This Week in F-Droid
TWIF curated on Thursday, 27 Nov 2025, Week 48
F-Droid core
In the process of doing all this development work, we ran mass rebuilds of the whole collection of apps, killing two birds with one stone. First, it served to test our new build automation with the existing apps, and second, it showed us which apps are reproducible. For the apps that were not reproducible, we have looked into fixes in our stack, in upstream build tools, and in the apps themselves.
We mapped out all the issues we have encountered caused by running builds in VMs versus containers. There are two classes:
Builds needing privileged calls that containers normally do not support in production setups (e.g. direct writes to sysctl or /sys/devices/system/cpu/)
The methods of presenting CPU and RAM limits are implemented differently between virtualization (e.g. libvirt) and containerization (e.g. Podman), and are not interchangeable. This can lead to build differences and we currently know of no workaround or fix for this.
There is not final statistic as apps builds change with each cycle, but currently we see about 68% reproducible builds.
NOTE: Our verification server shows if apps packages were reproducible against our published APKs on f-droid.org, when the F-Droid buildserver is used as the build environment. We don’t yet surface information if an app is reproducible against the upstream developer builds, but one can see this in each app’s web page by following the “Build Metadata” link, and search if there’s a field named AllowedAPKSigningKeys present near the end.
Community News
Ente Photos - Encrypted photo storage was updated to 1.2.20 and Notesnook - Private notes app was updated to 3.3.9. Following our mention on a Tuta & Ente partnership back in Oct 17 TWIF, here comes another offer between Notesnook and Ente. Access the Notesnook offer and here’s the Ente offer.
Oh, talk about photo apps, Immich was updated to 2.3.1, and reading their latest October recap I noticed OCR being mentioned. So here’s a challenge from me, which one do you find better, Immich’s OCR or Ente’s OCR?
K-9 Mail and Thunderbird: Free Your Inbox were updated to 14.0 and Thunderbird Beta for Testers was updated to 15.0b1. Thunderbird for Android has been out for just over a year so the team prepared a special retrospective post (and a bonus 1 hour long discussion) with the mobile team to look back at what they were able to accomplish this last year, what they’re still working on, and what’s up ahead. /PS: While I, for one, hate the “new” Account Drawer thing, hearing about JMAP being worked on makes me happy.
Proton Pass: Password Manager was updated to 1.35.1 and ProtonVPN - Secure and Free VPN was updated to 5.14.65.0, and they are now joined by the new Proton Authenticator, Private, secure, offline 2FA across devices, raising the number of Proton apps to four.
Saracroche, Block unwanted spam calls automatically and protect your privacy if you’re France, was just added. Camille Bouvat, the developer, gave an interview (in French) back in September to talk about how the app came into existence and how you can help to make it better.
Missed last week, Status: Ethereum Crypto Wallet 2.34.4 will be the last version in this current form as the app will be replaced by a new one soon. The devs wrote a post explaining the reasons why and how to switch when ready. What about the new app? It’s called “the Unified Status Mobile App” and it’s work in progress, sharing an unified code-base with the Desktop client, running on QT version 6. F-Droid will be supported, as we can read in the revealing post but it might take some time until then. NOTE: Pre-built QT libs are no longer available under a FLOSS license hence we’ll need to first built QT6 before building the app. A dauting task no less, but doable as we already build plenty of other apps like this.
@linsui checks a signing key:
Syncthing-Fork was updated to 2.0.11.3 and Syncthing-Lite was updated to 2.0.0.1, but they are now both under a new development team. There was bit of a mystery about why, how and when the original developer handed over the keys and blessings to the new team, and you can follow some of the discussions in this upstream issue and this long forum thread. Both apps are built reproducible which means that the guarantees mentioned in our inclusion page are helpful in assessing the situation.
Newly Added Apps
11 more apps were newly added
Al-Quran - Simple: A simple open-source Quran reader
BikeBridge: Companion app for e-bikes and components
ciphernotes: Client-side encrypted notes that sync across devices
Dnd Toggle: Toggle DND from a Quick Settings tile
IPerf3Client: iPerf3 is a tool for active measurements of the max bandwidth on IP networks
Janus: Contextual translations using Wikipedia’s knowledge graph
Mental Math: Practice mental arithmetic solo or compete with friends
Quotes - Quotes Status Creator: Quotes Status Creator lets you share quotations as images on social media
Repertoire: An app for musicians to track their repertoire and media
Sift: A minimalist, open-source recipe keeper
WiFi Exporter: Export your WiFi passwords (requires root)
Updated Apps
203 more apps were updated (expand for the full list)
8-Bit Wonders was updated to 0.8.8e
Acode editor - Android code editor was updated to 1.11.7
aFreeRDP was updated to 3.18.0
AliasVault was updated to 0.25.0
Alligator Bytes was updated to 0.29
Anx Reader was updated to 1.10.0
Apollo was updated to 1.6.10
aTalk was updated to 4.6.1
Aves Libre was updated to 1.13.11
baresip was updated to 71.1.2
baresip+ was updated to 59.0.0
BILIBILIAS was updated to 3.1.0
Bimba was updated to 3.11.0
Birthday Adapter was updated to 3.3
BLE Radar was updated to 0.32.0-beta
Blichess was updated to 8.0.0+ble2.3.0
Blitz: Fischer Chess Clock was updated to 2.0.6
Blitzortung Lightning Monitor was updated to 2.4.5
Blorp was updated to 1.10.0
Bold Bitcoin Wallet was updated to 1.5.4
BusTO was updated to 2.4.6
Calisthenics Memory was updated to 1.7.1
Casio G-Shock Smart Sync was updated to 24.4
CClauncher was updated to v9.10.8
Citrine was updated to 0.9.0
Clipeus was updated to 1.1.1
Clock was updated to 2.26
Colony Control was updated to 1.1
CoMaps - Hike, Bike, Drive Offline with Privacy was updated to 2025.11.25-4-FDroid
Converter NOW: Unit Converter was updated to 4.5.0
Copy SMS Code - OTP Helper was updated to 1.20.2
Critical Maps was updated to 3.0.0
croc was updated to 10.3.1
Cuscon was updated to 4.0.7.5
Dart Checker was updated to 0.8.3
DAVx⁵ was updated to 4.5.6-ose
De1984 was updated to 2.4.5
Diatronome was updated to 1.0.11
DoliDroid was updated to 3.0.67
Doors of Doom was updated to 0.0.7
Drawpile was updated to 2.3.0
Droid Pad was updated to 3.4.0
Droid_SCEP was updated to 1.3
DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser was updated to 5.257.1
Eblan Launcher was updated to 0.2.2-alpha
eduVPN was updated to 3.5.1
Encointer Wallet was updated to 1.18.0
EP Mobile was updated to 2.38.0
Exclave was updated to 0.16.15
FairEmail was updated to 1.2303
Feeder was updated to 2.16.1
Feeder (Play version) was updated to 2.16.1
Find My Device (FMD) was updated to 0.13.0
Flang was updated to 1.17
Flare was updated to 1.1.2
Flexify was updated to 2.1.37
floccus bookmark sync was updated to 5.8.1
Flux was updated to 2.2
Food You - Calorie Tracker & Food Diary was updated to 3.4.0
Forkgram was updated to 12.2.3.0
FossWallet was updated to 0.32.0
Fread was updated to 1.7.21
Free the bugs was updated to 0.6.4
Gallery was updated to 4.0.2
Geo Share was updated to 5.8.0
Goals Tracker 24/7 - timeto.me was updated to 2025.11.24
Goodtime - Minimalist Pomodoro Timer was updated to 3.0.15
Green: Bitcoin Wallet was updated to 5.1.2
Guileless Bopomofo Keyboard was updated to 3.6.7
HappyTaxes was updated to 1.0.4
Hidroly was updated to 1.3.3
Home Assistant was updated to 2025.11.3-minimal
HypoStats was updated to 0.5.2
Infomaniak kDrive was updated to 5.11.1
Infomaniak Mail was updated to 1.21.2
Inure App Manager (Trial) was updated to build106.4.2
Jellyfin for Android TV was updated to 0.19.4
Kazumi was updated to 1.9.0
KDE Connect was updated to 1.34.4
Language Dex was updated to 0.29.5
LibChecker was updated to 2.5.3
Library App VideLibri was updated to 2.950
Librera Reader was updated to 9.1.7-fdroid
Linphone - open source SIP client was updated to 6.0.20
Linux Command Library was updated to 3.4.11
Linwood Butterfly Nightly was updated to 2.4.2-rc.0
Lissen: Audiobookshelf client was updated to 1.7.12
MakeACopy was updated to 2.2.2
Mastodon was updated to 2.11.7
Materialious was updated to 1.11.9
MBCompass was updated to 1.1.12
MediLog was updated to 3.4.1
Meshtastic was updated to 2.7.7 (29319424) fdroid
Mondstern Acrylic Icons was updated to 19.0
Money Manager Ex was updated to 5.4.11
monocles chat was updated to 2.0.17
Mullvad VPN: privacy is a universal right was updated to 2025.10
Multi Launcher ‧ Home Screen was updated to 1.11.2 build 7
Musify was updated to 9.6.14
Network Survey was updated to 1.46
neutriNote CE was updated to 4.6.0a
Nextcloud Dev was updated to 20251126
NFC Alarm Clock was updated to 12.6.4
Nora was updated to 0.4.10
Offi was updated to 13.0.17
OnePlus Flash Control was updated to 1.4.3
OONI Probe was updated to 5.3.0
Open Notes was updated to 1.3.3
OpenBible was updated to 2.1.2
openHAB was updated to 3.18.1
openHAB Beta was updated to 3.19.0-beta
OpenTune was updated to 2.0.9
Organic Maps・Offline Map & GPS was updated to 2025.11.26-5-FDroid
Orgro was updated to 1.66.7
osm2gmaps was updated to 0.6.0
OsmAnd~ was updated to 5.2.10
Outline was updated to 1.18.0-rc.1
oxproxion was updated to 2.0.6
P.CASH Crypto Wallet was updated to 0.49.2
PAIesque was updated to 19
PassVault was updated to 0.8.0-beta01
Password Store was updated to 1.15.3
Passwords was updated to 0.5.2
PennyWise AI was updated to 2.15.40
Periodical was updated to 1.95
Persian Calendar was updated to 10.0.5
Petals was updated to 3.37.3
PhotoSwooper was updated to 2025.11.4
Picard Barcode Scanner was updated to 1.7
Pimi Weather Widget was updated to 1.4.0
Pineapple Lock Screen (OSS) was updated to 2.1.2-oss
Pinyin Web & EPUB and topolects was updated to 2.12.61
Pixiv for Muzei 3 was updated to 3.9.1
PlainApp: File & Web Access was updated to 2.1.21
Plus Plus Battery was updated to 2.3.7
Podcini.X - Podcast instrument was updated to 9.2.0
Polymarket Viewer was updated to 1.27
Pomodorot was updated to 0.13.2
Prayer Book was updated to 0.10.3
Prayer mode was updated to 1.5
Presence Publisher was updated to 2.7.0
Privacy Flip was updated to 2.0.3
PublicArtExplorer was updated to 1.5.0
Quotes.app was updated to 3.4
Quran Revision Companion was updated to 1.7.3
Recurring Expense Tracker was updated to 0.19.2
Redomi was updated to 1.4.0
Resticopia was updated to 0.7.7
RetroArch was updated to 1.22.2
Ringdroid - Ringtone editor was updated to 2.7.9
RSAF was updated to 3.25
rust-keylock-android was updated to 0.17.1
RustDesk was updated to 1.4.4
Saber was updated to 1.29.0
Satunes was updated to 3.3.3
Screenshot Tile (NoRoot) was updated to 2.15.0
Seafile was updated to 3.0.20
Sensor Spot was updated to 1.6.4
Session F-Droid was updated to 1.29.3
Share To InputStick was updated to 3.8.0
SharedHaven was updated to 1.6.7
ShikiApp was updated to alpha-0.4.6
Simple Keyboard was updated to 6.0-beta1
SiYuan was updated to 3.4.1
Slideshow Wallpaper was updated to 1.2.5
Squawker was updated to 3.8.4
Squeezer was updated to 2.3.12
Standard Notes was updated to 3.201.3
Stocks Widget was updated to 4.0.028
Stream Player was updated to 1.2.3
StyncyNotes was updated to 1.3
Table Habit was updated to 1.21.1
TacticMaster was updated to 1.0.26
Tailscale was updated to 1.90.8-tedc9d2245-gcf2f8cfec
Taison was updated to 1.1.0
Tempus Romanum was updated to 2.6.1
Tessel – A tile game was updated to 1.0.10
Text Tools was updated to 2.1.3
The Battle for Wesnoth was updated to 1.19.18
The Light was updated to 3.95
Tilde Friends was updated to 0.2025.11
Tomato was updated to 1.6.6
Torrents Digger - Dig Torrents From Internet was updated to 1.1.2
Track & Graph was updated to 8.1.1
Traffic Light was updated to 2.3
Trail Sense was updated to 7.4.0
Trailence was updated to 1.2.3
Transport You was updated to 3.0
Transportr - Public Transit was updated to 2.2.6
Unchained was updated to 1.4.1
Unciv was updated to 4.18.16
Vibe was updated to 1.2.0
Vidya Music: Aersia VIP Player was updated to 2.2.0
WAFRN was updated to 1.8.4
Waterfly III was updated to 1.1.9
Webview Kiosk was updated to 0.24.36
WhatsApp Web To Go - Mobile Client for WhatsApp We was updated to 1.7.5
Wiki Fronted was updated to r/2.7.50559-r-2025-11-24
Wikipedia was updated to r/2.7.50559-r-2025-11-24
Windscribe was updated to 3.95
XDYou was updated to 1.5.4
Xtra was updated to 2.51.2
Yivi was updated to 7.11.2
Zashi: Zcash Wallet was updated to 2.4.8
zSMTH was updated to 25.11.22
聚在工大 was updated to 4.18.5.3
Thank you for reading this week’s TWIF 🙂
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You are welcome to join the TWIF forum thread. If you have any news from the community, post it there, maybe it will be featured next week 😉
To help support F-Droid, please check out the donation page and contribute what you can.
15 years ago this month, @CiaranG started “an
experiment in automated building from
source”.
And so F-Droid began to automate building all our apps from source. Before
this, apps were either built manually or the binary files were fetched from
trusted developers like Mozilla. Automating the build process was a key
early step that set up F-Droid to lead on trustworthy computing. Since then,
we moved to requiring apps to be built from source on our servers. Now we
build apps from source as much as possible, and have expanded to
Anti-Features, app reviews, privacy
checks,
reproducible builds, and more.
Building from source is certainly not the easiest way to distribute
software, but it is the best
way.
Automation is key to making it feasible. Developers already build the binary
APK package locally as part of their development process, the easiest would
be for them to just upload the APK directly to F-Droid. In order to provide
all the benefits of free software, APKs need to be built on our servers. The
extra steps required are completed by computers as much as possible, rather
than humans. By integrating directly with the git source repo, it is
possible to make things quite automatic. Our automation has gradually
evolved over the 15 years to build over 5000 apps from source, handling a
wide variety of quirks and edge cases. That also means that the code had
grown quite unwieldy, since it mostly grew organically as F-Droid expanded.
So we have introduced a new structure, starting with rearchitecting the
fdroid build command that runs the building part of the publishing cycle.
fdroid build manages starting the VM for the build, pulling in source
code, running the scripts to build the package, checking the results, and
pulling the unsigned package to be added to the publishing queue. The
central goal is to make easily reusable modules of functionality.
Internally, they are known as
“subcommands”,
since they are subcommands of the fdroid command (e.g. fdroid
fetch_repo, fdroid execute_sudo, etc).
Things have been massively refactored to be modular, testable and
understandable. This new architecture decouples our build automation from
any particular virtualization/containerization platform. We started with a
massive pile of tangled, 15 year old code that has faithfully kept building
apps from source. And we’ve broken everything down into logical modules
that are designed to plug into virtualization/automation infrastructure like
Buildbot, GitLab CI, Podman and Vagrant. If you have looked at the old build
automation code before 😱 and were scared away, I invite you to take another
look.
These automation subcommands are designed to plug into build
automation. They are meant to run in scripted environments. They are not
intended for interactive use. Although they sometimes might be useful
interactively, it could also be dangerous to run some interactively because
they assume they are run in a disposable environment (e.g. a container).
They modify the local environment or even run things as root. For that
reason, they are not listed in the help or other places that other
human-facing commands are.
These new subcommands function in between an external API and an internal
API:
The external API is a set of subcommands used in a build management system
like Buildbot or GitLab CI.
The internal API for implementing alternate containerization methods for
running the builds. Currently, Vagrant (our legacy setup) and Podman are
supported.
A key new concept has been introduced: each automation subcommand only
operates on a single build, never more than one. That keeps the code simple
and makes it easy to integrate into build management systems, which
generally have similar assumptions. Each of these new subcommands require
exactly one pair of one Application ID and one Version Code,
e.g. org.fdroid.fdroid:1023051. This is the globally unique identifier
for a specific build, based on the Application ID, which is the globally
unique identifier for an Android app.
We’re still figuring out exactly how fine-grained these modules should be.
One case that seems clear is that each build
step can be run
in its own subcommand (e.g. fdroid execute_sudo runs what is listed in the
sudo: build field). As things solidify, they will be documented as part
of our standard documentation. There are lots of notes in the development
wiki page for
those who want to dive in already.
Buildbot also provides us with a proven system for scheduling a variety of
jobs in parallel, across many VMs, containers and bare metal machines. After
six
months
of running Buildbot, it has proven to be a solid system for build
management. https://verification.f-droid.org runs this automation stack on
Podman. We stuck with Vagrant for production because it has been working
solidly since 2012. The maintainers of Vagrant are moving away from free
software, so
we need to be ready to switch to something else. Now both virtual machines
and containers are easily supported, and there is a clear API for
integrating with other systems. There has been some discussion of debvm
and Docker as additional options. Which system would you like to contribute
support for? For parallelization of jobs, we’re starting with four on
https://verification.f-droid.org and planning on three for the production
buildserver host.
This is now the foundation for future work. I hope that this can serve as
the base architecture for splitting up all of the pieces that run the
process behind f-droid.org following this architecture. The next piece is
fdroid update, which indexes all of the apps, finds localized app store
entries and graphics, checks signatures, enforces automated inclusion rules,
and more. We have two prototypes already in process
extract_icons
and
fetch_metadata.
The next 15 years of build automation are looking a lot brighter!
(This work was supported by
NLnet and your donations.
To ensure F-Droid can continue this work, please check out the donation
page and contribute what you can.)
This Week in F-Droid
TWIF curated on Thursday, 20 Nov 2025, Week 47
Community News
MBCompass was updated to 1.1.11 after we missed three versions. What’s new? Many new UI improvements and fixes.
@CodeDoctor brings us a point one:
Butterfly was updated to 2.4.1 with the biggest set of bug fixes and improvements in a long time.
Highlights:
💾 Delayed autosave
🖼️ Thumbnail capture improvements
🔁 Template import and export improvements
📄 Improved PDF handling
✍️ Drawing improvements
🗂️ File view and UI improvements
🖱️ Multi-input and tools improvements
🛠️ Stability and performance for large files
Read more here
@linsui seeks modernization:
ETH & UZH mensa Zürich was updated to 2.0.4 with a modernized rewrite from a new maintainer.
And hearing echoes from the past, Voicesmith was updated to 3.0 after eleven years, featuring a new processing engine and audio API.
Newly Added Apps
16 apps were newly added
Athena: Firewall & Adblocker: Firewall & AdBlocker (Root/VPN Supported). Material3 And Minimalistic Design
Calisthenics Memory: Simple bodyweight training tracker - create and customize your own exercises
Carburoid: Find Spanish gas stations by price and distance
Colony Control: Management and tracking of ant colonies with NFC and QR
Dhaaga (Lite): An indie SNS and chat app
Glosdalen: Vocabulary lookup with direct Anki card creation
HSTempo: With this app, users can tap to music beats and obtain it’s bpm
Itinerary Planner: Plan and manage travel itineraries
Language Dex: Create custom dictionaries and retain words with puzzles
Minimal Currency Converter: Offline, manual input, minimal currency converter
MovieFlix: Cinephile’s Movie Diary
NerdSteam: Discover trending games, player and price statistics, and detailed from Steam
Pantry: Manage your pantry and avoid food waste
Pimi Weather Widget: A minimal, Pixel-style widget that shows the date and weather
Record Play Reverse: A simple audio toy that lets you record and playback audio forward or reversed
Taison: Manga reader fork with a warm theme and navigation tweaks
Downgraded Apps
1 app was downgraded
Notesnook - Private notes app was downgraded from 3.3.8 to 3.0.32 to fix a crash, a new version will be built soon.
