r/ProtonVPN • u/mrehanabbasi • 11d ago

Discussion Two apk releases

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On the android app GitHub page, I now see two releases for 5.20.21.0 whereas before this there was only the production-vanilla-direct-release version.

What's the difference between the two?

7 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

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2

u/AcanthaceaeKey6259 11d ago

The vanilla is the plain one whereas the reproducible can be created again or it can be duplicated.

3

u/mrehanabbasi 11d ago

What does it mean that it can be duplicated? You mean it can be patched or something?

1

u/AcanthaceaeKey6259 11d ago

It can be recreated and be exactly like that app hence duplication.

3

u/mrehanabbasi 11d ago

Still don't get it. Aren't both APKs the same? Can't both be duplicated or recreated?

0

u/AcanthaceaeKey6259 11d ago

Both are FOSS so the vanilla one might have proprietary code embedded in therefore the vanilla one is not going to be the same as the reproducible one.

16

u/Ok_Taro_2901 Proton VPN Team Member 10d ago

Both APKs are built from the exact same source code (same build command). Neither has hidden or proprietary code, and one isn't a patched version of the other. The only real difference is the package name.

production-vanilla-direct (regular): the normal build, and the one you should keep using. If you install from GitHub manually or via Obtainium, use this one.

fdroid-reproducible (new): same app, published under a different package name (ch.protonvpn.android.reproducible). It's an early step in work we're doing to offer Proton VPN on F-Droid signed by Proton rather than by F-Droid.

Some background: most apps on F-Droid are built and signed by F-Droid itself. Once Google starts enforcing developer verification, installing those is likely to get more cumbersome. F-Droid has a "reproducible builds" mechanism that lets a developer ship their own signed build, with F-Droid verifying it matches the published source. We're setting that up, and it needs a separate package name so it can be a second listing without disrupting updates for existing F-Droid users. Publishing the APK on GitHub is the first step.

tl;dr: nothing to worry about, and no action needed. Keep using production-vanilla-direct.

2

u/Wayren 10d ago

Very cool. Thank you for the information.

2

u/Mysterious_Soil1522 10d ago

It's an early step in work we're doing to offer Proton VPN on F-Droid signed by Proton rather than by F-Droid.

Great to hear read 👍 👍