On the Importance of F-Droid

F-Droid is an app store for Android where only open source applications are available for free. It provides an alternative to the proprietary Google Play Store, which is where most Android app distribution currently takes place. Because the Google Play Store is where most users go to find and install apps, this gives Google the power to exercise control over Android app developers. In this blog post, I describe the design, mechanism and results of this control from the perspective of a long-time Android app developer. All statements are my opinion and are provided for informational purposes only.

Android, in its current form, is designed in a few ways to drive users to the Google Play Store. Defaults have a lot of power. Because the Google Play Store is installed by default, and not F-Droid or other alternative app stores, it’s highly likely that an Android user will install all of their apps from the default app store. Possibly, because no alternative app stores were presented to them, the user may not even realize alternatives exist.

If a user does become aware of third-party app stores, and they wish to install another app store on their device, searching for it on the Google Play Store will likely prove fruitless. The trouble is, by and large, Google does not allow third-party app stores to be distributed on the Google Play Store. This is being contested in some countries, sometimes successfully. As far as I can tell, the majority of countries remain affected by this restriction. Because users in most countries can’t install the third-party app store using the Google Play Store, they must download an apk file and install it directly.

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