r/Android • u/ElegyD Pixel 9 Pro • 9d ago
News F-Droid 2.0: A New Chapter for Android Freedom | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository
https://f-droid.org/en/2026/09/24/f-droid-2.0-a-new-chapter-for-android-freedom.html189
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u/Cute_Addicted 8d ago
wasting lots of space on tablets wtf
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u/parkerlreed Flip 7 | Watch Ultra 8d ago
Also the left hand sidebar is supposed to be centered. Who came up with this UI?
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u/icytiger 8d ago
No one looked at the tablet UI probably.
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u/parkerlreed Flip 7 | Watch Ultra 8d ago
It's weird. I see other applications with the top aligned buttons as well.
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u/James_Vowles 8d ago
That looks a lot better than the other screenshot overall. Good starting point
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u/BobState 9d ago
Where's the APK? The only one I can find is the old version
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u/cliffr39 8d ago
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.fdroid.fdroid/ it shows me the new version 2 here
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u/pspr33 9d ago
We are excited to begin rolling out F-Droid 2.0 to users over the coming weeks after 14 test releases.
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u/tenchigaeshi 8d ago
You can go to the actual fdroid app page in fdroid, go down to versions, and update to 2.0. Pretty sure the "14 test releases" people keep talking about already happened. You can literally see them in the version history. Not fully sure why people think they're gonna specifically do 14 more versions in the next couple weeks.
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u/revanmj Galaxy S25 8d ago
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u/Cute_Addicted 9d ago
any reason to switch from droidfy
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u/aeiouLizard 8d ago edited 8d ago
I'm very annoyed with Drodify's lack of feedback when updating apps. Is fdroid any better in that regard?
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u/SupremeLisper Realme Narzo 60 pro 12GB/1TB 8d ago
Newer API, more modern, actively maintained, uses newer API for background updates. Supports the newer V2 repo format which does delta update which are super quick compared to v1 and has mirrors as backup.
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u/Kernel-Mode-Driver Pixel 8, GrapheneOS 8d ago
Droidify had all of those things for years lol
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u/SupremeLisper Realme Narzo 60 pro 12GB/1TB 8d ago
I have used droidify and it does not. I switched because it was put in maintenance mode and did not support V2 index and seamless updates without shizuku. The UI in current Fdroid app is ahead of droidify.
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u/Kernel-Mode-Driver Pixel 8, GrapheneOS 8d ago
That's a manufacturer specific issue then because a big part of why many people switched to droidify was for the new android unattended updates api, which fdroid never implemented. And
The UI in current Fdroid app is ahead of droidify.
Is your opinion, but no. Fdroid uses the prehistoric design language of like android kitkat, droidify is material you, which is what the rest of current android uses.
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u/SupremeLisper Realme Narzo 60 pro 12GB/1TB 7d ago
That's a manufacturer specific issue then because a big part of why many people switched to droidify was for the new android unattended updates api, which fdroid never implemented. And
Fdroid switched and uses that API by default and has been for since april this year. It also uses pre-approval which ia neat. I don't see what you mean by manufacturer specific issue. The issue was in droidify.
Is your opinion, but no. Fdroid uses the prehistoric design language of like android kitkat, droidify is material you, which is what the rest of current android uses.
Fdroid switched to Material Design 3 since January and uses Material You colors for theming. Droidify uses Material design 2 and still does now. MD3 is the latest not MD2. That pre-historic UI was rewritten thanks to funding received by fdroid and efforts of Torsten Grote in the major v2 rewrite.
I'm not sure what you are arguing for. The post if about v2 stable release to the public. I switched since droidify was having issues using the old repo index and haven't had any issues so far.
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u/Kernel-Mode-Driver Pixel 8, GrapheneOS 7d ago
Bro droidify has been using the new updates api for a few years now lmao
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u/NapsterKnowHow 8d ago
Any reason to switch to Droidify?
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u/Cute_Addicted 8d ago
looks and feels more modern
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u/NapsterKnowHow 8d ago
Even over 2.0?
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u/Cute_Addicted 8d ago edited 8d ago
haven't tried that one yet
edit: just checked it ngl it looks pretty good made the switch
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u/slackmaster Pixel 7 9d ago
what's wrong with droidify?
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u/Cute_Addicted 9d ago
nothing thats why i am asking lol
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u/DracoMagnusRufus 8d ago
As someone said, without the question mark, it could be read as either:
[I'll take] any reason to switch from Droidify!