Updated Apps
154 more apps were updated (expand for the full list)
Aiyo was updated to 1.0.8
Alligator Bytes was updated to 0.28
AndBible: Bible Study was updated to 5.0.901
APatch was updated to 11142
Arcticons was updated to 13.4.6
Arcticons Black was updated to 13.4.6
Arcticons Day & Night was updated to 13.4.6
Arcticons Material You was updated to 13.4.6
Asteroid’s Revenge was updated to 0.15.4
aTalk was updated to 4.6.0
Aurora Store was updated to 4.7.5
Aves Libre was updated to 1.13.10
AVNC was updated to 3.1.1
Barcode Scanner was updated to 1.26.0
bilimiao was updated to 2.4.8.1
Birthday Adapter was updated to 3.2
Blocker was updated to 2.0.5839
Book’s Story was updated to 1.8.0
Breezy Weather was updated to 6.0.12_freenet
Buckwheat: Budget manager was updated to 4.8.0
Burger Party was updated to 1.4.5
Call Limiter was updated to 0.3.4
Capy Reader was updated to 2025.11.1178
Cardabase was updated to 1.6.3
CClauncher was updated to v9.10.3
Chess was updated to 9.9.15
Cuscon was updated to 4.0.7.4
Daily You was updated to 2.14.2
Dart Checker was updated to 0.8.2
De1984 was updated to 2.4.2
DigiAgriApp was updated to 0.4.3
DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser was updated to 5.255.0
EasySSHFS was updated to 0.5.16
Eblan Launcher was updated to 0.2.0-alpha
Element X - Secure Chat & Call was updated to 25.11.2
EP Mobile was updated to 2.37.0
EVMap - EV chargers was updated to 2.0.2
Exclave was updated to 0.16.14
FairScan – PDF Scanner was updated to 1.6.0
Fitness Calendar was updated to 2025.11.1
Flare was updated to 1.0.7
floccus bookmark sync was updated to 5.8.0
FluffyChat was updated to 2.3.0
Forkyz was updated to 76
Free the bugs was updated to 0.6.0
Fulguris Web Browser was updated to 1.11.1
Gallery was updated to 4.0.1
Gallery for PhotoPrism was updated to 1.40.0
Geekttrss was updated to 1.6.9
GitNote was updated to 25.11.1
Handy Reading was updated to 1.0.3
HexViewer was updated to 1.59.2
I2P was updated to 2.10.1
Imagepipe was updated to 0.74
ImgurViewer was updated to 2.5.4
Infomaniak Mail was updated to 1.21.0
Invoice Ninja was updated to 5.0.183
IPCalc Android was updated to 3.0
Jami was updated to 20251114-01
JetBird was updated to 1.4.6
Kahon was updated to 0.19.4
Kazumi was updated to 1.8.8
Keep it up was updated to 1.9.1
KeePassDX Pass(key/word) Vault was updated to 4.2.4
Kreate was updated to 1.8.4-fdroid
LibreOffice Viewer was updated to 25.8.3.2
Linux Command Library was updated to 3.4.10
Linwood Butterfly Nightly was updated to 2.4.1
Lumo was updated to 1.2.9-nogms
MakeACopy was updated to 2.2.0
Mastodon was updated to 2.11.5
Materialious was updated to 1.11.6
Mattermost Beta was updated to 2.34.0
MedTimer was updated to 1.20.2
Meshtastic was updated to 2.7.6 (29319394) fdroid
Migraine Log was updated to 0.14.1
Mill was updated to 7.0.0
Minis companion was updated to 1.4.0
Mullvad VPN: privacy is a universal right was updated to 2025.9
MusicSearch was updated to 1.81.0
Musify was updated to 9.6.12
NanoLedger was updated to 1.2.2
neutriNote CE was updated to 4.6.0
Nextcloud was updated to 3.34.1
Nextcloud Dev was updated to 20251114
Nextcloud Notes was updated to 4.5.2
OpenComicVine was updated to 1.1.4
OpenFoodFacts was updated to 4.22.3
OpenTopoMap Viewer was updated to 1.24.2
OpenTune was updated to 2.0.8
Orgzly Revived was updated to 1.13.1
ownCloud was updated to 4.7.0
oxproxion was updated to 1.9.5
PassVault was updated to 0.5.0
Periodical was updated to 1.94
Permission Manager X was updated to v1.30-foss
PhotoSwooper was updated to 2025.11.3
PicGuard was updated to 5.0.5
Pill Time was updated to 10.0
PipePipe was updated to 4.7.5
PiPixiv was updated to 1.2.1
PlugBrain was updated to 1.5.4
Polaris was updated to 0.10.3
Polymarket Viewer was updated to 1.25
Prayer mode was updated to 1.4
ProtonVPN - Secure and Free VPN was updated to 5.14.44.0
QRAlarm was updated to 2.7.4
Quitter was updated to 1.0.92
RedReader was updated to 1.25
RetroArch was updated to 1.22.1
Ringdroid - Ringtone editor was updated to 2.7.7
Saber was updated to 1.28.2
SD Maid 2/SE - System Cleaner was updated to 1.5.4-rc0
Sensors2OSC was updated to 0.14.0
Session F-Droid was updated to 1.29.1
Share To InputStick was updated to 3.7.1
SimpleX Chat was updated to 6.4.7
SnapSaver was updated to 0.9.0
SpamBlocker (Call & SMS) was updated to 4.21
Spotube was updated to 5.1.0
Status: Ethereum Crypto Wallet was updated to 2.34.4
StreetComplete was updated to 62.0
Sumire Japanese Keyboard was updated to 1.4.471
Sunup was updated to 1.2.2
Super Productivity was updated to 16.3.6
SwatchIt was updated to 0.2.2
Tessel – A tile game was updated to 1.0.9
Therapiefinder was updated to 0.6
Threema Libre was updated to 6.2.1l
TLSFragment was updated to 3.4.0
ToFShare was updated to 1.0.7
Torrents Digger - Dig Torrents From Internet was updated to 1.1.1
Trackbook - Movement Recorder was updated to 2.2.7
Traditional T9 was updated to 56.0
Traffic Light was updated to 2.1
Transistor - Simple Radio App was updated to 4.3.5
Translate You was updated to 16.1
Transportr - Public Transit was updated to 2.2.4
TRIfA was updated to 1.0.261
Träwelldroid was updated to 2.21.4
TTRSS-Reader was updated to 1.97.9
Tuta Calendar was updated to 314.251111.0
Tuta Mail was updated to 314.251111.0
Unciv was updated to 4.18.14-patch1
UnderEat was updated to 1.0.21
V2EX was updated to 2.9.7
Valentin’s PowerTools #002 - Passwords to remember was updated to 1.0.7
Voyager for Lemmy was updated to 2.40.4
VRChat Android Assistant was updated to 2.7.6
Webview Kiosk was updated to 0.24.31
WorkTimer was updated to 1.5-alpha1
Xed-Editor was updated to 3.2.4
Xtra was updated to 2.51.1
おやつ Oyatsu was updated to 5.0
Thank you for reading this week’s TWIF 🙂
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This Week in F-Droid
TWIF curated on Thursday, 13 Nov 2025, Week 46
F-Droid core
Without much fanfare, remember the old CPU issues we had? Well… for the last 3 or 4 cycles we have been building apps on our new modern hardware. So stay tuned for more info, more updated apps and faster updates notifications.
The first batch of missed updates starts today…
Community News
Bartek of Wolność w Kieszeni or better said of Freedom in the Pocket has written a detailed post (in Polish) about nice apps from F-Droid, entitled “Unlock your smartphone: Applications”. After reading this you can peruse the other posts too as they seem nicely aligned with FLOSS and F-Droid goals.
ArcaneChat and Delta Chat were updated to 2.25.0 improving onboarding, adding more metadata protection, reducing app size and much more.
Kotatsu was updated to 9.4.1 but development has stopped. The developer wrote: “In light of recent challenges — including threatening actions from Kakao Entertainment Corp and upcoming Google’s new sideloading policy — we’ve made the difficult decision to shut down Kotatsu and end its support. We’re deeply grateful to everyone who contributed and to the amazing community that grew around this project.”
Luanti (former Minetest) is a popular game, and they’ve just joined Open Collective Europe, a non-profit based in Belgium that provides fiscal hosting to open source projects. OCE hosts many notable projects, including EndeavourOS, F-Droid, and postmarketOS. This allows Luanti to operate like a non-profit and unlocks many new opportunities. Read more here to find out how you can help too.
Notesnook - Private notes app was updated to 3.3.8 after a long delay. What did we miss? A new sidebar UI and a tree view for notebooks at least, plus a new search, archive and importer secondly, and search filters and stats recently. Of note, latest version brings new pricing plans that you might want to read about.
OsmAnd~ had another big update, to 5.2.9, adding numerous new features and bug fixes. The list is huge so just head over to the dedicated announcement. Note: As usual, this update is not yet suggested as stable, if you want to have it now, just enable “Allow beta updates” from the app details menu.
Session F-Droid was updated to 1.29.0 with plenty of changes you can read about here. Bonus post, the devs talk about “screenshot alerts”. What are those? Most decentralized chat users and devs would call them “security theater” so here’s a 5 minutes explainer.
@paulali visited a conference:
This week there was Droidcon Kampala happening on the 10th to the 11th of November. I had the opportunity to talk about F-Droid and how users can distribute their own apps using F-Droid + Repomaker. The talk was aimed at college students interested in Android development.
Many thanks to the Droidcon Uganda team and the F-Droid team for making an amazing project.
The slides are available here.
Removed Apps
2 apps were removed
Music Player GO: Very simple, nice, privacy-friendly and original local Android Music Player
Precio Luz: Official electricity rate in Spain (PVPC). Note: While there’s a successor in Open_luz, we can’t include it as it requires a private key.
Newly Added Apps
15 apps were newly added
AirheadWaves: Stream Android audio to any Linux device over WiFi
GDF HEMA Timer: A precise and minimal timer for HEMA training and sparring
HappyTaxes: Private bookkeeping for freelancers, small business, or personal finances
HypoStats: Simple tracking and stats for hypos
Keep Alive Lite: Notify others if you haven’t used your device in a given period of time
Komodo Wallet: Cross-platform cryptocurrency wallet and decentralized exchange (DEX)
OpenAssistant: A simple, open-source AI app that uses Grok
Paiesque: Personal Activity Intelligence (PAI) calculator
PassVault: A secure, 100% offline password manager
Prayer mode: Automatic DND for prayer times without being disturbed during your Salah
QuickNotes: Capture and organize notes with AI-assisted tagging and reminders
Resticopia: Restic Backup Android App (Unofficial)
Ringdroid - Ringtone editor: An application for creating your own ringtones (Nice to have the old Ringdroid brought back to life!)
Space Vertex Multiplayer: Have you ever played a Cat and Mouse game with your friends ... in Space?
Torrents Digger - Dig Torrents From Internet: Dig Torrents from Internet
Updated Apps
197 more apps were updated (expand for the full list)
8-Bit Wonders was updated to 0.8.8c
a-rithist was updated to 1.0.7
AAAAXY was updated to 1.6.314+20251110.3932.723db6e6
AirGuard - AirTag protection was updated to 2.6.2
Aisleron Shopping List was updated to 2025.9.1
AliasVault was updated to 0.24.0
aShell was updated to v0.23
Audio Spectrum Analyzer was updated to 3.1
Auxio was updated to 4.0.10
Baby Name was updated to 2.0.4
baresip was updated to 71.1.1
baresip+ was updated to 58.1.0
bilimiao was updated to 2.4.8
Birthday Adapter was updated to 3.1
Booming Music was updated to 1.1.0
Box, Box! was updated to 0.10.1
BTC Map was updated to 1.0.0
Calliope mini was updated to 2.0.8
CAPod - Companion for AirPods was updated to 3.0.3-rc0
Casio G-Shock Smart Sync was updated to 24.0
Catima — Loyalty Card Wallet was updated to 2.39.2
Cavity was updated to 1.10.2
Chess was updated to 9.9.12
Chooser was updated to 1.4.9
CoMaps - Hike, Bike, Drive Offline with Privacy was updated to 2025.11.07-2-FDroid
ConnectBot was updated to 1.9.13-oss
Coordinate Joker was updated to 1.4.42
Copy SMS Code - OTP Helper was updated to 1.20.1
CuteMusic was updated to 3.1.0
DAVx⁵ was updated to 4.5.5-ose
De1984 was updated to 2.3.7
Deepr was updated to 1.0.19
Delta Icon Pack was updated to 2.9.0
Die Simulator was updated to 1.0
DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser was updated to 5.254.1
Easter Eggs was updated to 4.2.0
Easy Diary was updated to 1.4.339.202510260
Eblan Launcher was updated to 0.1.9-alpha
eduVPN was updated to 3.5.0
Element X - Secure Chat & Call was updated to 25.11.0
Ente Photos - Encrypted photo storage was updated to 1.2.18
Escapepod - Podcast Player was updated to 1.6.2
Exclave was updated to 0.16.12
Exercise Reminders was updated to 1.7.2
FairScan – PDF Scanner was updated to 1.5.0
FastTrack was updated to 4.1.1
Fcitx5 was updated to 0.1.2-0-g5a4870c0
Fcitx5 (Anthy Plugin) was updated to 0.1.2-0-g5a4870c0
Fcitx5 (Chewing Plugin) was updated to 0.1.2-0-g5a4870c0
Fcitx5 (Clipboard Filter Plugin) was updated to 0.1.2-0-g5a4870c0
Fcitx5 (Hangul Plugin) was updated to 0.1.2-0-g5a4870c0
Fcitx5 (Jyutping Plugin) was updated to 0.1.2-0-g5a4870c0
Fcitx5 (RIME Plugin) was updated to 0.1.2-0-g5a4870c0
Fcitx5 (Sayura Plugin) was updated to 0.1.2-0-g5a4870c0
Fcitx5 (That Plugin) was updated to 0.1.2-0-g5a4870c0
Fcitx5 (Unikey Plugin) was updated to 0.1.2-0-g5a4870c0
Feeder was updated to 2.16.0
Feeder (Play version) was updated to 2.16.0
Fennec F-Droid was updated to 145.0.0
Find Family was updated to v1.11
Flip 2 DND was updated to 8.0.1
Force Stop Helper was updated to 0.9.0
Fossify Calendar was updated to 1.8.1
Fossify Gallery was updated to 1.9.0
Fossify Music Player was updated to 1.6.0
Fossify Phone was updated to 1.9.0
Fossify Voice Recorder Beta was updated to 1.5.1
FossWallet was updated to 0.31.0
Gas Prices was updated to 3.2
Geo Share was updated to 5.7.0
GitNex for Forgejo and Gitea was updated to 11.0.0
GitNote was updated to 25.11
GMaps WV was updated to 4.8
Grit was updated to 5.1.0
Habit-Maker was updated to 0.0.38
Home Assistant was updated to 2025.11.1-minimal
Human Benchmark was updated to 1.1.0
Immich was updated to 2.2.3
Infomaniak kDrive was updated to 5.10.5
InviZible Pro: Tor & Firewall, DNSCrypt & I2P was updated to 7.3.0
Jami was updated to 20251107-01
Jellyfin for Android TV was updated to 0.19.3
Jitsi Meet was updated to 25.6.1
Json List was updated to 1.8
jtx Board journals|notes|tasks was updated to 2.14.01.ose
KDE Connect was updated to 1.34.3
Kwik EFIS was updated to 7.16
Lalumo was updated to 6.0
LibreTube was updated to 0.29.1
LinkDroid for Linkwarden was updated to 2.1.4
Linkora was updated to 0.14.0
Linux Command Library was updated to 3.4.9
Linwood Butterfly Nightly was updated to 2.4.1-rc.4
Lissen: Audiobookshelf client was updated to 1.7.9
LISTEN.moe was updated to 6.4.0
LxReader was updated to 0.8.6 (fdroid)
Mastodon was updated to 2.11.4
Material Notes was updated to 2.1.3
Materialious was updated to 1.11.3
Materials Live Wallpaper was updated to 1.9
MMRL was updated to v34195-release
Neo Backup was updated to 8.3.14
Neo Store was updated to 1.1.5
Network Survey was updated to 1.44.1
Nextcloud was updated to 3.34.1 RC1
Nextcloud Dev was updated to 20251108
Nextcloud Notes was updated to 4.5.2 RC1
NextDNS Manager was updated to 5.5.17
NextPush was updated to 2.3.4
NFC Alarm Clock was updated to 12.6.3
Nora was updated to 0.4.5
NotallyX - Quick Notes/Tasks was updated to 7.5.3
Notes (PFA) was updated to 2.1.1
NouTube was updated to 0.4.4
Obtainium was updated to 1.2.8
Offi was updated to 13.0.16
Open Sudoku was updated to 4.5.8
OpenComicVine was updated to 1.1.3
OpenTopoMap Viewer was updated to 1.24.1
OpenTracks (Non-reproducible) was updated to v4.23.2irreproducible
OpenTracks (Reproducible build) was updated to v4.23.2
Organic Maps: Hike, Bike, Drive Offline was updated to 2025.11.11-5-FDroid
Orgro was updated to 1.66.4
OuterTune was updated to 0.10.0
oxproxion was updated to 1.9.0
P.CASH Crypto Wallet was updated to 0.48.8
Pagan was updated to 1.7.21
PennyWise AI was updated to 2.15.38
Peristyle was updated to v9.3.3
Petals was updated to 3.37.2
Photok was updated to 2.2.0
PhotoSwooper was updated to 2025.11.2
Pie Launcher was updated to 1.23.8
PiPixiv was updated to 1.2.0
Pixiv-MultiPlatform was updated to 1.8.2
Play Maker was updated to 1.14.1
PlayOnDlna was updated to 1.5
Plexus was updated to 2.1.5
PocketTRacker was updated to 2.5.4
Podcini.X - Podcast instrument was updated to 8.25.2
Pomodorot was updated to 0.12.2
pOT-Droid was updated to 5.5.5
Primitive FTPd was updated to 7.4
PrivacyFlip was updated to 2.0.0
QRAlarm was updated to 2.7.3
QRshare was updated to 1.0.21
QuickDic was updated to 5.8.2
Quitter was updated to 1.0.82
Rank-My-Favs was updated to 0.6.16
Readeck App was updated to 0.8.0
RetroArch was updated to 1.22.0
Ricochlime was updated to 1.11.11
Robot36 - SSTV Image Decoder was updated to 2.16
RSAF was updated to 3.22
Ruffle was updated to 0.251110
rust-keylock-android was updated to 0.16.4
Saber was updated to 1.28.1
Satunes was updated to 3.3.1
SchildiChat Legacy was updated to 1.6.48.sc90
Screenshot Tile (NoRoot) was updated to 2.14.0
SharedHaven was updated to 1.6.6
ShoppingList was updated to 11.0
Smither was updated to 3.6.4
SmsLoc was updated to 1.3.2
Soul Searching was updated to 0.13.0
Squeeze Client was updated to 2.2
Standard Notes was updated to 3.201.2
StreetComplete was updated to 62.0-beta1
StyncyNotes was updated to 1.2
Sumire Japanese Keyboard was updated to 1.4.467
Super Productivity was updated to 16.3.1
Syncthing-Fork was updated to 2.0.11.2
Table Habit was updated to 1.21.0
TermuC was updated to 0.2.1
Threema Libre was updated to 6.2.0l
Thumb-Key was updated to 5.0.10
Tomato was updated to 1.6.5
Trailence was updated to 1.2.0
Tsacdop-Fork - Podcast Player was updated to 0.9.2
Tuner was updated to 9.0.0
Unchained was updated to 1.4.0
Vespucci was updated to 21.1.7.0
Voice Audiobook Player was updated to 25.10.5
Waterfly III was updated to 1.1.8
Webview Kiosk was updated to 0.24.26
wger Workout Manager was updated to 1.9.1
Wiki Fronted was updated to r/2.7.50555-r-2025-11-03
Wikipedia was updated to r/2.7.50555-r-2025-11-03
WikiReader was updated to 2.5.5
Wire • Secure Messenger was updated to 4.16.2
YAM Launcher was updated to 1.8
Youamp was updated to 2.0.2
Zimly S3 Backup was updated to 3.4.0
Zulip was updated to 30.0.267
聚在工大 was updated to 4.18.4.1
TeXeTeScribe was updated to 1.1
🌜 LunaTracker 🌛 was updated to 0.8
Thank you for reading this week’s TWIF 🙂
Please subscribe to the RSS feed in your favourite RSS application to be updated of new TWIFs when they come up.
You are welcome to join the TWIF forum thread. If you have any news from the community, post it there, maybe it will be featured next week 😉
To help support F-Droid, please check out the donation page and contribute what you can.
This Week in F-Droid
TWIF curated on Thursday, 06 Nov 2025, Week 45
Community News
Jami was updated to 20251031-01. The devs are busy at work but also at posting interesting blogs. “Manifesto 2025: the freedom to communicate belongs to all of us” talks about how humanity has more tools to speak yet we end up silenced. And in “Jami survival kit: Internet down? Keep talking!” we learn about the many ways Jami can cope when Internet access is severely limited or entirely cut off.
MakeACopy was updated to 2.1.1 but we also included MakeACopy – OCR Latin (Best), More accurate Tesseract Best models for Latin languages. Add-on so you can have these at hand and use in-app directly.
Proton Pass: Password Manager was updated to 1.34.0 and ProtonVPN - Secure and Free VPN was updated to 5.14.2.1, but in more Proton news we also included Lumo, A private AI assistant by Proton
Vishal scares us:
Until a few years ago, any app you installed on an Android device could see all other apps on your phone without your permission. But that changed once Google secured Android. The end………… No, hehe, we’re just joking, developers have plenty of ways to track your app usage, profile you, categorize you, track your usage of their competitors apps, punish you if you use the wrong apps and maybe even sell this information to others. And yes, all these apps are vetted as secure and compliant and are made available in the big centralized store from that big monopoly company that wants to block you from installing F-Droid and privacy preserving FLOSS apps.
