"Element" app is available in 2 different versions in App Lounge
- /e/ version:
- Device model(s):
- Device rooted: yes/no
Summary
The "Element" app seems to be available in 2 versions (PlayStore + F-Droid version) in App Lounge. Still, I was not able to get both version being displayed in the same search query.
The problem
Steps to reproduce
The following test has been made on 18/5/2022 13:00
- Install Element from F-Droid
- Search for Element in App Lounge. The first search result is Element. The app appears as installed (v1.4.14 from May 6)
- Search for Threema in App Lounge. The ninth search result is Element. The app appears show up as updatable (but the update fails). Version 1.4.14 40104140) from 2022-05-15 The first app has an App Lounge rating, the second one hasn't.
What is the expected correct behaviour?
App Lounge is displaying/distributing only a single version of the "Element" app. Ideally App Lounge is doing the same for all other apps that are distributed via both channels - PlayStore and the F-Droid repository.
Relevant screenshots
screenshots
Solution
- at first, merge the FDroid and Play Store result (as today), and show open source results at top
- for all remaining non-open source app, confirm against FDroid is open source or not
- use
https://f-droid.org/fr/packages/<package name>/ - 200: the app is open source
- 404: the app is not open source
- use
- if it's an open source application, we display the open source version (using clean apk API) even if displaying the open source app is unselected in the Settings
- we compute the X first result before displaying anything, in order to let the user feel there are some results
- it lazily loads the remaining results, checking in background and showing the application
- the open source applications detected with this process will not being shown at top, but in the list itself
- the X should be chosen to give a feeling that everything is loading quite fast, so it displays first results in less than a second. Based on a FDroid answer ~200ms, we can set X=4 by default
When any open source app is displayed even though open source is unselected in the settings, then an information tooltip is displayed on the app description page. It says Why am I seeing the Open Source version?. When the user taps on it, a pop-up opens saying Even if this application is also available in a proprietary version, App Lounge shows the Open Source version only, in order to avoid duplicates.. It can be closed by tapping on OK at the bottom right of it or by pressing the back button.
Examples
Example 1: threema
| | screenshot | |--|------------| | The user search `threema` |
|
| App Lounge merges FDroid and Play Store results, and displays Open source application at top. Here, no open source application returned by FDroid | 
|
| App Lounge check the 4 first Play store results, and display them. Here, none of those applications is open source | 
|
| It loads lazily all other results, displaying the open source version when it exists. It is the case for Element, so it marks it as open source | 
|
Example 2: three
| | screenshot | |--|------------| | The user search `three` |
|
| App Lounge merges FDroid and Play Store results, and displays Open source application at top | 
|
| App Lounge check the 4 first Play store results, and display them. Here, none of those applications is open source | 
|
| It loads lazily all other results, displaying the open source version when it exists | 
|
Corner cases
- the user untick
Show open source appsin App Lounge settings: it should not affect this behavior. If the user do not display open source applications, open source applications available on the Play store should not appear. - FDroid unavailability:
❓ TO BE DEFINED