It would be great if we could provide direct update from within the app instead of depending on app stores like Google Play Store or Fdroid.
Newpipe which is a privacy friendly youtube app for android does this by providing a notification that a new update is available and when you click on it, it directly goes to the .apk file in github releases section like this link which is v0.21.8 I got just yesterday.
Newpipe makes this possible by having an option that needs to be enabled after which you will start getting notifications about a new version release. You can click on the notification and directly download it from GitHub releases. Then the user manually installs the .apk file to their mobile. An extra step maybe but faster updates and removes the app store which is an unnecessary middlemen for people who prefers it.
Simple, faster app updates for end users! Since this is a low tech implementation and hopefully shouldn’t be difficult. This is also a better option for people who want to avoid Google Play Store and faster option than Fdroid. As much as I really really want to use Fdroid, it is painstakingly slow with update cycles and is buggy. This would help people who are always eagerly waiting for the latest version of Antennapod like me.
TO BE CLEAR: I am NOT suggesting to make this the default. But I have seen threads on the question on when the latest update will be rolled out and asking why it is slow from time to time. This can be a better solution for the die hard AntennaPod fans like me!
PS: Noticed that AntennaPod doesn’t have .apk assets available in GitHub releases just now. So not sure how hard this would be to implement.
Late to the game I see that the linked issue has already been closed, and that it was closed due to the very understandable reason of adding to the administrative burden.
As an idea I like the concept of being able to act independently without relying on institutions, even if I personally trust F-Droid a heck of a lot more than Microsoft. So lets ask the question that could possibly change the balance in the equation for the current decision.
How much work would the community of users who prefers to cut F-Droid out of the update flow be prepared to do to make this happen? Would you be willing to implement the change and commit to performing all maintenance tasks required?
If adding the possibility of installing from an apk published outside of the appstore, for the gardened eco-system android is, I would expect every such build to have an easily discoverable feature for replacing itself with an appstore-version.
In my opinion, apps updating themselves leads to a huge mess. It’s like Microsoft Windows in 2010, where every single app did update checks on its own. This is a privacy problem because apps phone home. It’s a usability problem because users need to take manual action and get distracted when they just want to use the app. It’s a performance problem because each app does it on its own. It’s a maintenance problem because that part of the app cannot be repaired with updates.
I think app stores (or things like package managers on Linux) are a so much better solution than every app doing its own thing.
I don’t trust commitments like that. If it comes from a regular community member who already contributed for years, then yes. If it is a new person, the person will probably disappear at some point, leaving the work to the maintainers.
Finally, we always have to think about what we spend our limited resources on. Fixing bugs that affect all users or maintaining an updater that most of the users never need? Every new feature is a pretty large commitment because it needs to be maintained and tested for eternity. Adding a feature is easy. Keeping it working is the hard part.
