F-Droid now supports automatic background updates
F-Droid now supports automatic background updates
F-Droid now supports automatic background updates (Free and open source Android app store)
Am I the only one who doesn't use automatic updates for apps? I like to read the change logs, both out of mild curiosity, and to know if an app has a "major UI update"
No! There are dozens of us! Dozens
But to be real, I hate how automatic updates just assumes the newer version will be better than the current. Enshittification is just as real in apps as in web services. And automatic updates help enable Enshittification by making that assumption. Of course, It's more applicable to the app store or play store than to f-droid.
I used an app called Noice from F-Droid which has a lot of pleasant background noises (including white noises which I sometimes use while sleeping). One update, the author suddenly added internet permission, pulled out all the noise music files from the app and put them behind a server. Now it only works if you have an active internet connection OR you buy a premium.
Thankfully, I still have the last "good" version.
Not long ago I watched the fdroid app itself enshittify.
I was testing an update of another app, saw it didn't really work yet, went to roll it back, and the downgrade button was gone. So I tracked down why and found fdroid had removed it. So I went to downgrade the fdroid app and the downgrade button was gone ...
Had to hunt the bare apk and downgrade manually.I'm still on the old fdroid version procrastinating looking for an alternative.
I only wish more than 10% or so of Foss software had changelogs
I've made a habit of opening GitHub issues asking for a changelog on those apps that I use that don't provide one. Most developers are open and helpful, some are not.
The worst experience so far was with Wikipedia, they provide poor update information (usual "we update our app regularly to being you improvements") and replied weeks later with "that's what most apps do".
I stopped auto updating the 3rd time my god damn app was force closed when using it. Either update for the app itself or damn webview. Been many years since then, so not sure if things changed but man it was frustrating having things just go poof in the middle of something.
100% agree. I've always been shocked to see people claiming that automatic app updates are good for security. Having stuff being installed in the background on your device without your knowledge is good for security?
I understand the "we roll out an important security update and it quickly updates for all users" situation. However, I still want to chose what you install on my device. Look at what just happen with Simple Mobile Tools, how many unaware Google Play users now have spyware installed on their phones?
I think a pretty good solution for this, specific to mobile, is to require users to approve an update when permissions have changed. Most non technical users don't understand old software can contain security issues, they purely view updates as new bells and whistles. If these apps are actually malicious, they aren't going to include their new keylogger in the release notes nor release on fdroid. I think automatic updates for the predominantly non technical population is still safer.
Yay?
Damn right
I'm very happy!
Is there something I have to enable for it to work?
Haven't tried it myself but https://f-droid.org/en/2024/02/01/twif.html has more details.
Obtanium supports f'droid so I've been using that, not for background updates but more so the fact that it actually notifies me if there is an update, F'droid app seems to notify me 1/3 of the time.
That's not what I wanted either. But that's a good idea to have. What I want is, if, after reviewing the list of available updates, I click "update all", I should not then have to click each one to "update" and then "install" one at a time. Also, I should have the choice to say "skip this version" and "don't tell me about updates for that one ever again"
@poVoq @interdimensionalmeme You can disable autoupdates in Settings (not Expert). You can also decide 'per app', in the upper right menu, to: install betas, skip this update or stop all updates.
Neo Store was already doing this.
The API that FDroid is using has only just come out. Before then, without using root and scripts to enable higher privileges, no app could auto-update in the background.
FDroid has long has the ability to automatically download updates, however installation always required a confirmation from the user for each app.
The API that FDroid is using has only just come out.
Not true. Android has supported rootless unattended upgrades at a system level since Android 12 (October 4 2021). That was nearly 2 and a half years ago, so it's been a while.
This is what Neo Store used. F-Droid only just now got around to supporting this with this recent update.
According to the article, F-droid is using a library that isn't the latest, because it doesn't support "gentle updates" (updates that are heuristically scheduled to stay out of the way of the user).
huh? fdroid has been doing this for me all along, is it just because i have the privileged extension?
Yes, but as the name says, privilege extension requires privileged access to the system, hence granting fdroid (much) more trust.
In recent android versions, background update is no longer a privileged permission, hence can be performed without privilege extension.
I've been using fdroid basic for this
Thank god. Finally.
Does this need root access?
No, but it requires an feature that is only available on Android 12 and above.