Cwa-app-android: APK release assets

[freakatzz]

Hello,
Why don't you provide APK files as asset for releases, so not everybody who want to use the app needs a Google account.

Kind regards,
freakatzz

[bjoerrrrn]

The APK is already on the well known mirror pages like apkpure → https://apkpure.com/de/corona-warn-app/de.rki.coronawarnapp

User who use android without a Google account know such sources. But I agree: an APK Release and/or an F-Droid Release are a good idea.

[SebastianWolf-SAP]

We already clarified very early that we can't provide APKs and/or F-Droid releases. Please see https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-documentation/issues/5 for details.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen/Best regards,
SW
Corona Warn-App Open Source Team

[joergi]

The APK is already on the well known mirror pages like apkpure → https://apkpure.com/de/corona-warn-app/de.rki.coronawarnapp

User who use android without a Google account know such sources. But I agree: an APK Release and/or an F-Droid Release are a good idea.

The version is not up to date. I would not do it.

[joergi]

We already clarified very early that we can't provide APKs and/or F-Droid releases. Please see corona-warn-app/cwa-documentation#5 for details.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen/Best regards,
SW
Corona Warn-App Open Source Team

@SebastianWolf-SAP - I understand, why you will not provide it on other stores like F-Droid.
But I don't see any reason, why you are not building the app and provide it here as an APK. (of course without support, if it will fail because people are not having Google Play services (like #507)

[DE-Max-42]

If you only need the .apk you can extract it from your device with ADB:

adb shell pm path de.rki.coronawarnapp

adb pull /data/app/com.example.someapp-2.apk path/to/desired/destination

_source: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4032960/how-do-i-get-an-apk-file-from-an-android-device_

[joergi]

If you only need the .apk you can extract it from your device with ADB:

@DE-Max-42 people want to download the apk, so they can install it

[DE-Max-42]

@joergi
Yes but if someone wants to make sure that he installs the official app from Google play he can extract the _.apk_

Of course that requires a second device. But I'am always very curious about any third-party that offer the apps to download.

This makes only sense if you want to install the app but don't want to login with a Google account on the other device.

I think I misunderstood the conversation above a bit and not read carefully.
_Sorry that was my mistake._

[tdollenb]

Can't you build it from source?

[joergi]

Developers can do. but "non developers" who have no glue about technical stuff, but who don't have a google account to download it, can then download it easily here.

[corneliusroemer]

Can't you build it from source?

@tdollenb No unfortunately not. You need to sign with special secret key to allow the app to interface with ExposureAPI.

[corneliusroemer]

We already clarified very early that we can't provide APKs and/or F-Droid releases. Please see https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-documentation/issues/5 for details.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen/Best regards,
SW
Corona Warn-App Open Source Team

Dear maintainers (@SebastianWolf-SAP @tkowark @jakobmoellersap )

The referenced issue talks about something very different, in fact the referenced issue deals with multiple issues at once.

You explain there why you can't do some of the things asked for, but not, why you can't publish the APK here.

It's literally just uploading a file. What stops you from doing so?

The referenced issue is also closed. It makes sense to have some place where people can voice their justified views on this topic.

[assert-not-singularity]

Besides supporting other stores, there is also another point I want to mention:

I've read that people although living (or just staying) in Germany are not able to install the app if the store is not set to German. They state that changing the region to German is restricted to one time in a year and prevents access to contents bought in another region. I did not fact-check this, though.

Anyway, this could be a scenario where some people could not use the app despite having access to the Play Services. Releasing the APK built by your CI here would them enable to do so.

Edit: Just saw the discussion in #478

[corneliusroemer]

I think after this issue here got closed I reopened it under #514
That issue is still open!

[SebastianWolf-SAP]

Referenced issue now moved to cwa-wishlist: https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-wishlist/issues/57

Mit freundlichen Grüßen/Best regards,
SW
Corona Warn-App Open Source Team

[falkorichter]

If you only need the .apk you can extract it from your device with ADB:

VERSION=$(adb shell dumpsys package de.rki.coronawarnapp | grep versionName=| cut -d '=' -f 2)
adb pull `adb shell pm path de.rki.coronawarnapp | cut -d':' -f2` de.rki.coronawarnapp-store$VERSION.apk

[joergi]

@falkorichter it's not about this, but it's also for people, who are visiting germany,.
Their Play store country is not set to Germany, so they will not be able to get the App from the Play store

[falkorichter]

@joergi I know. But please honor the script I shared which includes the version number!!!

[rugk]

BTW raised a very similar issue about this again, because since June the situation has changed and (IMHO) needs to be reconsidered: See https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-app-android/issues/1483.