Jitsi-meet: Offer official APK builds for download on Github/official site

[leafcutterant]

I somewhat understand that you don't want to bother with building the app in a way that it can be included in the single most popular libre application store. But it just boggles my mind that you don't offer official APK builds anywhere outside big brother Google's Play store.

This is a free and open source project priding itself on end-to-end encryption. It really deserves to have freely accessible builds (free as in freedom) and not lock in the user.

Can we expect anything like that?

[saghul]

It's not a matter of being bothered or not. It's a matter of resource allocation. Time is not infinite and (speaking for myself) I find that my time is better spent in making the app better rather than making sure it's available in . Maintaining those doesn't come for free (time wise).

The app does not depend on any Google services, so you can choose to trust an apk mirror which has it, https://apkpure.com/jitsi-meet/org.jitsi.meet for example.

Last, being Open Source and all, you can always compile it yourself, we do provide instructions here: https://github.com/jitsi/jitsi-meet/blob/master/android/README.md

Can we expect anything like that?

I think it's a reasonable expectation, but F-Droid would be my preference over GH due to update handling.

[leafcutterant]

I thought pushing the APKs to Github is an easier task than complying with F-Droid's stringent building standards, but anyway, I welcome either.

Going to APK mirrors is something I wouldn't encourage... it can be very dangerous as they could serve you with just about anything and you will never know.

Thanks, I'll look into building it. I was taking up the hat of a less technical user. Those with lesser skills in the field deserve the same level of security.

[cnscns]

when i install Jitsi Meet_v1.15.82_apkpure.com.apk from https://apkpure.com/jitsi-meet/org.jitsi.meet on android,but crashed

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This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[leafcutterant]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

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[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[ghost]

FWIW, Zulip is currently in a similar situation. Until they get an F-Droid build process worked out, they publish a copy of the APK on GitHub at each release.

That would be great for those folks that choose to not use proprietary Google services.

Otherwise there seems to be literally no trustworthy place to get the binaries for jitsi-meet. Yikes!

[saghul]

FWIW, Zulip is currently in a similar situation. Until they get an F-Droid build process worked out, they publish a copy of the APK on GitHub at each release.

We are in a better possition to try this now (builds are automated). However, we release several things off this repo:

• web release
• ios / android app releases
• ios / android sdk releases

This means there is no single "stable release" on the releases tab we can point our users too...

That would be great for those folks that choose to not use proprietary Google services.

This is slightly trickier since it means we'd have to do a different type of build, one which doesn't depend on Google Services and thus has reduced functionality: no Google SignIn for easier live streaming, for example.

Otherwise there seems to be literally no trustworthy place to get the binaries for jitsi-meet. Yikes!

If you really care, you can compile it yourself, it's really simple. Otherwise you are trusting the binaries built by some random folks on the Internet. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that you consider us more trustworthy than Google when it comes to getting the apk, but still. :-)

[marcdeop]

Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that you consider us more trustworthy than Google when it comes to getting the apk, but still. :-)

In the case of Google is not even about trust. What happens to those of us that do not have a Google account?

Regarding the Releases on Github, I am pretty sure that you can find ways to link multiple/different files on every Release that you do. Have a look here.

[saghul]

We have made the necessary changes to make an F-Droid build possible. You can follow the process here: https://gitlab.com/fdroid/rfp/issues/73