F-Droid had a busy 2024 and plans for 2025 look just as interesting. Let’s discuss what’s been achieved and what’s next.
Here’s the quick version for everyone:
2024 Recap:
- F-Droid made a lot of progress with decentralizing app distribution, growing its ecosystem, and improving infrastructure. Big thanks to donations, grants, and community help.
- They started using IPFS and Filecoin for app mirroring, made Repomaker better for creating repositories, and added support for iOS and PWA apps.
- They got funding from groups like Filecoin Foundation, EU Horizon Europe, and Open Technology Fund for ongoing infrastructure and security work.
- The community updated 7205 apps, added 402 new ones, and archived 939 apps.
2025 Plans:
- More work on the Mobifree project, including pilot tests and tool releases.
- Two new team members, Hailey Still and Nzambi Kakusu, will help the project grow.
Exciting times for F-Droid!
@Uma
They really need a button to report apps that don’t work anymore. It would help clean things up a lot.
Great progress, but F-Droid still has some big gaps to fill.
A lot of the apps are either tech demos or don’t work well at all. The platform is great for apps that aren’t allowed on the Play Store, like the adblocking version of Netguard or NewPipe. But right now, it’s not a true alternative to the Play Store because it lacks a broader selection of quality apps.
Maybe they could consider adding support for paid apps. I know it’s controversial, but it could attract more developers to the platform. Right now, we see issues like Netguard’s pro features being unavailable on the F-Droid version because they can’t do in-app purchases. Something to think about!
