[stevenicr]

I basically gave up using the play store since I could not find any way to search/find 'ad free' or 'tracking free' or 'open source' etc.

The very few apps I use from the play store are either ad free or offer a premium version to remove ads completely - it's the only thing I'll put on my phone.

Seems there is too big a conflict of interest for even basic phone functionality - apps with ads make the money tree keep raining.

One day my (paid for prem version) "timed / scheduled silence" app pushed ads out to all users on an update and I had quite the back and forth with them - they fixed it - but did not seem to care one iota that their full screen overlay ads would prevent a mom from answering here phone right away or other basic functions. - It was all about the money and they were going to maximize that.

All the while no incentive for google to make basic functions available in android or find-able in the play store. So little competition for the abusive, ad-ladden, add basic function to your phone parasites.

Glad to find f-droid at least, but I've given up on using my phone for as many things as it's capable of because the search and find is no-ad-hostile.

[asddubs]

with currently 2 exceptions, i only use apps from f-droid. I think I'll buy a pinephone one of these days to throw some dev time at it, we really need an alternative to ios and android