@SylvieLorxu@chaos.social

Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · May 16, 2026

Replying to @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social

This was made possible due to the several people who not only reported the crash, but who also were willing to spend some time back-and-forth testing new debug builds. Given this doesn't happen on any of my devices, I may not have been able to fix it without that help.

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · May 16, 2026

Replying to @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social

Catima 2.42.1 is out! https://github.com/CatimaLoyalty/Android/releases/tag/v2.42.1 #Catima is an #Android app to store and organize tickets, loyalty cards and other barcode/pkpass-based data. This release is functionally identical to 2.42.1, except that it fixes a crash on devices with misbehaving NFC. If your device is affected you will now see a "Failed to pause NFC" message instead of a full app crash. Coming soon to an app store near you. #IzzyOnDroid #FDroid #GitHub #GooglePlay

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · May 14, 2026

Replying to @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social

Okay so, summarizing feedback: if this happens seems to depend on Android version and launcher, making it very hard to reproduce. And the workaround is simple, recreate the shortcut. So I guess I will just accept this being suboptimal and not have it be a blocker. I'm more worried about this NFC crash, has anyone else been having crashes in 2.42.0? If so, please give me as much info as you can: https://github.com/CatimaLoyalty/Android/issues/3131

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · May 11, 2026

Replying to @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social

I've paused the Google Play rollout due to https://github.com/CatimaLoyalty/Android/issues/3124 Does anyone else have this issue? I'm trying to figure out how widespread this is and if I should treat this as an "one random person with a buggy launcher" or "affecting the majority of users".

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · May 10, 2026

Replying to @murdoc@autistics.life

@murdoc@autistics.life Reminds me of how I loved to read books as a kid, until school took all the joy out of it by forcing me to read books I hated and then write about the meaning of them instead of just, you know, allowing me joy and allowing me to talk about the books I did love :/

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · May 10, 2026

Replying to @annehargreaves@ioc.exchange

@annehargreaves@ioc.exchange "Why are all the kids always indoors?!?! Why don't they play outside?!?!", ask people putting literal "mosquito" noise machines in public places to annoy kids away. "Why are kids always bored?!?! Why do they always cause trouble?!?! Why are they always upset?!?!", ask people who then decided kids weren't allowed to have any online communities left after killing all their offline hanging spots, giving them literally nothing to do...

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · May 10, 2026

Replying to @humanhorseshoes@mastodon.world

@humanhorseshoes@mastodon.world Right wing "protect the children" (aka: "control the flow of information and censor anything remotely queer") nonsense is what it feels like to me. It seems to have started in the US.

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · May 10, 2026

RE: @nik@toot.teckids.org

As someone who has been programming since being a young teenager, things like this make me enormously sad.

If I was banned from being part of tech communities until the age of 16 or even 18 I would've never been able to learn all I did. I would've never been able to truly get into FOSS.

I would've never had a chance to become who I now am.

Age verification is literally killing the ability for kids and teens to excitedly participate and learn cool stuff and learn how to have digital agency.

toot.teckids.org

Nik | Klampfradler 🎸🚲: „This evening has had a sad surprise for me. Now,…“ - Teckids-Toots

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · May 08, 2026

Replying to @Zekovski@pouet.chapril.org

@Zekovski@pouet.chapril.org Thanks for sharing the good experiences, very motivating to hear people having a good time :)

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · May 06, 2026

Replying to @jandi@mastodon.social

@jandi @bammerlaan First 2 letters of the words Card & Ticket Manager. Bad everyone kinda rolled with "cat", but I don't mind, I love cats and it got me a very cute icon :) Maybe I should add that to the FAQ yeah

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · May 06, 2026

Catima 2.42.0 is out!

https://github.com/CatimaLoyalty/Android/releases/tag/v2.42.0

#Catima is an #Android app to store and organize tickets, loyalty cards and other barcode/pkpass-based data.

A new feature this release is a setting to disable NFC while showing a card, preventing accidental NFC payments from other apps. Dutch train travellers rejoice :)

It also contains some small refactoring and modernization under the hood.

Coming soon to an app store near you.

#IzzyOnDroid #FDroid #GitHub #GooglePlay

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Apr 29, 2026

Replying to @IzzyOnDroid@floss.social

@IzzyOnDroid At least it only seems to be necessary once so devs can remove it after again. Though one release failing RB can be quite a bother already from wasted debugging time...

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Apr 29, 2026

Replying to @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social

This is so frustrating because I have no plans to do a new release any time soon as the app works fine. Now I need to bother users with an useless update and waste their bandwidth just because Google decided to create this dumb verification method for this dumb policy? :/

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Apr 29, 2026

Replying to @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social

Okay approved but apparently I need to... sign an APK including this file with F-Droid's key. This flow makes no sense. They should *know* this flow makes no sense. This nonsense must be on purpose, forcing people to do new releases on F-Droid solely for verification. Using a file that they literally did not document if it can safely be included in git or not.