This 15 minutes read will make you angry or even worse, if you’re from India.
Removed Apps
1 app was removed
Buses: Geographical GB bus times lookup app
Newly Added Apps
21 more apps were newly added
Athena: Review your device’s information, from hardware to software
Contacts: An open-source, fully-functional contacts app
De1984 Firewall: Privacy-focused Firewall and Package Manager for Android devices
Die Simulator: A simple app which allows you to roll a die
Droid_SCEP: Get certificates from a SCEP server and monitor the expiration
File85Toolkit: Lightweight file compression and decompression using LZMA + Base85
LibreLynx Lite: Lightweight privacy-focused web browser
Motion-UI: A web interface to manage your own NVR with motion
Pinyin Web & EPUB and dialects: Adds Pinyin or Cantonese etc to websites and EPUBs
reReminder: A simple, open-source app for setting recurring reminders throughout your day
Roaming Borders: Avoid unexpected roaming charges
Sensor Spot: Stream real-time Android sensor data over MQTT
ShoppingList: A Shopping List with reminders, price tracking and list sharing
Stashly - Vault tool: A simple, secure way to manage your personal files and notes.
TextTL: Local plain text file timeline memo tool
Therapiefinder: Support in search of a therapy
tmtLauncher: Minimalist Android Launcher | made by Timothy Choi
Traffic Light: Track your internet usage in the status bar
Trailence: Hiking app to organize tracks, record new ones, search, edit, and much more
Waterfly III: Unofficial App for Firefly III, an open source personal finance manager
TeXeTeScribe: Read and write in text-based files: TXT, JSON, HTML, CSV, XML, YAML, INI, MD
Downgraded Apps
1 apps were downgraded
freeminer was downgraded from 5.13.0 to 5.10.0 as the app was crashing.
Updated Apps
182 more apps were updated (expand for the full list)
Alovoa was updated to 2.2.5
Andor’s Trail was updated to 0.8.15
Anx Reader was updated to 1.9.2
AusweisApp was updated to 2.4.0
Baby Name was updated to 2.0.2
baresip was updated to 71.1.0
BatteryVoltageDisplay was updated to 1.2
Bible Notify was updated to 4.11.0
Bim! was updated to 12
BinEd - Hex Editor was updated to 0.2.9
Blood pressure monitor was updated to 1.8.10
Broccoli: The Green Recipe App was updated to 1.4.4
BusTO was updated to 2.4.4
Capy Reader was updated to 2025.10.1175
Cavity was updated to 1.10.1
Celestia was updated to 1.9.2
Chaldea was updated to 2.5.23
Cheogram was updated to 2.19.0-3+free
Chess was updated to 9.9.11
ClassiPod was updated to 1.12.0
Commons was updated to 6.1.0
Cuppa - Tea Timer was updated to 2.10.0
Daily Dozen was updated to 28
Deepr was updated to 1.0.18
Discreet Launcher was updated to v7.8.3
DrawAnywhere was updated to 1.2
drip. menstrual cycle and fertility tracking was updated to 1.2510.25
droidVNC-NG was updated to 2.16.1
DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser was updated to 5.253.1
Eblan Launcher was updated to 0.1.7-alpha
Element X - Secure Chat & Call was updated to 25.10.1
Endless Sky was updated to 0.10.16-55
Ente Photos - Encrypted photo storage was updated to 1.2.15
Enthusiast Tea Timer was updated to 1.6.1
FairEmail was updated to 1.2302
FeedFlow - RSS Reader was updated to 1.7.1
Flang was updated to 1.16
Flare was updated to 1.0.6
Fluffy was updated to 3.3.3
FluffyChat was updated to 2.2.0
Flux News was updated to 1.10.1
folder launcher was updated to 0.3.5
Food You - Calorie Tracker & Food Diary was updated to 3.3.5
Forkyz was updated to 75
Fossify Calculator Beta was updated to 1.2.0
Fossify Calendar was updated to 1.8.0
Fossify Camera Beta was updated to 1.4.0
Fossify Clock Beta was updated to 1.4.0
Fossify Contacts was updated to 1.4.0
Fossify File Manager was updated to 1.4.0
Fossify Gallery was updated to 1.8.0
Fossify Keyboard Beta was updated to 1.6.0
Fossify Launcher Beta was updated to 1.5.0
Fossify Messages was updated to 1.6.0
Fossify Music Player was updated to 1.5.0
Fossify Notes Beta was updated to 1.6.0
Fossify Paint Beta was updated to 1.2.0
Fossify Phone was updated to 1.8.0
Fossify Voice Recorder Beta was updated to 1.5.0
Fridgey was updated to 2.2.9
Geo Share was updated to 5.6.0
Geotag video camera was updated to 2.1.14
GMaps WV was updated to 4.7
huggingAssist was updated to 2.3
Infomaniak kDrive was updated to 5.10.4
Infomaniak Mail was updated to 1.20.1
IzzyOnDroid (unofficial) was updated to v0.14
Jellyfin for Android TV was updated to 0.19.2
Just Delete Me was updated to 0.2
Kahon was updated to 0.19.3
Kazumi was updated to 1.8.7
Keep Alive was updated to 1.3.3
KeePassDX Pass(key/word) Vault was updated to 4.2.3
kitshn (for Tandoor) was updated to 2.0.0-beta.12.2
KOReader was updated to v2025.10
Ladefuchs was updated to 3.5.5
Les Pas - Photo Album for Nextcloud was updated to 2.10.4
LinkHub was updated to 1.6.6
Linwood Butterfly Nightly was updated to 2.4.1-rc.3
Lissen: Audiobookshelf client was updated to 1.7.5
Logcat Reader was updated to 2.3.1
Loud Bang was updated to 0.51
Materialious was updated to 1.10.18
MediLog was updated to 3.3.11
MedTimer was updated to 1.20.1
Mindustry was updated to 8-fdroid-152.3
Money Manager Ex was updated to 5.4.10
MuPDF mini was updated to 1.26.11a
MuPDF viewer was updated to 1.26.11a
Musify was updated to 9.6.11
NATINFo+ was updated to 0.13.7
NeoStumbler was updated to 2.1.10
neutriNote CE was updated to 4.5.9e
NFC Alarm Clock was updated to 12.6.1
Nora was updated to 0.4.3
NotallyX - Quick Notes/Tasks was updated to 7.5.2
Notes (PFA) was updated to 2.1.0
NouTube was updated to 0.4.3
Nov Open Reader was updated to 1.3.0a
Offi was updated to 13.0.15
Onyx was updated to 2.0.13
Open Alert Viewer was updated to 1.3.4
Open Sudoku was updated to 4.5.7
openHAB was updated to 3.18.0
openHAB Beta was updated to 3.17.15-beta
OpenMoneyBox was updated to 3.5.1.4
OpenTracks (Non-reproducible) was updated to v4.23.1irreproducible
OpenTracks (Reproducible build) was updated to v4.23.1
Orgro was updated to 1.66.3
oxproxion was updated to 1.7.4
P.CASH Crypto Wallet was updated to 0.48.3
Pachli for Mastodon was updated to 3.1.0
Package Manager was updated to v7.6
PDF Wallet was updated to 4.6.1
PennyWise AI was updated to 2.15.37
Peristyle was updated to v9.3.2
Persian Calendar was updated to 10.0.0
PipePipe was updated to 4.7.4
Play Maker was updated to 1.13.2
Plus Plus Battery was updated to 2.3.6
Podcini.X - Podcast instrument was updated to 8.23.3
Polymarket Viewer was updated to 1.24
PrivacyScanner was updated to 1.2.1
PublicArtExplorer was updated to 1.4.6
QRAlarm was updated to 2.7.2
QuickWeather was updated to 2.8.5
Quitter was updated to 1.0.78
Read You was updated to 0.15.3
Retro Music was updated to 6.6.0
RSAF was updated to 3.21
Ruffle was updated to 0.251103
rust-keylock-android was updated to 0.16.3
Saber was updated to 1.27.1
Sapio was updated to 1.9.1
Save by OpenArchive was updated to 4.0.3-fdroid
Screenshot Tile (NoRoot) was updated to 2.12.5
Seafile was updated to 3.0.19
SelfPrivacy was updated to 0.13.4
Share 2 Archive Today was updated to 5.9
ShikiApp was updated to alpha-0.4.5
Shiori was updated to 1.50.22
ShockAlarm was updated to 0.4.1
ShoppingList was updated to v1.20.0
sing-box was updated to 1.12.12
SiYuan was updated to 3.3.6
SnapSafe was updated to 3.5.4
solXpect was updated to 2.8
SoundAura was updated to 1.6.2
SpamBlocker (Call & SMS) was updated to 4.20
Standard Notes was updated to 3.200.9
Stateful Speedometer was updated to 0.2.0
Stay Put - Unplug Alert was updated to 0.8.7
strongSwan VPN Client was updated to 2.6.2
Sumire Japanese Keyboard was updated to 1.4.459
Super Productivity was updated to 16.2.1
SwatchIt was updated to 0.2.1
Swiss Bitcoin Pay was updated to 2.6.5
Table Habit was updated to 1.20.0
Tailscale was updated to 1.90.4-t0d7298602-g92f2bb273
Taler Cashier was updated to 1.1.0
Taler Point-of-Sale Terminal was updated to 1.1.0
Taler Wallet was updated to 1.1.0
taz was updated to 2.0.3
Tessel – A tile game was updated to 1.0.6
Thunderbird Beta for Testers was updated to 14.0b3
Tilde Friends was updated to 0.2025.10
Timed Shutdown [No Root] was updated to v2.92
Tomato was updated to 1.6.2
Transport You was updated to 2.3
Trime was updated to 3.3.7
Tsacdop-Fork - Podcast Player was updated to 0.9.1
Tuta Calendar was updated to 314.251030.0
Tuta Mail was updated to 314.251030.0
venera was updated to 1.6.0
Vernet - Network Analyzer was updated to 1.3.2
Webview Kiosk was updated to 0.24.24
Wire • Secure Messenger was updated to 4.16.1
XiVPN was updated to 1.7.3
Xtra was updated to 2.51.0
YAM was updated to 1.1
yetCalc was updated to 2.0.8
µLauncher was updated to 0.2.8
Thank you for reading this week’s TWIF 🙂
Please subscribe to the RSS feed in your favourite RSS application to be updated of new TWIFs when they come up.
You are welcome to join the TWIF forum thread. If you have any news from the community, post it there, maybe it will be featured next week 😉
To help support F-Droid, please check out the donation page and contribute what you can.
This Week in F-Droid
TWIF curated on Thursday, 30 Oct 2025, Week 44
Community News
Fossify Messages update 1.5.0 from last week has been having some crashing issues with heavy conversations, tracked by the developer here. If you’ve encountered them, you are advised to uninstall, install older version 1.4.0 and use the upper right menu in client to “Ignore this update” until the next one (built while you read this) comes.
PrivacyFlip was updated to 1.4.1 and features a key change unfortunately. Things happened with the old key, as they do, and a new one has been born. If you’ve installed the app in the past we recommend you uninstall and install the newly signed one today.
SwatchIt, Manage your knitted swatches, was just added. What is it? It’s a choose your own adventure game that involves quests you solve with yarn and needles, I guess. Here’s a bit of a background of how the app came to be. And to gain extra experience, you can read about the developer’s quest to add their app to F-Droid, if you have 15 minutes to spare, here.
@samanbaia spells the magic words:
Lineage, F-Droid, XMPP will summon an one hour long video presentation and the corresponding slides, both in Italian. Bonus QR codes spread around to poll you on your choices. This was part of Linux Day Torino 2025, that took place on October 25th.
@shuvashish76 has bad and good news:
Immich is the fourth most starred app in our repo and one with a healthy following. Earlier this month they ended up having their services inaccessible at Google’s whims as all of their *.immich.cloud websites were marked as dangerous and users started being shown the dreaded “red-screen-of-death” page. How did our heroes fight the beast? You can read it all in the 5 minutes long post. One word comes to mind after reading this, can you guess which? (scroll to the end to see if we think alike)
LibreTube was updated to 0.29.0. After half a year of work, this is perhaps one of their biggest releases ever (more than 500 commits), including: Material 3 Expressive redesign, edge-to-edge support, predictive back and much more.
Removed Apps
2 apps were removed
Bible Feed: Feed on God’s Holy Bible using this Professor Grant Horner reading plan tracker
Quacker: A private and clean way to browse Twitter/X
Newly Added Apps
4 more apps were newly added
Chitralaya CloudGallery App: Transform Telegram into your personal, unlimited photo cloud storage
Omni Files: A powerful file explorer app that can edit many different types of files
OuterTune: Material 3 Music Player with local file & YouTube Music support
Squeezelite: ‘Headless’ audio player for Lyrion Music Server (LMS) - Squeezelite
Updated Apps
137 more apps were updated (expand for the full list)
AndroidMic was updated to 2.2.3
App Lock was updated to 2.0.0
ArcaneChat was updated to 2.22.0
Avare was updated to 11.0.5
Baby Name was updated to 2.0.1
Bahn-Vorhersage was updated to 0.5.0
Ball2Box was updated to 4.1.9
baresip was updated to 71.0.2
baresip+ was updated to 58.0.2
Bible Verse App was updated to 1.5
Birday - Birthday Manager was updated to 4.7.2
Breakout 71 was updated to 29353327
Cams was updated to 2.4.4
Cavity was updated to 1.9.4
CClauncher was updated to v9.10.1
Chip Defense was updated to 1.55
CoMaps - Hike, Bike, Drive Offline with Privacy was updated to 2025.10.20-1-FDroid
Cuscon was updated to 4.0.7.3
Daily You was updated to 2.14.0
Demodulate was updated to 1.2.2
Dicer (Privacy Friendly) was updated to 2.0.0
Drawpile was updated to 2.3.0-beta.4
droidVNC-NG was updated to 2.16.0
DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser was updated to 5.252.0
Easy Watermark was updated to 2.10.0
Eblan Launcher was updated to 0.1.5-alpha
EinkBro was updated to 15.3.0
Endless Sky was updated to 0.10.16-54
EnigmaDroid was updated to 1.5.0
Enthusiast Tea Timer was updated to 1.6.0
Exclave was updated to 0.16.10
FairEmail was updated to 1.2301
Find Family was updated to v1.10
flabr was updated to 1.2.6
Flexify was updated to 2.1.34
Flicky was updated to 3.6.3
Flux was updated to 2.1
Flux News was updated to 1.9.2
FossWallet was updated to 0.30.0
freeDictionaryApp was updated to 1.7.8
Fucks Given was updated to 1.0.8
Fujiten was updated to 2.3.0
Fulguris Web Browser was updated to 1.11.0
FW-Wettkampf Funk-Trainer was updated to 2.3
Goals & Checklists - timeto.me was updated to 2025.10.22
gpsdRelay was updated to 2.2
Infomaniak kDrive was updated to 5.10.2
Infomaniak Mail was updated to 1.20.0
Inure App Manager (Trial) was updated to build106.4.0
Jami was updated to 20251024-01
K-9 Mail was updated to 13.0
Kazumi was updated to 1.8.6
KeePassDX Pass(key/word) Vault was updated to 4.2.1
Kvaesitso was updated to 1.38.0-fdroid
Libre Librivox listener was updated to 3.2.0
LibreOffice & OpenOffice document reader | ODF was updated to 4.0
LinkHub was updated to 1.6.5
Linux Command Library was updated to 3.4.8
Linwood Butterfly Nightly was updated to 2.4.1-rc.1
Lissen: Audiobookshelf client was updated to 1.7.3
MakeACopy was updated to 2.0.0
Markor was updated to 2.15.2
Mastodon was updated to 2.11.3
Mattermost Beta was updated to 2.33.1
MediLog was updated to 3.3.10
MedTimer was updated to 1.20.0
Migraine Log was updated to 0.14.0
MinCal Widget was updated to 2.18.6
monocles chat was updated to 2.0.16
Musify was updated to 9.6.9
NanoLedger was updated to 1.2.1
neutriNote CE was updated to 4.5.9d
Nextcloud Dev was updated to 20251027
Nora was updated to 0.3.1
NotallyX - Quick Notes/Tasks was updated to 7.5.1
Notely Voice: AI Voice to Text was updated to 1.2.6
NouTube was updated to 0.4.2
ntfy - PUT/POST to your phone was updated to 1.17.13
OctoDroid was updated to 4.6.14
Offi was updated to 13.0.14
Open Sudoku was updated to 4.5.6
OpenTracks (Non-reproducible) was updated to v4.23.0irreproducible
OpenTracks (Reproducible build) was updated to v4.23.0
Organic Maps: Hike, Bike, Drive Offline was updated to 2025.10.23-22-FDroid
Orgro was updated to 1.65.2
oxproxion was updated to 1.6.3
P.CASH Crypto Wallet was updated to 0.48.2
PDF Wallet was updated to 4.6.0
Persian Calendar was updated to 9.9.3
Photok was updated to 2.1.2
Pie Launcher was updated to 1.23.7
Play Maker was updated to 1.10.0
plees-tracker was updated to 25.8.1
Podcini.X - Podcast instrument was updated to 8.23.2
pretixPRINT was updated to 2.21.0-foss
PrivacyScanner was updated to 1.2.0
ProtonVPN - Secure and Free VPN was updated to 5.14.2.0
PublicArtExplorer was updated to 1.4.5
Quitter was updated to 1.0.77
RF Analyzer (FOSS) was updated to 2.1.1-foss
RSAF was updated to 3.20
Ruffle was updated to 0.251027
Saber was updated to 0.26.12
SambaLite was updated to 1.3.1
SchildiChat Next was updated to 0.10.10-ex_25_10_0
Screenshot Tile (NoRoot) was updated to 2.12.4
Session F-Droid was updated to 1.28.2
ShockAlarm was updated to 0.4.0
SimbaDroid was updated to 0.8
sing-box was updated to 1.12.11
Smart Dock was updated to 1.14.1
SmartScan was updated to 1.1.7
Standard Notes was updated to 3.200.7
strongSwan VPN Client was updated to 2.6.1
Sumire Japanese Keyboard was updated to 1.4.449
Super Productivity was updated to 16.1.0
SuperX was updated to 0.6.5
Table Habit was updated to 1.19.0
Tailscale was updated to 1.90.3-tca8f3d049-g0150bd949
taz was updated to 2.0.1
Tehran Metro was updated to 1.0.0
Tessel – A tile game was updated to 1.0.5
Thunderbird Beta for Testers was updated to 14.0b2
Thunderbird: Free Your Inbox was updated to 13.0
Tomato was updated to 1.6.0
Trackbook - Movement Recorder was updated to 2.2.6
Trail Sense was updated to 7.3.0
Transistor - Simple Radio App was updated to 4.3.3
Transport You was updated to 2.2
WebLibre: Private Browser was updated to 0.9.27
Webview Kiosk was updated to 0.24.16
whoBIRD was updated to 4.9
WHPH was updated to 0.18.0
Wispar was updated to 0.9.0
WorkTimer was updated to 1.5-beta1
Xtra was updated to 2.49.2
Zulip was updated to 30.0.266
Thank you for reading this week’s TWIF 🙂
Please subscribe to the RSS feed in your favourite RSS application to be updated of new TWIFs when they come up.
You are welcome to join the TWIF forum thread. If you have any news from the community, post it there, maybe it will be featured next week 😉
To help support F-Droid, please check out the donation page and contribute what you can.
/PS: Yes, the word is “gatekeeper”. If you chose “abuser”, “monopolist” or any other, you were not wrong either.
We recently published a blog
post
with our reaction to the new Google Developer Program and how it impacts
your freedom to use the devices that you own in the ways that you want. The
post garnered quite a lot of feedback and interest from the community and
press, as well as various civil society groups and regulatory agencies.
In this post, I hope to clarify and expand on some of the points and rebut
some of the counter-messaging that we have witnessed.
Google’s message that “Sideloading is Not Going Away” is clear, concise, and false
Shortly after our post was published, Google aired an
episode of their
Android Developers Roundtable series, where they state unequivocally that
“sideloading isn’t going anywhere”. They follow-up with a blog
post:
Does this mean sideloading is going away on Android? Absolutely not. Sideloading is fundamental to Android and it is not going away.
This statement is untrue. The developer verification decree effectively ends
the ability for individuals to choose what software they run on the devices
they own.
It bears reminding that “sideload” is a made-up term. Putting software on
your computer is simply called “installing”, regardless of whether that
computer is in your pocket or on your desk. This could perhaps be further
precised as “direct installing”, in case you need to make a distinction
between obtaining software the old-fashioned way versus going through a
rent-seeking intermediary marketplace like the Google Play Store or the
Apple App Store.
Regardless, the term “sideload” was coined to insinuate that there is
something dark and sinister about the process, as if the user were making an
end-run around safeguards that are designed to keep you protected and
secure. But if we reluctantly accept that “sideloading” is a term that has
wriggled its way into common parlance, then we should at least use a
consistent definition for it. Wikipedia’s summary
definition is:
the transfer of apps from web sources that are not vendor-approved
By this definition, Google’s statement that “sideloading is not going away”
is simply false. The vendor — Google, in the case of Android certified
devices — will, in point of fact, be approving the source. The supplicant
app developer must register with Google, pay a fee, provide government
identification, agree to non-negotiable (and ever-changing) terms and
conditions, enumerate all their current and future application identifiers,
upload evidence of their private signing key, and then hope and wait for
Google’s approval.
