I have both Obtainium and the Aurora Store installed on my GOS phone (as well as F-Droid and Accrescent). The Aurora store will notify me for updates that aren’t available yet on Obtainium. For example, currently I have ProtonMail version 7.9.5 installed via the Aurora Store, but Obtainium says that 7.9.4 is the latest version. I’ve seen this with other apps too.
I think that this means that some app developers aren’t releasing their source code to GitHub, GitLab, etc. as quickly as they’re releasing their apps to the Google Play Store. It kinda bugs me that developers aren’t releasing their latest source code as they publish their apps. The code that they check into git should be ahead of their releases, not behind. Not much I can do about it though.
I like the idea of installing directly from the source (or as close as I can get without compiling it myself), but I’m starting to think that I should just use the Aurora Store for everything. It gives me access to all apps in the Play Store, which is pretty much everything, and gives me the latest version. I could reduce the apps on my phone by getting rid of the other app stores that I use.
I’m curious what others think about this idea.
That depends on your usage: what you’re looking for, what kind of things you want, what your job is, etc. Each source has its own issues, but some apps from Google Play tend to be privacy-invading.
I’ve wondered about this. I am using a similar setup, with the method Side of Burritos shows in his video tutorial, where the main user is just for downloading and updating apps. It seems that all app stores catch on to the fact one of the apps in their store is on your device, nomatter where you downloaded it from. I never know if it matters where I update from (if I have to remember where I originally downloaded from).
I prefer Obtainium over Aurora Store for updating my apps, even if the versions may be older. To prevent Aurora Store from updating these apps anyways (or show notifications), I enabled the “Filter F-Droid apps”, “Filter apps from other sources”, and “Show updates that may fail” options behind Settings → Updates.
Ironically I was also thinking about posting a similar topic, but mainly Aurora as replacing sandboxed Google Play.
Especially as Google keeps making it more difficult for users trying to get anonymous accounts made.
But I have often seen the GOS community stating that using a disposable/anonymous Google account is the most secure than Aurora.
However I am never really clear on the reasons, if anyone could clarify that?
I think that this means that some app developers aren’t releasing their source code to GitHub, GitLab, etc. as quickly as they’re releasing their apps to the Google Play Store. It kinda bugs me that developers aren’t releasing their latest source code as they publish their apps. The code that they check into git should be ahead of their releases, not behind. Not much I can do about it though.
obtainium / github releases has absolutely nothing to do with source code. Github maintainers can upload anything to github releases.
so "the code they check into git” isnt guaranteed (or even likely) to be the same thing as what they upload on github. More often than not, the apk is built from a semi-proprietary codebase (freemium restrictions, trackers, or secrets).
.. which is why i use f-droid. Fdroid apps are built from source. I use obtainium when the app isnt available on fdroid.