yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Version 1.2.0 Beta: New paid plans, starting at $2 per year / $5 for ever

The new plans are finally there. We apologize for the delay!

APK here

, on Google Play Beta channel soon.

Shortly (before the final release), we will also reduce the prices in lower-income countries significantly compared with the US prices.

Plus licenses have been converted in accordance with the prices.

If you bought a year or lifetime Plus license recently and think that you paid too much, you may request a partial refund at info@skyica.com.

Display of age rating in the result list, and the filter for maximum age rating are now free.

In turn, the filter for apps on sale and result list display of in-app price range now require the lowest paid plan.
[Android Apps and Games] bernarbernuli:
Hello, What filters or what is the function of "Play Store Installable"?
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Thanks for asking, I explained it in the release notes but forgot it in the user guide. It removes apps that Google does not allow to install through the Play Store because they "were made for an older version of Android".
[Android Apps and Games] bernarbernuli:
Ok, I have several doubts with this function:

- From what I read in the link you posted in post #261 I understand that this option removes from the filter the apps that have Target API 30 or less, isn't it?

- However, there are many apps that are still findable even though they are NOT "Play Store Installable"?

- If I was currently using, for example, an Android 11 device (i.e. API 28) and wanted to search for "calculators", this option does not work for this situation, does it?
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
In general:

On devices with Android 12 (API 30) and above, the filter removes apps with Target API 30 or less.

On devices with lower Android / API, the filter removes apps with a Target API lower than the device's API.

Also, the filter removes apps where the required Android version is higher than the device's Android (forgot to say that, sorry)

Google makes a few exeptions to the target API rule, which are detected by App Finder, and not removed by the filter (we query the Play Store API for this for an Android 12 device, similar like Aurora Store does it).

Yes, if you uncheck the filter, apps that are only installable through the Play Store on some lower Android version are still returned.

It should work as expected. Please let me know if you note discrepancies.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Version 1.2.0 final

We have now adjusted the prices in lower-income countries.

Please note: In several low-income countries we are not able to adjust the prices due to limitations of Google’s payment system. Please contact us if you think the price is too high in your country.

We continue to offer all features for free on devices where Google Play's billing system is not available.

However, we now provide a payment link and kindly ask for a payment according to your means.

Since Google generally does not allow apps distributed via Google Play to lead users to other payment methods, the version on Google Play can no longer be used on devices where Google Play's billing system is not available.

Instead, the alternative "universal" version provided here and

on our website

must be used.

If you're using a device with Google Play's billing system, have bought a lifetime Plus / Pro license already, and want to make a further contribution, you may use

this payment link

.

We will be grateful for any contribution and use it to cover the server costs, and to continue the development.

We will also launch a crowdfunding campaign soon.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
There is now a Reddit community for App Finder and other Skyica products:

https://reddit.com/r/skyica/
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Version 1.2.1: Important bug fixes and performance improvements

APK here

You may support the operation and further development by

making a payment here

.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
++ operator available to search in title only

Similar to the + operator that reqires words or phrases in title or summary, the ++ operator reqires words or phrases in title.

It's available immediately, no update required.

Examples:

++reddit

++(app find) (equivalent to ++app ++find)

++"app finder"

++email/mail

++(file manager/explorer)

++"file manager/explorer"

Like +, ++ can be combined with - to exclude words, e.g.

-++icon excludes apps that have icon in title

-++icon/watch/watchface (equivalent to -++icon -++watch -++watchface)

The last example will be useful e.g. to exclude icon packs and watch faces. I would normally recommend to use -+ for this, but -++ may be used to make really sure you don't exclude too much.

You could check the difference using -++icon/watch/watchface +icon/watch/watchface

Note that there is still also the # opertor to search by beginning of title, e.g. #redd
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
We need your help with Google Play reviews!

App Finder keeps receiving 1-star ratings every week, and it's getting worse.

The global and the US rating just dropped below 4.0, and in the UK it now has 2.6 stars.

I don't know the reason. I get reports that something doesn't work very rarely. And people often give 1 star without explanation. Below the last 1-star ratings with a review. (See https://skyica.com/appfinder/testimonials for good reviews.)

If you think App Finder deserves a better rating and haven't rated it yet, please do so.

Thank you!
[Android Apps and Games] tottenham28:
What a nice app you've built @Skyica.

Do you by chance have any plans to add security and podcasts to the categories drop down menu?