What this means for your rights
You, the consumer, purchased your Android device believing in Google’s
promise that it was an open computing platform and that you could run
whatever software you choose on it. Instead, starting next year, they will
be non-consensually pushing an update to your operating system that
irrevocably blocks this right and leaves you at the mercy of their judgement
over what software you are permitted to trust.
You, the creator, can no longer develop an app and share it directly with
your friends, family, and community without first seeking Google’s
approval. The promise of Android — and a marketing advantage it has used to
distinguish itself against the iPhone — has always been that it is
“open”. But Google clearly feels that they have enough of a lock on the
Android ecosystem, along with sufficient regulatory capture, that they can
now jettison this principle with prejudice and impunity.
You, the state, are ceding the rights of your citizens and your own digital
sovereignty to a company with a track record of complying with the
extrajudicial demands of authoritarian regimes to remove perfectly legal
apps that they happen to dislike. The software that is critical to the
running of your businesses and governments will be at the mercy of the
opaque whims of a distant and unaccountable corporation. Monocultures are
perilous not just in agriculture, but in software distribution as well.
As a reminder, this applies not just to devices that exclusively use the
Google Play Store: this is for every Android Certified device everywhere
in the world, which encompasses over 95% of all Android devices outside of
China. Regardless of whether the device owner prefers to use a competing app
store like the Samsung Galaxy Store or the Epic Games Store, or a free and
open-source app repository like F-Droid, they will be captive to the
overarching policies unilaterally dictated by a competing corporate entity.
The place of greater safety
In promoting their developer registration program, Google
purports:
Our recent analysis found over 50 times more malware from internet-sideloaded sources than on apps available through Google Play.
We haven’t seen this recent analysis — or any other supporting evidence —
but the “50 times” multiple does certainly sound like great cause for
distress (even if it is a surprisingly round number). But given the recent
news
of “224 malicious apps removed from the Google Play Store after ad fraud
campaign discovered”, we are left to wonder whether their energies might
better be spent assessing and improving their own safeguards rather than
casting vague disparagements against the software development communities
that thrive outside their walled garden.
In addition, other recent
news of over
19 million downloads of malware from the Play Store leads us to question
whether the sole judgement of a single corporate entity can be trusted to
identify and assess malware, especially when that judgement is clouded by
commercial incentives that may not align with the well-being of their users.
What can be done?
Google has been facing public outcry against their heavy-handed policies for
a long time, but this trend has accelerated recently. Last year they
crippled
ad-blockers
in Chrome and Chromium-based browsers by forcing through their unpopular
“manifest v3” requirement for plugins, and earlier this year they closed
off
the development of the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), which is how they
were able to clandestinely implement the verification infrastructure that
enforces their developer registration decree.
Developer verification is an existential threat to free software
distribution platforms like F-Droid as well as emergent commercial
competitors to the Play Store. We are witnessing a groundswell of opposition
to this attempt from both our user and developer communities, as well as the
tech press and civil society groups, but public policymakers still need to
be educated about the threat.
To learn more about what you can do as a consumer, visit
keepandroidopen.org for information on how to
contact your representative agencies and advocate for keeping the Android
ecosystem open for consumers and competition.
If you are an app developer, we recommend against signing yourself up for
Google’s developer registration program at this time. We unequivocally
reject their attempt to force this program upon the world.
Over half of all humankind uses an Android smartphone. Google does not own
your phone. You own your phone. You have the right to decide who to trust,
and where you can get your software from.
This Week in F-Droid
TWIF curated on Friday, 24 Oct 2025, Week 43
F-Droid core
Our website runs on a pretty standard software stack, all from Debian as expected. Yet we are not rewriting it every 7 months in a new shiny framework, but we aim for simplicity, maintainability and stability. While we encourage users to use the F-Droid Client to get timely updates and info on new apps, we know that the website is the point-of-entry for both new and old users. In the past year or so, we’ve also expanded our Categories to simplify discoverability and not have some with 500 apps that aren’t really helpful.
We’ve been bugged by an issue with categories for years now, as the number of apps grew bigger, a category app list was paginated, but pages 2 and later were not rendered correctly, missing the app icon and summary. Thanks to @Ray c for finally tracking a possible fix as others were affected too, so now all categories pages render correctly.
Community News
ArcaneChat and Delta Chat were updated to 2.20.0 and added experimental built-in calls? Interesting, did you test already? Looks like Webxdc proves to be more and more useful.
We skipped some versions, due to technical issues, but Catima — Loyalty Card Wallet was updated this week to 2.39.1. What did we miss? Non-archived cards widget, support for .pkpasses files, it now targets Android 16, features a new crash reporter to help the developer fix issues faster and more.
DOOM & Wolfenstein RPG released its last update on F-Droid. Starting from the next version, it will switch to doom64 ex+, which is using proprietary fmod.
DumDum, another proxy client, joined our family of VPN and proxy apps on F-Droid with reproducible builds. This is also based on a fork of the old SagerNet while designed to be minimalistic and only supports SOCKS/HTTP/HTTPS proxies.
Fennec F-Droid was updated to 144.0.0, raising the Minimum Android Version to 8.0 (Oreo). Mozilla also dropped the support for 32-bit x86 devices, but we will still try to build it anyway in our next cycles.
@shuvashish76 modernizes passwords:
KeePassDX - Pass(key/word) Vault was updated to 4.2.0 adding Passkeys support. What is Passkeys? Why Passkeys? The app Wiki has all the answers.
@Tobias_Groza glazes a virtual cake:
NewPipe celebrated 10 years last month and it’s time for a fancy post. Looking back, looking now and looking forward, you might end up going through all sorts of emotions. For now, read and rejoice but also be weary of things to come.
Removed Apps
2 apps were removed
WebCall, WebCall P2P E2EE Telephony, as the developer stopped offering the service (Albeit you could host your own and edit the URL)
WG Tunnel, A WireGuard & AmneziaWG VPN client with auto-tunneling, lockdown & proxying, as the developer requested it. (Rethink: DNS + Firewall + VPN, Exclave and sing-box can connect to WireGuard and one other app might be coming soon)
Newly Added Apps
7 more apps were newly added
Anx Reader: A thoughtfully crafted e-book reader for book lovers
Eblan Launcher: Android Launcher made from scratch using Kotlin, Coroutines and Jetpack Compose
Hacker’s Diet Offline: This is an offline version of the Hackers Diet Online
Kmtemplate: Organize tasks effortlessly across all your devices with Kmtemplate
Quitter: Give up on addictions and become a Quitter
VScan: A visual perception layer for the blind
Yet Another Tuner (Y.A.M.): Simplistic metronome app by an amateur musician
Updated Apps
131 more apps were updated (expand for the full list)
AAAAXY was updated to 1.6.301+20251014.3919.5d658aa3
AAT Another Activity Tracker was updated to v1.29
AELF - Bible and day’s reading was updated to 2.9.2
baresip was updated to 70.0.1
baresip+ was updated to 57.1.0
BatteryTemperatureDisplay was updated to 1.1
Blichess was updated to 8.0.0+ble2.2.1
Blorp was updated to 1.9.26
BusTO was updated to 2.4.3
Call Limiter was updated to 0.3.3
CameraFileCopy was updated to 0.6.3
CineLog was updated to 3.0.0-beta1
Clash Meta For Android was updated to 2.11.17.Meta
Cuscon was updated to 4.0.7.2
Deepr was updated to 1.0.17
Demodulate was updated to 1.2.1
Diatronome was updated to 1.0.10
DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser was updated to 5.251.1
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup was updated to 0.33.1-15-gd434b7dfca
EP Mobile was updated to 2.36.0
EteSync - Secure Data Sync was updated to 2.6.0
Exclave was updated to 0.16.9
F-Droid Build Status was updated to 5.13.0
FairScan – PDF Scanner was updated to 1.4.0
Feudal Tactics was updated to 1.4.2
Flare was updated to 1.0.5
Flux News was updated to 1.9.1
Food You - Calorie Tracker & Food Diary was updated to 3.3.4
Force Stop Helper was updated to 0.7.0
Forkgram was updated to 12.1.1.0
Fossify Calendar was updated to 1.7.0
Fossify Gallery was updated to 1.7.0
Fossify Messages was updated to 1.5.0
Fossify Music Player was updated to 1.4.0
Fossify Paint Beta was updated to 1.1.2
Fossify Phone was updated to 1.7.3
FossWallet was updated to 0.29.0
geteduroam was updated to 2.1.7(2676)
getgovroam was updated to 2.1.7(2676)
Godot Engine 4 was updated to 4.5.1.stable
Green: Bitcoin Wallet was updated to 5.1.0
Guileless Bopomofo Keyboard was updated to 3.6.5
Harmony Music was updated to 1.12.1
HeliBoard was updated to 3.5
Infomaniak kDrive was updated to 5.10.0
Infomaniak kMeet was updated to 2.6.7
Infomaniak Mail was updated to 1.20.0
Kazumi was updated to 1.8.4
Keep Screen On was updated to 1.27.0
Komelia was updated to 0.17.0
Kreate was updated to 1.8.2-fdroid
Linphone - open source SIP client was updated to 6.0.19
Linux Command Library was updated to 3.4.7
Linwood Flow Nightly was updated to 0.5.1
MakeACopy was updated to 1.7.6
Materialious was updated to 1.10.17
Mattermost Beta was updated to 2.33.0
MedTimer was updated to 1.19.2
mensen was updated to 1.5.0
Musify was updated to 9.6.7
NeoStumbler was updated to 2.1.9
neutriNote CE was updated to 4.5.9c
News Reader was updated to 1.12
Nextcloud Dev was updated to 20251021
Nextcloud Notes was updated to 4.5.1
Nora was updated to 0.2.7
NotallyX - Quick Notes/Tasks was updated to 7.5.0
Offline Translator was updated to 0.2.3
Open Notes was updated to 1.3.2
Open Sudoku was updated to 4.5.5
oxproxion was updated to 1.5.4
P.CASH Crypto Wallet was updated to 0.47.6
Pagan was updated to 1.7.20
Passwords was updated to 0.5.1
PDF Wallet was updated to 4.5.3
PennyWise AI was updated to 2.15.36
Peristyle was updated to v9.3.1
PicGuard was updated to 5.0.4
Podcini.X - Podcast instrument was updated to 8.21.0
Pokéverse was updated to 1.2.1
ProseReader was updated to 1.6.0
Proton Pass: Password Manager was updated to 1.33.1
QED was updated to 3.1.4+fdroid
QR Scanner (PFA) was updated to 4.6.18
QRAlarm was updated to 2.7.1
Quick Calculation was updated to 1.4
Quillpad was updated to 1.5.7
Really Basic Vocab was updated to 3.4.8
Recurring Expense Tracker was updated to 0.19.1
Ruffle was updated to 0.251020
RustDesk was updated to 1.4.3
Screenshot Tile (NoRoot) was updated to 2.12.3
ServerBox was updated to 1.0.1270
SharedHavenTN3 was updated to 1.6.5-testnet
SimbaDroid was updated to 0.7
SimpleXray was updated to 1.10.6
sing-box was updated to 1.12.10
SmartScan was updated to 1.1.6
SnapSafe was updated to 3.5.2
SpamBlocker (Call & SMS) was updated to 4.19
Squeezer was updated to 2.3.11
Sumire Japanese Keyboard was updated to 1.4.441
Suntimes was updated to 0.16.11
Super Productivity was updated to 15.3.0
Syncthing-Fork was updated to 2.0.10.2
Table Habit was updated to 1.18.0
Tailscale was updated to 1.88.4-tc18ddfa3d-g4a3522527
TermuC was updated to 0.2.0
Tessel – A tile game was updated to 1.0.2
The Battle for Wesnoth was updated to 1.19.17
Thunderbird Beta for Testers was updated to 13.0b5
Todo List (PFA) was updated to 3.3.1
ToFShare was updated to 1.0.6
Tomato was updated to 1.5.0
TorrServe was updated to MatriX.136.1.FOSS
Trackbook - Movement Recorder was updated to 2.2.4
TRIfA was updated to 1.0.260
Tuta Mail was updated to 310.251016.1
UnderEat was updated to 1.0.20
Unstoppable Crypto Wallet was updated to 0.45.2
Valentin’s PowerTools #023 - MemorizeYourClassics was updated to 1.0.4
VolumeLockr was updated to 1.6.3
VRChat Android Assistant was updated to 2.7.3
WAFRN was updated to 1.7.2
Warpinator for Android (unofficial) was updated to 1.8.5
Webview Kiosk was updated to 0.24.8
Wire • Secure Messenger was updated to 4.15.4
XiVPN was updated to 1.7.2
Xray was updated to 11.9.0
Xtra was updated to 2.49.1
YAACC was updated to 4.4.1
Thank you for reading this week’s TWIF 🙂
Please subscribe to the RSS feed in your favourite RSS application to be updated of new TWIFs when they come up.
You are welcome to join the TWIF forum thread. If you have any news from the community, post it there, maybe it will be featured next week 😉
To help support F-Droid, please check out the donation page and contribute what you can.
Introduction
In our previous article, we explored how Free and Open Source Software
(FOSS) projects like F-Droid handle legal requests for user or developer
data. In this post, we’re shifting focus to a broader andrapidly growing
legal challenge: platform responsibility under laws like the UK’s Online
Safety Act
(OSA),
the EU’s Digital Services Act
(DSA)
and Digital Markets Act
(DMA).
These frameworks redefine accountability for online platforms including FOSS
ecosystems.
These laws govern how platforms handle content, transparency, and user
protections. While they are designed primarily for large tech platforms,
their broad definitions can sometimes pull in smaller FOSS projects,
especially those that distribute software or host third-party content.
This article outlines how F-Droid fits into these legal frameworks, what our
current obligations are, and how we’re reviewing our practices, to maintain
legal resilience without compromising our core mission.
Does This Even Matter?
When navigating laws like the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) and the EU’s
Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA), one of the first
and most important steps for any FOSS project is understanding: Does this
apply to us? The OSA, DSA and DMA introduce complex requirements for content
moderation, platform accountability, and user safety, but they are not
one-size-fits-all.
For the F-Droid app store, the answer is nuanced and reassuring. We are not
considered a “very large online platform” (VLOP), don’t run user-to-user
services, and we don’t process payments or track users. This makes our legal
exposure far lower than platforms like Google Play or Apple’s App
Store. Additionally our Inclusion
Policy and Code Of
Conduct exclude illegal,
explicit, age-restricted, or harmful apps, such as gambling apps. Still, we
are not entirely outside the scope. There are some responsibilities that
remain, particularly around transparency, documentation, and process. Now
let’s take a closer look at some specific European regulations.
Understanding the UK Online Safety Act
The UK’s Online Safety Act, passed in 2023, places obligations on services
that either (1) host user-to-user content, or (2) function as
general-purpose search engines. Its goal is to reduce online harm,
particularly illegal or abusive content, guided by
Ofcom as the lead regulator.
F-Droid does not meet either of those criteria:
We do not host user accounts
We do not function as a general-purpose search engine.
Furthermore, we have very few users in the UK, our infrastructure is not
hosted in the UK, and we are legally governed from the Netherlands.
According to a legal review by a UK-based lawyer, the F-Droid service is
likely out of scope for most of the Act’s requirements. However, we’re still
taking several precautionary steps:
Documenting our legal position on non-applicability
Completing Ofcom’s optional risk assessment
tool
Adding a reporting button in the client that links to GitLab issues (this
gives a way for users to report content to us more easily)
Clarifying and updating our Code of Conduct and Inclusion Policy
It is important to note that the F-Droid forum is one exception to this rule
as it could be interpreted as a user-to-user service, where we do require
email verification in order for people to participate in the forum. That
being said, we are complying with the intention of the act in that we do not
discuss illegal, harmful, or mature topics in the forum that would
potentially be considered inappropriate for minors or require age
verification, and as we mentioned above, the act falls outside F-Droid’s
jurisdiction.
Now let’s take a look at some EU regulations.
Understanding the EU Digital Services Act
Unlike the UK’s OSA, the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) applies to a broader
range of services, including app directories and repositories like F-Droid,
if they are accessible within the EU. The DSA introduces tiers of
responsibility based on the size and function of the platform.
F-Droid does not meet any of these requirements:
A for-profit organization, but instead a community-run platform
Monetizing user data
Functioning as a social media service
Having more than 45 million users
This means we have fewer obligations than large commercial services, but it
doesn’t mean we’re entirely excluded.
Under the DSA we still need to:
Provide a way for users to flag content, which they can do so
here
Review (within a reasonable extent) whether any content we host (e.g. app
metadata) could violate EU law, which is taken into consideration during
our review process and inclusion policy
Respond to takedown orders or court requests, which we do via our official
channels outlined in the previous articles
Publish limited usage
reports,
which is a part of our updated policy
Content Regulation
As we assessed our obligations under the Online Safety Act and the Digital
Services Act, we need to revisit a more sensitive area of content policy:
how we handle Not Safe For Work (NSFW) content. With regulations
increasingly policing mature content online, including calls for age
verification, we are carefully re-evaluating what the NSFW anti-feature
label means within F-Droid, how and if it should continue to be applied and
how it intersects with censorship, freedom of expression, and legal
compliance.
F-Droid does not and cannot perform age verification. That alone means we
must be cautious about distributing apps that contain harmful or sexually
explicit material, particularly when hosting them could put our
infrastructure or contributors at risk. Our mission is to provide a safe and
privacy-respecting way for people to access FOSS.
While this means not every FOSS app can be hosted on the main F-Droid repo,
the goal is not to censor, but to protect the long-term sustainability of
the project and its contributors. The vast majority of the world, including
where many F-Droid contributors and users live, have strict pornography and
gambling laws, as well as regulations restricting mature content. Even if we
don’t want to be, we are accountable to certain regulations that meet at the
intersection between censorship and safety. We need to keep this in mind,
even if Dutch law (where our infrastructure is based) is far more permissive
on some of these topics.
These decisions are never easy. They often involve interpreting blurry
boundaries and confronting values that differ dramatically around the
globe. We acknowledge that our approach might not be perfect yet, but it is
grounded in principle: safety for users, safety for contributors, and
staying focused on our core mission.
Going forward, we’ll continue to refine our inclusion policy and how we
communicate it. We are also reviewing the purpose of the NSFW Anti-Feature
tag. These are enforced to reflect the regulatory realities and our
commitment to transparency and user freedom. At the same time, we support
decentralization
so outside of the main F-Droid repo, everyone has the freedom to host their
own repos however they want, and users can add additional apps to their
F-Droid client on their device on their own terms.
Understanding the EU Digital Markets Act
In addition to the Online Safety Act and Digital Services Act, the EU has
also enacted the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which is focused on addressing
the market power of large digital platforms that act as ‘gatekeepers’. The
DMA introduces strict requirements for how these gatekeepers treat users,
business partners, and competitors.
F-Droid, however, does not fall under the scope of the DMA due to our size
and the not-for-profit nature of our project. The law applies to companies
with significant market impact, typically those with:
More than €7.5 billion in annual EU revenue or €75 billion in market
capitalization
At least 45 million monthly active EU users
A dominant intermediation role (this would apply in our case, if we could
be considered a “gatekeeper” which we are not)
F-Droid is a nonprofit, community-run platform that doesn’t monetize user
interactions, track user behavior, or control developer access through
payment models. It’s also a significantly smaller platform in terms of reach
and infrastructure.
While we’re not subject to DMA rules, we remain informed about their implications on the broader app ecosystem. In fact, F-Droid representatives have presented a counterweight to the Big Tech representatives present during Digital Markets Act proceedings. Although the Digital Markets Act (DMA) is a powerful legal framework designed to rein in gatekeepers like Google and Apple, enforcing it in practice is challenging. Its effectiveness hinges on the ability to scrutinize highly technical compliance claims, something that often requires deep technical expertise, which lawmakers and regulators may lack. Reach out to us via e-mail to team at f-droid.org to explore how you can help hold Big Tech accountable. If you have relevant experience or are interested in supporting this effort; we’d love to hear from you.
We believe many of the DMA’s goals, such as preventing forced bundling,
ensuring fair competition, and increasing transparency, are aligned with
FOSS values. The DMA also means that regulators are creating a path to help
F-Droid compete based on trustworthiness, rather than sticking to the old
standards that only consider how much money consumers are charged. That
said, we do not currently meet any criteria that would trigger DMA
compliance obligations.
Final Thoughts
Laws like the Online Safety Act, the Digital Services Act and the Digital
Markets Act are designed with big tech in mind but their language can still
pull smaller projects into view. Fortunately, F-Droid’s small scale,
privacy-first infrastructure, commitment to transparency and fairness and
strict inclusion policy already reduces the legal risks. We hope our
approach will be useful for other FOSS projects as we all interpret emerging
regulation in real world contexts.
By documenting our legal position and taking proportionate steps, we can
remain transparent, safe, and resilient without compromising our mission:
promoting the safe and secure distribution of FOSS apps.
In our next post, we’ll attempt to tackle the complex GDPR topic facing
European companies and organizations, within the scope of F-Droid.
