After more than a year of hard work, we are thrilled to announce the launch of F-Droid2.0, a complete redesign of the official F-Droid app and the largest app updatein 10 years.For more than a decade, F-Droid has helped people discover and install free andopen source Android apps. F-Droid 2.0 builds on that foundation with a moderninterface, better app discovery, improved search, and a simpler experience thatworks well, whether you’re new to F-Droid or have been using it for years.This isn’t just a visual refresh. The user experience was redesigned tointegrate smoothly with current Android patterns, like Material Design, whilekeeping familiar F-Droid interactions in place. Key components were reworked andrewritten using Kotlin Compose, the standard toolkit these days, creating afoundation that will help us deliver improvements more quickly in the yearsahead.We are excited to begin rolling out F-Droid 2.0 to users over the coming weeksafter 14 test releases.What has changed?One of our main goals for F-Droid 2.0 was to make it easier to discover,install, and maintain the apps you rely on. We simplified the mainnavigation into three core areas: Discover, Search and My Apps. Categories arenow integrated into Discover, making it easier to browse and explore, while MyApps provides a central place to manage installed apps, updates, and potentialissues. Settings and Nearby Swap are still only a tap away from the top bar, butno longer compete for space in the main navigation.Discoverability improvementsHelping people discover relevant free and open source software (FOSS) was one of theprimary goals of F-Droid 2.0. As the F-Droid ecosystem has grown to thousands ofapplications, finding the right app has become increasingly challenging. The newrelease introduces improvements throughout the app from browsing and categoriesto search to make it easier to find software that matches your needs. And ofcourse, F-Droid does this without tracking you, or trying to “engage” you tospend increasingly more time in the app.A redesigned Discover experienceThe new Discover screen helps uncover apps you might otherwise miss. In additionto highlighting newly added and recently updated apps, it now showcases the mostdownloaded apps in the repository. Whether you’re new to F-Droid or looking forsomething different, Discover provides several ways to explore the growingecosystem of free and open source Android applications.More useful categoriesCategories play an important role in helping users browse the repository, sowe’ve expanded and refined them significantly, including more specializedcategories that make it easier to find specific types of apps, such as VPNs,firewalls, password managers, launches and navigation tools. Here is what youcan expect: First, we’ve significantly expanded the category system. Instead of relying on a small number of broad categories, F-Droid now includes many more specialized categories, helping you get closer to the kind of app you want in just a few taps, even before you start searching. Second, to make this expanded category system easier to navigate, we’ve introduced higher-level “meta” categories in the Discover screen. These group related categories together and provide a more approachable entry point for browsing the growing F-Droid ecosystem. Finally, categories now play a larger role throughout the app. Their names and descriptions are used to improve app discovery and help guide users toward relevant free and open source applications. As an example of this effort, we’ve completely reworked the Gamescategory. Rather than grouping all games together, F-Droid 2.0 now distinguishesbetween 17 different game genres, making it much easier to find the kinds ofgames you actually enjoy playing.Search that understands what you’re looking forSearch has also been significantly improved. In addition to app names, it cannow search app descriptions, categories, and translated content. This makes iteasier to find apps based on what they do rather than what they’re called.We’ve also made major improvements for users searching in Chinese, Japanese, andKorean. The new search system provides much better support for CJK writingsystems, helping users find relevant apps more reliably in their own language.Search also remembers your recent queries, allowing you to quickly return toprevious searches without having to type them again.Powerful filtering, made approachableBrowsing and searching are only part of the story. F-Droid 2.0 also introducespowerful filtering options that help you narrow down large lists of apps toexactly what you’re looking for.Filters can be combined using multiple criteria, such as app category, devicecompatibility, or anti-features. For example, you can choose to view only ActionGames that are compatible with your device and exclude apps that depend onnon-free network services.To help users discover these and other advanced capabilities, F-Droid 2.0introduces onboarding screens throughout the app. Rather than hiding featuresbehind complex settings, the app provides contextual guidance to help both newand experienced users get the most out of F-Droid.Smooth installation experience wherever F-Droid runsFor the longest time, the experience of clicking install or update was forced tobe second rate by Android. Now, thanks largely to pressure from the EU’s DigitalMarkets Act (DMA) and anti-trust actions around the world, Android offers allapp stores an option for a smoother and more automatic install and updateexperience than before. F-Droid 2.0 includes groundbreaking work on utilizingthese new abilities. This allows F-Droid to use a unified installer for allF-Droid installs, whether built into the OS or you installed it on your deviceyourself. The unified installer makes use of the new pre-approval API, so thaton supported devices the user can confirm right after deciding to install theapp, instead of after the app was downloaded. That brings the F-Droid installexperience on official Android devices much closer to what the built-in appstore can provide.What moved, and what was removedA redesign of this