yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I see, thanks for the explanation! I'll add the data soon. Should there also be a filter for it?
[Android Apps and Games] bernarbernuli:
Yes, a filter option would be great, and include it in the data dump of a spreadsheet.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
OK. I have added it to the list of planned features. Will be done soon.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
{Mod edit: Quoted spam post has been deleted. Oswald Boelcke, Senior Moderator}

I'm not quite sure what you mean. There is a filter for the minimum required Android version (must be enabled "For more filters, please tap here")
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Version 1.0.12b: Rare problem with in-app purchases fixed

Available on Google Play, APK in first post.
[Android Apps and Games] rodken:
I am not seeing the option to go above '0' on Screen Zoom on v. 1.0.12b in portrait mode.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
As I said, in portrait mode a larger font is currently not possible because another layout would be needed. In landscape however it should be possible to make it very large now.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
The number of apps could now be increased to 2,500,000+ (2,140,000+ available in the US).

This is already near to AppBrain (2,640,000+, see here).
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
The features and advantages of App Finder​

Edit: All information is now available on the first page.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
As there are 25 votes now, here another snapshot of the poll (the last

here

):
[Android Apps and Games] kholdstayr:
I was wondering how you get the app information? Like, I was thinking about setting up a scraper for the playstore, but the problem is that the web version of the playstore has been limited for a while now. You used to be able to scroll continuously like you can in the Android app. However, now the web version only shows 10 or so apps and you can't scroll any further. Thanks.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
As written in the credits in the first post, I'm using google-play-scraper, you may check the source code for how it works.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Version 1.0.13: Various small improvements

APK here

, available on the Play Store soon.
[Android Apps and Games] mermade:
@Skyica : I was checking out the app and was struggling to find the version number of the app in the details. Does App Finder not display the version number of other apps that a user searches?
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Currently it doesn't display version numbers, but this could easily be done of course. What would be the use of this? - You can check it on the Play Store if needed.
[Android Apps and Games] mermade:
Yea, I can but since it displays other metadata, I thought you missed adding it. Can you please add?
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
But what would be the use? Would it not just clutter the interface? All other metadata displayed are relevant for comparison of apps.

Also note that App Finder's data are not necessarily current, but may be some weeks old.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Version 1.0.14:

Keywords are now highlighted in the summaries on the result list also

Lists of the global and all local user ratings are now available (tap the rating in the result list)

There are now search operators for app name and developer name:

# searches for app name by prefix, e.g. #whats

@ searches for developer name by prefix, e.g. @Sky

Parentheses must be used if the terms include spaces, e.g. #(app f)

Quotes can be used to require exact match (up to capitalization) instead of prefix match, e.g. @”skype”

APK here

, available on Google Play soon.
[Android Apps and Games] mishafauci:
Lol, let's hope for the best... ;)
[Android Apps and Games] bernarbernuli:
Hi @Skyica, do you also scrape apps from the Play Store that are labeled "early access"?

Let me explain, I know of a few apps that I use regularly that are in "early access" (and have been for a long time), for example this one:

Ro-ku Remote Control for TV - Apps on Google Play

Ro-ku TV Remote Control is super smart TV Controller with WIFI universal remote

play.google.com

Note: "Early access," label I believe is only visible from the Play Store app, not from Web access.

The thing is that a few weeks ago I did a search with your app and exported it to CSV file and those apps appeared, but now when listing and exporting they no longer appear.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
@bernarbernuli, as you have noted, "early access" apps seem not to be labeled on the Play website, so they are scraped and displayed like the other apps.

Which apps don't appear in App Finder anymore?

Ro-ku Remote Control for TV - Apps on Google Play

Ro-ku TV Remote Control is super smart TV Controller with WIFI universal remote

play.google.com

is still there.
[Android Apps and Games] bernarbernuli:
When extracting the data to CSV, this type of apps, i.e. those without a release date, do not appear.

I think it is something in the release date filter, which does not include them when exporting.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
What is saved as CSV should be exactly the same as what is shown in the result list.

If you filter for release date, apps without release date information are hidden. The only thing I could do about this currently would be an option to use the update date for the release date filter for apps without release date information.

For the Ro-ku Remote Control app, I noticed that the name was changed, App Finder still has the old name Roku Remote Control. Will be updated soon.

PS

just checked that about 27500 apps (1.1%) have no release date information, I don't know if those are all early access apps.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Version 1.0.14a: CSV export improvements

APK in first post, on Google Play soon.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Version 1.0.14b: Further CSV export improvements

APK in first post.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Version 1.0.15: Play Pass and target API

There is now a filter for Play Pass apps and games. These are also marked in the result list (when the filter is applied, this redundant information is not shown).

There is now a filter for the target API available, and an option to show the target API in the result list.

We have 249 Play Pass apps and 1010 Play Pass games available in the US!