If not, in which way can I locate those, please?
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Hi, the categories menu is just for the Google Play categories. You need to use a suitable query to find security or podcasts apps. Especially helpful is the + operator that requires a word in title or summary. E.g., +podcast shold find podcast apps quite reliably.
[Android Apps and Games] tottenham28:
Great stuff, thank you and thanks also for such a quick response.

Have a great Easter 🐣
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Version 1.2.2

Bug with restoring the result list fixed

It is now easy to exclude one or a few categories (requires Explorer plan or higher): If you tap All Apps & Games while no category is selected with multi-select enabled, all categories are selected, and you can deselect specific ones.

APK here
[Android Apps and Games] EskeralijeN:
Amazing app, thanks for your dedication and accepting user's feedback! I have one question, can we soon expect price history section for paid apps? That would be incredible feature. Thanks in advance for your time and answer.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Hi, we have recorded the price history daily since Nov 2023, and display in App Finder is planned. However, I don't see this as high-priority currently as AppSales has this feature. Did you try it?
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Announcements and free plans

I first introduced App Finder here just over a year ago. Today I want to say a little about the future plans.

At this occasion I'm also giving away 50 lifetime plans for free!

I remain convinced of the importance of a reliable comprehensive search engine for mobile apps - both for users and for independent developers of high quality and innovative apps.

I will therefore continue the development at a fast pace.

I'm currently working to find apps on Google Play more comprehensively. With the previous methods, it was only at great expense possible to search Google Play somewhat comprehensively.

(The figure of 3.7 million apps is also out of date, as Google has deleted large number of apps in recent months, and I have not searched extensively for new ones).

I will also try to increase the update frequency of some data soon.

Further, there is still the problem that some search queries take way too long (>10s), which I want to solve as soon as possible.

After that I will work on new features, especially:

Support of further languages

Indexing of F-Droid and other Android app stores

Search history and saved searches

Improvements to the keyword search (automatic / user-defined inclusion of synonyms, phrase recognition, exact search, auto-completion)

App Finder web app

Indexing of iOS apps

And many smaller things. The most comprehensive list is currently on Reddit, but I'll put it here also.

I will also be launching a Kickstarter campaign for App Finder very soon. (Due to the still small number of users, only a small part of the costs can be covered by user's purchases at the moment).

I am giving away 50 Lifetime Explorer plans here, worth $5 each

These allow, for example, filtering of apps on offer and Play Pass apps, filtering and sorting by update date and release date, and the display of much more data in the results list.

It is also possible to upgrade to a higher plan for the price difference.

Please also feel free to let other people know who may be interested!

EDIT: 3rd 10 promo codes here, let me know when they are all used up.

You can redeem a code easily here: https://play.google.com/redeem

If that's not possible, please try the Play Store app (profile icon > Payments & subscriptions > Redeem code)

RTEMCCQWNPVMMXQCZ061SJ3

J1ATQCFM01FL1QKY4THJ6U6

4SXV6FVVRVU9U2JMEBH1A5Y

2KMZH19TAVD8YJ2VBDQTYEQ

V7X54J651YEWUV0MR5HKK2U

SNKUUQJR6FKQRQQFVJX7CSL

CE3CMD05BELWASPYFL585V4

WCQUYRF9XV243ARA1GJX0VX

CKCBHPNNWT6CYNVQK8LSQRX

QGDC31VP8VAEDFRSQL3VKRT
[Android Apps and Games] rodken:
Seems as though the aformentioned codes have been used up.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Thanks, I've added 10 new ones.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Version 1.2.3: Improved scraper, faster searches, game tags, pre-register and early access

We have improved the scraper, so that Google Play is now searched more comprehensively, and additional data can be shown (see below).

All data has been updated within the last 2 weeks, and in the future the data will be updated more frequently. New frequencies will be announced with the next update.

Note that the number of apps available on Google Play has declined by about 1 million over the past several months. While our scraper found more than 3.7 million apps in October 2023, it finds about 2.75 million now (2.16 million available in the US). Compare e.g. AppBrain’s statistics.

While App Finder has many more apps than AppBrain (1.9 million) and AppAgg (1.8 million), we know that some less popular apps are still missing. We’re working to improve this.

We have optimized the database so that queries that took long previously are now executed much faster.

The tags that are shown for games on Google Play (like offline, multiplayer etc.) are now also shown in App Finder. They can be searched like the summaries by entering them preceded by a +, e.g. +offline.

