Are There Ratings For F-Droid Apps?

[startac4]

Do ratings & comments for F-Droid apps exist, so that they can be reviewed, for being safe to use and for working well, before downloading and installing one, as can be done before downloading & installing from google play store?

 

[Dannydet]

@puppykickr, this one is for you...

 

[ocnbrze]

there is no ratings on f-droid. you just have to trust f-droid for providing legit apk's/ you can always go on the play store to find reviews of the actual app and make your decision that way.

 

[Hadron]

there is no ratings on f-droid. you just have to trust f-droid for providing legit apk's/ you can always go on the play store to find reviews of the actual app and make your decision that way.

Though not all apps in F-Droid can be found in the Play Store.
(And not all reviews in the Play Store are legitimate, but that's a different problem that almost anywhere which does online reviews suffers from).

 

[puppykickr]

Reviews are like rectums, for all the same reasons.

If you want some analyticals on an app from F-Droid, go to the app's page on the F-Droid app.

Scroll down to the area below the description and above the versions.

Tap the 'links' option.

This will open up a menu that varies slightly from app to app, and here you can track the changlog, issues, and even find developer contact info.

Issues is generally what I choose, and this will open your browser to GitHub, GetLab, or other website where the developer(s) and users can discuss problems, enhancements, and other things.

You can see what problems other people have had, and from responses to feature requests, you can see where the app may or may not be heading in the future.

Here are screenshots, in order.

 

[puppykickr]

FWIW, F-Droid has never had an issue with the 'safety' of any app.

The apps are submitted to the store, and decompiled, then recompiled by people at F-Droid.

That means that the entire app is disassembled, gone through, then reassembled by F-Droid.

Each app goes through this.

That is why you will find updates slow in coming for apps on F-Droid, compaired to the 'same' app on other appstores.

The popular appstores do no such thing to protect users from bad apps.

They rely on algorythms and malware detection software, and we all know how 'well' that works.

Just think- Google warns you bot to trust any other app supplier, and yet Google is the single least trustworthy company and also the largest purveyor of malware and deceptive applications.

There is a reason that all of those fake 'scareware' ads- you know, "YOUR DEVICE IS 28.1% INFECTED AND WILL BE LOCKED UNLESS YOU ACT NOW!" will only lead you to some garbage anti-virus or cleaner app on (get this) Google Play Store.

Those advertisements are illegal, yet Google does nothing about them, and yet continues to host the apps that the ads are for.

If the ads are a lie and illegal, then how can the app be trusted?
If the app is not trustworthy, and the appstore knows this and continues to carry it, how can the appstore be trusted?

You will not find any apps as described above on F-Droid.

There are no bad apps on F-Droid, as far as doing anything subversive or otherwise wrong to a user.

F-Droid does have a system of labeling apps that have certain code in them, and you will see thos as a label stating 'This app has features that you may not like."

If you scroll down and tap on what is listed in that category, you will get an eloborate discription of exactly what that means for that app.

The vast majority of these are nothing to worry about, but are notifications for those that need to know.

Personally, I try to stay away from any that say that they track my activity.
Google left a bad taste in my mouth about that, even if it (on F-Droid) is usually just app analytics to tell developers how the app is working.

 

[Davdi]

Which is why F-Droid is my go to source for apps.