I try to avoid using the official app as much as possible, usually manage with Aurora store, thats why it stood out to me how bad it has become of late when I just went to update my game. Not shocking, but disheartening.

I hope for your sake that they at least stick to that. The google approach seems to be that they are too big to fail and that they can keep doing what they want, and what they want, apparently is more space for ads!

Whats the ad situation on app store, do they aggressively push stuff into your throats there as well?

Action launcher (paid version) is my go to, some features I love about it:

• Allow for a desktop grid of up to 12*12, which I havent seen on any other launchers I have tried, I believe Nova had something similar, but not sure to this degree.

• The brilliant folder icon being the shortcut to the app which was the first app to have been put in it feature. You can later shuffle the app around to change it, of course. You swipe down on the folder icon to reveal the items inside like usual, but if you just tap on it, the app which is first in the list opens up, a very good time saver in my opinion.

• Widget stack is a cool feature also, where you can add similarly sized widgets to a single block of space on which you can scroll through to see the information as it suits you.

• Customization level is very high, you can have a dock, a drawer, and also a quick drawer which is a vertical list of apps, and all of these simultaneously too.

• A high level of gesture support. My phone just got an update where I have to swipe down from different sides to see notifications and quick settings, which are not changeable by default. With the action launcher settings I have sort of found a work around.

It allows me to have a minimal looking desktop with a lot of functionality and a high degree of customisation, very much worth the price.

Theres a fork of f-droid with a slightly friendlier UI, called foxy droid, if you want to give it a shot!

Dont know if you'll like what you will see if you decide to try it again, as another users famous comment stated, "enshittification spares no one" is at full play in two dots also. Although the devs do pump up updates regularly and add more and more levels. Just be prepared for an experience different from how it was a few years ago, if you are returning after a long interval!

You should enable "Include pre releases" option after pasting the link and before trying to install it. I think since the app version is still below 1.0, its considered a pre release somehow.

Yeah precisely what I went through also, I have f-droid, Aurora store, even obtainium for those apps you usually get updates directly on their GitHub pages, going back to the Playstore has been a eye opener.

That is what I wasnt able to wrap my head around, thank you for clarifying it for me. I will look through the posts and decide which one suits my needs and I can afford. Thank you again for your answer, and the links!

Copying a response I made to a similar comment:

I, too was not able to reproduce the same result again.

When I tried to do the same search again, I had one column more dedicated to non ad space, namely, showing the description of the game. Dont know how I got that particular spread of ads galore at that particular moment.

Screenshot taken later with the same query:

https://postimg.cc/JtjHLG9Z

My version of android is, indeed, an older one, and my region is India, I suppose all these factor into what I see when I search for stuff.

Thank you for the additional information, I am not in the US, and would not most likely be using their US servers. Web hosting services blocking the traffic seems concerning though, isnt GoDaddy one of the big player?

As I understand it, port forwarding is very much needed for torrenting when you're seeding. But in my case, I was curious about using a service like jellyfin for sharing my media to people I know over internet, a service which does require open ports.

Thats really helpful, I think I am going to try this out. The whole VPN and port forwarding feature I was curious about happened because my ISP doesnt allow port forwarding and I was unable to set it up for sharing my jellyfin. I will try to read the link you shared and try what I can do! Thanks a lot!

Edit: I use port forwarding for bittorrent and it was easy to set up. You log in on their website and choose a port to forward for your account. I’m honestly a novice at networking and I figured it out using these instructions.

Do you know what the ISP port forwarding status is, in your case, or is that irrelevant to setting it up?

I, too was not able to reproduce the same result again.

When I tried to do the same search again, I had one column more dedicated to non ad space, namely, showing the description of the game. Dont know how I got that particular spread of ads galore at that particular moment.

Screenshot taken later with the same query:

https://postimg.cc/JtjHLG9Z

My version of android is, indeed, an older one, and my region is India, I suppose all these factor into what I see when I search for stuff.