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Apr 28, 2026

Replying to @gaufff@piaille.fr

@gaufff That's easy to say, but that means over 125k users lose privacy as they'll have to use (proprietary) tracking alternatives. It won't just disappear from Google Play, Google will block the ability to install from IzzyOnDroid, F-Droid and GitHub too. Leaving will just mean Google wins and the FOSS community loses. People need to put pressure on relevant government entities to ensure Google gets punished for this power abuse and use custom ROMs (ShiftOS, Murena). https://keepandroidopen.org/

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Apr 28, 2026

Replying to @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social

Leave it to Google to find the most botched way to launch an inherently stupid program like this.

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Apr 28, 2026

Replying to @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social

It got even weirder. Catima: auto-registered with just the Google fingerprint, but I could add the GH/IoD and F-Droid ones without any work Raise To Answer: auto-registered with just the GH/IoD fingerprint but could add the F-Droid one without work (probably because targetSdk too low to keep on Google Play) Share To InputStick: I need to manually upload an APK and it only treats the F-Droid key as eligible. Trying to verify with my key instead, we'll see how that goes. What an absolute mess.

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Apr 19, 2026

Replying to @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social

@d0gb3r7 Google forcing a legal name policy forced several trans people I knew to pull their apps off Google Play just to not get outed, deadname and all. And literally nobody I spoke to cared at all. It was utterly depressing to see. And now we are in step 2 of "make it impossible to make apps anonymously and control distribution" and the only reason people care is the distribution being controlled. The safety of devs in a world where the US asks Google who created ICEBlock? No one cares.

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Apr 19, 2026

Replying to @d0gb3r7@mastodon.social

@d0gb3r7 Oh yeah that one was also something that pissed me off thoroughly. I'm still angry that back then even less people cared about it. It seems they're only caring now because of their own ability to install apps. If there is anything I learned over the years it's that people love FOSS apps but couldn't care less about how the devs of their favourite apps are treated (aside from some exceptionally nice people here and there of course) 😅

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Apr 19, 2026

Replying to @Billie@social.tchncs.de

@Billie They're even asking me to verify an app I published on GPlay 6 years ago is actually mine: https://chaos.social/@SylvieLorxu/116430780316307342 I don't understand how this could even happen.

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Apr 19, 2026

Many societal problems cannot be solved with technology. They can, however, be made worse.

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Apr 19, 2026

Replying to @Billie@social.tchncs.de

@Billie I got auto signed up as I have a Google Play Developer account as I publish my apps on Google Play too (for reach). Google decided to automatically opt in only the Google signature, which means the IzzyOnDroid and F-Droid builds would get blocked starting September. I see no other options? I definitely don't see ignoring it and Google blocking people from getting my app from IzzyOnDroid or F-Droid will be a win to anyone...

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Apr 19, 2026

Replying to @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social

For others who have to deal with this nonsense, I've found the easiest way to get your fingerprint for your IzzyOnDroid and F-Droid builds to be the following curl command:

export INDEX_V2_URL="https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/repo/index-v2.json" # IzzyOnDroid
export INDEX_V2_URL="https://f-droid.org/repo/index-v2.json" # F-Droid

export APP_NAME="your.package.name"

curl -s "${INDEX_V2_URL}" | jq -r ".packages.\"${APP_NAME}\".metadata.preferredSigner" | tr [:lower:] [:upper:] | sed 's/../&:/g;  s/:$//'

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Apr 19, 2026

Begrudgingly dealing with the Android Developer Verification bs.

Added the IzzyOnDroid/GitHub and F-Droid fingerprints for Catima to not have them blocked by Google.

I submit them and... "In review"?

What do you mean, "In review". How about you let *me* choose which keys *I* sign *my own goddamn app* with?

This shit is utterly disgusting. I have no words for it.

Fuck Google. Fuck this "developer verification" lockdown. The EU needs to fine the shit out of them for this bullshit.

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Apr 19, 2026

I'm amazed that Google's stupid new nonsense "Android developer verification" program is so broken that they literally fail to auto-register one of my three apps that are *on Google Play*. I need to "prove ownership" over an app I published to Google play in February 2020 and that's still in my account...

Sigh.

Google, if you're going to be evil, can you at least be competent for once? Please? I have better things to do than this nonsense?

