Hey, what’s up?
Today, I wanted to share how you can install the F-Droid and Aurora Stores on your Phone.
If you’re interested in using free and open source softwares on your phone and/or avoid Google data collection, then this could be for you.
Let’s go right in!
1- WHAT IS THE F-DROID?
F-Droid is an alternative app store for android devices, similar to the Google Play Store. The unique difference is that F-Droid is free and open source and only host free and open source applications.
You can download apps from F-Droid without having to create and account or pay for anything.
2- WHAT IS THE AURORA STORE?
The Aurora Store is another app store alternative. It provides access to apps from the Google Play Store but with unique differences.
You can download the apps from the Google Play Store without having a Google account. This way, it is possible to access content from the Google Play Store anonymously.
Additionally, you can download the apps as APK files instead of using the Google Play Store.
3- WHY?
The main reason why you might want to use these app stores is that you’re able to download Android applications that are free and open source, and/or without relying on Google. By doing so, you’re able to avoid Google’s tracking and data collection, leading to greater privacy, freedom and possibly security if you’re being careful.
4- HOW TO INSTALL
As of right now, the installation can be a little bit tricky because both of these stores aren’t available on the Google Play Store.
The first one that we’re going to install is F-Droid. To download this app, we will need our phone and a phone web browser. In my case, I’m using Brave, but any browser should work.
- Open your web browser on your phone.
- Go to https://f-droid.org/
- Download the app from the website.
- Allow “install unknown apps” for your browser.
- Install the F-Droid app.
- (Optional) Disallow “install unknown apps” for your browser to enable security.
Once you’ve done that, the F-Droid store should be available on your phone, and we can then install the Aurora Store from the F-Droid store.
- Open F-Droid on your phone.
- Search for “Aurora Store”.
- Install the Aurora Store app.
- Allow “install unknown apps” for F-Droid.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, if you’re trying to prioritize free and open source apps or limit the Google services on your phone, you could try installing F-Droid and/or Aurora Store. F-Droid hosts only free and open source apps, while the Aurora Store allows you to access Google Play Store apps anonymously.
To be honest, I still use the Google Play Store and I haven’t tried any app from these stores yet. I do not know how useful they actually are because most of the time, you can find the most important free and open source apps on the normal Google Play Store. That being said, I find very interesting that there are app stores alternatives that aren’t using Google.
We’ll see in the future if they actually become relevant and needed.
So that’s pretty much it, I hope this was helpful to you. If this blog was valuable to you, you could consider following me on social media and if you have any thoughts or comments, you can leave them below.
I hope this helps, peace!
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