F-Droid

It's metadata all the way down

Posted on Apr 03, 2026 by Licaon_Kter

This Week in F-Droid

TWIF curated on Friday, 03 Apr 2026, Week 14

F-Droid core

F-Droid Basic was updated to 2.0-alpha6, and we’ve announced it already in a, we hoped, humorous toot back on April first. That ending flew over some heads or maybe people want to hear more good news than “coping jokes”.

Full changelog:

  • Faster DB queries (thanks Peter!)
  • Support for new categories
  • Auto repair corrupted search index
  • Make app installs more robust
  • Improve Chinese search queries
  • Fix name and summary localization in app details
  • Fix CJK language search in app lists and My Apps
  • Fix RTL presentation of updates
  • Fix crash when removing screenshots from disk cache
  • Fix crash when deleting repos
  • Fix overlay issues in landscape mode on small screens
  • Fix themed app icon
  • …many unit tests

We’re in the phase of polishing, catching edge-case bugs and waiting for your feedback. Compact bottom-bar for smaller devices? Search button on bottom-bar for that one hand reach-ability? Download speeds display? All considered, mocked, tested on devices, improved. And more to come.

The latest batch of updated strings were pushed to our translation portal so make sure you not only translate but use the app in hand as reference for meaning and context. If you thought your locale was up to date last week, get ready for over 110 new strings!

Want to help, not only to read text? Install F-Droid Basic, if you don’t have it already, navigate to the app details and check “Allow beta updates” in top right three dot menu.

Community News

ArcaneChat and Delta Chat were updated to 2.48.0. Their last week changelog and Fediverse posts were interesting, their latest blog is even nicer. What’s new? Less metadata in certain places, testing native calls via peer-to-peer WebRTC on Android, iOS and Ubuntu Touch, descriptions for groups and channels, audio messages that play in the background, rewritten downloads, multi-path delivery and more.

If you’ve been holding off updating Syncthing-Fork we have two pieces of news for you. First, the original dev continues to collaborate still, we know this was a pain point back then. Second, we’ve just added BasicSync, A simple app for running Syncthing, which just controls Syncthing’s running behaviour as hands off as possible, while the original service hums in the background.

Ente Auth - 2FA Authenticator was updated to 4.4.19 with bug fixes and improvements but Ente Photos - Encrypted photo storage to 1.3.28 got more niceties. Back in February: likes and comments, admin and people management, ZIP downloads, QoL tweaks and more. And now in March: offline galleries, nicer layouts, social feeds, better ML, hidden photos tricks plus lots of fixes.

In more Ente news, the new Ente Locker, An end-to-end encrypted document storage app, was just included, bringing the same polish from photos to documents and beyond. Get a quick look in the introductory post.

EphemeralWorkProfile, Profile owner Android privacy app and ProtectedWorkProfile, Profile owner Android security app, are two new apps from the same developer, that use the Android profile feature to secure isolated spaces on your device, either temporary or more permanent.

Kodi was updated to 21.3 after a three month delay, as its recipe needs a bit of finesse. You can read the changelog here.

Lichess, The one open-source chess game, was just added as a new app, but it’s actually a full rewrite in Flutter that replaces the older lichess. The feature list is impressive and it has UnifiedPush support on top, gg.

Threema Libre was updated to 6.4.0l overhauling the chat overview, protecting the master key with the Android Keystore system and more fixes. Since DeltaChat lobs the metadata topic, looks like Threema has something to say too, talking about paid services vs anonymity, hijacked accounts and more, in their 10 minute post.

@shuvashish76 reads acronyms:

Episteme Reader was updated to 1.0.40-oss adding OPDS catalogue support, DOCX file support and many improvements.

Thore Göbel rotates the USB and tries again:

FMD devs are now publishing developer-signed APKs in their custom repository. The packages on F-Droid are not yet migrated to reproducible builds, but things are shaping up to be soon. Notably, FMD has published detailed documentation and scripts about their experience of using a Nitrokey HSM. Hopefully, this helps other Android developers to sign their apps with hardware keys! For more details, see the announcement blog post.

Newly Added Apps

33 more apps were newly added
  • Brogue CE Android: A classic dungeon crawling roguelike
  • Chip Defense Copper: A tower defense game with a microprocessor theme
  • Collect the Cookies!: Collect cookies in this fun idle-ish game
  • CSV Editor: View and edit CSV files on your device
  • De Fide: Offline Catholic app for prayer, Scripture, novenas, and the Rosary
  • deutsia radio: Privacy-focused radio player supporting clearnet, Tor, and I2P networks
  • DroidStress: Simple CPU Stress test tool for Android
  • FastTimes: Simple, private, open-source intermittent fasting tracker
  • FirTube: FirTube — browser based on Android WebView for watching YouTube
  • FloFla Cards: FloFla Cards – Passive learning with your phone! 🎓📱
  • GAMA: A specialized utility to manage and switch GPU rendering APIs via Shizuku
  • GlyphPort: Port Nothing® Glyph Compositions between phones
  • Impostor MX: Classic multiplayer party game, now digital and open source
  • Jyutping - Cantonese Keyboard: Easy-to-use Cantonese input method with pronunciation lookup and dictionary
  • Kefir Control: Track milk kefir fermentation times
  • KeinPlan: Alternative client for static DSB resources
  • LibreFit: Workout tracker with a rich dataset and images
  • Miniter: Video editor built for simple tasks
  • Music: A basic M3Y music player app
  • NightDream: Clock, screensaver & radio with dynamic brightness & custom layouts
  • Notes: A basic note-taking app
  • PaperKnife+: Privacy-first PDF utility: merge, split, rotate, and protect
  • Pokébase: Browse Pokémon and TCG cards with search, filtering, and offline caching
  • RowMate: Track your workouts on your FTMS rowing machine with real-time data
  • Sidestep: Intercept URLs, remove tracking, and redirect to privacy-friendly frontends
  • SilentShare: Share personal information with others visually in-person
  • Smart Edge: Sidebar & Gestures: A highly customizable side panel inspired by OriginOS
  • SoundPod: A minimalist music streaming app
  • SpaceBeam: Kaleidoscope Camera Fun with Shaders for live visual performances
  • Study Tracker: Simple and clean study progress tracker
  • USB Descriptor Explorer: Inspect USB devices with full descriptor and HID details
  • VolumeScroll: Scroll anywhere using your volume buttons
  • Word Tracer: A crossword-like puzzle game

Updated Apps

233 more apps were updated
(expand for the full list)

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