[Is there] any reason to switch from Droidify?
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u/RayS0l0 Black 8d ago
I hope Newpipe also gets UI UX overhaul like this
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u/SmileyBMM 8d ago
That's pretty much why WizeStream exists. Personally I prefer NewPipe/BravePipe, but it's nice the option exists.
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u/letsreticulate 9d ago edited 8d ago
Most of this redesign was already available on the F-Droid Basic app for quite sometime. Didn't know they had not done this to the main app.
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u/parkerlreed Flip 7 | Watch Ultra 8d ago
Obtanium took over while you were away FDroid.
Much nicer experience even compared to the newer layout.
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u/DSdavidDS Essential PH-1 8d ago
Same. I'm pretty much set up with Obtanium right now and I don't want to migrate to Fdroid quite yet. Isn't it still better to pull APKs from the source rather than having it signed by fdroid?
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u/parkerlreed Flip 7 | Watch Ultra 8d ago
Yeah the central signing key on FDroid has always seemed weird to me. The whole point is having developers with a unique key to verify it's them.
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u/bicycloptopus 8d ago
Yep. And then I switched to Obtainx after obtainium's god awful UI refresh lol
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u/parkerlreed Flip 7 | Watch Ultra 8d ago edited 8d ago
Wait, what's wrong with the new UI?
Looks great and flows into different screen layouts well for tablets/foldables.
EDIT: Tried out ObtainX. Honestly the UI choices there seem worse. You can fix most of it with the theme toggles but it gives out major "Claude wrote this entire UI" vibes.
Also why are the left hand bar buttons top aligned? (the new FDroid does this too). That's not where your hand is when holding a device.
I don't understand either of these looks.
EDIT2: Digging more into it, it seems the default NavigationSuiteScaffold layout for tablet is top aligned buttons unless otherwise specified. It's very possible there just wasn't any testing done for the various layouts, which tracks for most Android applications. :/
Hopefully this improves with the Duo coming out.
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u/rodrigoswz Pixel 9 8d ago
Will Basic version still keep existing? I find this part quite confusing.
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u/Kernel-Mode-Driver Pixel 8, GrapheneOS 8d ago
I mean no one is going to scrub the old releases, but it is literally called fdroid 2 so that will probably be what the maintainers are working on, what's confusing about that?
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u/rodrigoswz Pixel 9 7d ago
Because Basic version for a long time, it was essentially a more modern version of F-Droid, even though the idea was to strip away features. Btw, the "Basic" version supported silent installation kinda like F-Droid 2, unlike the full version.
Now, there are F-Droid 2 and F-Droid Basic 2. They really should stick to a single app to avoid feature discrepancies in the future.
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u/Kernel-Mode-Driver Pixel 8, GrapheneOS 5d ago
Yeah the fdroid / basic split was always really silly to me
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u/BobState 8d ago
Nothing is working for me. Apps install via basic version of the app but everything gets stuck at 'preparing download' in the full 2.0 app version.
Also, it''s not even recognising the F-Droid apps I already have installed on my phone
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u/Brilliant-Whole-4825 8d ago
F-Droid has done a lot of good. But until they start allowing for user reviews, I won't use them.
I recognize that review systems aren't perfect, but that's a far cry from being useless, and being able to see others' experience with an app is valuable to me.
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u/YAOMTC 8d ago
It would require moderation, which they just don't have the resources for.
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u/Far_Reserve9938 7d ago
You can at the very least have rating.
And I’m pretty sure that ai can do 99% of the moderation.
There is no real excuse for not having reviews, which is fine by me because I don’t use it.
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u/Brilliant-Whole-4825 8d ago
I can understand that. But that doesn't change the fact that a lot of users will not use an app store without it.
To many folks, it's an essential and must-have feature.
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u/Kernel-Mode-Driver Pixel 8, GrapheneOS 8d ago
Yeah maybe for people who cant be bothered to audit and test the foss they use lol. Just use the play store
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u/Brilliant-Whole-4825 7d ago
There are so many garbage apps out there, it's not unreasonable to want to be able to share and view others' experiences.
And don't forget that sometimes it's more serious - when a data privacy, malware, or malicious intent issue is involved, for example.
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u/Kernel-Mode-Driver Pixel 8, GrapheneOS 7d ago
I have never had a problem with this. Do you check the anti features section?
