F-Droid 2.0: FOSS Android Appstore Continues Updating Despite Google's Pending 'Developer Verification' Plan (theregister.com)
(Friday September 25, 2026 @04:34AM (EditorDavid)
from the droids-you're-looking-for dept.)
- Reference: 0185857040
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/09/25/0344225/f-droid-20-foss-android-appstore-continues-updating-despite-googles-pending-developer-verification-plan
- Source link: https://www.theregister.com/applications/2026/09/24/f-droid-app-store-thumbs-its-nose-at-googles-dev-crackdown/5298974
"F-Droid, a third-party app repository that only distributes free and open-source software packages for Google's Android mobile platform, on Thursday [1]announced version 2.0 of its Android app," [2]reports The Register .
Though they also note "a big banner across the top of the F-Droid site" pointing to a [3]site describing pending changes from Google that threaten the future of F-Droid...
> [D]evelopers who want their apps broadly distributed outside the official Google Play Store will need to register with Google and verify their identities. Google's Full Distribution option includes paying a one-time $25 fee, handing over a copy of a government-issued ID to verify one's identity, and conforming to Google's terms of service. Google also offers a free Limited Distribution option that doesn't require government ID verification but restricts distribution to 20 authorized devices, while apps from unverified developers can still be installed by users who enable Android's advanced installation flow.
>
> The potential death warrant hanging over its head hasn't stopped the F-Droid team from rolling out a bunch of new features for an app it says it intends to keep working on for years to come... The team also credited the EU's many Digital Markets Act [4]decisions against Google for making the installation experience smoother for users. F-Droid can now use a unified installation service for its apps thanks to the availability of a pre-approval API that allows users to approve an installation when they request it, rather than waiting until the app has finished downloading. That, said the F-Droid team, "brings the F-Droid install experience on official Android devices much closer to what the built-in app store can provide." Additionally, F-Droid 2.0 can fetch and install app updates automatically, which it now does by default.
>
> All of those changes, however, won't matter much if Google pushes ahead undeterred with its plans to force registration onto non-Play Store developers. F-Droid's announcement on Thursday makes it seem that the team isn't going to go quietly.
F-Droid has gone 10 years without a major update, [5]notes Ars Technica — and spent over a year developing F-Droid 2.0:
> The new F-Droid client was redesigned from scratch in Kotlin Compose, which is the standard for modern Android apps. This makes the store much more responsive, and there's optional support for Android's Material theming. The interface has also been cleaned up considerably, making the most important functions easier to access and hiding some others in overflow menus... Unlike the Play Store, F-Droid doesn't track your taps and installs to push ads and suggestions — it helps you find things and gets out of the way.
>
> F-Droid now includes a huge number of categories, drilling down to specialized niches like firewalls, password managers, and VPNs. You can see all these groups in the search tab. There are also higher-level categories listed on the main Discover page. When searching for apps, F-Droid will now be able to return results based on app descriptions rather than just names.
"One of the goals of the rewrite was to lower the barrier for new contributors," F-Droid said in their announcement. "We are excited to begin rolling out F-Droid 2.0 to users over the coming weeks after 14 test releases." (And if you want the 2.0 release right now, it's available on the [6]versions page .)
[1] https://f-droid.org/2026/09/24/f-droid-2.0-a-new-chapter-for-android-freedom.html
[2] https://www.theregister.com/applications/2026/09/24/f-droid-app-store-thumbs-its-nose-at-googles-dev-crackdown/5298974
[3] https://keepandroidopen.org/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/on-prem/2025/03/19/ec-says-google-apple-in-violation-of-dma-gatekeeper-rules/456750
[5] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/09/f-droid-gets-its-biggest-update-in-a-decade-with-new-ui-and-smoother-app-installs/
[6] https://f-droid.org/packages/org.fdroid.fdroid/#versions
Though they also note "a big banner across the top of the F-Droid site" pointing to a [3]site describing pending changes from Google that threaten the future of F-Droid...