Legal Disclaimer
The content provided in this article is for informational purposes only and
does not constitute legal advice. While we strive to provide accurate and
up-to-date information, F-Droid makes no representations or warranties of
any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, or
suitability of the information contained herein.
F-Droid is not a law firm and does not offer legal services. Any reliance
you place on the information provided is strictly at your own risk. If you
have questions about legal obligations, rights, or compliance, we strongly
recommend consulting a qualified legal professional familiar with your
jurisdiction.
F-Droid and its contributors disclaim all liability for any loss or damage
arising from the use or misuse of this content.
This Week in F-Droid
TWIF curated on Friday, 17 Oct 2025, Week 42
Community News
We’ve featured Taler news before, and while reading about possibilities and what it does “in theory” sounds nice, having their apps and infrastructure to actually test and use is what everyone wants. Hence, following last year’s success, GNU Taler has once again offered digital payments at Datenspuren, the annual event organized by Chaos Computer Club Dresden (C3D2). Visitors could acquire the made up “SPURLOS” currency on-site at a 1:1 exchange rate for euros from Taler cashiers, or via instant bank transfer directly into their Taler wallets. Throughout the event, SPURLOS were accepted alongside euro cash at various booths. Get the full story from their post.
CastLab, CastLab: Cast gallery media to DLNA/UPnP devices with playlist support, finally bridges the gap between our devices, via standard DLNA. While BigTech locks users with proprietary sharing/streaming/casting protocols that FOSS apps can’t integrate, DLNA allows users to stream to their own devices freely and with open source applications/servers end-to-end. Simplest example, stream your vacation videos to your own Kodi instance hosted on a common Raspberry Pi connected to your living room TV.
Ente Photos - Encrypted photo storage was updated to 1.2.11 and Tuta Calendar and Tuta Mail were updated to 310.251008.0. But why group them like this? There’s a possibility that you are already running both, or maybe you want to, if so, take a look at the Tuta & Ente partnership and get a discount to get you started.
Tessel – A tile game, Place tiles with matching colors to make shapes and fill the board, was just added and apparently needs no introduction as it already made some waves in the Fediverse. Go play!
kitswas sets us free:
Gaming should be enjoyable. Otherwise, it’s not worth it. While VirtualGamePad Mobile was updated to 0.4.0, the best news is that the VirtualGamepad Server now supports Linux.
Newly Added Apps
8 more apps were newly added
CanIWebView: Test your web content with different WebView configurations
Flare: All your Mastodon, Bluesky, Misskey, X, RSS feeds, in one APP
PrivacyScanner: scan installed apps and highlight privacy risks by analyzing their permission
Quotes.app: A minimalistic quotes app
Retherm: RTD & thermocouple calculations
SecureOTP - Universal OTP Extractor: Auto-detect and copy OTP codes from SMS, Email, and app notifications
SharedHavenTN4: Bitcoin wallet with secure multisig features
SkillApp: Simple, fully offline time-tracking app
Updated Apps
189 more apps were updated (expand for the full list)
Aiyo was updated to 1.0.7
Al-Azkar was updated to 1.1.01
Anarch RE was updated to 3
Anytime Podcast Player was updated to 1.3.14
APM was updated to 4.1.3
aTalk was updated to 4.5.3
Aves Libre was updated to 1.13.9
Baby Name was updated to 1.3.3
baresip was updated to 69.2.1
Bible Feed was updated to 1.6.0
Binary Eye was updated to 1.67.0
BleOta was updated to 2.0.1
Blichess was updated to 8.0.0+ble2.2.0
Bluecheese was updated to 3.0.2
Canta was updated to 3.1.2
Capy Reader was updated to 2025.10.1173
CClauncher was updated to v9.9.7
ChatLaunch for WhatsApp was updated to v0.21.0
Chess was updated to 9.9.10
Clock was updated to 2.25
CoMaps - Hike, Bike, Drive Offline with Privacy was updated to 2025.10.09-3-FDroid
Conceal Mobile was updated to 5.0.4
Copy SMS Code - OTP Helper was updated to 1.20.0
Cryptomator was updated to 1.12.2
Cuppa - Tea Timer was updated to 2.9.2
Daily Dozen was updated to 28
Daily You was updated to 2.13.3
dawdle was updated to 1.4.0.1
Deepr was updated to 1.0.16
Demodulate was updated to 1.2.0
Dicio assistant was updated to 4.0
Discreet Launcher was updated to v7.8.2
DSub2000 was updated to 5.6.3
DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser was updated to 5.250.1
EasySync was updated to 1.21
Element X - Secure Chat & Call was updated to 25.10.0
Endless Sky was updated to 0.10.15-53
Energize was updated to 0.13.4
Escapepod - Podcast Player was updated to 1.6.1
Exclave was updated to 0.16.7
FairEmail was updated to 1.2300
Feeder was updated to 2.15.1
Feeder (Play version) was updated to 2.15.1
Find Family was updated to v1.9
Flicky was updated to 3.5.7
Floating Volume was updated to 0.0.3
Flying Carpet was updated to 9.0.6
Food You - Calorie Tracker & Food Diary was updated to 3.3.3
Force Stop Helper was updated to 0.6.0
Fossify Calendar was updated to 1.6.2
Fossify Camera Beta was updated to 1.3.1
Fossify Contacts was updated to 1.3.0
Fossify File Manager was updated to 1.3.1
Fossify Gallery was updated to 1.6.0
Fossify Messages was updated to 1.4.0
Fossify Music Player was updated to 1.3.0
Fossify Notes Beta was updated to 1.5.0
Fossify Phone was updated to 1.7.2
FossWallet was updated to 0.28.5
Fread was updated to 1.7.11
freeminer was updated to 5.13.0
Fujiten was updated to 2.2.0
Geo Share was updated to 5.5.0
Geto was updated to 1.17.0
Goals & Checklists - timeto.me was updated to 2025.10.11
gptAssist was updated to 2.30
Gurgle was updated to 1.30
Headwind MDM Agent was updated to 6.26
HeliBoard was updated to 3.4
Hidroly was updated to 1.3.2
Hisn Elmoslem was updated to 3.0.01
Home Medkit was updated to 1.8.8
Infomaniak kDrive was updated to 5.9.4
Infomaniak kMeet was updated to 2.6.6
Infomaniak Mail was updated to 1.19.0
IVPN - Secure VPN for Privacy was updated to 2.11.1
Jami was updated to 20251010-01
JekyllEx was updated to v0.2.4
KDE Connect was updated to 1.33.9
KeePassDX - FOSS Password Safe was updated to 4.1.9
Kwik DEM (ant.spl) was updated to 1.11
Kwik DEM (eur.rus) was updated to 1.11
Kwik DEM (pan.arg) was updated to 1.11
Kwik DEM (sah.jap) was updated to 1.11
Kwik DEM (usa.can) was updated to 1.11
Kwik DEM (zar.aus) was updated to 1.11
Kwik EFIS was updated to 7.15
Linwood Flow Nightly was updated to 0.5.0
Lissen: Audiobookshelf client was updated to 1.7.0
LogFox was updated to 2.0.7
Luanti was updated to 5.14.0
Lyrion was updated to 0.9.1
MakeACopy was updated to 1.7.4
Markdown Editor was updated to 2.0.0
Materialious was updated to 1.10.14
MediLog was updated to 3.3.8
MedTimer was updated to 1.19.1
mensen was updated to 1.4.5
Metronome was updated to 1.8.2
Mindustry was updated to 8-fdroid-152.2
MMRL was updated to v34189-release
Multi Launcher ‧ Home Screen was updated to 1.11.2.0
Musicore was updated to 1.6.0
MusicSearch was updated to 1.76.0
Musify was updated to 9.6.6
NATINFo+ was updated to 0.12.1
NetGuard was updated to 2.334
neutriNote CE was updated to 4.5.9a
NewsBlur - News reader was updated to 13.8.0
Nextcloud Cookbook was updated to 0.25.3
Nextcloud Dev was updated to 20251014
Nextcloud Talk was updated to 22.0.2
NextGIS Mobile was updated to 2.13.1
NextPush was updated to 2.3.3
Nora was updated to 0.2.4
Obtainium was updated to 1.2.7
OONI Probe was updated to 5.2.2
Open Sudoku was updated to 4.5.3
openScale sync was updated to 0.4.4
OpenTune was updated to 2.0.6
OpenVPN for Android was updated to 0.7.62
Organic Maps: Hike, Bike, Drive Offline was updated to 2025.10.05-7-FDroid
oxproxion was updated to 1.4.8
P.CASH Crypto Wallet was updated to 0.47.5
Padland was updated to 3.4
Pagan was updated to 1.7.19
Particle Physics Simulator was updated to 3.8.2
PDF Wallet was updated to 4.4.2
PennyWise AI was updated to 2.15.35
Periodical was updated to 1.93
Peristyle was updated to v9.3.0
PhotoChiotte was updated to 1.69
PhotoSwooper was updated to 2025.10.5
Picard Barcode Scanner was updated to 1.6.5
Pixiv-MultiPlatform was updated to 1.8.1
PlayOnDlna was updated to 1.4
PrivacyFlip was updated to 1.1.0
PySolFC was updated to 3.4.1
QRAlarm was updated to 2.7.0
QRshare was updated to 1.0.19
Quillpad was updated to 1.5.6
Remote Numpad was updated to 2.2.3
Ruffle was updated to 0.251013
SambaLite was updated to 1.3.0
Satunes was updated to 3.2.3
ScanBridge was updated to 1.5.0
SchildiChat was updated to 1.6.46.sc89
Schulrechner was updated to 1.12.0
Sensors2OSC was updated to 0.13.0
ServerBox was updated to 1.0.1262
Session F-Droid was updated to 1.28.1
SherpaTTS was updated to 2.8
ShikiApp was updated to alpha-0.4.4
ShowCase was updated to 4.2.3
Simple Sudoku Game was updated to 0.13.0
Simple Time Tracker was updated to 1.51
SimpleX Chat was updated to 6.4.6
sing-box was updated to 1.12.9
SiYuan was updated to 3.3.5
SnapSafe was updated to 3.5.1
SshDaemon was updated to 2.1.34
Standard Notes was updated to 3.200.4
Stay Put - Unplug Alert was updated to 0.8.6
Sumire Japanese Keyboard was updated to 1.4.438
Super Productivity was updated to 15.2.16
Swiss Bitcoin Pay was updated to 2.6.3
ToFShare was updated to 1.0.5
Tomato was updated to 1.4.3
Torrent Search was updated to 0.4.3
Track & Graph was updated to 7.0.12
Transistor - Simple Radio App was updated to 4.3.1
Translate You was updated to 16.0
TRIfA was updated to 1.0.259
Tusky was updated to 31.1
UnderEat was updated to 1.0.19
URnetwork was updated to 2025.10.4
venera was updated to 1.5.3
VergissNix was updated to 2.3.1
Vespucci was updated to 21.1.5.0
VolumeLockr was updated to 1.6.2
Voyager for Lemmy was updated to 2.40.1
Warpinator for Android (unofficial) was updated to 1.8.4
Webview Kiosk was updated to 0.22.6
WHPH was updated to 0.17.1
Xray was updated to 11.8.7
Xtra was updated to 2.49.0.1
Yivi was updated to 7.10.0
Yubico Authenticator was updated to 7.3.1
Zashi: Zcash Wallet was updated to 2.4.2
Thank you for reading this week’s TWIF 🙂
Please subscribe to the RSS feed in your favourite RSS application to be updated of new TWIFs when they come up.
You are welcome to join the TWIF forum thread. If you have any news from the community, post it there, maybe it will be featured next week 😉
To help support F-Droid, please check out the donation page and contribute what you can.
This Week in F-Droid
TWIF curated on Thursday, 09 Oct 2025, Week 41
Community News
The end of tt-rss.org might be a reason to be sad. We have at least two apps that connect to such instances, TTRSS-Reader and Geekttrss, but looks like development continues at github.com/tt-rss.
@linsui updates to version 2:
Immich was updated to 2.0.1 marking a ‘Stable Release of Immich’ with DVDs and shirts as merch to celebrate. Get the news post, dig into the 2.0.0 changelog and the 2.0.1 fix.
Removed Apps
2 apps were removed
Memento, Take notes was discontinued a long time ago, switch to the currently developed, named the same, Memento fork.
RiMusic, A multilingual Android application for streaming music from YouTube Music, had a drama filled end, development stopped, source archived. Kreate, a fork of it, was updated to 1.8.1-fdroid this week, so maybe try to switch.
Newly Added Apps
1 app was newly added
Pokéverse: Explore, collect, and manage your Pokémon universe in one app!
Downgraded Apps
1 app was downgraded
Nextcloud Notes was downgraded from 4.5.0 to 4.5.0 RC1 as it was crashing.
Updated Apps
149 more apps were updated (expand for the full list)
Activity Manager was updated to 5.4.15
Aisleron Shopping List was updated to 2025.8.0
APK Explorer & Editor was updated to v0.32
aTalk was updated to 4.5.2
baresip was updated to 69.2.0
baresip+ was updated to 57.0.2
Bim! was updated to 11
Birday - Birthday Manager was updated to 4.6.1
Blorp was updated to 1.9.24
Bluecheese was updated to 2.0.4
BoB was updated to 1.4.1
Capy Reader was updated to 2025.10.1172
CIFS Documents Provider was updated to 2.4.0
CoMaps - Hike, Bike, Drive Offline with Privacy was updated to 2025.10.02-2-FDroid
Compete was updated to 1.0.3
Connect You was updated to 11.2
Critical Maps was updated to 2.9.2
Cryptomator was updated to 1.12.1
Cuscon was updated to 4.0.6.9
De-Bloater was updated to v0.30
DeepL was updated to 9.2.1
Deepr was updated to 1.0.13
Delta Icon Pack was updated to 2.8.0
Demodulate was updated to 1.1.0
Dokuwiki Android was updated to v1.2.0
DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser was updated to 5.249.0
Element X - Secure Chat & Call was updated to 25.09.2
Emerald Dialer was updated to 1.0.21
Ente Photos - Encrypted photo storage was updated to 1.2.9
FairEmail was updated to 1.2299
FairScan – PDF Scanner was updated to 1.3.0
FastTrack was updated to 3.3.5
FeedFlow - RSS Reader was updated to 1.6.0
Fennec F-Droid was updated to 143.0.3
Feudal Tactics was updated to 1.4.1
Find My Device (FMD) was updated to 0.12.1
FitBook was updated to 2.0.31
Flang was updated to 1.15
Flicky was updated to 3.5.3
Fluffy was updated to 3.2.9
Flux was updated to 2.0
Food You - Calorie Tracker & Food Diary was updated to 3.3.1
Forkyz was updated to 73
Fossify File Manager was updated to 1.3.0
Fujiten was updated to 2.1.0
Gauguin was updated to 0.45.0
Gotify was updated to 2.9.0
idTech4A++ was updated to 1.1.0harmattan69lindaiyu
Infomaniak Mail was updated to 1.18.2
IVPN - Secure VPN for Privacy was updated to 2.11.0
J-K Bike - Mechanical Disaster Prevention was updated to 3.5.0
Jitsi Meet was updated to 25.5.1
KDE Connect was updated to 1.33.7
KeepOn - Keep your screen on smartly! was updated to 2.0.6
Kwik EFIS was updated to 7.14
Ladefuchs was updated to 3.5.2
Les Pas - Photo Album for Nextcloud was updated to 2.10.3
Lissen: Audiobookshelf client was updated to 1.6.23
Logger was updated to 3.2.7
Look4Sat: Satellite tracker was updated to 3.2.2
MakeACopy was updated to 1.6.0
Mastodon was updated to 2.11.2
Morse was updated to 2.2
Multi Launcher ‧ Home Screen was updated to 1.11.1.4
Musify was updated to 9.6.4
My Expenses was updated to 4.0.4.2
My Leaf was updated to 2.5.0
neutriNote CE was updated to 4.5.9
Nextcloud Cookbook was updated to 0.25.2
Nextcloud Dev was updated to 20251005
Nextcloud Talk was updated to 22.0.1
Notely Voice: AI Voice to Text was updated to 1.2.5
Odin was updated to 3.6.0
Offline Translator was updated to 0.2.2
OnePlus Flash Control was updated to 1.4.2
Open Notes was updated to 1.3.1
Open Sudoku was updated to 4.5.0
OpenTopoMap Viewer was updated to 1.24
Orgro was updated to 1.64.1
P.CASH Crypto Wallet was updated to 0.47.2
Pachli for Mastodon was updated to 3.0.0
Pagan was updated to 1.7.17
Particle Physics Simulator was updated to 3.8.1
Passwords was updated to 0.5.0
PDF Wallet was updated to 4.4.1
PennyWise AI was updated to 2.15.25
Peristyle was updated to v9.2.6
Phocid was updated to 20250929
Phonograph Plus was updated to 1.11.1
PhotoSphereGallery was updated to 1.1
PhotoSwooper was updated to 2025.10.4
PipePipe was updated to 4.7.3
PlainApp: File & Web Access was updated to 2.1.20
Plant-it was updated to 1.0.0
PlayOnDlna was updated to 1.3
PlugBrain was updated to 1.5.3
Prav was updated to 2.19.4-1+prav
PrivacyFlip was updated to 1.0.2
ProtonVPN - Secure and Free VPN was updated to 5.13.61.0
psychphinder was updated to 1.1.6
RailTrip was updated to 1.6.1
Readeck App was updated to 0.7.0
Recurring Expense Tracker was updated to 0.18.3
Roboyard was updated to 29
RomanDigital was updated to 2.2.0
Ruffle was updated to 0.250930
SambaLite was updated to 1.2.9
Save by OpenArchive was updated to 4.0.2-fdroid
Screen Time was updated to 1.2.2
Sentinel Lens was updated to 1.0.2
Session F-Droid was updated to 1.28.0
Shattered Pixel Dungeon was updated to 3.2.5
ShowCase was updated to 4.2
SiYuan was updated to 3.3.4
Smart Dock was updated to 1.14.0
SmsLoc was updated to 1.2.0
Solon was updated to 2.6.1
Sound Toggle was updated to 1.1.0
Squeezer was updated to 2.3.10
Standard Notes was updated to 3.200.3
strongSwan VPN Client was updated to 2.6.0
Syncthing-Fork was updated to 2.0.10.1
TacticMaster was updated to 1.0.25
Tasks.org: Open-source To-Do Lists & Reminders was updated to 14.8.3
Tehran Metro was updated to 0.10.0
Thor was updated to 1.9.0
Thunderbird Beta for Testers was updated to 13.0b4
TLSFragment was updated to 3.3.1
ToFShare was updated to 1.0.4
Tomato was updated to 1.4.2
Track & Graph was updated to 7.0.10
Transport You was updated to 2.1
TRIfA was updated to 1.0.258
UnderEat was updated to 1.0.18
Unstoppable Crypto Wallet was updated to 0.45.1
UP-Example was updated to 2.2.0
Voice Audiobook Player was updated to 25.10.4
Wall You was updated to 13.1
Webview Kiosk was updated to 0.18.0
WG Tunnel was updated to 4.0.3
WHPH was updated to 0.16.5
Wiki Fronted was updated to r/2.7.50550-r-2025-09-22
Wikipedia was updated to r/2.7.50550-r-2025-09-22
Wire • Secure Messenger was updated to 4.15.2
wX was updated to 55985
XiVPN was updated to 1.7.1
Yubico Authenticator was updated to 7.3.0
Zashi: Zcash Wallet was updated to 2.4.0
Zulip was updated to 30.0.265
Thank you for reading this week’s TWIF 🙂
Please subscribe to the RSS feed in your favourite RSS application to be updated of new TWIFs when they come up.
You are welcome to join the TWIF forum thread. If you have any news from the community, post it there, maybe it will be featured next week 😉
To help support F-Droid, please check out the donation page and contribute what you can.
Introduction
In the previous article in this series, we examined how FOSS projects handle
legal takedown requests. However another category of legal risk exists, one
that’s often more sensitive and less visible: government requests for user
or developer data.
These requests can take many forms,from formal court orders and subpoenas,
to vague emails from law enforcement or regulatory bodies. For projects that
host apps, distribute binaries, or maintain logs, the question becomes: What
data do you have, and what will you do if someone asks for it?
What Kind of Requests Are We Talking About?
Authority requests may include:
Personal identifying information about app developers or maintainers
Access to user metadata, such as IP logs, download histories, or credit
card information
Identification of people associated with specific content or behavior
(e.g. contributors to controversial apps)
Demands to preserve data for later collection
Many FOSS projects don’t consider themselves “platforms” and may not collect
or store personal data at all. But that doesn’t always stop authorities from
asking.
Common Themes from the Interviews
Across the conversations we had with FOSS nonprofits, legal experts, and
infrastructure maintainers, a few core principles emerged:
1. Minimize What You Store
Several interviewees emphasized that the best way to avoid compliance risk
is not to have the data in the first
place.
This includes:
Not logging user activity unless necessary for security or performance
Avoiding retaining of contributor IP addresses, registration data, or
device identifiers
Using privacy-first analytics tools or no analytics at all
Think of it this way: every field you store is a risk. Don’t collect it if
you don’t want to hand it over.
