Android: Make it possible to buy Cryptomator bypassing Google Play

[rarecaller]

Nowadays, more and more users are escaping from Google ecosystem, but this does not mean that they are not ready to pay anymore for the software they need. For this reason, it is very nice that some important apps provide alternative ways of purchasing that don't rely on Google Store. Please make Cryptomator for Android one of these apps.

In addition, it could also make possible a special version for F-Droid Store with unlockable functionality. But that's a different story.

[SailReal]

Thanks for this feature request!

We are planing to implement our own paying and licensing system for the "Cryptomator for Android" application. However, this may take some time, as it is not so easy to set up the distribution and payment infrastructure.

The application itself depends not on Google play services expect when using Google drive as cloud service, that means, if we have setup the infrastructure, there isn't much work to do directly in the android app.

[beerisgood]

How is the status to get this app in F-Droid (a own repository would be good to) ?

Also as example the app FairEmail is available in F-Droid and use own payment system so the dev can get money over SEPA and PayPal from users which don't use nor like Google Playstore

@SailReal

[SailReal]

We will start with a download option for the .apk on our website. To publish on F-Droid, we need to push the UI to something like GitHub, first. This will need some more adjustments such as removal of API keys.

This will come eventually in the future but currently we still focusing on existential features.

[beerisgood]

@SailReal you can take a look here for how-to create own F-Droid repo which isn't hard:
https://android.izzysoft.de/articles/named/fdroid-intro-3?lang=en

[trymeouteh]

I would like to be open source and on F-Droid personally, the reason is because if the app is closed source, how can anyone trust the app. The desktop apps are open source and can be inspected to ensure they do not abuse the user.

F-Droid is great because it allows you to downloads apps from a repo and receive updates to the app easily. Unlike a APK download which does now allow for any updates.

[TobiasDev]

What is the status of this currently? Needing google play store is the only thing holding me back from using Cryptomator full time. :) Esp. since the Linux app is fantastic.

[SailReal]

Implemented and can now be used, further information you can find here: https://cryptomator.org/android/