> [D]evelopers who want their apps broadly distributed outside the official Google Play Store will need to register with Google and verify their identities. Google's Full Distribution option includes paying a one-time $25 fee, handing over a copy of a government-issued ID to verify one's identity, and conforming to Google's terms of service. Google also offers a free Limited Distribution option that doesn't require government ID verification but restricts distribution to 20 authorized devices, while apps from unverified developers can still be installed by users who enable Android's advanced installation flow.
>
> The potential death warrant hanging over its head hasn't stopped the F-Droid team from rolling out a bunch of new features for an app it says it intends to keep working on for years to come... The team also credited the EU's many Digital Markets Act [4]decisions against Google for making the installation experience smoother for users. F-Droid can now use a unified installation service for its apps thanks to the availability of a pre-approval API that allows users to approve an installation when they request it, rather than waiting until the app has finished downloading. That, said the F-Droid team, "brings the F-Droid install experience on official Android devices much closer to what the built-in app store can provide." Additionally, F-Droid 2.0 can fetch and install app updates automatically, which it now does by default.
>
> All of those changes, however, won't matter much if Google pushes ahead undeterred with its plans to force registration onto non-Play Store developers. F-Droid's announcement on Thursday makes it seem that the team isn't going to go quietly.
F-Droid has gone 10 years without a major update, [5]notes Ars Technica — and spent over a year developing F-Droid 2.0:
> The new F-Droid client was redesigned from scratch in Kotlin Compose, which is the standard for modern Android apps. This makes the store much more responsive, and there's optional support for Android's Material theming. The interface has also been cleaned up considerably, making the most important functions easier to access and hiding some others in overflow menus... Unlike the Play Store, F-Droid doesn't track your taps and installs to push ads and suggestions — it helps you find things and gets out of the way.
>
> F-Droid now includes a huge number of categories, drilling down to specialized niches like firewalls, password managers, and VPNs. You can see all these groups in the search tab. There are also higher-level categories listed on the main Discover page. When searching for apps, F-Droid will now be able to return results based on app descriptions rather than just names.
"One of the goals of the rewrite was to lower the barrier for new contributors," F-Droid said in their announcement. "We are excited to begin rolling out F-Droid 2.0 to users over the coming weeks after 14 test releases." (And if you want the 2.0 release right now, it's available on the [6]versions page .)
[1] https://f-droid.org/2026/09/24/f-droid-2.0-a-new-chapter-for-android-freedom.html
[2] https://www.theregister.com/applications/2026/09/24/f-droid-app-store-thumbs-its-nose-at-googles-dev-crackdown/5298974
[3] https://keepandroidopen.org/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/on-prem/2025/03/19/ec-says-google-apple-in-violation-of-dma-gatekeeper-rules/456750
[5] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/09/f-droid-gets-its-biggest-update-in-a-decade-with-new-ui-and-smoother-app-installs/
[6] https://f-droid.org/packages/org.fdroid.fdroid/#versions
GrapheneOS (Score:1)
by FPhlyer ( 14433 )
I've used Fdroid for years (mostly for Termux) but I started moving from Android to GrapheneOS little by little over this last summer, first on my Pixel Tablet and more recently on my Pixel phone. Fdroid is an excellent app store here.
If you are lucky enough to own a Google Pixel device, switching to GrapheneOS is an option to escape from Google's "walled garden".
Motorola has announced plans to start offering GrapheneOS as an option on some future models as well.
Re: GrapheneOS (Score:2)
by diffract ( 7165501 )
the irony of buying a phone from the same company that wants to screw you over. graphene is a joke, and I don't care what they say "only Pixel phones have secure elements" or whatever.
Thank you F-DROID (Score:2)
I used F-droid on my Blackberry Q10, and KeyOne, But I used so few apps from there, and all of them were on the official playstore, so, at the end, for my Razr+ 2024, I did not bother to install F-droid.
Still, glad to see the team moving forward, I desire them good luck, and have nothing but gratitude towards them.
Re: (Score:2)
F-droid is the only app store on my phone with LineageOS. Off course, the Google "services" are not installed either. I am never going back to stock Android again.