2. Separate Infrastructure and Individuals
A number of organizations recommended limiting the exposure of individual
contributors by:
Using role accounts or pseudonyms for public-facing contributions
Ensuring domain registrations and legal contacts are held by a legal
entity not individuals
Use a fiscal host like Open Collective or
LiberaPay to accept donations
Avoiding publishing contributor identities in places that can be scraped
Additional precautions include having individual conversations even
pseudonymously, with contributors who are operating in known high-risk
regions, to explain potential risks.
Transparency and Silence
Unlike takedown requests, authority demands for user or contributor data
often come with gag
orders
or implicit secrecy
requirements. In some countries, we
were told it is even illegal to acknowledge receipt of a request. That makes
transparency reporting difficult.
Still, some projects do what they can:
Publishing aggregate
data about the
number and type of requests received
Stating publicly what kind of data they don’t retain
Including legal process
guidelines
in published policies (e.g., “All requests must be submitted via court
order in our jurisdiction”)
What F-Droid Is Doing
As part of this project, F-Droid is:
Reviewing all data collection and retention practices to ensure data
minimization
Updating contributor guidance to help reduce unnecessary exposure
Working with pro bono experts to create jurisdiction-specific escalation
paths
Drafting a public-facing Legal Process Policy, outlining how requests must
be submitted, who handles them, and what kinds of data are available (if
any)
We’re seeking to align with best practices from FOSS and digital rights
communities balancing security, privacy, respect for the rule of law, and
our commitment to transparency
Final Thoughts
Government requests for user or developer data reflect a growing trend of
legal pressure on FOSS projects. There is also growing acknowledgement that
the law has a role to play in reducing potential harms of platforms,
software and the internet. And while these requests can’t always be avoided,
proactive safeguards like strict data retention policies and transparency
reporting can significantly mitigate risks.
Key takeaways? Don’t collect more than you need. Don’t handle requests
informally. And don’t let individuals face the pressure alone.
In our next post, we’ll explore three regional-specific regulations, the
EU’s Digital Markets Act and Digital Security Act and the UK’s Online Safety
Act.
Legal Disclaimer
The content provided in this article is for informational purposes only and
does not constitute legal advice. While we strive to provide accurate and
up-to-date information, F-Droid makes no representations or warranties of
any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, or
suitability of the information contained herein.
F-Droid is not a law firm and does not offer legal services. Any reliance
you place on the information provided is strictly at your own risk. If you
have questions about legal obligations, rights, or compliance, we strongly
recommend consulting a qualified legal professional familiar with your
jurisdiction.
F-Droid and its contributors disclaim all liability for any loss or damage
arising from the use or misuse of this content.
This Week in F-Droid
TWIF curated on Friday, 03 Oct 2025, Week 40
F-Droid core
Back in August we’ve talked about the core of our infrastructure, the servers CPUs and their age. This issue has two paths to be fixed. One in Google’s court, software side, were we’ve heard progress has been made and we’ve seen some preliminary changes. And another one, the hardware side, that F-Droid must do, we’re still working as fast as we can on getting the new build server machines in place! Funding is there and approved, hardware was spec-ed and we got quotes, hosting arrangements are fixed, deployment plans are laid, the team has set aside time to spring into action. Now we wait and hope there aren’t more ordering/shipping delays due to tariff chaos.
Community News
Fennec F-Droid was updated to 143.0.2, besides the usual security fixes you just love to read about, there’s also DNS over HTTPS, a new downloads UI and maybe better sound. The new top tabs bar was already available since the last version, so no surprise there, right? But did you know the new input field and menu UI are included too? Yes, they’re “secret” for now, yet we’ve signed no NDA, so let’s spill it all. Go to Settings, About, touch the logo 7 times (no joke!), you’ll see the toast pop up, then go back to the now visible Secret settings section and there toggle “Enable composable toolbar” to ON. Done. Pretty please don’t touch the other secret settings!
Gadgetbridge and Bangle.js Gadgetbridge were updated to 0.87.1 and more so, they now are also built reproducible. Each version has two packages, one signed by F-Droid, so current users continue to get updates as expected, and one signed by the developers that new installs will favor.
Nextcloud Notes was updated to 4.5.0, but you should avoid it as multiple users have raised issues with it crashing.
RUTMath, A math learning app for children, was added, which is the revival of the old RUTMath that just got archived. If you did not install the app today, better uninstall the old one and get the new.
Removed Apps
1 more app was removed
Syncthing-Fork v1, Wrapper for Syncthing - Open and decentralized file synchronization, was archived as the new Syncthing-Fork was updated to 2.0.10.0 and goes on. You did not switch yet? Read more in our old post.
Newly Added Apps
13 more apps were newly added
Aiyo: BYOK and Chat with your model of choice using via OpenRouter
Audio Output Switcher: Quick Settings tile for switching audio output devices
BatteryTemperatureDisplay: Temperature monitor and logging to prevent overheating, damage, and safety risks
Bluecheese: Offline text encryption—fast, local, no trackers
Call Limiter: Limit call duration per contact and automatically hang up when time is up
Demodulate: Simple internet radio app
FairScan – PDF Scanner: Scan a document and get a clean PDF you can save or share instantly
Just Delete Me: A directory of direct links to help you delete your account from web services
Markdown Editor: Markdown Editor is an app for easy editing and styling of “.md” files
PrepApp (F-Droid): Preparedness toolkit, survival guide, emergency info, weather and more
PrivacyFlip: Manage your device privacy based on lock/unlock state
Thermocouples: Reference and calculations for thermocouples
ToFShare: ToFShare FileShare via Tox (From the author of TRIfA Tox Client)
Updated Apps
139 more apps were updated (expand for the full list)
8-Bit Wonders was updated to 0.8.8b
Activity Manager was updated to 5.4.14
ANeko Reborn was updated to 1.3.5
APM was updated to 4.1.1
ArityCalc was updated to 1.58
Auxio was updated to 4.0.9
Baby Name was updated to 1.3.1
baresip+ was updated to 57.0.0
BLE Radar was updated to 0.31.1-beta
Butterfly was updated to 2.4.0
CalcYou was updated to 3.1
Canta was updated to 3.0.2
Capy Reader was updated to 2025.09.1170
Casio G-Shock Smart Sync was updated to 23.9
CClauncher was updated to v9.9.6
Celestia was updated to 1.9.0
Chaka Book Reader was updated to 1.24.9a.18
Chaldea was updated to 2.5.22
ChatLaunch for WhatsApp was updated to v0.20.0
Clash Meta For Android was updated to 2.11.16.Meta
ColorBlendr was updated to v2.0.3
Compass was updated to 1.14.11
Critical Maps was updated to 2.9.1
CTU Menza was updated to 1.4.8
Cuscon was updated to 4.0.6.8
Deepr was updated to 1.0.12
Dockeep: Pocket for Files was updated to 1.2
Droid Pad was updated to 3.3.1
DumpSeeker was updated to 1.7
EinkBro was updated to 15.2.0
Emerald Dialer was updated to 1.0.20
FastTrack was updated to 3.3.4
Fedilab was updated to 3.35.1
FitBook was updated to 2.0.30
Flicky was updated to 3.4.7
Food You - Calorie Tracker & Food Diary was updated to 3.2.2
Force Stop Helper was updated to 0.5.0
Fossify Gallery was updated to 1.5.2
Fossify Keyboard Beta was updated to 1.5.0
Fossify Notes Beta was updated to 1.4.2
FossWallet was updated to 0.28.3
freeDictionaryApp was updated to 1.7.5
Fulguris Web Browser was updated to 1.10.5
Game Counter was updated to 2.5.4
Geo Share was updated to 5.3.0
Ghost Commander was updated to 1.64.2b1
GitNote was updated to 25.09
Grit was updated to 5.0.1
HomeFeed - RSS Widget was updated to 1.3.0
Immich was updated to 1.143.1
Infomaniak Mail was updated to 1.18.1
Initiative Tracker was updated to 0.5.1
Inure App Manager (Trial) was updated to build106.3.4
J-K Bike - Mechanical Disaster Prevention was updated to 3.4.1
Jami was updated to 20250925-01
Jerboa for Lemmy was updated to 0.0.84
JetBird was updated to 1.4.5
Kazumi was updated to 1.8.2
Keep it up was updated to 1.9.0
KeepOn - Keep your screen on smartly! was updated to 2.0.5
KISS Launcher was updated to 3.23.0
Kotatsu was updated to 9.2
LavSeeker was updated to 2.7
Lissen: Audiobookshelf client was updated to 1.6.22
Logseq was updated to 0.10.14
MakeACopy was updated to 1.5.2
Mastodon was updated to 2.11.1
Materialious was updated to 1.10.11
MediLog was updated to 3.3.7
Metronome was updated to 1.8.0
Metronome was updated to 5.5.0
Mindustry was updated to 8-fdroid-152.1
MMRL was updated to v34181-release
MOROway App was updated to 10.3.7
MuPDF mini was updated to 1.26.10a
MuPDF viewer was updated to 1.26.10a
Musify was updated to 9.6.3
NATINFo+ was updated to 0.12.0
NeoStumbler was updated to 2.1.8
Nextcloud was updated to 3.34.0
Nextcloud Dev was updated to 20250928
Nextcloud Talk was updated to 22.0.0
NFC Quick Settings was updated to 1.5.3-pre
Notely Voice: AI Voice to Text was updated to 1.2.3
ntodotxt was updated to 0.16.0
NymVPN: Private Mixnet was updated to v2.1.0
Obtainium was updated to 1.2.6
Offline Translator was updated to 0.2.1
OpenPods was updated to 1.11
OpenTracks (Non-reproducible) was updated to v4.22.2irreproducible
OpenTracks (Reproducible build) was updated to v4.22.2
OpenTune was updated to 2.0.5
Organic Maps: Hike, Bike, Drive Offline was updated to 2025.09.25-5-FDroid
oxproxion was updated to 1.4.6
Pagan was updated to 1.7.16
PennyWise AI was updated to 2.15.24
Peristyle was updated to v9.2.5
Permissions Summary was updated to 1.3.0
Persian Calendar was updated to 9.9.1
Photok was updated to 2.1.1
PlugBrain was updated to 1.5.2
Plus Plus Battery was updated to 2.3.5
Power Ampache 2 was updated to 1.01-85-fdroid
Prav was updated to 2.19.40+free
ProtonVPN - Secure and Free VPN was updated to 5.13.22.0
PublicArtExplorer was updated to 1.4.0
QRAlarm was updated to 2.6.4
Really Basic Vocab was updated to 3.4.7
RoMote was updated to 1.0.29
RSAF was updated to 3.18
Simple Crypto Widget was updated to 8.7.3
Simple Keyboard was updated to 5.41
Smart EggTimer was updated to 3.2
SmartScan was updated to 1.1.5
SmsLoc was updated to 1.1.5
SnapSafe was updated to 3.4.0
Standard Notes was updated to 3.200.1
Swiss Bitcoin Pay was updated to 2.6.2
Syncthing-Lite was updated to 2.0.0.0
The Battle for Wesnoth was updated to 1.19.16+dev
Thunderbird Beta for Testers was updated to 13.0b3
Tilde Friends was updated to 0.2025.9
TimeLapseCam was updated to 2.1
Tomato was updated to 1.4.1
Track & Graph was updated to 7.0.9
Trail Sense was updated to 7.2.0
Translate You was updated to 15.3
Transport You was updated to 2.0
WAFRN was updated to 1.7.0
Wall You was updated to 13.0
Webview Kiosk was updated to 0.17.1
wger Workout Manager was updated to 1.9.0
Who Has My Stuff? was updated to 1.1.3
WiFi Widget was updated to 1.7.2-fdroid
wX was updated to 55981
Xtra was updated to 2.48.1
Yivi was updated to 7.9.0
µLauncher was updated to 0.2.7
聚在工大 was updated to 4.18.0.3
Thank you for reading this week’s TWIF 🙂
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For the past 15 years, F-Droid
has provided a safe and secure haven for Android users around the world to
find and install free and open source apps. When contrasted with the
commercial app stores — of which the Google Play store is the most prominent
— the differences are stark: they are hotbeds of spyware and scams,
blatantly promoting apps that prey on their users through attempts to
monetize their attention and mine their intimate information through any
means necessary, including trickery and dark
patterns.
F-Droid is different. It distributes apps that have been validated to work
for the user’s interests, rather than for the interests of the app’s
distributors. The way F-Droid works is simple: when a developer creates an
app and hosts the source code publicly somewhere, the F-Droid team reviews
it, inspecting it to ensure that it is completely open source and contains
no undocumented anti-features
such as advertisements or trackers. Once it passes inspection, the F-Droid
build service compiles and packages the app to make it ready for
distribution. The package is then signed either with F-Droid’s cryptographic
key, or, if the build is
reproducible, enables
distribution using the original developer’s private key. In this way, users
can trust that any app distributed through F-Droid is the one that was built
from the specified source code and has not been tampered with.
Do you want a weather app that doesn’t transmit your every
movement
to a shadowy data broker? Or a scheduling assistant that doesn’t siphon
your intimate
details
into an advertisement network? F-Droid has your back. Just as sunlight is
the best disinfectant against corruption, open source is the best defense
against software acting against the interests of the user.
Google’s move to break free app distribution
The future of this elegant and proven system was put in jeopardy last month,
when Google unilaterally
decreed
that Android developers everywhere in the world are going to be required to
register centrally with Google. In addition to demanding payment of a
registration fee and agreement to their (non-negotiable and ever-changing)
terms and conditions, Google will also require the uploading of personally
identifying
documents,
including government ID, by the authors of the software, as well as
enumerating
all the unique “application identifiers” for every app that is to be
distributed by the registered developer.
The F-Droid project cannot require that developers register their apps
through Google, but at the same time, we cannot “take over” the application
identifiers for the open-source apps we distribute, as that would
effectively seize exclusive distribution rights to those applications.
If it were to be put into effect, the developer registration decree will end
the F-Droid project and other free/open-source app distribution sources as
we know them today, and the world will be deprived of the safety and
security of the catalog of thousands of apps that can be trusted and
verified by any and all. F-Droid’s myriad users will be left adrift, with no
means to install — or even update their existing installed —
applications. (How many F-Droid users are there, exactly? We don’t know,
because we don’t track users or have any registration: “No user accounts,
by design”)
The Security Canard
While directly installing — or “sideloading” — software can be construed as
carrying some inherent risk, it is false to claim that centralized app
stores are the only safe option for software distribution. Google Play
itself has
repeatedly
hosted
malware, proving that corporate gatekeeping doesn’t guarantee user
protection. By contrast, F-Droid offers a trustworthy and transparent
alternative approach to security: every app is free and open source, the
code can be audited by anyone, the build process and logs are public, and
reproducible builds ensure that what is published matches the source code
exactly. This transparency and accountability provides a stronger basis
for trust than closed platforms, while still giving users freedom to
choose. Restricting direct app installation not only undermines that choice,
it also erodes the diversity and resilience of the open-source ecosystem by
consolidating control in the hands of a few corporate players.
Furthermore, Google’s framing that they need to mandate developer
registration in order to defend against malware is disingenuous because they
already have a remediation mechanism for malware they identify on a
device: the Play Protect
service that is
enabled on all Android Certified devices already scans and disables apps
that have been identified as malware, regardless of their provenience. Any
perceived risks associated with direct app installation can be mitigated
through user education, open-source transparency, and existing security
measures without imposing exclusionary registration requirements.
We do not believe that developer registration is motivated by security. We
believe it is about consolidating power and tightening control over a
formerly open ecosystem.
The Right to Run
If you own a computer, you should have the right to run whatever programs
you want on it. This is just as true with the apps on your Android/iPhone
mobile device as it is with the applications on your Linux/Mac/Windows
desktop or server. Forcing software creators into a centralized registration
scheme in order to publish and distribute their works is as egregious as
forcing writers and artists to register with a central authority in order to
be able to distribute their creative works. It is an offense to the core
principles of free speech and thought that are central to the workings of
democratic societies around the world.
By tying application identifiers to personal ID checks and fees, Google is
building a choke point that restricts competition and limits user
freedom. It must find a solution which preserves user rights, freedom of
choice, and a healthy, competitive ecosystem.
What do we propose?
Regulatory and competition authorities should look carefully at Google’s
proposed activities, and ensure that policies designed to improve security
are not abused to consolidate monopoly control. We urge regulators to
safeguard the ability of alternative app stores and open-source projects to
operate freely, and to protect developers who cannot or will not comply with
exclusionary registration schemes and demands for personal information.
If you are a developer or user who values digital freedom, you can
help. Write to your Member of
Parliament,
Congressperson
or other representative, sign petitions in defense of sideloading and
software freedom, and
contact the
European Commission’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) team to express why
preserving open distribution matters. By making your voice heard, you help
defend not only F-Droid, but the principle that software should remain a
commons, accessible and free from unnecessary corporate gatekeeping.
This Week in F-Droid
TWIF curated on Friday, 26 Sep 2025, Week 39
Community News
We often talk about what we look at when we choose our apps, we want: freedom, privacy, security, transparency and more. With FLOSS apps we get most of those, or at least we can check, fix and redistribute the apps that fit our wishes, from the technology perspective. We want the freedom that F-Droid provides to not only help us now, but set the stage for future generations well beyond our time.
When you are a child other people would bare the responsibility of your well being, your freedom, privacy and security will be the subject of their judgment. Based on their own childhood experiences and technology knowledge, parents and guardians will vary a lot in how they treat the relation of children with technology. From laxed attitudes where they pass the smart device to a child as a new-age pacifier (only to be later surprised that said children appear easily distracted or inattentive) to helicopter parenting behavior where every minute of screen time is controlled and predetermined (wonder what happens when the shackles are gone?).
From “The Privacy Dad” comes a post about teenagers and how they can and do manage their own time in front if the screens, when the parent teaches them about the good, the bad and the odd stuff technology can bring. The 10 minute post presents the point of view of the child themselves, acting even as a first hand review of the app used for parental controls (yes, from F-Droid).
The site is full of interesting posts about the subject, feel free to roam.
Godot Engine 4 was updated to 4.5.0.stable adding a lot of glitter and fun stuff for all your gaming dev life style.
Jami was updated to 20250917-01. The team summaries ‘Atlas’, the code name for the latest release.
The Battle for Wesnoth was updated to 1.19.16, but you should skip this version as it will fail to start. The developers are working on a fix.
Thunderbird Beta for Testers was updated to 13.0b2 as the team polishes the new UX. What UX update? Account drawer, colors and consistency all around. All these are part of the overall roadmap, laid out in their newest post.
@CodeDoctor uses more code names:
Linwood Butterfly Nightly was updated to 2.4.0 and soon Linwood Butterfly too. What’s new in the Butterfly 2.4.0 Black Hairstreak release?
Long awaited, the next big Butterfly release is finally here! This release brings a lot of new features. This will be the foundation of new features in the future.
Highlights:
📝 New Butterfly text format
📦 Rebuild pack system
🏷️ Improved Label Tool
🖋 Improved Pen Element
🤝 Improved Collaboration
🧮 LaTeX Support
🎚️ Improved Pen Toolbar
🔷 Polygon Tool
📄 Reworked PDF System
⬆️ Binary and Version Upgrades
And all detailed in the attached post.
@linsui digitizes fiat:
Taler Wallet was updated to 1.0.11 and fixed a critical bug that prevented all payments.
Did you know that Apple Pay is real money from your credit card? It’s not like a bunch of Apple dollars you got by spending so much time on your phone, giving your data very freely and willingly to any place that asks, like whenever they say, “Are cookies okay?” you say, “Yes, yes, yes” because you think that’s how you get prizes, rewards, and Apple dollars.
Memes aside, Apple Pay is a powerful service that Apple uses as a gatekeeper. The Taler team wrote a post about ecosystem users freedoms and monopolies not dogfooding their own rules when it comes to payment services.
Removed Apps
1 apps were removed
Circles, Secure social sharing for friends and families, had its source archived a while ago. Just get a maintained Matrix client, but make sure it supports room version 12.