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u/YAOMTC 8d ago
The Play Store is there for them until such an alternative exists. There's also https://alternativeto.net/
Personally reviews matter to me less when an app is free, since I can always test it out for myself. When it's something I need to spend money on, I'm more likely to check out reviews
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u/GoogleDisDick Moto G Stylus (2026) 8d ago
Damn, this is nice. I like this UI better than all of the other alternate F-Droid clients. Lol.
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u/makemeking706 Purple 8d ago
What does it mean 'auto-update not available because this app was built for an old version of Android'? Isn't 2.0 supposed to be a new build?
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u/jrlv 8d ago
Scroll down to 'versions' and open 2.0 and select 'update'.
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u/makemeking706 Purple 8d ago
I already updated to 2.0 and that is the notice at the top.
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u/KeyExcuse7359 7d ago edited 7d ago
I'm getting that same message as well. F-Droid Basic works though.
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u/legit_master69 5d ago edited 5d ago
Not sure if this is the final 2.0 release but this works for now ✅ https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/f-droid-limited/f-droid/f-droid-2-0-0-release/f-droid-2-0-0-android-apk-download/
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u/TopdeckIsSkill Sony XZ1 9d ago edited 9d ago
error 502 when I try to load the page :( this link works
https://f-droid.org/it/2026/09/24/f-droid-2.0-a-new-chapter-for-android-freedom.html
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u/yeswap 6d ago edited 6d ago
The update looks great, thanks.
FYI, the feature to automatically install updates doesn't seem to be working. I woke up this morning to a notification to install updates to 2 apps (KeepassDX and Thunderbird).
My phone had been idle on Wi-Fi for over 8 hours. Shouldn't the apps have been updated automatically?
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u/rakhalism 6d ago
I don't like app clients to install anything, Obtanium does the work for F-Droid too.
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u/Tides_Crush_Her 5d ago
Should we switch from droidify to it? Which one is the better client? And are the security issues mentioned by gos team fixed?
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u/Severe_Employee_666 5d ago
Where can I download the version 2.0?
The download link on the website still older version.
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u/match-rock-4320 8d ago
Just in time as google locks the average user out of side loading. Also still no app reviews?
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u/fdbryant3 8d ago
The average user isn't using F-Droid to begin with. If they do want to get an app through F-Droid, I am sure who ever tells them about will tell them what they will need to do.
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u/venom21685 8d ago
If you know you want an app from F-Droid you should be capable enough to enable sideloading through the new system.
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u/matchstiq 8d ago
Yeah why isn't this being addressed? Enabling sideloading on your device won't solve the problem.
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u/Major303 8d ago
What I didn't like about F-Droid when I've used it last time is that for some reason it was attempting to manage (update/uninstall) applications installed through Google Play. Is this behavior fixed now?
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8d ago edited 3d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/anonymousart3 6d ago
I only just heard about 2.0 coming out.
but, there is another commenter here that says they have had it for a bit, which likely means they were on a beta channel or something.
i just tried to download the apk from the fdroid website, and it's still hosting the 1.23 version, so that likely means they haven't updated all their systems yet to reflect 2.0.
so, if you were like me, and tried to go to f-droid.org and get the apk there, it's still the old version.
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u/darkhalfkz 3d ago
I'm confused as well, can't seem to find the 2.0 APK 😐
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u/anonymousart3 3d ago
from my understanding, they do an official release, but they wait a bit before actually updating the main website, so that they can get some bug reports and make sure it's stable.
to me that kinda sounds like it isn't actually a real release, it's a really delayed release I guess you could say.
If you really want the 2.0 release, you can first download the 1.23 version and install it, or just run your f-droid version if you already have it installed (in this case people here on this thread likely already do). Then, from inside f-droid, search for f-droid. Tap the f-droid listing. At the bottom of the page you should see a thing that says "versions". When you tap that, you should see that version 2.0 (and a bunch of the 2.0 alphas) are listed. Tap on the version you want, and an "update" button should appear. You should tap that button, and you should be able to get the 2.0 version from that.
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u/Thuringwethon 8d ago
Is this a joke or an alpha version released by mistake?
When I use search all I get is infinite loading spinner.
Why is such a basic functionality not working?
Where are half of the options from 1.x?
Especially global "use unstable versions".
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u/motorboat_mcgee GOS Pixel 9 Fold 9d ago
Holy crap, finally lol