Submit App to F-Droid

[emanuelb]

F-Droid URL: https://f-droid.org/
F-Droid Wikipedia: https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-Droid

Contribution/Submit Applications: https://f-droid.org/en/contribute/#submit-applications
Inclusion Policy: https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Inclusion_Policy
Request For Packaging Tickets: https://gitlab.com/fdroid/rfp/issues

F-Droid is application & app store for android apps (alternative to Google Play) that accepts only FLOSS (free/libre and open-source) apps and doesn't require any account creation/login in order to download apps.

The requirements for being included into f-droid are here: https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Inclusion_Policy/

The process for getting an app published to f-droid is outlined here: https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Inclusion_How-To/ https://gitlab.com/fdroid/rfp#submission-queue https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md

You can open a RFP (Request For Packaging) ticket here: https://gitlab.com/fdroid/rfp or an user can do so, provided you agree to include this app in F-droid (a comment to this issue is enough for it)

Some users don't have play-store on their devices as they are degoogled devices or don't create/use google account (using aurora store app https://auroraoss.com/ in anonymous mode (which is available on f-droid) is solution to still get apps from google-play) or using OS/custom ROMs that don't have it included, such as: (Some bundle f-droid by default)

https://grapheneos.org/ GrapheneOS
https://calyxos.org/ CalyxOS
https://lineageos.org/ LineageOS
https://lineage.microg.org/ LineageOS for microG
https://e.foundation/ /e/
https://www.replicant.us/ Replicant

Downloading APKs from official places like github releases or website, or from unofficial sources like APK downloading sites https://apk.support or https://apkpure.com/ etc... will avoid the play-store/google dependency but it's lack automatic update mechanism unless it's built in into the application, F-Droid solve this.

Once the app is published into f-droid add the below image code into
README.md to show that the app available on f-droid:

[<img src="https://fdroid.gitlab.io/artwork/badge/get-it-on.png" alt="Get it on F-Droid" height="80">](https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.fdroid.fdroid/)

[woojoo666]

+1

I was looking for lighting wallets on F-Droid and the only one I found was Simple Bitcoin Wallet. While it's actually a great wallet, it was a bit too low-level for me to get started, and I only found out about Phoenix because the developer of Simple Bitcoin Wallet helpfully suggested it to me. Phoenix looks like a great way for beginners to get started with Lightning without having to research channels or deal with large minimums, and I think being on F-Droid will help people find it.

[GlenCooper]

I too would really like to see PhoenixWallet on F-Droid.

I am in the process of orange pilling someone who is brand new to Bitcoin, but they have a huawei p40 with no Google Play. I suggested F-droid and was going to recommend PhoenixWallet. Disappointed to find it's not available on there. Will recommend BlueWallet in the meantime.

[n4HeVQSGqDeEu6]

Had to switch to bluewallet due to this. Hopefully you can bring this great wallet to fdroid!

[tomichec]

I would be happy to help with sending the packaging request to f-droid.

The question is if the app really meat the inclusion criteria.

Most notably:

• does it depend on proprietary "google play" services
• does it use proprietary tracking/analytics services (e.g. firebase)

I have fond mentions of both in the code so I suspect they are indeed used. In this case is it easy to get a version without them?

[dpad85]

Phoenix uses Firebase Cloud Messaging to deliver notifications to the app when it's closed. It enables receiving payments even when the app is in the background, so it's pretty useful. I think FCM can be removed with a special flavor build, the rest of the app will function correctly without it. But I don't know if that will be enough to be accepted by F-Droid.

There's some additional complexity with the fact that there's actually 2 Android apps within Phoenix (the legacy one which is in production, and a modern one with significant changes that has not been released yet). If you're willing to work on F-Droid let me know, but I would recommend waiting for the new Android app to be ready.

[tomichec]

Thanks, I will wait for the new version then.

The FCM can also be replaced by self-hosted and free Open Push.

[micressor]

One question until the d-droid version is realized: does the manually installed .apk version have an update mechanism built in (similar to signal app)?

[xrishox]

now that the new version is out would it be possible to work again toward getting this into fdroid? not everyone is using google play and having an alternative privacy supporting repo would be really nice to have.

[tomichec]

are the google's Firebase Cloud Messaging services gone from the app? F-droid won't accept it otherwise.