I just learned about the app Plexus by Techlore (available via F-Droid and the eOS app store). It check apps for compatibility with de-Googled devices. It helps you identify which apps work, don’t work or have limited features. All the information is crowdsourced by the community, for the community.
Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/OS the deGoogled mobile OS and online services
I see plexus mentioned now and then. At best it’s build into the store client. There’s also Sapio (simpler data model though)
I’d love for both to offer regular and licensed data dumps. If the compat ratings are ever built into a store client, a preloaded file saves on lots of network requests.
An app review mechanism by non-Google Android users would go some way, not only compatibility but also foss-app ratings - users miss it.
it’s nice for sure (commit). AppL had to remove Exodus ratings because it overwhelmed their API. An index file (like Fdroid) isn’t that bad a distribution mechanism vs API
The Plexus app doesn’t work since a few days. It seems they have some issues with their back-end:
doing always online API is stress for foss folk with no pay and you’ll be victim to your own success. You either need to piggyback on big corp infrastructure or feel like volunteering nights / weekends. It’s comfortable for endusers though (no big index file download).
F-Droid introduced a diff format in 2023 that made things better. Downside of no API: no easy backchannel for review / ratings. You could do both, error-wrap API availability gracefully but have the index file as fallback. Index files can be mirrored way more easily. (I applaud plexus in any case)