size means making careful decisions about what belongs in thenew app, what can be handled differently, and what no longer makes sense tocarry forward. Some familiar features have changed, moved, or been removed aspart of making F-Droid 2.0 more streamlined and easier to maintain, withoutsacrificing core functionality or features users rely on.Update checks now happen automaticallyF-Droid 2.0 now fetches and installs app updates by default. If you prefer morecontrol, no worries, your existing preferences are still respected.Some users missed the pull-to-refresh gesture for checking all repositories forupdates. In F-Droid 2.0, the pulling gesture is exclusively for scrolling. Thisis now possible because the app can now automatically check for updates in thebackground. Rather than preserving a familiar action, we focused on removing theneed for it. The best refresh button is the one you never have to press.Users who want more control still have fine-grained and manual update optionsavailable. If you used pull-to-refresh to manually trigger updates, that is nowavailable under the action overflow menu, e.g. the “three dots”, on the My Appsscreen.Data usage settingsF-Droid gives you control of what get’s downloaded when. This helps fit ourdiverse users around the world, who have varying requirements. Many users havecheap access to mobile data, while mobile data is prohibitively expensive forothers. Some users have heightened privacy requirements, so they need tocontrol their network traffic. While others are using limited devices which bogdown when F-Droid updates in the background. The settings which control all thiswere reworked to make adapting F-Droid to your needs more intuitive.Privacy and security featuresSome F-Droid users operate in environments where simply having certain appsinstalled or even using F-Droid can attract unwanted attention. To help supportthese users, F-Droid has long included a set of privacy and security featuresdesigned to protect both the user and their data.One key privacy tool is Tor, and F-Droid has long supported using Tor for allnetwork connections, and using Tor Onion Services for repositories and mirrors.The landscape of how Tor is integrated into Android has changed quite a bitsince Tor support was first integrated. Now there is TorVPN, Orbot, TorServicesand more. We took this opportunity to simplify the settings and remove theauto-detection that was no longer reliable. If you enabled “Use Tor”, that willbe migrated to generic Proxy Settings. Going forward, Tor VPN is the recommendedapproach for easy Tor support, and the Proxy Settings are still available forthose who need manual control.Another key part is the set of “panic” features, which allow users to quicklyremove some specific kinds of sensitive information from their device inemergency situations. These features are still included in F-Droid 2.0 andremain an important part of supporting users with elevated security needs.Notably, the F-Droid app hiding feature has been simplified, to give users anaccurate idea of the kind of protection they can expect. F-Droid was one of thefirst apps that began providing app hiding features to protect user privacy,including our “panic” feature which disguised the F-Droid app as a simplecalculator app. This simple feature was requested by many users, and since thenOrbot, TorVPN, Signal and others have added such masking features. Over time, astandard design has emerged across widely used apps, and we have adopted thisdesign in the new release as well. This feature is designed so that users canbetter understand the limits of the disguise. Instead of the mask looking andfunctioning as a simple calculator app, now the mask only affects the app icon,name and nothing else. This informs users that the F-Droid app will still appearin the “Apps” settings and would be detectable during forensic inspection. Thischange will hopefully make it easier for users to understand the limits of thisfeature, while still utilizing it when needed.One feature that has not yet returned is the ability to remove and wipe apps asa response to a panic trigger app like Ripple. We recognize that some usersrely on this functionality for privacy and personal safety reasons andunderstand it is more than a usability feature. However, it requires highlyspecialized work to maintain, and given the small user base, we felt it shouldno longer block so many other important improvements.The app-wiping feature remains an important feature. We wouldespecially welcome feedback from people who use it, to help usunderstand how and when it is used, so we can evaluate the best pathforward as we continue improving F-Droid 2.0. Users who rely onthe current app-wiping implementation may opt to postpone updating toF-Droid 2.0 while we evaluate bringing the feature back.For Android versions that integrate F-DroidF-Droid is designed to be integrated into any version of Android or AOSP, as wecan see in CalyxOS, emteriaOS, iodéOS, Lineage-for-microG and ShiftOS. Each OScan include their own repositories by default using the “additional repos”mechanism. If you use one of these OSes, these will be visible in yourRepositories overview. For additional info on what changed, check out thisblog post.Also, F-Droid Privileged Extension (FPE) is not currently supported by 2.0. Thatmeans even if FPE is installed, F-Droid 2.0 won’t use it. This overhaul focusedon full featured support for the Android “session” installer. That lets F-Droidrun background updates on any recent Android version without requiring FPE. Likewith any of the changes here, we welcome feedback.Lowering the barrier for contributorsWhile many of the improvements in F-Droid 2.0 are visible on the surface, someof the most important changes happened behind the scenes.All new code in this effort uses modern Android code standards and designs. Thisgives us a codebase that is easier to maintain, test, and easier to extend withnew features in the future.One of the goals of the rewrite was to lower the barrier for newcontributors. Android development has changed significantly over the pastdecade, and