APK in first post, on Google Play soon.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Here

you can now find a list of the 249 Play Pass apps, grouped by category, sorted by world-average user rating.
[Android Apps and Games] bdemirkir:
@Skyica please stop spamming people. As an app developer I'm sick of all the people sending spam mails to my inbox about how their scraped store is magnificent. It's illegal to send marketing emails without consent in my country and it probably is on many other countries as well. I wish countries could provide ways to enforce these laws so people like you think twice before doing this.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I'm sorry to hear you saw this as spam. My view is that it was important information regarding your app that justified using you support email address. I remember when I published my first app several years ago and got a mail from AppBrain how glad I was to get information about a further place where the app could be found.
[Android Apps and Games] bdemirkir:
Your email is exactly the definition of spam: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spam
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spamming: Spamming is the use of messaging systems to send multiple unsolicited messages (spam) to large numbers of recipients

for the purpose of commercial advertising

, for the purpose of

non-commercial proselytizing

, for any

prohibited purpose (especially the fraudulent purpose of phishing)

, or simply

repeatedly sending the same message to the same user

.

The purpose of my mail was mainly informational.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Version 1.0.15a:

App Finder is now on

X (Twitter)

,

Facebook

, and

Threads

!

You’ll find the links also in the Help-menu, which has been restructured.

.

Important improvements are in development and will be announced there when they will be rolled out over the coming months, for example a web interface, indexing of alternative apps stores, indexing of iOS apps, support for other languages, search history, and creation of custom app lists.

.

The user guide and other help has been improved and updated with the latest features.

.

In Supporting App Finder from the Help-menu, you now find information about the objectives of App Finder.

.

The Ads label is now shown in black instead of red, we think that this is more appropriate as there are many high-quality apps that contain ads which can be disabled with in-app purchases.

APK in first post, on Google Play soon.
[Android Apps and Games] ze7zez:
Is the black theme era near?
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Yes, in the next days! Will be first announcement on X etc. :)
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
The Problems with the Play Store Search and the Advantages of App Finder

The article has been moved

to the first page
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
You also found this to be the case? If you have another example, or a counterexample (since you emphasized may), I'd be grateful to see it.
[Android Apps and Games] rodken:
In some cases [I haven't tried in a while], I have been able to succeed with:

Wildcard- Use an asterisk (*) in between the search phrase to see searched phrase variations and get new content ideas. The command is search*term.

Include Words (+) – Search for results with multiple phrases using the plus operator.

AROUND () – Use the search term AROUND () command to look for terms that are close to each other in a sentence.

Customize OR command: Type one search term within quotation marks (“”) before the OR command and then enter the next phrase you want to find.

The app may not have been indexed by the Play Store search yet. In some cases it can take some time for new apps to be indexed, so if I am searching for a newly released app, it may not be in the search results yet.​

The app may not have enough keywords in its title or description. The Play Store search algorithm gives more weight to apps that have more keywords in their title and description. So, if the app I am looking for does not have many keywords, it may not be in the search results.​

The app may be blocked in another country. The Play Store search results are different for different countries. If I'm out of the country and the app I am looking for is blocked in the country that I'm in, it will not be in the search results.​
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I just tried and it does not seem to work in the Play Store app. In Google web search it does work, like "firstWord * thirdWord".

I don't quite understand. Can you give an example?

something like firstWord AROUND(3) secondWord works in Google web search but not in the Play Store.

You mean what I'm doing in the above article?

“calculator” “3d” “graph” OR “graphs” OR “graphing” OR “plot” OR “plots”

Maybe. It shouldn't be difficult for Google to index new apps immediately.

As you see from my above article, Google does not seem to follow this rule closely. It often returns multiple apps where none of the keywords occur, and does not return all apps where all keywords occur, at least if the words are not quoted.

True.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
@rodken, in your screenshots you have varied the words and added -. I tried to just add a + before individual words, and this makes no difference, which indicates that + is ignored in the Google Play search.

(also, I have talked about the Play Store app search, which may work differently than the Play website search)
[Android Apps and Games] rodken:
As a word of caution, usually adding a space before the string concatenation operator seems to be the go-to method.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
What's the string concatenation operator?

Did you verify that + by itself has no effect?
[Android Apps and Games] rodken:
(1) The string concatenation operator is the '+'.

(2) It has more of an effect when used on the desktop version or web search versus a mobile app.

(3) Not to beat a dead horse - Google does not seem to follow certain rules closely.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I see. (+ is not used to concatenate strings in Google web search, but to require words to actually occur, so I didn't understand.)
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I have now continued

the article about the problems with the Play Store search and the advantages of App Finder

with examples for searches with App Finder, and a comparison.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I have now finished

the article about the problems with the Play Store search and the advantages of App Finder

.
[Android Apps and Games] ze7zez:
You be very careful that your app does not become better than google search engines, because it may be discredited by the "infallible" artificial intelligence from google, as happened to SD Maid.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Thanks for pointing me to this.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Some time ago I had started to improve and extend the first post. This is now finished.

