[bambax]

I'm one of them. DJI "pro" remotes are Android devices that for some reason are completely un-googled but can run the Amazon app store; if you want to run, say, Litchy on such a device (an alternative to DJI Fly app), Amazon is (was) the only option.

Now there appears to be no option left.

[darkwater]

Is sideloading possible?

[bambax]

Yes, kind of, but then maps don't work, and the main function of the app is to program drone missions on a map...

(To be fair, it's possible to program missions on the web and synchronize the account with the app to send the missions on the device; but having no map at all on the device is still a big problem.)

[gruez]

Use Aurora store?

[mattmaroon]

Oh wow! Hopefully DJI will address this.

[rerdavies]

Now all we need to do is find the OTHER five people. :-P

[starfox64_]

Couldn't people move over to another app store like F-Droid?

[alok-g]

As far as I know:

Most app available on Amazon's app store are already available via Google Play Store anyways. Rather, most developers have deserted the Amazon's store and the versions available there are outdated by years. I noted that Apps Amazon released for their own external or internal events like AWS re:Invent were only available via Google's Play Store and not Amazon's own.

The challenge is that many apps on Amazon's app store are tied to the app store. I once tried disabling Amazon's app store app, and noted that the apps installed stopped working (until the app store was enabled again). My immediate conclusion was that I would not want to rely on these apps or Amazon's app store. The developers may not have any incentive to update their apps versions on Amazon's store to remove the dependence on the latter, and nor they may have any to allow the paid users just install those apps from Google's play store without paying afresh.

[nguyenkien]

F-Droid only accept opensource app.

[arielcostas]

You can host your own repo (or someone else can) and just add it to the app

[jeroenhd]

Adding a new source for every app becomes tiresome, especially when switching devices.

I do see potential for a closed source repo managed like an app store, but adding a repo for every app adds unnecessary security risks (as the app specific repo can contain any number of apps).

[mdaniel]

> adding a repo for every app adds unnecessary security risks

Could you speak more to your security concerns about adding repos? To the very best of my knowledge it doesn't auto-download from all the repos, that would be crazy, and it for sure doesn't auto-install from them

[jeroenhd]

When you add a random repo, that repo can list any number of apps with any number of properties. For instance, you could've added the Guardian Project repo and later search for "Firefox" (an app that one would expect to find on something like F-Droid). Firefox isn't on F-Droid, but the Guardian Project can add it any time they want, add in whatever viruses or trackers they want, and serve it up without you ever knowing you downloaded it from an unofficial source. You'd have to spot the source name listed above the install button, but that name comes from the source itself and there's little preventing someone from calling their repo "default app source" or something similarly benign.

Nothing gets auto downloaded, but all of the sudden you need to be very wary of what apps you download from what repos, and that kind of threat fatigue will lead to infections for even the most diligent users.

That's not to say I think the concept of adding repos is bad, the unfortunate truth is just that adding repos comes with a bunch of implications that many users are likely to be unprepared for. It downgrades F-Droid from "a project with centralized management that tries its best to remove malicious apps" to "downloading APK files from random websites (now with auto update)".

[anticensor]

Hmm, maybe someone could start a F-Droid repository that accepts nonfree apps from everyone.