegram direct from them is equivalent to using GitHub same as downloading Signal direct too. However not using the app I am unaware if Telegram self updates like Signal does.