this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2024
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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!

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[–] [email protected] 145 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (29 children)

This is sad. Google Play should never hold this much weight in 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.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 3 weeks ago (17 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

If google heads that way I'll head somewhere else.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

To apple? Linux phone experience is just trash.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

This is my currently dilemma.
Each year Android becomes more restrictive like iOS with none of the benefits, Rooting becomes harder as more apps tap into the Play Integrity API (and strong Integrity is on the way to kill most workarounds for it), iPhone got a little better but is still locked down as fuck, where the hell do I go to? 😒

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

LineageOS, maybe? Still Android, but (AFAIK) more open to change than standard Android.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

I've been using custom ROMs for a while now, but the reality is that they can only do so much to stop Android's ever increasing restrictions.
And the aforementioned Integrity API also detects unlocked bootloaders, meaning this will gradually become more of a problem.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Realistically I have no where to go and that's the problem. iOS is even more locked down.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

No one says you have to upgrade your phone OS to the latest Android. You can just keep using the Android (and/or Custom ROM) that works.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Sure, but what about security? Not that I haven't had to use outdated phones before.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Security is not a state but a scale, and is gauged against everything else.

From the perspective of a privacy / security zealot, a smartphone is SOL as soon as they lave the factory, as not only not even OTA updates keep them safe (and you can argue that with some manufacturers such as Samsung, OTA does is the primary risk vector!) but they can eg.: ship with unfixable vulns at the hardware level that would lead to ditch the whole thing anyway.

So long as there isn't something like a state-funded program for citizens to renew their phones every ~2 years for fully open ones, I'd not worry much. After all, the other option would be not using a phone because current ones are a PITA and just as vulnerable from the other end.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

IMHO some update is better than no update at all!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

Oh yeah totally. But while one could argue we are owed security, we are not owed updates. (And when we do, they're offered to us via "buy another phone", such is Capitalism).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

And yet Resilio can access a lot more than ST, even without root.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

That and the shrinking ability to grant access to device storage.

Isn't that helping the average users with security in a way that a scam app can't see much else than itself?

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