You'll now find all important information on the first page.

Especially note the table that compares the free and paid features of App Finder with the Play Store search.

I hope this is now the most beautiful thread on XDA ;)
[Android Apps and Games] ethical_haquer:
Will App Finder ever be open-source?
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Probably not. Maybe partially.

In any case I'll publish the exact ranking formula in the next days.

I think for a software like App Finder it's not that important to be open source, you don't have to trust it for critical tasks.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
@rodken, dark theme today!
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
@ze7zez, dark theme today!
[Android Apps and Games] ethical_haquer:
Well, not just for transparency, but also for collaboration. For example, Portmaster is an open-source app that has done very well, offering free and paid versions. (Website, GitHub) Android users also value open-source apps, such as Aurora Store (link), Magisk (link), Organic Maps (link), etc. As far as I know, there is no open-source app like App Finder.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Version 1.0.16: Dark Theme

By default, the system setting is followed. In Display Options from the Settings-menu, the theme can be fixed to light or dark.

The dark theme is free for a short time but will soon require a Plus license.

APK in first post, on Google Play soon.

The lifetime Plus license is on sale at 50% for a

very

short time!
[Android Apps and Games] ze7zez:
Write precisely whether the paid version will be Dark or System (my system has a dark theme)).
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
With Plus license, you will have all options, like you have now. Without Plus, only light theme will be possible in the future, irrespective of the system setting. I'm sorry for this, but too few people are paying currently.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
If someone wants to collaborate on some part, I may think about making that part open source. Have you something specific in mind?

In any case App Finder will support open source by indexing for example F-Droid and marking open-source apps and offering a filter for this.
[Android Apps and Games] ethical_haquer:
That's good! As for collaborating, I only know Python, currently :). I meant that other Devs would contribute if it was open-source. For example, Portmaster has 11 contributors, Magisk has 266, and Organic Maps has 303. Just curious, but what are some reasons why you wouldn't make it open-source?
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I wasn't significantly involved in an open-source project yet, so I'm not very familiar with possible workflows. But clearly I would have to review code by other people and get involved in discussions how to do things. The time for this would only be justified if someone would put quite much effort in contributing.

A possibility would be the scrapers for other app stores that I plan to implement soon. I'll write them in Python anyway.
[Android Apps and Games] ethical_haquer:
I only just created my first project, Thor GUI. However, I've been using open-source apps over proprietary ones for quite a while.

As for how GitHub works, have a look here. I'm no expert, obviously, having used GitHub for less than a month, but so far I've found it easy enough to push updates and create releases.

Well, there's can be quite a lot of contributing going on. Just look at how many people have contributed to Organic Maps recently, even just today: link. Obviously smaller projects, at least at the start, aren't going to have quite as many a day. :)

At the very least it's something to think about. But yeah, experimenting with making part of the app open-source would be a start.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I will not exclude the possibility of making parts of App Finder open source in the future.

BTW, there are at least two open-source projects for advanced Android app search:

https://git.kaki87.net/playsearch.kaki87.net/v2-web/src/branch/master/README.md

https://github.com/gqqnbig/advanced-play-search

But I don't think they're very useful.
[Android Apps and Games] ethical_haquer:
Yeah, those don't look near as useful as App Finder, it looks like they return results just like Google Play. Nor do they search F-Droid. I'll be sure to check out the parts of App Finder that are open-source! Also, what about the possibility of showing how many trackers an app has, and permissions, like this. BTW, your app looks nice and clean (y).
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
You'll find permissions and trackers already in the "smaller planned features" in the first post. @TheMystic already proposed that, discussion here

https://xdaforums.com/t/app-6-0-app...engine-for-android-apps.4578809/post-88475457

https://xdaforums.com/t/app-6-0-app...engine-for-android-apps.4578809/post-88481995

But my focus in the next month will be

Support for other languages

Indexing of alternative app stores incl. f-droid

Web interface
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I'm now closing the poll. Here the results (previous snapshots here and here):

As so many people are waiting for App Finder to be able to search alternative app stores, I'll start working on this very soon. I'm sure it will be there until the end of this year, probably earlier.

However, I think that support for other languages is at least equally important (although not for the users of this forum obviously), and I will probably do this first.
[Android Apps and Games] ethical_haquer:
Speaking of translating, that is something that open-source apps excel at. ;)

Why? - Because native speakers will contribute: link, link, link.

Oh, and I just realized that Aurora Store is using Exodus somehow: link. You should be able to see how they do it. Going here and searching for "exodus" brings up some files, or better yet, just ask the Aurora Store Developers.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I'm aware of the advantages of open source.

