Is there a difference btw an app available here vs Google Play?

Apps
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​Hello F-Droid Community! This is my first post here and I have a question that has probably been answered, so I apologize in advance. Sadly, the keywords I can think of in order to describe my questions are way too common making searching for the answer basically impossible.

What’s the difference between an app that’s simultaneously available through both F-Droid and Google Play with the same name, description and version?

For instance, K-9 Mail version 5.403 is installable from F-Droid here and Google Play here. Is there any difference between them? In this situation would you say to err on the side of caution and use the F-Droid version?

Thanks very much!

⁓ Ev

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Hello.
F-Droid builds the application from the source code available publicly, while Google Play version is built by the developer, so it can’t be guaranteed that it is corresponding to the source code. Also, some applications may have different flavours for F-Droid and GP. It means that the building process differs, GP version may contain trackers, non-FOSS libs, while F-Droid permits such behaviour. Also, as F-Droid version is built by F-Droid itself, it has different signature from GP version, so you can’t update application from F-Droid with GP version and vice versa.

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while F-Droid DOES NOT permit such behaviour

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Ah… Sorry for my bad English. And thank you for the fix. I’ve thought somehow that “permit” is a synonim for “ban”.

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The answer was… no

OR what’s your question exactly?

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An other extra difference not mentionioned in the other answers

If you install an app from playstore you cannot update it from fdroid and vice versa.

For cross-update you have to delete the app first (and loose the config/setting data for the app) and then install it again.

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