They’re parallel efforts to tackle the same community issue: verification of downloaded apps on android
Both are forks of AppVerifier. This tool has been used & endorsed by the privacy community for some years to authenticate app installs on android. Unfortunately, AppVerifier is/was becoming abandonware - the original developer no longer wished to update its internal database, and while the app does allow users to paste in singular hashes, it does not support whole external databases
@jonah pitched a PG-maintained database on May 22, and began polling the community for submissions on May 25. PG released a beta app on 4 June, positioning itself as a means to easily compare the PG database against your installed apps
Meanwhile, @RoundSalmon4 forked the AppVerifier repo on May 27, and began developing a drop-in AppVerifier replacement that would allow additional database sources. They joined PG when one of our threads produced some feedback for their implementation
So now there are two solutions to the app verification problem, both seemingly products of discussions on PG (nice):
PG Implementation: maintained by jonah/PG. Intended to verify apps against the PG database only, and to provide an easy means to update the separate PG Database
AppVerifierBG: maintained by RoundSalmon4. Intended as a drop-in replacement for AppVerifier. Supports a broader range of databases & hash sources
Maybe they’ll be competing tools & we’ll reap the benefits of free-market competition. Maybe they’ll join forces & merge projects. Who knows.