Discontinuing syncthing-android
forum.syncthing.net
Unfortunately I don’t have good news on the state of the android app: I am retiring it. The last release on Github and F-Droid will happen with the December 2024 Syncthing version. Reason is a combination of Google making Play publishing something between hard and impossible and no active maintenance. The app saw no significant development for a long time and without Play releases I do no longer see enough benefit and/or have enough motivation to keep up the ongoing maintenance an app requires ...

Announcement by the creator: https://forum.syncthing.net/t/discontinuing-syncthing-android/23002

Unfortunately I don’t have good news on the state of the android app: I am retiring it. The last release on Github and F-Droid will happen with the December 2024 Syncthing version.

Reason is a combination of Google making Play publishing something between hard and impossible and no active maintenance. The app saw no significant development for a long time and without Play releases I do no longer see enough benefit and/or have enough motivation to keep up the ongoing maintenance an app requires even without doing much, if any, changes.

Thanks a lot to everyone who ever contributed to this app!

  • xodoh74984@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1005·
    8 hours ago

    This is sad. Google Play should never hold this weight the self hosted community. For Android users dedicated to open source software, F-Droid is the target.

    I don’t think SyncThing users would have much issue with the app disappearing from Google. Doing away with Google is the goal.

    • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nzEnglish
      29·
      7 hours ago

      The problem is not “Syncthing users” it is the others that we bring along with us.

      I already have F-Droid on my phone, but the dozen others that I have promoted Syncthing to over the years do not. This is going to cause a bunch of problems.

      This is much more important than what you portray here.

      • tychosmoose@lemm.eeEnglish
        13·
        7 hours ago

        That and the shrinking ability to grant access to device storage. If that becomes an option only on rooted phones (which seems like the directly Google is heading) it will make the audience for such an app much smaller.

    • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      73·
      5 hours ago

      As much as I want to use F-Droid, my work blocks all third party app stores so it’s either have access to my work stuff on one phone (via profiles) or dual wield two phones.

      I lack the patience to dual wield again. It’s very annoying.

      • Derin@lemmy.beru.coEnglish
        2·
        2 hours ago

        I’m annoyed to see you getting down voted - I had a similar issue years ago with my work MacBook (couldn’t run a custom WM because any modification to the Finder was blocked without putting the machine into “unsafe” mode).

        I love OSS, but without a verifiable way to distribute it large swaths of the workforce won’t be able to use it.

        F-Droid is great, but sadly it isn’t enough.

        • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          1·
          20 minutes ago

          I was today years old when I learned that you can run a custom WM on a Mac.

          That’s like…the equivalent of a coca cola soda machine dispensing Pepsi.

          And in terms of down votes, I don’t really care too much. It evens out overtime.