Pre-register and early-access apps and games are now included and marked. There are currently about 750 pre-register apps and games (~400 for the US), a few of which offer early access.

Sort by release date shows first the early-access apps and then the pre-register apps before the others. Newest additions are sorted first.

Available on Google Play, APK here
[Android Apps and Games] Pudah:
This is very generous of you. Thanks for the great app and the give away!
[Android Apps and Games] del1701:
It would seem that your second lot of codes have been used already? Could I get one please?
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I have added 10 new ones!
[Android Apps and Games] del1701:
Great, thank you 👍
[Android Apps and Games] Pudah:
@Skyica

I have a question/potential feature request.

Sometimes when I find an app, I want to send it to a friend. What I do now is tap the Play Store >> button then share from within the play store. I checked that little gear next to the link to see if there might be a sharing option in there. But seems that is just a means to go to the play store in a web browser instead of the play store app itself.

Would it be possible to add a way to share a link? Perhaps by long pressing the existing Play Store button or with the addition of a share icon that could be tapped. The user could then pick their messaging app or email app from the share sheet to quickly send a link to an app to a friend.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Thanks for your suggestion. However, since sharing via the Play Store is just one more tap, I can't really see the need for this. Or do you want it to be shared in another way than the Play Store does it?
[Android Apps and Games] Pudah:
The way the store does it is okay (though I confess I hate the "Check out..." wording that it creates). I was really just looking to save taps.

But I understand that it's probably not a worth the effort you'd have to put in just to save those taps.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I see. I've added it to the list of planned features. BTW, to save taps, you know you can tap the icon in the result list to go to Play Store directly?
[Android Apps and Games] Pudah:
Yes, I did discover that.

Taking a quick look at your list of planned features, I can definitely see why this would be a low priority item. You've got a lot of ambitious and more useful features on your list.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Early access and pre-registration games​

Since the last update, App Finder can filter for early access and pre-registration apps and games.

There are currently 9 early access games available in the US:

And more than 400 other pre-registration apps and games, here are a few:
[Android Apps and Games] gonzo1963:
Good night,

Is something strange happening in the app?.

It hasn't worked for two days.

Every time I open it, the attached screen appears and I can't do anything.

I have cleared cache and data and nothing changes.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled from scratch, and it still doesn't work.

I have a good connection and all the other apps work perfectly.

App Finder version: 1.3.0

Smartphone: Nokia X20

Android Version 13

Regards
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
There is a server problem currently. I'm very sorry for this.

It's nearly fixed, and there will be an update in a few hours, then it will work again.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
We apologize that App Finder was not working recently!

The issue is now fixed, however we lost recent app data, and Google Play is therefore now being re-scraped.

Currently, data is available only for the countries with a green star in the country selector.

If needed, please switch to such a country for now (Settings > Search-Country). Data for all other countries will be available again in a few days. We will announce this here.

For the countries with a green star, about 900,000 less popular apps (with less than 80 total downloads) are also still missing (June 22, 4:00 UTC). About 100,000 apps are added per hour, and all apps will be there in about 9 hours for these countries.

Previous versions do not work anymore, please update!

APK here

, on Google Play soon.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
@gonzo1963 @magi44ken Please see post above!
[Android Apps and Games] gonzo1963:
Good morning,

Thanks a lot.

Regards
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
An update to the last announcements:

The data for the countries with a star is complete. Sizes and target APIs (which were missing) are also there again.

Currently, there are daily updates for the country-independent data and the US data only.

It might take some time until we have data for all countries again, and until we can start daily updates for other countries again.
[Android Apps and Games] GalaxyA325G:
I hate to bother anyone with this issue but is anyone else seeing the error "Waiting for Network" (even though there is a perfectly good network)?

Because of this error, I haven't used the Skyica app finder for a while - but just today I was looking up MLS where I figured the App Finder would be useful since it's a term that might be hidden inside an app's description.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Please see

this post

above. You need to update to the latest version (1.3.1). I'm very sorry for the trouble!
[Android Apps and Games] GalaxyA325G:
Oh. Thanks for the quick response as I didn't want to bother you for what seemed to be an unknown error in my network.

The reason I didn't think it was due to an update issue was not only that the error didn't mention an update, but also that the Skyica App Finder is the only app I've ever installed on Android that ensures it's updated by forcing an update.

The reason that's unusual for someone like me, is that, philosophically, my unrootable phone is set up for privacy (where almost all my threads on XDA are about privacy).

