The state of Playstore

svotay@lemmy.dbzer0.com to Technology@lemmy.world – 1402 points –

Ads upon ads upon ads

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Just leaving this here: Aurora Store

Aside of the lack of ads, I now depend on Aurora Store for batch app updates because the cocksuckers at Google Play have allowed devs to force app version updates even when you have disabled automatic updates for that specific app.

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Ok this is actually pretty cool. So I gave this a try and what I found in the first few mins of using it:

  • you can login anonymously or with your own Google account (anonymous logs you into one of their shared Gmail accounts which personally I don't like the idea of)
  • it manages all existing apps too, so you can use it as a drop in replacement for the play store.
  • Updates aren't as well, there doesn't appear to be a background update option as android requires you to confirm if you wish to install the update for each app.

Overall solid app. I don't spend a lot of time in the PlayStore so the ads themselves don't bother me. The moment though I begin getting pop up ads / notifications I'll be jumping to this full time though

Just be careful when using your own google account on Aurora Store. There are reports of people getting their account banned by google. Do not use an important google account there.

Another cool feature is you can spoof your device's name. This can allow you to install apps that daddy Google does not approve of for your device.

What is the difference with F-Droid?

F-Droid has special FOSS Apps only. Aurora Store delivers the same Apps like Play Store.

Others answered you, but aurora also has an F-Droid replacement called Aurora Droid.

Aurora store is basically anonymous access to the official Google Play store.

You can download any app because unlike the Google Play store Aurora doesn't send your phones hardware ID, so if for example your phone is rooted you can get the Disney Plus app anyway.

Fdroid is an alternate app store. They have different things than the Google Play store. They respect your privacy and will let you download any app that is ever been uploaded to them, Even old versions of an app.

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