Looking for a Jerboa alternative that wont be affected by the non-anonymous Google dev bullshit. I cant hop over to graphene or any other OS for that matter for reasons I wont get into. Getting my shit up and running on Jerboa was a hassle so Id like to figure out which lemmy apps will be viable for the future on basic boy androidOS.
Edit: added the app alert this morning as an image
Jerbao is not supporting Googles’s attack on Android? I might just install it.
I thought you could still install apps from other app stores if you just enabled the setting and wait a cooldown period like 1 day? Maybe they changed the policy though not sure
Voyager which has the added bonus of supporting piefed.
Blorp dev here! We have
- Multi account support, better than any other client imo
- Login with Lemmy and PieFed
- Save post drafts, finish later
- Create piefed poll posts
- PieFed emoji reactions
- Some fun themes and easter eggs
- Great nsfw browsing, if that’s your thing
- And much more
iOS | FDroid | Google Play | Source Code
Thunder for lemmy is nearly perfect in my experience
- Download the Platform-Tools for ADB and Fastboot.
https://developer.android.com/tools/releases/platform-tools
- Follow various guides on how to sideload APKs with ADB.
https://www.makeuseof.com/install-apps-via-adb-android/
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???
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Profit.
huh, what’s the matter with Jerboa? I’m using it, haven’t heard anything negative about it (yet).
Got this message this morning
I guess OP is looking for a jerboa alternative that can be installed through the playstore. Isn’t the Google shit this thing in which your phone will now not allow sideloading?
ahhh is that the issue, I hadn’t understood. Thanks for clarifying, glad it’s nothing bad with Jerboa itself.
I still use jerboa quite often but have been considering moving. It worked well for a couple years but the last month or two there are stupid things like, not being able to scroll back up through the comments where it’ll get stuck, or if I collapse a comment, and try to reopen it the content is blank so I have to exit the comment section and reopen to be able to the top of the comment section and start over. If it is a long comment thread you then have to scroll slow because if you miss the comment you collapsed by accident you can’t scroll back up to find it because the first problem. At that point I just give up on that and move on.
I made a post about it in the jerboa thread a month ago, it appears to be happening to more than just me, and across multiple devices, even someone on graphene said it was happening to them.
Any reason why you can’t just use one of the many, many web-based apps and “install” it? Photon, Alexandrite, Tesseract, Voyager, and many more all let you “install” them to your home screen. They run in your phone’s web browser but don’t have the address bar and work full screen and basically look/act like native apps.
shout-out to Voyager! installed as a PWA and it’s solid as hell
Blorp dev here. We got great support for web and iOS/Android. Though admittedly, the PWA install could use a little improvement. But the more Android becomes an issue, the more I’ll work on improving the PWA.
Nice. Only omitted that one because I hadn’t heard of it. I like to switch apps every so often so will check it out.
Personally, I am using Summit (installed with Obtainium, it is not available in F-Droid)
I find that it works quite well and has a very nice user interface! Pretty customisable too.
I use Eternity. It hasn’t been getting a lot of development, but it doesn’t really need anything that I’m aware of.
If I were picking one that’s getting a lot of development, I’d probably look at Interstellar. It’s less mature — it’s not a port of a Reddit app — but it works with all of Mbin/Lemmy/Piefed. I use it when I want to talk to a Piefed server from an Android device.
Yes, but: if you use the app, they now feature a dialog telling you that Google forces developers to register and send over personal data for their identification. The jerboa devs say they won’t do it, so it’s just a matter of time until the app gets pulled from the play store by Google.
For accuracy, it will stay on the store. Devices that are “certified” will be unable to find it on the store or install it via the store.
As a result I think the devs will stop pushing it there, but it will still be there for devices that Google isn’t worried about.
I might be wrong, but as far as I heard, any APK installed will have to go through Google’s dev verification.
Not anymore. After public outcry, Google established 2 alternatives:
- Through developer mode, you will be able to “forego security” (according to Google) and do a lengthy and obnoxious procedure to unlock your phone for installing any app.
- They’re defining a way for official (sanctioned by Google) 3rd party app stores to work, and you will be able to install apps verified by them, instead of Google.
Correct. It’ll be a new bunch of new steps, and would be forced to wait 24 hours to do the actual install, but otherwise sideloading unverified apps will still be possible through the advanced flow steps. So Jerboa and/or other apps from unverified accounts can still be installed. I do wonder how that affects the other app repos like F-Droid, like I guess F-Droid would need to be aware that the new advanced flow steps are active when attempting to do app installs.
From https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2026/03/android-developer-verification.html
- Enable developer mode in system settings: Activating this is simple. This prevents accidental triggers or “one-tap” bypasses often used in high-pressure scams.
- Confirm you aren’t being coached: There is a quick check to make sure that no one is talking you into turning off your security. While power users know how to vet apps, scammers often pressure victims into disabling protections.
- Restart your phone and reauthenticate: This cuts off any remote access or active phone calls a scammer might be using to watch what you’re doing.
- Come back after the protective waiting period and verify: There is a one-time, one-day wait and then you can confirm that this is really you who’s making this change with our biometric authentication (fingerprint or face unlock) or device PIN. Scammers rely on manufactured urgency, so this breaks their spell and gives you time to think.
- Install apps: Once you confirm you understand the risks, you’re all set to install apps from unverified developers, with the option of enabling for 7 days or indefinitely. For safety, you’ll still see a warning that the app is from an unverified developer, but you can just tap “Install Anyway.”
But I guess if you’re in a rush and don’t want to go through all that then you could probably still install apps via ADB.
Is it 24 hours for each install? Or 24 hours to enable the ability to install as many as you like?
Edit, I reread your comment. It’s a one time 24 hour wait to enable the ability.
That sucks but at least they allow it, and I guess you could argue this helps fight against scammers? Sort of?
To put that into context, I’m an iPhone guy who uses Android on the side. My old S10 will never have that issue (it doesn’t get updated anymore), but for my next Android phone, that’s one of the first things I’m doing. Enabling developer settings. Turning off the animation speed entirely. And that. So for 24 hours I won’t be able to sideload. After that: it’s open season forever.
Not sure how it’ll go for existing Android users. I imagine you’ll get an update and your sideloaded apps will be disabled, then you’ll enable sideloading, and after the 24 hours, they’ll be enabled again.
I would recommend you buy a Pixel phone and install GrapheneOS on it, if you want to continue to be able to do what you want with your phone.
It’s in Googles best interest to lock this down even further, so we should try to just not rely on their software anymore
