F-Droid upgrade to targetSDK 33 - Basic launched

Those are the Google rules.

But when all this code gets back in the main client, it will be nice.

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hi, Just bought my first smartphone Samsung galaxy s21 + and am trying to avoid as much google software as I can.
downloaded the f-droid app from the f-droid home page to the phone and then tried to install it.
At first google protection said I could not download load because the android version in the app was older than the Android version on the phone.
I managed to overide it and installed it any way - I was wondering if there was someone on the f-droid side I should report this to.
Thanks

Already aware, work in progress… app works fine once installed. :wink:

Basic ( F-Droid Basic | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository ) already has this fixed and unattended updates on Android 12 or later, and this will come to main client soon

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I’m new with F-Droid. Running most recent update on A12, hit download on the apps I wanted and they all went through. Check back in a few minutes to find that none of the apps were installed as applications but were stored in the app cache and waiting for install. I see no option to look at downloaded apps and let them install, only “Manage Installed” and “Install History” (neither help in this case). I downloaded and installed a few other apps since then, so I know it has no issue installing. Does anyone know how to sort this issue out?
Thanks :slight_smile:

Yes, as expected for now… as F-Droid is not a system app and Google does not allow it to install without your manual intervention.

Now, there’s work for Android 12 or later to enable unattended updates, so you can use Basic today for that ( F-Droid Basic | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository ) or main client soon :wink:

/PS: the thing works like this: any app INSTALLED or UPDATED by Basic will be AUTOupdated in the NEXT release

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The app description of the basic client does not provide enough info on what is a reduced feature set. 2 removed features are mentioned as examples. If I download the 2 apks from f-droid, v1.19.0 (1019050),

  • full is 12.3 MB → installed size 33.8 MB
  • basic is 11.5 MB → installed size 31.4 MB

Not significantly different. So what is the purpose of a basic flavour?

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to be fair, it has those missing features, that you might use or not, and a new layout for Latest but it’s kinda the same in general

regarding scope… was not yet defined :person_shrugging:

more to read here: CalyxOS & F-Droid

another difference now, Basic is targetSDK 33 and Full is still on 28 (as those extra 2 features need more stuff updated until they can be ported to 33)

but this info might not mean anything to you as a user :slight_smile:

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There is the F-Droid client and the F-Droid Basic (FDB) client. To my understanding, the FDB client is a more minimal version that focuses on overhauling the normal client. One of the main advantages was unattended upgrades. However, these have been updated in version 1.19, right?

So what is the benefit of using FDB and which one should I use? Are there any security differences?

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newer targetSDK (for now)

Doe snot matter

yup

How can it not matter which application I use when there are two options? What is the advantage of the newer SDK version?

While F-Droid does not enforce a minimum targetSDK like Play, your Android system could, eg. Android 14 will not let you install apps that target sdk 22 or older, and F-Droid Client will not even show them to you

Read more here: Meet Google Play's target API level requirement  |  Android Developers

Why is this relevant to my question of whether to use the Fdroid or Fdorid Basic client?

Again, I just want to know if there are any security/privacy arguments to consider and which app is recommended for the average user. I don’t understand why there are two client apps from the same team if there is no difference.