I do not have a defined purpose exactly. What felt appealing to me about having something like port forwarding with a VPN subscription, it would mean I can avail it wherever I physically am, and without having to give any consideration to whether my ISP at the moment allows me to or not, since my living situation is a bit fluid and I move around a bit. If I am able to avail it, wouldnt I be able to avail some self hosted services, like jellyfin, regardless of where I am, and be able to share with friends and family.

Ah right, makes more sense. I know nothing about how this works, I think I saw someone saying something like this in one of the other threads. Thanks for clarifying.

Hey, any chance you can share what you're using privately? Ive had a frustrating time since the app/service I relied on shut down recently, permanently by the looks of it, and im back to hunting links on websites which arent too reliable. Mainly looking to watch football(soccer), if thats relevant. TIA!

Thank you, I was aware of these two already, and for the most part the reliability of footybite links havent been great of late, and I had thought the redditsoccerstreams one had shut down completely, maybe this is a copycat or something, in any case, the more the merrier!

https://postimg.cc/JtjHLG9Z

Might be, I have reduced the number of ad columns by one, with this latest screenshot. Not getting the same result as you. Then again, that could be because my android version is older and such.

I am not very knowledgable about vps and how that could be something I can use. To be frank, I dont have any particular need for a VPN other than torrenting and bypassing geographical restriction in a general way. The jellyfin experiment was to just be able to share my media across the web, so that people I know can access my media, music, mostly. Even the selection of a VPN isnt that urgent as I have a shared seedbox with seedbox.eu so that I can download torrents safely. Since I have been using a VPN for some years now, I thought id keep one handy, and when I was reading up about port forwarding, I thought maybe that could be useful, for jellyfin and such.

To be frank, I dont have any particular need for a VPN other than torrenting and bypassing geographical restriction in a general way. The jellyfin experiment was to just be able to share my media across the web, so that people I know can access my media, music, mostly. Even the selection of a VPN isnt that urgent as I have a shared seedbox with seedbox.eu so that I can download torrents safely. Since I have been using a VPN for some years now, I thought id keep one handy, and when I was reading up about port forwarding, I thought maybe that could be useful, for jellyfin and such.

My doubt arose from these VPN services proclaiming they allow port forwarding, and knowing my ISP has disabled it, I was curious whether that will affect my ability to avail port forwarding via the VPN service.

Yeah, Zerotier was something I did come across a while ago, I will try to learn how to setup my jellyfin in combination with something like that. Thanks for your help.

So, do you mean getting a subscription for a static IP from the ISP? Yeah that would be a solution indeed, but I am not staying where I am currently for an extended period, so maybe it isnt ideal for me. That was what felt appealing to me about having something like this with a VPN subscription, it would mean I can avail it wherever I physically am, and without having to give any consideration to whether my ISP at the moment allows me to or not.

That seems something I would like to stand behind then, thanks!

Oh is that so, I didnt try tailscale yet. When I tried to figure out what to do with zerotier, not sure what I was planning to use it for then, it felt like I am in over my head a little bit. Is tailscale somewhat straightforward to set up/learn?

thanks, made a cross post there!

That is something I would like to look into in the future, but since you are knowledgeable with regards to VPS, can I ask you why the RAM figures are more important than the storage figures, in the few services I checked out, and the example you gave, the RAM value is what is prominently mentioned, if the purpose is to store media and such, doesnt the storage capacity take precedence, like in a seedbox?

I dont really need the use of multiple ports simultaneously. Im ashamed to say it, but I do not do that much seeding, I use mostly public websites with public trackers. So its not really for the torrenting aspect I was curious about port forwarding about. As I mentioned in my post, it was when I was trying to see whether I can set up a jellyfin service for people I know to access my music that I found my ports cannot be opened. So it was with regard to that my post was initially about. Anyways, thanks for your input.

Tamilmv is a good source although mostly torrents, they provide Hindi, along with the most popular south Indian language films and shows. Hindi dubs of these other language stuff is also usually present. Their domains change occasionally, so searching for "tamilmv"+"proxy" will usually get you the latest working ones.

Edit: sorry for the multiple posts, my app glitched and showed the commenting failed