Closed-source Android apps also get support with translation, e.g. MixPlorer.

Yes, or I'll ask the Exodus developers.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
The main challenge with language support will be to search and display the app descriptions in other languages.

One way would be to translate the queries to English for search, and the descriptions from English for display, but this may have disadvantages.

So I plan to store and search the descriptions for different languages (which will often but not always have been auto-translated by Google), which will require more scraping and a multiple times larger database that must be searched fast.
[General Questions and Answers] hrm5023:
Hey, I would like to flash this rom:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=2263996#post2263996

To my artemis, is that possible by any means??

Oh and by the way if there is a rom that has about 100mb of memory, where as my artemis currently has about 50mb of memory. After flashing that rom will I have the 100mb of memory??
[General Questions and Answers] Ather:
erm you cannot flash a ROM designed for different device, just as you cannot use iphone's OS on Windows Mobile or vice versa :)
[General Questions and Answers] hrm5023:
ok thank you:)
[Huawei P9 Lite Questions & Answers] aramous:
Device: huawei p9 lite vns-l31 android 7 rooted using TWRP and magisk

Im trying to enable OTG support for a usb keyboard with an OTG cable

- moved (android.hardware.usb.host.xml) to (/system/etc/permissions) and verified (USB Host) using an app (USB OTG Checker)

- tried to use RevolutionOTG apk (https://xdaforums.com/t/activate-otg-support.3476369/post-69049971)(spanish) and

(https://xdaforums.com/t/activate-otg-support.3476369/post-69086637)(english) but it's not detecting root !

- tried running the two scripts (echo hoston > /sys/devices/ff100000.hisi_usb/plugusb) and (echo hostoff > /sys/devices/ff100000.hisi_usb/plugusb)

and then modified the directory to (/sys/devices/platform/ff100000.hisi_usb/plugusb) but again nothing happens !

- tried this (https://goo.gl/5uLcwW) (Elite OTG for huawei p9 lite) from an old post (https://xdaforums.com/t/elite-otg-n...9-lite-by-hassanmirza01.3701052/post-74423429) but the link is no longer available

- tried using (USB OTG Helper) but the app is unable to create mount directory

- Can someone help me in any direction ?
[Huawei P9 Lite Questions & Answers] -Alf-:
Download Elite kernel 2.1.zip,

https://mega.nz/file/YtUgzLaB#fIo23EtM6NlgxZoxN023raDuo7GzNUiI6uJJMI8Qp28

flash it in TWRP, wipe dalvik/art cache , reboot. Backup your stock boot.img!

But if I remember correctly, OTG may not work properly with Magisk. So use SuperSu 2.7.9 or 2.8.2 (uninstall Magisk first!).
[Huawei P9 Lite Questions & Answers] aramous:
worked like a charm ! don't know how to thank you
[Huawei P9 Lite Questions & Answers] -Alf-:
Not a problem.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ShadowGenie:
Hello guys, I want to Port custom rom for my device. I have already tried porting rom for my device (copy system.new.dat.br stuff) but it goes to fast boot, is there any way to fix it or another method to Port rom
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] KirinPixel:
first lets get to fixing. what phone is it and what build of os was it using before the faild flash? porting a rom aint easy in majority of cases. what rom are you using? what kernel? what hardware are you trying to prot it to?
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ShadowGenie:
I have Redmi 4X (SD435) and I'm trying to Port a rom from a device Redmi YS/S2 (SD625), it's an Android 10 rom (keepQASSA). I'm using A10 vendor and boot from Nusantara rom.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] KirinPixel:
Why do u whant to port it? Its redicileusly hard if u dont know evry lil detail in android space. Try searching castoum roms for ur device and moding em to ur liking.
[Wear OS Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] efraim1:
I have this device and when I try to add an apn, it writes me stop settings that supposedly delete the file from the settings. I would appreciate it if someone could help me add an apn in another way or fix the settings file

(I want to add that I don't have that much knowledge about it, so if it is possible to explain in precise detail what and how to do)

Thank you very much everyone
[OnePlus 8T Questions & Answers] Deleted member 12477781:
What are some custom operating systems I can use for the OnePlus 8T tmo edition? Most of the custom ones won't work due to the fact that I have the TMO edition. I have also unlocked my bootloader, but I can't find a custom recovery. What should I do? I'm really new to custom OS. Any help is appreciated.
[OnePlus 8T Questions & Answers] Faizanrehman25:
You can install lineage os
[OnePlus 8T Questions & Answers] kevinco1:
Convert to global via MSM and you'll be able to get rid of TMobile restrictions but you still have to pay off the phone to get SIM unlocked.

After converting you can install custom recovery like Orangefox and flash custom ROMs
[General Questions and Answers] liehuo:
A freeware to do hard reset only:

http://classic.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=14505&associateid=83
[General Questions and Answers] nir36:
nice gesture