Hi, the user Slinger on GitHub found an alternative for Google’s ProviderInstaller. Unfortunately, it increases the apk size noticeably and needs to be kept up-to-date. I built a little mock-up that allows to distribute the provider centrally in one app and then load the library from other apps. This is basically the same that Google does. If one central app (for example the F-Droid client) would provide the library, it would not be necessary that all apps bundle it on their own.
For detailed information and a pretty lengthy discussion, visit the Pull Request for AntennaPod: https://github.com/AntennaPod/AntennaPod/pull/4077
TLDR: AntennaPod’s F-Droid version will ship with a custom SSL stack (Conscrypt) until we find a better solution (for example using one that is provided centrally by F-Droid).