[supergilbert]

When is an alternative Android play store coming?

To all the entrepreneurs reading this: please create one. To all the VCs reading this: please fund one.

It's badly needed. I heard Huawei is working on one but I wouldn't bet on it.

[AndrewDucker]

There are many: https://medium.com/pen-bold-kiln-press/best-google-play-stor...

[phoe-krk]

F-Droid already exists.

[zenography]

Too bad you need a rooted phone with F-Droid Privileged Extension installed in order to have the same functionality as Gplay.

[supergilbert]

Yes but none of my friends and family who own an Android device know about it.

I'm talking about a mainstream alternative android store. The design of f-droid is not appealing enough.

[pmlnr]

> I'm talking about a mainstream alternative android store. The design of f-droid is not appealing enough.

Make it mainstream. Spread the word. Install it on family devices.

How else you think mainstream will happen?

[moviuro]

1. F-Droid can't be published on Google Play Store, because they're an "alternative market".

2. Please, make it appealing for you and others! https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroidclient

[zoobab]

FTP was fine. Plus it was easily mirrorable.

[trulyrandom]

F-Droid has a pretty strong foundation in my opinion. It just needs more resources to be able to publish app updates more quickly. It also needs a redesign, like you said, but I don't think there's a need to start from scratch

[BlueTemplar]

Yes, that would be nice, but at this point it would take a few billion to replicate all the functionality - who is going to be willing to pay for that and be still tied to Google? Might as well start a brand new smartphone/OS company...

[phoe-krk]

So do you mean a store run by a company that has the money and intent to promote such a store enough for everybody knows about it, e.g. Facebook, Amazon, or Microsoft?

I don't think this is a solution.

[stOneskull]

Amazon has an app store but it's just an inferior play store really. Nothing exclusive, I don't think, and just Amazon takes 30% instead.

[zo1]

F-droid only hosts free and open-source software, which is a very small portion of the app market.

[phoe-krk]

What else would you expect? Any other commercial app store - especially VC-backed - will eventually follow suit with Google's and Apple's stores in order to maximize profit over everything else. This includes denying any kinds of donation links.