Newly Added Apps
15 apps were newly added
Conceal Mobile: Secure mobile client for the Conceal Network web wallet
Dockeep: Your pocket app for important files
Fluffy: A TV friendly file manager and archive viewer
Godot Dice Roller: A Godot UI control that rolls 3D dices in a box
GPA Calculator: GPA & CGPA calculator with support for AUIS grading rules
OpenCloud: File Sync, Workspaces, Smart Search & Web Office
Passwords: Local Material 3 Password Manager
PhotoSphereGallery: Gallery and viewer for spherical photos (360°)
Poker Tracker: Personal poker tracking app
RSAF: An Android Storage Access Framework document provider for rclone
SIS: Unofficial client for SIS CUNI (Student Information System, Charles University)
Tomodoro: A modern Pomodoro timer and task manager
Transport Widgets: Live arrival times widget for London
VMPK for Android: This is the Android port of Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard (vmpk.sourceforge.io)
Webview Kiosk: Turn your Android device into a locked-down web page in fullscreen mode
Updated Apps
200 more apps were updated (expand for the full list)
aFreeRDP was updated to 3.17.2
AliasVault was updated to 0.23.2
Amber was updated to 4.0.2
AndroidMic was updated to 2.2.2
Aria for Misskey was updated to 1.3.10
AVNC was updated to 3.0.1
Baby Name was updated to 1.3.0
Bangle.js Gadgetbridge was updated to 0.87.0-banglejs
baresip was updated to 69.1.0
baresip+ was updated to 56.1.0
Bible Feed was updated to 1.5.2
bilimiao was updated to 2.4.7
Blorp was updated to 1.9.23
Calculate was updated to 3.1
Capy Reader was updated to 2025.09.1168
Cartes IGN was updated to 3.3.35
Chess was updated to 9.8.5
Classical Music Tagger was updated to 1.11
Clock was updated to 2.24
croc was updated to 1.11.7
CryptX was updated to 1.4.1
Cuscon was updated to 4.0.6.7
Daily You was updated to 2.13.0
DataBackup was updated to 2.0.12
DAVx⁵ was updated to 4.5.4-ose
Deepr was updated to 1.0.11
Diaguard: Diabetes Diary was updated to 3.15.1
DigiAgriApp was updated to 0.4.2
DoliDroid was updated to DoliDroid Pro
Droid Pad was updated to 3.3.0
droidVNC-NG was updated to 2.15.0
DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser was updated to 5.248.0
e-Passport Reader was updated to 3.3
EasySync was updated to 1.20
EnigmaDroid was updated to 1.4.0
Exclave was updated to 0.16.4
FairEmail was updated to 1.2298
Fedilab was updated to 3.35.0
Feeder was updated to 2.15.0
Feeder (Play version) was updated to 2.15.0
FitBook was updated to 2.0.27
fivethreeone_log was updated to 0.1.0
Flicky was updated to 3.4.5
Flux News was updated to 1.8.1
Food You - Calorie Tracker & Food Diary was updated to 3.2.1
Force Stop Helper was updated to 0.4.0
Forkyz was updated to 72
Fossify Camera Beta was updated to 1.3.0
Fossify File Manager was updated to 1.2.3
Fossify Launcher Beta was updated to 1.4.0
Fossify Phone was updated to 1.7.1
FossWallet was updated to 0.28.2
FREE Browser was updated to 3.4
Fujiten was updated to 2.0.0
Gadgetbridge was updated to 0.87.0
Geo Share was updated to 5.2.0
GreenStash: Track Your Savings was updated to 4.0.1
Gugal was updated to 0.9
Guileless Bopomofo Keyboard was updated to 3.6.4
Headwind MDM Agent was updated to 6.25
Hidroly was updated to 1.3.1
ICSx⁵ was updated to 2.4.2
Immich was updated to 1.143.0
Infomaniak kDrive was updated to 5.9.1
Infomaniak Mail was updated to 1.18.0
Initiative Tracker was updated to 0.4.0
jtx Board journals|notes|tasks was updated to 2.14.00.ose
Kazumi was updated to 1.8.1
KitchenOwl was updated to 0.7.4
Klick’r - Smart AutoClicker was updated to 3.4.0
Kreate was updated to 1.7.2-r2-fdroid
Ladefuchs was updated to 3.5.1
LightNovelReader was updated to 1.1.4
Linphone - open source SIP client was updated to 6.0.18
Linux Command Library was updated to 3.4.6
Lissen: Audiobookshelf client was updated to 1.6.21
MakeACopy was updated to 1.4.2
Markor was updated to 2.15.1
Materialious was updated to 1.10.10
Mattermost Beta was updated to 2.32.0
Mauth was updated to 0.10.0
MediLog was updated to 3.3.6
MedTimer was updated to 1.19.0
MHWorld Database was updated to 2.1.3
Mill was updated to 6.8.0
Minesweeper (Privacy Friendly) was updated to 1.2.3
MMRL was updated to v34159-release
Mondstern Acrylic Icons was updated to 18.0
Money Manager Ex was updated to 5.4.9
monocles chat was updated to 2.0.15+free
MonsterMusic was updated to 0.1.56
Multi Launcher ‧ Home Screen was updated to 1.11.1.3
MuPDF mini was updated to 1.26.9a
MuPDF viewer was updated to 1.26.9a
Musical Notes was updated to 2.2.2
MusicSearch was updated to 1.67.0
My Expenses was updated to 4.0.4.1
Myne: Download & Read eBooks was updated to 4.6.1
Mysterium Dark — Next Gen VPN was updated to 2.1.15
NATINFo+ was updated to 0.10.2
neutriNote CE was updated to 4.5.8c
Next Player was updated to 0.14.0
Nextcloud was updated to 3.34.0 RC2
Nextcloud Dev was updated to 20250922
NextDNS Manager was updated to 5.5.15
NextGIS Mobile was updated to 2.13.0
NGA客户端开源版 was updated to 4.2.0
ntfy - PUT/POST to your phone was updated to 1.17.8
Obtainium was updated to 1.2.5
Offi was updated to 13.0.13
Offline Translator was updated to 0.2.0
Oinkoin was updated to 1.1.4
OONI Probe was updated to 5.2.1
OpenBible was updated to 2.0.0
Organic Maps: Hike, Bike, Drive Offline was updated to 2025.09.15-18-FDroid
oxproxion was updated to 1.4.5
P.CASH Crypto Wallet was updated to 0.46.8
Pachli for Mastodon was updated to 2.16.1
Package Manager was updated to v7.5
Pagan was updated to 1.7.13
Paperize - A Wallpaper Changer was updated to 3.2.1
PasswdSafe was updated to 6.26.1
PennyWise AI was updated to 2.15.23
Peristyle was updated to v9.2.4
Persian Calendar was updated to 9.9.0
Phocid was updated to 20250920
Photok was updated to 2.0.5
PicGuard was updated to 5.0.3
PixelDroid was updated to 1.0.beta41
PlainApp: File & Web Access was updated to 2.1.19
Play Maker was updated to 1.9.0
Plus Plus Battery was updated to 2.3.3
PocketPlan was updated to 1.4.4
Prav was updated to 2.19.4+free
QRAlarm was updated to 2.6.3
Quillpad was updated to 1.5.5
RF Analyzer was updated to 2.0.2
Ruffle was updated to 0.250915
SambaLite was updated to 1.2.8
Seamless was updated to 1.7
ServerBox was updated to 1.0.1256
Session F-Droid was updated to 1.27.1
Shattered Pixel Dungeon was updated to 3.2.4
SherpaTTS was updated to 2.7
ShikiApp was updated to alpha-0.4.3
ShowCase was updated to 4.1
SimbaDroid was updated to 0.6
Simon Tatham’s Puzzles was updated to 2025-09-12-1919-23762278-fdroid
Simple Clipboard Editor was updated to 1.6
Simple Keyboard was updated to 5.40
Simple Sudoku Game was updated to 0.10.3
sing-box was updated to 1.12.8
SiYuan was updated to 3.3.3
Smither was updated to 3.6.3
SmsLoc was updated to 1.1.4
SpamBlocker (Call & SMS) was updated to 4.18
Spell4Wiki was updated to 3.1
SshDaemon was updated to 2.1.33
Standard Notes was updated to 3.198.20
Stroke Input Method (筆畫輸入法) was updated to 1.5.0
Super Productivity was updated to 15.0.3
Swiss Bitcoin Pay was updated to 2.6.0
Syncthing-Fork was updated to 2.0.9.2
Table Habit was updated to 1.17.10
Taler Cashier was updated to 1.0.3
Taler Point-of-Sale Terminal was updated to 1.0.4
Tomato was updated to 1.3.0
TourCount was updated to 3.6.8
trale was updated to 0.13.2
Translate You was updated to 15.2
TRIfA was updated to 1.0.257
Träwelldroid was updated to 2.21.3
Tuta Calendar was updated to 309.250918.1
Tuta Mail was updated to 309.250918.1
Unciv was updated to 4.18.1
UnderEat was updated to 1.0.16
UnicodePad was updated to 2.17.0-fdroid
Unstoppable Crypto Wallet was updated to 0.44.2
Vape Tools was updated to 1.1.1
Vespucci was updated to 21.1.4.0
Voice Audiobook Player was updated to 25.9.19
Voyager for Lemmy was updated to 2.40.0
VRChat Android Assistant was updated to 2.7.0
Website Monitor was updated to 5.0.0
Whisper+ was updated to 1.4
WHPH was updated to 0.15.0
Wiki Fronted was updated to r/2.7.50549-r-2025-09-17
Wikipedia was updated to r/2.7.50549-r-2025-09-17
Windscribe was updated to 3.93
Wire • Secure Messenger was updated to 4.15.0
wX was updated to 55978
Xed-Editor was updated to 3.1.9
Xray was updated to 11.8.5
Xtra was updated to 2.48.0
YAACC was updated to 4.4.0
Yivi was updated to 7.9.0
Zashi: Zcash Wallet was updated to 2.3.0
μlogger was updated to 3.13
聚在工大 was updated to 4.17.8.1
🌜 LunaTracker 🌛 was updated to 0.7
Thank you for reading this week’s TWIF 🙂
Please subscribe to the RSS feed in your favourite RSS application to be updated of new TWIFs when they come up.
You are welcome to join the TWIF forum thread. If you have any news from the community, post it there, maybe it will be featured next week 😉
To help support F-Droid, please check out the donation page and contribute what you can.
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is “the EU’s law to make the markets in the
digital sector fairer and more
contestable”.
F-Droid strongly aligns with many of the ideals of the DMA regarding
ensuring user choice and privacy. For example:
The DMA has provisions for ensuring third-party software applications or
software application stores can be used: F-Droid has long been the
premier way for privacy or free software focused users to install
applications outside of the Google Play Store
The DMA places limitations on how gatekeepers process personal data:
F-Droid doesn’t even have accounts. We don’t track users at all. There
is no personal data for us to process.
Recently, Google introduced a new developer verification
policy
which is at odds with the DMA. It demands that apps can only be installed
on its operating system if the app developers have verified themselves with
Google, even if the app is not installed via the Play Store. This may
sound like it only impacts app developers, but it very much impacts end
users choice and freedom, in a detrimental way that is not in the spirit of
the DMA.
Google may argue that the policy they have put in place is strictly
necessary and proportionate, to ensure that third-party software
applications or software application stores do not endanger the integrity of
the hardware or operating system provided by Google (Article
6.4).
This is demonstrably false.
Trust is not earned by verifying a developers legal identity. There is no
way to verify whether an app published to the Play Store is harmful or not,
regardless of whether their identity has been verified with Google.
Trust is earned by transparency. F-Droid users are able to verify with
certainty the source code which was used to build an app they are about to
install.
The way in which F-Droid builds free software from source and then
distributes it to end users without needing to involve Google, is akin to
how most Linux distributions have been distributing software for decades.
These distributions mechanisms have stood the test of time, are regarded as
extremely secure and trustworthy, and are used by most of the modern
computing infrastructure across the globe.
Nobody has suggested that Linux distributions need to be made safer for end
users by having a central authority verify each app developer. It should be
no different for mobile operating systems.
This Week in F-Droid
TWIF curated on Friday, 19 Sep 2025, Week 38
Community News
aFreeRDP was updated to 3.17.1 but you should skip this update since it keeps on crashing. A fixed update is being tested right now, stay tuned!
Element X - Secure Chat & Call was updated to 25.09.1 bringing room version 12 support to F-Droid and much more since the last June update.
Fennec F-Droid was updated to 142.0.1 fixing the painful start bug.
If you don’t use Fennec, well… you gotta try it!
But if you’re stuck with the Yandex or Samsung Internet browsers, then maybe you should install AdGuard Content Blocker, which has been updated to 2.8.0 after a 5 year long pause, and clean up all those ads.
@linsui waits for the clouds to go:
Breezy Weather was updated to 6.0.11-rc_freenet. Still an ‘unstable’ version so users won’t get this by default. But if you want to have a try, update to this version manually. There are lots of updates, including Material Design 3 Expressive!
Spotube was updated to 5.0.0 after a bit of a hiatus. The app was in a non-working state for a long time due to legal and other issues. Well, we are happy to report that Spotube is officially back. The list of fixes and features is huge, so make sure you take a glimpse and explore what’s new.
@shuvashish76 activates the API:
Torrent Search was updated to 0.4.2 adding fixes and whatever “Torznab API” is. For those that know, carry on, for the rest read on.
Thore Göbel bumps memory protection to 11:
This post is an introduction into Arm Memory Tagging Extensions (MTE), a hardware-based defense against memory safety vulnerabilities. Arm MTE is available in Google Pixel 8 devices (released 2023) and in iPhone 17 devices (released 2025).
The focus of this post is on explaining the high-level ideas, why MTE is important, and how developers can enable MTE in their Android and iOS apps.
Sit down and read this 13+ minutes long “introduction to Arm Memory Tagging Extensions” blog post to know how to enable Arm Memory Tagging Extensions (MTE) for your Android and iOS apps.
Wait, that’s like an one-liner? Wow, let me quickly toggle it on for my favorite app.
Newly Added Apps
5 apps were newly added
AwakeOnLANMobile: Send WakeOnLAN packets (IPv4/IPv6) over the internet, includes a CIDR scanner
Display Toggle: Toggle the physical display on and off without locking the screen
Feeder (Play version): An awesome Libre and Open Source RSS feed reader (Yes, we have the same app already, but signed by F-Droid. This version is signed by the developer and built reproducible)
Kords: A ukulele chords dictionary and songbook
Musicore: A simple musicxml viewer
Updated Apps
84 more apps were updated (expand for the full list)
8-Bit Wonders was updated to 0.8.8a
Another notes app was updated to 1.6.1
Audile was updated to 1.12.1
BedrockStation (Pro) was updated to 1.3-pro
Blorp was updated to 1.9.22
Bluetooth Remote was updated to 1.8.3
Brethap was updated to 1.8.4
Cheogram was updated to 2.19.0-2+free
Cirrus was updated to 4.3
Clipious was updated to 1.22.15
Cuscon was updated to 4.0.6.5
DetoxDroid: Digital Detoxing as Your New Default was updated to 2.2.0
DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser was updated to 5.246.0
EinkBro was updated to 15.1.0
FairEmail was updated to 1.2296
FeedFlow - RSS Reader was updated to 1.5.0
Fish Rings for Android was updated to 1.22
FossWallet was updated to 0.28.1
Foto Timer was updated to 1.3.2
Goals with Checklists - timeto.me was updated to 2025.09.13
HexViewer was updated to 1.59.1
Home Assistant was updated to 2025.9.2-minimal
HyperRogue was updated to 13.1e
i2pd was updated to 2.58.0
J-K Bike - Mechanical Disaster Prevention was updated to 3.3.1
Jami was updated to 20250912-01
Kazumi was updated to 1.7.9
Keep Screen On was updated to 1.26.3
KeePassDX - FOSS Password Safe was updated to 4.1.8
Koofr Vault was updated to 0.1.20
Lalumo was updated to 5.4
Let’s Bend: Harmonica Tuner was updated to 3.5.0
LibChecker was updated to 2.5.2
LinkDroid for Linkwarden was updated to 2.1.2
Linwood Butterfly Nightly was updated to 2.4.0-rc.2
Lissen: Audiobookshelf client was updated to 1.6.18
MakeACopy was updated to 1.4.0
Minis companion was updated to 1.2.1
MuPDF mini was updated to 1.26.8a
MuPDF viewer was updated to 1.26.8a
MusicSearch was updated to 1.64.2
My Expenses was updated to 4.0.4
Nextcloud Dev was updated to 20250913
Nextcloud Notes was updated to 4.5.0 RC1
Nora was updated to 0.2.2
NouTube was updated to 0.4.1
ntodotxt was updated to 0.15.0
NymVPN: Secure VPN by Nym was updated to v2.0.2
Oinkoin was updated to 1.1.1
OONI Probe was updated to 5.2.0
Openreads was updated to 2.11.0
OSMTracker was updated to 2025.09
oxproxion was updated to 1.4.3
PocketTRacker was updated to 2.5.2
pretixPRINT was updated to 2.20.0-foss
pretixSCAN was updated to 3.0.0-beta4
QuickTiles was updated to 1.8
Quillpad was updated to 1.5.4
Ricochlime was updated to 1.11.10
Saber was updated to 0.26.7
Scribe4 was updated to 1.02
Simple Keyboard was updated to 5.38
SimpleXray was updated to 1.10.5
sing-box was updated to 1.12.7
SmsLoc was updated to 1.1.1
SoundAura was updated to 1.6.1
Standard Notes was updated to 3.198.19
Super Productivity was updated to 15.0.0
Swiss Bitcoin Pay was updated to 2.5.26
Timed Shutdown [No Root] was updated to v2.90
TimeR Machine was updated to 7.7.0
trale was updated to 0.13.1
Träwelldroid was updated to 2.21.2
Tuta Calendar was updated to 308.250911.0
Tuta Mail was updated to 308.250911.0
Tuty Fruty Slot for Android was updated to 1.12
Unciv was updated to 4.18.0
UnderEat was updated to 1.0.15
Vitosha Decision Maker was updated to 1.05
Voice Audiobook Player was updated to 25.9.17
WAFRN was updated to 1.6.3
XDYou was updated to 1.5.2
Xray was updated to 11.8.4
You Have Mail was updated to 0.21.1
聚在工大 was updated to 4.17.7.3
Thank you for reading this week’s TWIF 🙂
Please subscribe to the RSS feed in your favourite RSS application to be updated of new TWIFs when they come up.
You are welcome to join the TWIF forum thread. If you have any news from the community, post it there, maybe it will be featured next week 😉
To help support F-Droid, please check out the donation page and contribute what you can.
At the beginning of summer, the European Commission held a series of “DMA
2025 compliance
workshops” to let the
public post questions to the “gatekeepers” as designed under the EU’s
Digital Markets Act (DMA). Apple App
Store,
Google Play, Google Maps and
Android
are all designated as gatekeepers by the European Commission, and are
therefore regulated to allow competition with them. These workshops touch
on a range of different topics, from self-preferencing behaviour to app
store management practices. I traveled to attend in person to represent the
F-Droid community, and free software in general, in these proceedings. My
travel expenses were covered by your
donations to F-Droid, thanks to those who made
it possible for me to be there!
Naturally, I was there to talk about app stores. There are two specific
points where F-Droid really has been swaying the discussions: Apple claims
their review process is the best. Google claims that they already comply
with Digital Markets Act because they allow third party app stores and
installing apps outside of Google Play.
F-Droid clearly demonstrates the shortcomings of Apple’s review process.
For example, they never review source code, only the binaries. Ask any
source code auditor and they will tell you, you have to review the source
code to get a full picture. Also, their reviewers work for Apple, which has
a monetary stake in the apps they are reviewing. Apple gets a large cut of
the revenue from all app sales. That means that Apple sometimes lets apps
that make them a lot of money bend the rules.
Google has built up a very different strategy for their gatekeeping since
Android started out as an unknown competitor. Android promoted itself to
developers and OEMs by being largely open source and relatively open.
Indeed, that’s why I got involved in Android and dropped iOS back in 2008.
Google has a strong track record of securing the platform, and has provided
solid user experience design over the years. They lean on their reputation,
and have a well documented track record of using security and UX concerns to
steer users towards choosing Google over competitors. In terms of the DMA,
this is known as self-preferencing. We can see clear examples of this with
the Play Protect scare screens that many FOSS apps have been hit by. These
have said there were security issues in F-Droid, yet they have never
reported any of these to F-Droid (which is required under the rules of
responsible disclosure). They did not even provide us any way to find out
why they flagged our app. For all you developers who have also been
affected, the European Commission wants to hear from you! There is a
consultation
open until September 24th, they are seeking feedback about how you have been
affected. The most valuable feedback includes technical details and
references to official documentation. Just getting your perspective out
there in a blog post is also valuable. Please contact us to let us know about information you think might be relevant.
One thing that is clear from these proceedings is that Apple and Google are
no longer driven by innovation or developing technology. The competition
lawyers are in charge now. They have to defend those immense monopoly
profits for their shareholders. It was quite amazing to see these polished
competition lawyers from Apple and Alphabet/Google put on a friendly face
while actually being quite disrespectful of the European Commission and the
EU democracy it represents. Of course, they do it in a friendly, polished
way. There was no rude language or insults. Instead, there was lots of
dodging solid questions based on calculated ignorance. There were
statements to the effect of “we don’t really care about these proceedings
because we’re going to drag this out in the courts as much as possible.”
Apple was for many years a company respected for design and technical
innovation. Now they champion their $1 billion plus legal
budget
and “high-risk legal strategies”. This is not the behaviour of an
innovative company, this is monopolist behaviour. You can see it in how Tim
Cook, CEO of Apple, thinks about their lawyers:
I don’t want [the legal department] to stop pushing the envelope because that’s why legal is an important function in the company.
The Google representatives started out this process highlighting how they
were open, already complying with key provisions, and wanting to work with
Europeans to comply. I will give kudos to Google, they started out actually
engaging with the requirements of the DMA and making real improvements that
users want. For example, Google shipped its first data portability tools in
2022, when the DMA had just passed, and have been improving them since.
Apple is just now finally doing something useful around data portability,
rather than just wasting people’s time and threatening more lawsuits. And
some, but not all, of these features might be available worldwide, rather
than just in the EU. In this most recent showing, Google’s tone has
shifted. Now that Google are also being held to account, they have started
to take on a lot of the same contentiousness as Apple has approached the
Digital Markets Act with. And they have become more brazen in their defence
of their monopoly.
Google has recently announced a number of changes that increase their level
of control over the Android ecosystem:
Google is
no
longer developing
AOSP in the open at all anymore. They also withhold source code for a lot
longer, making working with AOSP source code a lot harder for projects
like CalyxOS and LineageOS.
