Not sure how many people were suffering from it, but Google Photos became adamant about pushing ads. I couldn’t find a replacement in Google Store which wasn’t doing the same. Downloaded F Droid, used alternative to website to find apps, downloaded and now the problem is solved. You can use Google Files to install the F Droid apk to start your journey of degoogling. I’m still using some proprietary apps which work with the Android UI such as Google’s Wallet but everything I could replace I did (unless I’d inconvenience myself like with Contacts). The open source apps have much better UIs and don’t bombard me with ads or other stuff the big corp wants to push like their accounts. I wish I had done it sooner and this post was made to encourage other people to do that. I tried Aurora Store, but Google doesn’t let me login. It tells me it would give me a popup to type a number into, but the popup never comes. Anyone knows what app pushes the popup? Is Aurora a full replacement for Play Store or do I need to have both installed?
If you’re using the official F-Droid app, I recommend you check out Droid-ify. It’s more modern looking and faster, and along with the F-Droid repositories, it comes with the IzzyOnDroid repo preinstalled.
Check out Obtainium. Getting all my F-Droid apps straight from the source now.
+1 for Obtainium. Getting APKs direct from the dev’s repo is prefect. Only
two appsapp I can’t get working through Obtainium is VLCand Signal. VLC’s download mirrors always seem to be broken,and Signal’s hosted APK appears to be a version behind the Play Store, so Obtainium won’t touch it.Edit: Signal appear to have fixed their hosted APK - just updated to 6.28.6.
Thanks for the rec!
My issue with Droid-ify is that at least half the time updates or initial installations hang indefinitely, and even the Cancel button doesn’t do anything. I’ve gone back to F-Droid as this has never happened to me on that app.
Try Neo Store, I think it’s the best frontend to f-droid.