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Apr 16, 2026

Replying to @EdyBolos@androiddev.social

@EdyBolos @ki @IzzyOnDroid Sadly even of that I already have an example ready. When this enforcement becomes OS-based instead of app store based it is game over: https://fortune.com/2025/10/05/why-did-apple-google-remove-iceblock-app-immigration/

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Apr 16, 2026

Replying to @EdyBolos@androiddev.social

@EdyBolos @ki @IzzyOnDroid I expect Google to just block "notarizing" for apps they don't like, like Apple recently blocked an app from third party stores, under the argument of "security": https://torrentfreak.com/apple-revokes-eu-distribution-rights-for-torrent-client-developer-left-in-the-dark/

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Apr 04, 2026

Replying to @stevelieber@mastodon.social

@stevelieber@mastodon.social "Open Source" "Open Printer will use the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license for all of its files, including electronics and mechanical design files, firmware code, and the bill of materials." CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 is not an Open Source license due to its NC clause, especially for code that will be a pain. Still, will watch this almost open printer, even with the NC clause making it not actually open source it sounds better than all the junk we have currently.

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Mar 20, 2026

Replying to @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social

Keep in mind, enabling developer mode is just *ONE* of the many steps. This whole process is made as difficult and with as much friction as they possibly could. No third party app store could guide most users through this successfully.

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Mar 20, 2026

Replying to @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social

Google obviously knows how user unfriendly it is to enable developer mode and how this will effectively make it impossible for the vast majority of non-technical users to access any third party app stores. This is as malicious as malicious compliance to EU law goes. I cannot think of a more aggressive roadblock they could have put up, even forcing some to choose between third party app stores like #FDroid or #IzzyOnDroid and banking apps. There is no doubt about it, this is not about safety.

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Mar 20, 2026

RE: @grote@chaos.social

I quote boosted this before focusing on the 24h delay, but the worst part is having to enable developer options.

Fairphone: Settings -> About phone -> Build number (7 taps)
Samsung: Settings -> About phone -> Software information -> Build number (7 taps)

Given the steps differ per device it is impossible for any third party app store to give clear instructions. To top it off, the first 3 taps give *no feedback* at all.

Even worse, some apps refuse to run on devices with dev mode enabled.

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Mar 19, 2026

RE: @grote@chaos.social

For the purpose of preventing someone over the phone or remote control guiding someone to sideload malware just disallowing app/sideload installs during a phone call/screen share would be more than sufficient. But of course, now I am arguing in good faith, which Google is not.

It is literally faster to install a custom Android ROM at this point. Over 24 hours of waiting? I need to wait a full day to be allowed to install my own apps on my own phone?...

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Jan 29, 2026

Replying to @IzzyOnDroid@floss.social

@IzzyOnDroid Hey if you leave a "malware APK" undetected for a year what difference does 3 days make :)

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Jan 29, 2026

Replying to @IzzyOnDroid@floss.social

@IzzyOnDroid Sheesh, just in time for FOSDEM too. Well, maybe. Google Safe browsing says it may take 72 hours for all devices to update (3 days is quite long for a known malware campaign to keep being unblocked I think but whatever) so... hopefully it will affect nobody or almost nobody trying to get started at FOSDEM...

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Jan 29, 2026

Replying to @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social

@IzzyOnDroid Current Google IzzyOnDroid block status: block still ungoing even though Google literally doesn't list a single "suspicious" URL anymore after we made the false positives unreachable for them. This is ridiculous. 5 days of almost 1300 clean FOSS apps being blocked by Google for "malware" that doesn't exist. Zero proof, zero accountability, zero recourse. IzzyOnDroid is clean and we work hard to keep it that way. #IzzyOnDroid #Google #SafeBrowsing

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Jan 28, 2026

Replying to @IzzyOnDroid@floss.social

@leeloo @IzzyOnDroid I wish it was a gorilla, you can at least attempt to plead your case with them as they understand some type of communication. This is more like bashing your head against a wall hoping it will eventually break down 🥲 Thank you though!

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Jan 28, 2026

Replying to @IzzyOnDroid@floss.social

@IzzyOnDroid We got a response now: appeal denied, listing a "malware URL" which literally 404s since we requested the appeal... I have been told to never attribute malicious intent to what can be explained by incompetence, but this level of incompetence is getting hard to explain... As a reminder, the apps in question are 100% clean, but given Google is holding almost 1300 other clean FOSS apps hostage what can we do except comply in the narrowest sense possible... Another appeal it is...

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Jan 25, 2026

Replying to @germanfr@social.linux.pizza

@germanfr @IzzyOnDroid This is Google "Safe browsing". Even Firefox has it enabled by default. So yes, this is Google. As I understand it your browser downloads a list of banned sites from Google every now and then. So not actively scanning what you browse (though they can do that for most sites with all the trackers they have), but I have to be honest I don't know all the details on "Google Safe Browsing". Documentation is scarce.

