Swap out play store apps with fdroid?

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My first post.

I am exploring a more privacy conscious lifestyle and have taken some initial steps to reduce my footprint.

After installing fdroid, I was wondering if it makes sense to swap out some apps that I currently use under the playstore. E.g. OpenBoard is available in both places.

Does it make sense to reduce my play store apps where I can and get the fdroid version instead?

Later on I am planning to get a Google Pixel to install a free OS and use fdroid exclusively.

Thanks in advance.

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A few years ago, the decision of getting the apps from Google Play vs F-Droid mainly was who you trust more: The app developer (who could upload something that does not match the source code) or F-Droid. Now that Google forces developers to upload their signing keys, it is more a decision of trusting Google vs trusting F-Droid.

Keep in mind that app updates usually arrive a few days earlier on Google Play.

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It should be noted that many apps depend on Google Play Services and tend to have a slightly modified release on F-Droid that doesn’t include the proprietary Google Play Services library. This mostly goes for apps that have push notifications. But generally that is the biggest difference between the same app on Google Play and F-Droid.

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i will always prefer apps from f-droid if they are available there. i can share the reasons if u wanna know. (please mention me, my notifs are turned off otherwise i guess)

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Thanks for all your replies! Great forum and support.

@anonym_i_ous yes, I’d be interested in your reasoning. Thank you.

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yeah, so, my reasoning is that reliance on gpstore is a massive debt:

  • each install from it requires 500 MiB empty storage space (aint much today, but it is huge requirement on cheaper devices)
  • gpstore’s policies and interface keep on changing all the time, and they keep on tweaking towards forcing u to enable auto-update
  • gpstore keeps running in background

so, if u dont use gpstore at all or very minimally, u can just treat it as brutally as u can. and if possible, then disable it to keep your device running light and fast. (ughh gpstore and gpservices are resource hog)

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Thank you @anonym_i_ous, this is super helpful. My next device may be completely independent of the Google PlayStore.

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I feel like you may be going backwards for privacy concerns. The more open source a project is, the easier it is to circumvent. That’s part of the fun! Lol in legal ways of course. But with that being said l, moving away from google is always a good idea. For many reasons involving privacy on the corporate and marketing standpoint. Analytics can be used to basically control your life now days!
So, to answer your question, with other replies considered, I’d go with FDroid. Privacy as awhole considered.

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