F-Droid 2.0 is now built using Kotlin, the language that has becomethe standard for modern Android development. This makes it easier for developersfamiliar with today’s Android ecosystem to contribute to the project.The new user interface is built with Jetpack Compose, the standard toolkit forAndroid applications. Beyond simplifying development, this helped us alignF-Droid more closely with Material Design, the design system used throughoutAndroid. As a result, F-Droid feels more familiar to Android users whileremaining true to its own identity and values.Most importantly, these changes provide a foundation for the next decade ofF-Droid development. By reducing maintenance burden and making contributionseasier, we can spend more time improving the experience for users and less timefighting technical debt. Some new tools also depend on fixes in Android itself,one such fix was added in Android 7 forcing us to drop support for Android 6. Asalways, old F-Droid releases will continue to work on old Android versions.A community effortF-Droid 2.0 is one of the largest and most ambitious projects in ourhistory. Bringing it to life required much more than software development. Itinvolved user research, design, testing, documentation, community feedback,quality assurance, lots of new code, a security audit and countless discussionsabout how F-Droid should evolve over the next decade.This work was made possible by the support of many organizations andindividuals. Torsten Grote’s development work on the new app was funded byNLnet through theMobifreefund. The Open Technology Fund’s User Experience & DiscoveryLab supported user research and designwork, bringing in Ura Design to help conduct user testing,develop user stories, and refine our Human Interface Guidelines.Additional support came from the Open Technology Fund’s Free and Open SourceSoftware (FOSS) SustainabilityFund,NGI, Mobifree, and the CalyxInstitute, whose sponsorship helps support the ongoingmaintenanceand long-term sustainability of the F-Droid ecosystem.As part of this effort, the Open Technology Fund’s Security Labin conjunction with Convocation conducted an independentsecurity review of F-Droid 2.0. We analysed and addressed all findings relevantto the new application, helping ensure that the release meets the high securitystandards our users expect. We look forward to sharing the full audit reportonce it has been cleared for publication.Just as importantly, F-Droid 2.0 reflects the contributions of manyvolunteers. Community members contributed code, testing, bug reports, designfeedback, translations, documentation, UX discussions, and countless ideasthroughout the redesign process. Both long-time contributors and people makingtheir first contribution helped shape the final result.Finally, this work would not have been possible without your support. Donations help fund many of the lessvisible but essential activities that grants don’t always cover, includingcommunity management, handling the issue backlog, quality assurance, releasemanagement, and project coordination. These contributions help keep F-Droidhealthy long after a specific grant-funded project has ended.The journey continuesF-Droid 2.0 represents a major milestone, but it is not the end of the story.Rebuilding the app has given us a stronger foundation, yet there is still plentyof work ahead.As the rollout reaches more users, we expect to learn a great deal fromreal-world usage. Community feedback has shaped F-Droid 2.0 from its earliestdesign discussions through many alpha and RC releases, and it will continue toguide future improvements. Some ideas did not make it into the initial release,while other features are still evolving as we gather feedback and refine theirdesign.In the coming months, we will continue improving performance, accessibility, appdiscovery, and overall usability. We’ll also keep listening to users as theyadapt to the new experience and help us identify opportunities for furtherimprovement.Like every major F-Droid release before it, version 2.0 is not a destination,it’s the beginning of the next chapter.The future of NearbyOne area that continues to evolve is Nearby, the feature that allows users toshare apps directly between devices without relying on a central server.The broader F-Droid 2.0 redesign gave us an opportunity to rethink Nearby fromthe ground up. We have been working on a new implementation based on improvedconnection methods that should make sharing apps more reliable and easier touse.This work is not quite ready for inclusion in the initial F-Droid 2.0 release,but development is actively underwayand the foundations are already in place. If Nearby sharing is important to you,now is an excellent time to get involved. Community feedback and testing canhelp shape the next generation of the feature before it reaches a wideraudience.How you can helpF-Droid 2.0 is the result of thousands of hours of work from developers,designers, testers, translators, donors, and community members aroundthe world. Now that it is reaching users, we’d love your help making iteven better.If you’re receiving the update, take some time to explore the newexperience and let us know what you think. Whether you’ve found a bug,have an idea for an improvement, or simply want to tell us what workswell, your feedback helps guide future development.If you’d like to get more involved, there are many ways to contribute.Help us test, translate and reviewYou can help test upcoming features, improve translations anddocumentation, review issues, contribute code, or join discussions aboutthe future of the project. New contributors are always welcome.Consider donating to F-DroidAnd if you’re able, please consider supporting F-Droid financially. Donationsthrough Liberapay orOpenCollective help fund the ongoing work thatkeeps the project healthy between major releases, from infrastructure andquality assurance to community support and project coordination.F-Droid 2.0 is a major milestone, but the work continues. Thank you for helpingus build a free, open, and sustainable app ecosystem for Android.