They stopped releasing the device tree
source
for Pixel devices, so alternative Android versions now have to recreate
those in order to run on Pixel devices.
They launched Android Developer
Verification,
which severely restricts installs outside of Google Play. All app
developers need to pay a fee and submit info on themselves (actual legal
IDs) with a list of their apps to Google for approval or the user won’t be
able to install their apps anymore. Back in 2018, AOSP developers reached
out to us about a feature that sounds very much like Android Developer
Verification. We told them that if they shipped that, it would kill
F-Droid and third party app stores. Looks like now, that might be part of
why they are rolling this feature out. The 2018 version allowed users to
control who approves the developers but there is no sign this current
scheme will work with anything other than the Google controlled list.
Any developer or organization that wants to publish a mobile app now has
to comply with either Apple’s or Google’s Terms of Service. That means
two US companies now have a say in the apps that our governments make for
their citizens, around the world.
Clear wins for the Digital Markets Act
Looking back at two years of DMA enforcement, there are some clear
wins:
Android improved their APIs for app stores, like making background updates
possible without requiring elevated privileges.
Both
Apple
and Google put in a
lot of effort to work on data portability.
DMA enforcement gives us a new tool to push back on invalid “scare
screens” like we have seen with Play Protect.
There are actually a couple non-Apple apps stores available for iOS now.
Apple reversed its ban on Progressive Web Apps.
How was the whole thing being gamed?
Unfortunately, that’s not the whole story. The Big Tech firms are pushing
hard to game these
proceedings
in their favour. They have massive piles of cash to work with from all
those years of massive monopoly profits. I went to Brussels as a volunteer
to attend the workshops for Apple and Alphabet because of my over 10 years
of experience working on app stores and 30 years of free software work.
There were people from Mozilla,
EDRi, microG,
FSFE,
BEUC, CalyxOS and Open Web
Advocacy. It was also nice
to see DuckDuckGo,
Vivaldi
and some other companies there, backing the European Commission’s work.
Then there were a number of organizations said to be representing small and
medium size developers who receive funding from Google and Apple.
Unsurprisingly, they have positive feedback about Google and Apple, and the
Google and Apple lawyers were happy to talk to them in the coffee breaks.
When I approached, I was offered an email address to reach out to rather
than any kind of answer to my questions, or even any further discussion.
There was clearly some
astroturfing going on there.
I had one extended comical conversation with a guy there who loved jumping
in the talk about how great Apple and Google are. I asked him why he came.
He said he was just interested. I asked whether he worked on app
developments, he said he didn’t, but worked in recycling. Out of curiosity,
I asked whether he thought the recycling business was in any related to the
DMA. He started acting dodgy and said no. I kept asking friendly questions
around how he financed his DMA work, and the dodges just kept on getting
funnier and funnier. It was also quite funny to see how Google’s lawyers
chatted amongst themselves and did not listen when getting questions from
those kinds of organizations. It was like they knew their people, so they
would not have anything to actually respond to.
Massimo Albarello, the CTO of what seems to be yet another surveillance
capitalism startup
(data mining CTO 🧐 + monetization CEO 🤑 = ???), gave a tech demo on behalf
of Google. This was yet another action from Google that seemed aimed just
to waste everyone’s time and avoid answering questions from the public.
Another such moment is when the Google lawyers played a video demo of their
data portability features with a painfully cheesy AI-generated narration.
Apple and Google had only very highly paid competition lawyers there to
answer questions. It seemed like any good question that referenced
something vaguely technical, like “GMS”, was waved aside with calculated
ignorance. Google talked about how they had thousands of developers working
on the DMA compliance and about how hard it is to hire good developers. If
that is actually important to them, they should stop disrespecting the
developers like those in our ecosystem, who have helped make mobile devices
what they are today.
The Google and Apple lawyers seemed to share the tactic of just running out
the time as much as possible. They went overtime on their presentations,
which were largely marketing speech and fluffy statements. They gave long
winded answers which adeptly avoided actually answering the questions that
were posed. “Malicious
compliance”
seems to be the Big Tech game plan here.
The Digital Markets Act can continue to succeed
It is important to point out that the DMA is popular in
Europe.
Hundreds of academics just posted an open
letter
asking the European Union to stand up to Big Tech and enforce laws like the
DMA. And many countries around the world are closely following the DMA and
even working on similar laws themselves. If you also want to see the
Digital Markets Act succeed, then your contributions are needed! There are
many ways to contribute.
I’d love to see more people digging into Big Tech’s responses and calling
out their bad behaviour. 🤔 The full videos of the workshops are online for
Apple,
Alphabet
and the rest. Have at it! 😃
If you have technical knowledge of apps, installation, app stores, signing
systems, etc. then your feedback can provide key rebuttals to Big Tech’s
often erroneous claims. For example, early on, Apple was claiming that
encrypting apps was necessary to ensure their integrity. Signing does
that, encrypting hides things. The FOSS contributors were keen to help the
European Commission understand that, leading Apple to drop that whole line
of argumentation with a bit of egg on their face. Submit your comments
too!
With more donations, we would be able to pay developers to actually dig
into the whole process, and provide detailed technical feedback to the
European Commission. Their job of enforcing the Digital Markets Act needs
this kind of hard factual evidence and that requires skilled developers
spending quality time digging in. So far, the free software developers
have participated in the process on their own time on a voluntary basis,
so we have only had limited time to spend.
The Digital Markets Act clearly has to power to change our mobile ecosystems
in positive ways. We fully support it, and do what we can to help it
succeed. We can have real choice. With your help, our chances are much
better. Let’s do this!
This Week in F-Droid
TWIF curated on Thursday, 11 Sep 2025, Week 37
Community News
Nine projects will receive grants within the NGI Mobifree and NGI Fediversity pilot programmes. Scroll the list, you might find one of your favorite.
The EU currently has yet another public consultation (request for feedback and comments) open on its Digital Markets Act (DMA). The DMA is a law that is supposed to stop owners of big platforms (IE Google for Android, Microsoft for Windows etc) from abusing their power. Given Google’s latest proposal to require all apps to be registered by verified developers in order to be installed on certified Android devices, it would be great if as many people could respond as possible, pushing back against Google’s proposal and calling for the DMA to address it.
Here’s a link to this consultation.
We’ve also promoted another DMA consultation, last week, so it seems that these issues are looked upon from different angles too.
Food You - Calorie Tracker & Food Diary was updated to 3.0.0 and adds a lot of nice things like in-app search, food sources and history, ounces support and much more.
@shuvashish76 has good and bad news:
Exodus Privacy, long time partner of F-Droid in this journey, has posted news (in French) about their current situation and how you can help. They also have some sad news, as they announced the disappearance of Lovis IX, co-founder of Exodus Privacy and the current president of the association.
Syncthing-Fork, Wrapper for Syncthing - Open and decentralized file synchronization, brings Syncthing 2 on Android. The old app was renamed to Syncthing-Fork v1 (in Client and Website, your launcher icons will be confusing though) and in order to switch you need to backup in the old and import in the new app. Here’s the full guide. For users of the old archived app, the one not named “fork”, you’ll need to make this jump in two steps, from Syncthing to Fork v1 and then to the new app.
Removed Apps
2 apps were removed
Kontalk Messenger: A new way of communicating: community-driven instant messaging network, was no longer developed for years. Did you look at Quicksy yet? It was updated to 2.19.5+free.
Traccar Client: Track your location, has gone proprietary.
Newly Added Apps
2 more apps were newly added
Lalumo: Kids learn music with animal friends, melodies, and puzzles - playful and colorful
RaagaDB: RaagaDB app is meant to be comprehensive database for Carnatic Raagas
Updated Apps
163 more apps were updated (expand for the full list)
AAAAXY was updated to 1.6.288+20250901.3906.f6d8723f
AliasVault was updated to 0.22.0
AndBible: Bible Study was updated to 5.0.892
AndroidMic was updated to 2.2.1
ANeko Reborn was updated to 1.3.3
Aria for Misskey was updated to 1.3.9
aTalk was updated to 4.5.1
Audio Spectrum Analyzer was updated to 3.0
Aves Libre was updated to 1.13.7
Baby Name was updated to 1.2.5
baresip was updated to 69.0.0
baresip+ was updated to 56.0.0
Battleship Game (Privacy Friendly) was updated to 1.2.6
Bible Feed - reading tracker was updated to 1.5.0
BitBanana was updated to 1.0.0
Blitzortung Lightning Monitor was updated to 2.4.3
Blorp was updated to 1.9.21
Candle was updated to 1.7.1
Capy Reader was updated to 2025.09.1164
Checkers (Privacy Friendly) was updated to 1.3.4
Ciyue was updated to 1.20.1
Conversations was updated to 2.19.5+free
croc was updated to 1.11.6
Cuscon was updated to 4.0.6.4
Daily You was updated to 2.12.3
DOOM & Wolfenstein RPG was updated to 1.0.4.6
Drinkable was updated to 1.58.1
Droid Pad was updated to 3.1.0
DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser was updated to 5.245.1
Easy Open Link was updated to 1.5.11
EinkBro was updated to 15.0.1
Exclave was updated to 0.16.2
FairEmail was updated to 1.2295
FakeTraveler was updated to 2.2.2
FitBook was updated to 2.0.25
FlashDim - Dim your flashlight was updated to 2.4.3
Flicky was updated to 3.3.2
Force Stop Helper was updated to 0.3.0
Forkgram was updated to 12.0.2.0
Fossify Calendar was updated to 1.6.1
Fossify File Manager was updated to 1.2.2
Fossify Launcher Beta was updated to 1.3.0
Fossify Notes Beta was updated to 1.4.1
Fossify Phone was updated to 1.7.0
Fossify Voice Recorder Beta was updated to 1.4.0
FossWallet was updated to 0.27.1
Freebloks was updated to 1.7.1
Ghost Commander was updated to 1.64.1
GitNex for Forgejo and Gitea was updated to 10.0.1
GPS Cockpit was updated to 2.8
gptAssist was updated to 2.20
Green: Bitcoin Wallet was updated to 5.0.9
Grit was updated to 5.0.0
Guileless Bopomofo Keyboard was updated to 3.6.3
Hate It Or Rate It was updated to 1.5.0
hEARtest was updated to 2.2
HeliBoard was updated to 3.3
HomeFeed - RSS Widget was updated to 1.2.0
ICSx⁵ was updated to 2.4.0
Immich was updated to 1.141.1
Infomaniak Mail was updated to 1.16.5
Initiative Tracker was updated to 0.3.0
J-K Bike - Mechanical Disaster Prevention was updated to 3.2.0
Joplin was updated to 3.4.6
K-9 Mail was updated to 12.1
Katawa Shoujo: Re-Engineered was updated to 2.0.3
Kazumi was updated to 1.7.8
Key Mapper & Floating Buttons was updated to 3.2.1-foss
KeyPass was updated to 1.4.42
Kreate was updated to 1.7.1-fdroid
LabNex for GitLab was updated to 6.0.1
Ladefuchs was updated to 3.5.0
Libre Librivox listener was updated to 3.1.0
LightNovelReader was updated to 1.1.3
Linphone - open source SIP client was updated to 6.0.17
Linwood Butterfly Nightly was updated to 2.4.0-rc.0
Lissen: Audiobookshelf client was updated to 1.6.17
Look4Sat: Satellite tracker was updated to 3.2.1
MakeACopy was updated to 1.3.1
Materialious was updated to 1.10.6
Minis companion was updated to 1.2.0
Mondstern Acrylic Icons was updated to 17.0
MusicSearch was updated to 1.62.1
Musify was updated to 9.6.2
Muzei Pixiv Source was updated to 2.11.6-beta1
My Expenses was updated to 4.0.3
Neo Store was updated to 1.1.2
NeoStumbler was updated to 2.1.7
Network Survey was updated to 1.42
neutriNote CE was updated to 4.5.8b
Nextcloud was updated to 3.33.0 RC3
Nextcloud Dev was updated to 20250907
Nora was updated to 0.1.10
NouTube was updated to 0.4.0
Offline Translator was updated to 0.1.2
Oinkoin was updated to 1.0.96
Onyx was updated to 2.0.12
Open Passkey Authenticator was updated to 1.4
Orgro was updated to 1.63.0
oxproxion was updated to 1.3.8
P.CASH Crypto Wallet was updated to 0.46.3
Password Store was updated to 1.15.2
PCAPdroid was updated to 1.8.8
PeakOrama was updated to 3.5
PennyWise AI was updated to 2.15.19
Phonograph Plus was updated to 1.11.0
PlainApp: File & Web Access was updated to 2.1.18
Play Maker was updated to 1.5.0
PlayOnDlna was updated to 1.2
PlugBrain was updated to 1.5.1
Power Ampache 2 was updated to 1.01-84-fdroid
ProtonVPN - Secure and Free VPN was updated to 5.12.80.0
PSLab was updated to 4.0.1
qBitController was updated to 2.1.0
QRAlarm was updated to 2.6.2
Read You was updated to 0.15.2
RustDesk was updated to 1.4.2
SambaLite was updated to 1.2.6
Satunes was updated to 3.2.2
Sensors2OSC was updated to 0.12.2
ServerBox was updated to 1.0.1246
Shattered Pixel Dungeon was updated to 3.2.3
SherpaTTS was updated to 2.6
ShoppingList was updated to v1.19.0
ShowCase was updated to 4.0
Simple Sudoku Game was updated to 0.10.2
Simple Text Crypt was updated to 5.1
SimpleMarkdown was updated to 2025.09.00-free
SimpleXray was updated to 1.10.3
SiYuan was updated to 3.3.1
Sketching (PFA) was updated to 1.1.3
SmsLoc was updated to 1.1.0
SOS Flashlight: Advanced Morse Code Tool was updated to 1.0.3
SpamBlocker (Call & SMS) was updated to 4.16
Standard Notes was updated to 3.198.18
Suntimes was updated to 0.16.10
Super Productivity was updated to 14.5.0
Table Habit was updated to 1.17.5
Terminal Emulator was updated to 5.6.1/X
Termux:API was updated to 0.53.0
Termux:Float was updated to 0.17.0
Termux:Tasker was updated to 0.9.0
Termux:Widget was updated to 0.15.0
Thunderbird: Free Your Inbox was updated to 12.1
TRIfA was updated to 1.0.256
Trime was updated to 3.3.6
uaTranslit was updated to 1.6.0
Unciv was updated to 4.17.19
UnderEat was updated to 1.0.14
Voice Audiobook Player was updated to 8.7.0
WAFRN was updated to 1.6.1
Welefon was updated to 1.8.0
WHPH was updated to 0.14.1
WriteOn: Simple Notepad was updated to 1.8
wX was updated to 55968
Xed-Editor was updated to 3.1.8
Xray was updated to 11.6.0
Xtra was updated to 2.47.2
YA Habit Tracker was updated to 0.4.1
Zorin Connect was updated to 1.33.4
µLauncher was updated to 0.2.4
スミレ 日本語キーボード was updated to 1.4.412
聚在工大 was updated to 4.17.7
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When a legal takedown request arrives, whether it’s about copyright,
censorship, privacy or something more vague, how a Free and Open Source
Software (FOSS) project responds can make all the difference.
Handled well, a takedown request can be a manageable administrative
step. Handled poorly, it can cause panic, disrupt infrastructure or even put
contributors at legal risk.
As part of our legal resilience research, we spoke with a range of legal
experts, software freedom advocates and maintainers of mature FOSS
infrastructure to understand how others manage these moments. In this
article, we share what we learned, and how F-Droid is incorporating these
lessons into its own approach.
A Pattern Emerges
Despite differences in jurisdiction, size, and mission, a few common themes
from our research emerged when we asked how other projects handle takedown
requests:
1. Don’t Be a Soft Target
Legal threats often follow the path of least resistance. FOSS projects that
publish a formal takedown policy, require legal submissions through specific
channels, and insist on a valid legal basis are much less likely to receive,
or comply with, vague or harassing demands.
One FOSS organization, for example, requires all legal correspondence to be
submitted by postal mail in the national language and citing local law. Most
complaints evaporate once asked to comply.
2. Creating a transparent and documented process
Several digital rights organizations advised setting up structured response
steps:
Require submissions to a dedicated legal@ or abuse@ email.
Insist on full documentation: legal basis, jurisdiction, evidence of the
infringement and identity of the complainant.
Review for sufficiency, proportionality and standing before acting.
This creates proper documentation to process valid claims, while protecting
projects from illegitimate or unfounded requests.
3. Use Jurisdiction Strategically
Projects based in civil law jurisdictions, particularly in Europe, are often
better positioned to deflect legal demands from foreign entities. Several
organizations emphasized that complying with vague or extrajudicial
requests, especially those originating outside your jurisdiction, can
increase risk unnecessarily. Instead, they recommended requiring a valid
legal basis grounded in the project’s home country. Formal legal processes,
such as court orders or official government channels, were seen as the
appropriate threshold, not informal emails or unverifiable demands.
Notification and Appeals: Fairness and Transparency
All of the projects we consulted emphasized the importance of notifying
developers whose apps are being targeted, informing them (if possible) of
the seriousness of the claim, and the proposed strategy F-Droid is taking to
handle the claim.
If a threat is deemed to be valid and a developer’s content is flagged for
takedown:
The developer or maintainer is informed, unless prohibited by law (gag
orders).
A window for response (commonly 14 days) is offered, unless unfeasible due
to seriousness and time restraints of the request itself
If the developer disputes the claim and provides supporting information
(e.g. license, public domain status, fair use justification), the claim is
reviewed.
If the claim is upheld, the content is removed, but always with an
internal record and opportunity to appeal.
This mirrors principles embedded in international norms (like the Manila
Principles and GitHub’s DMCA
takedown
policy)
and avoids over-compliance with weak or abusive claims.
Transparency, Censorship and What You Can (Legally) Publish
Takedown requests occupy a complex space between legal enforcement and
censorship. While some are legitimate claims, like copyright violations or
privacy breaches, others are vague, politically motivated, or intended to
silence dissent. For FOSS projects that have a global user base, it’s not
always obvious how to respond. Complying too quickly can reinforce
censorship practices; resisting without process can lead to full website
shut downs, domain names being taken
away
(as in the US) or large and costly legal
battles.
One strategy that helps balance this tension is radical
transparency. Several projects we spoke with emphasized the importance of
documenting what actions were taken and why, not just for accountability,
but as a form of resistance. A well-known example is GitHub’s DMCA takedown
policy (as of July 2025), which mandates compliance with valid takedown
requests, but also posts each one publicly in their GitHub DMCA
repository. The result: potential abusers
know their requests will face public scrutiny, which acts as a deterrent.
However, not all jurisdictions allow this kind of transparency. In India,
for example, we were informed that it is often illegal to disclose that you
have received a government request, even to the developer of the affected
app. In contrast, in Russia, takedown requests can often be legally
posted, though by doing so you may be
putting yourself at risk for retaliation, additional takedown requests and
legal troubles.
With that in mind, some best practices for FOSS projects include:
Publishing biannual transparency reports, even if redacted or aggregated.
Maintaining an internal log of all takedown activity, with public
disclosure where legally possible.
Explaining the general reasons for content removals, who made the request,
under what law, and what action was taken, unless legally prohibited.
Being explicit about what cannot be shared, and why.
Transparency won’t prevent all forms of censorship, but it can slow them
down, raise awareness, and provide a record that strengthens the broader
FOSS ecosystem.
What We’re Doing at F-Droid
F-Droid is revising its own takedown policy, informed by:
Dutch law and EU regulations
The structural support provided by The Commons Conservancy
Practical lessons from long-standing FOSS organizations
Our draft process includes:
Written takedown submission request to legal@f-droid.org including the
required information.:
Identify the specific material in question (e.g. app name)
Include valid legal basis under applicable jurisdiction (e.g. copyright
law, court order statutory basis)
Indicate jurisdiction in which the legal basis is claimed to apply
Include sufficient evidence of the alleged infringement (e.g. copyright
certificate, ownership declaration)
Clearly state that the complainant is authorized to act on behalf of the
rights holder
Include full contact details and a verifiable identity (subject to
exceptions, such as gag orders or whistleblower protection)
Verification of jurisdiction and legal basis, including evidence
Developer notification and appeal procedures
Rejection of requests lacking documentation or legal authority may be
rejected or ignored
Biannual transparency reports and public tracking of takedown requests
We’re also working to improve contributor education about potential exposure
when contributing to F-Droid, document internal escalation paths and ensure
consistent handling of international claims.
Final Thoughts
Takedown requests are not going away in fact, they’re becoming more frequent
and more complex. But FOSS projects don’t have to face them unprepared.
By building processes, establishing clear jurisdiction, and protecting
individuals through structure and policy, we can handle these challenges
with the seriousness they deserve without letting them derail our mission.
Legal Disclaimer
The content provided in this article is for informational purposes only and
does not constitute legal advice. While we strive to provide accurate and
up-to-date information, F-Droid makes no representations or warranties of
any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, or
suitability of the information contained herein.
F-Droid is not a law firm and does not offer legal services. Any reliance
you place on the information provided is strictly at your own risk. If you
have questions about legal obligations, rights, or compliance, we strongly
recommend consulting a qualified legal professional familiar with your
jurisdiction.
F-Droid and its contributors disclaim all liability for any loss or damage
arising from the use or misuse of this content.