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New app inclusions

We are always looking for people willing to help out with new app inclusion requests in our issue tracker.

If you see any issue which doesn't seem to have been tested yet (anything without approved label), you could help us out a lot by testing it.

Basic app repository check

Checking if the following is true for the repository hosting the app is very helpful:

  1. Is the source code available under an FOSS license? Also note that, especially when mixing libraries, there might be license incompatibilities (e.g. an app licensed Apache-2.0 can not use libraries with a stricter license, e.g. GPL).
  2. Is Fastlane configured and does it look OK? Any issues (e.g. short_description.txt longer than 80 chars, messy/missing full_description.txt, featureGraphic with wrong proportions)?
  3. Description has enough details (so users get an idea what the app is about)?
  4. Are releases tagged? Do tag names match either versionName or versionCode?
  5. If you have the knowledge: check the code for possible issues

App tests

If the app request issue has the needs/on-device-testing label, we still need someone to test the app. If this could be you, great!

First off, check if the developer attached an .apk file to the most recent release on their Codeberg/GitHub/GitLab/etc and check if it's less than 30 MB. We cannot currently accept APK files over 30 MB. Does it exist and is it small enough? Then we can test it. If not, ask the developer to attach an .apk or try to reduce its size.

  1. Before you install it to your device: download the APK and upload it to VirusTotal (also look through the permissions and "interestring strings" on the details page there - especially be alerted when the "behavior" tab shows up: give it a thorough look!) and, if possible, other library scanners at your disposal – e.g. Pithus. This is for your and your device's safety.
  2. Install it to the test device/emulator
  3. Make sure to enable network monitoring/logging - e.g. in Netguard, PCAPdroid or AFWall+ (root needed for the latter)
  4. Test if it starts
  5. Watch out for outgoing network connections (some red flags: right after start, without user interaction, unexpected network connections, connections to places like Google, etc.)
  6. Check if the app seems to do the general things it promises to do (no need for it to be fully bug-free, just generally be usable)

Material at your disposal

The wiki of the repodata repository holds some Snippets for App Reviews which can help you on reviews.