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Jan 25, 2026

Replying to @thomas@social.zell-mbc.com

@thomas @IzzyOnDroid It seems it depends on device? Maybe the "malware list" from Google is only pulled every X hours. Some of my devices block every single link, others don't. Google "Safebrowsing" works in mysterious ways...

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Jan 25, 2026

Replying to @leandro@gts.cybervalley.org

@leandro @IzzyOnDroid The .apk they tell us is "malware" (it isn't, we scanned it repeatedly) is https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/repo/com.apkupdater_52.apk But right now every single .apk link under https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/repo/ is blocked, almost 1300 safe, scanned, open source apps :(

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Jan 25, 2026

Replying to @murks@social.tchncs.de

@murks @IzzyOnDroid The .apk they tell us is "malware" (it isn't, we scanned it repeatedly) is https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/repo/com.apkupdater_52.apk But right now every single .apk link under https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/repo/ is blocked, almost 1300 safe, scanned, open source apps :(

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Jan 16, 2026

Replying to @soapdog@toot.cafe

@soapdog@toot.cafe @flaki@flaki.social @fabio@manganiello.eu @thunderbird@mastodon.online I have a tiny few for unit tests: https://github.com/CatimaLoyalty/Android/tree/main/app/src/test/res/protect/card_locker/pkpass Hope that helps. Do note the ones with fake in the name are manually modified for testing and all are slightly modified for privacy so the signatures will likely not match

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Jan 02, 2026

2025 had ups and downs, but I loved my 2025 at #IzzyOnDroid.

Our team has grown with several new members and we launched https://izzyondroid.org/, our new web home!

We even got our first grant ever (thanks, @nlnet@social.nlnet.nl!), allowing us to bring download statistics to IzzyOnDroid and integrate it directly into #NeoStore (and soon #Droidify), improve the #ReproducibleBuild system and more.

I'm grateful to the team for giving me a space where I feel able to make a difference ❤️

Here is to 2026! 🎉

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Dec 30, 2025

#Catima 2.41.0 is out!

https://github.com/CatimaLoyalty/Android/releases/tag/v2.41.0

This release adds support for UTF-8 barcodes (by default, the encoding will be extracted from the pkpass file or auto-detected if set otherwise).

It also contains some bugfixes and UI tweaks.

Due to Google dropping Android 5 compatibility in their libraries, this will be the last release available for Android 5.

Coming soon to an app store near you.

#IzzyOnDroid #FDroid #GitHub #GooglePlay

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Dec 22, 2025

Replying to @NewtonMark@eigenmagic.net

@NewtonMark@eigenmagic.net Would love to hear more details about what exactly happened, sounds amazing! "We look forward to sharing additional details at the appropriate time", says Garmin. Well, I hope I don't miss that! :)

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Sep 10, 2025

Replying to @ineemio@rivals.space

@ineemio@rivals.space I used to be an F-Droid contributor for a long time but ended up leaving (long story, mostly frustration with project management and changes I found important getting blocked repeatedly). I ended up talking a lot with Izzy from IzzyOnDroid during my time there and I decided to try to help out with IzzyOnDroid. We now have a small team and I think we're getting a lot of cool stuff done (see https://android.izzysoft.de/articles/named/news-2025-08 and https://android.izzysoft.de/articles/named/review-2024-outlook-2025) So I just feel more optimistic about IoD :)

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Sep 10, 2025

Replying to @jessienab@wetdry.world

@jessienab@wetdry.world There's basically 2 situations where this can happen:

The app needs Google Play Services, if you disable this (on stock Android) you'll need to enable it. If you use a custom ROM, you probably want microG
The app detects if it's installed by Google Play, either a weak check (can be bypassed with adb and using the -i flag I think or a strong check and... yeah, no luck.

If you're on stock Android, I see no reason to use Aurora Store, it doesn't give more privacy :)

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Sep 10, 2025

Replying to @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social

This is also roughly on level of trust. Yes, I already know about every other app store you want to tell me about. Thanks for thinking of it, but frankly, don't bother. I have my reasons to trust and prefer in the order I do and not use any other sources than these :)

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Sylvia @SylvieLorxu@chaos.social · Sep 10, 2025

If anyone is curious, my current Android setup is as follows:

I use #NeoStore or #Droidify (currently Neo Store, the new stats support is just too tempting) with the #IzzyOnDroid repo as primary app source, the #FDroid repo as secondary.

If I need something not on either of those, I will use #AuroraStore to access #GooglePlay.

Random APKs from GitHub or whatever only in very very specific cases. I will generally wait until the app drops on F-Droid or (preferably) IzzyOnDroid.

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Nik | Klampfradler 🎸🚲: „This evening has had a sad surprise for me. Now,…“ - Teckids-Toots

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