As part of that setup, I never have automatic app updaters running, such that I never update an app unless I already know there's a reason I want that update (which is rare) and even then, I (manually) purposefully initiate that update process - not the app.

Because I have my phone set up such that there isn't anything automatically connecting to Google servers anywhere, I can't even directly log into the Google Play Store client because it doesn't even exist on my phone, and even if it did exist, I don't have a Google Account set up on my phone (which works well with the Skyica app finder because the well-designed Skyica app finder intelligently calls the Aurora Store instead).

The point of explaining all that is to point out that nothing is updated unless I manually update it. Well... except the Skyica App Finder, that is.

Interestingly, the ONLY app that usually tells me it wants an update - is the Skyica App Finder.

In fact, the Skyica App Finder forces that update, as it pops up a form saying I

must

get the new version.

Anyway, as a direct result of the fact that the app always told me when it wanted an update, it didn't even occur to me that I needed to update the version because the app has always forced that update whether or not I had wanted it.

Thinking about these two circumstances, based on the fact that I had a "network error", is what happened to me simply this sequence?

When I start the app, it apparently first connects to Skyica servers before doing anything else...

Apparently, the app first queries those Skyica servers comparing the version I'm using with what the server thinks is the latest version...

If the version I'm using is an older version, it has been my experience that the app is nullified until I upload to the newer version...

Which, thankfully, is easily done following a series of prompts intelligently popped up by the app's developer...

Such that, only when the version I'm using is already the latest version, will the app silently move on to the main activity of searching for apps on the Google Play Store repo.

Is that how it works?

If so, then I guess the reason the app didn't tell me I needed to

update it was likely because step #2 above may have failed.

Is that what happened?​
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Your steps describe quite correctly how it works. What failed was step 1, because I had unexpectedly lost access to the domain that I had used for the API server (so the address that the previous app versions tried to reach was not reachable). I had to set up another server with another address. (I now regained access to the old address, so the old version actually works again).
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Version 1.3.3

All data is now available for all countries again.

All 20+ features of the Advance plan are free for some weeks!

(These are all the features that most people will ever need)

Available on Google Play,

APK here
[Android Apps and Games] TheMystic:
Permission Pilot will give you a lot of useful information.
[Android Apps and Games] ze7zez:
Maybe you are referring to another application? :confused:

Permission pilot is used to check the installed applications on the phone, not to search for applications to install from the google store.
[Android Apps and Games] ze7zez:
As far as I know, Google has not ended support for android 4.0.3.
[Android Apps and Games] TheMystic:
It gives you the minimum Android version details of apps installed on your device. True that it doesn't work for searching on Google Play Store. But you'll only be able to install apps that your current Android version/ device supports.

These apps too give that information:

AppChecker - App & System info - Apps on Google Play

Check, which of your installed apps are compatible to the latest Android APIs.

play.google.com

AppDash: App Manager & Backup - Apps on Google Play

Easily clean and organize your apps using a beautiful and modern UI

play.google.com
[Android Apps and Games] ze7zez:
It makes no sense. In this thread we are discussing App Finder, not any other apps.
[Android Apps and Games] TheMystic:
These apps are not competing with App Finder. App Finder appears to be a very unique app. I gave you the links because I thought it may help you. But you don't seem to appreciate it. I have taken note of this.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
in which way does Google support it?

According to Google (new project dialog in Android studio) more than 99.3% of devices run on Android 5.0+, but since I have myself an old test phone with Android 4.1 that works quite well for some purposes I thought to start there (future versions of App Finder will also support Android 4.1+)

But I can start the slider at 4.0.3 also.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
ze7zez, yes, since these 3 apps only show info about apps installed on the device they are no alternative to App Finder.

TheMystic, thanks anyway, interesting apps, didn't know them, future versions of App Finder will also show permissions.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
App Finder 1.0.7 was just released and includes a filter for the minimally required Android version.

It can be enabled from Settings > Filter options.

Now that for some apps, the required Android cannot be shown, where it varies with the device. There is an option to include our exclude these apps.

Also, the required Android is now shown in the details pages and optionally in the result list.

The filter is free, only displaying the required Android in the result list requires a Plus license.

Please let me know if something does not work as expected.
[Android Apps and Games] TheMystic:
Google Play Store will show only apps that are supported on the device where search is done. Not sure how useful this is going to be.

Permissions shown on Google Play Store hardly say the full story. Anyway, I'll have a lot more feedback when I test it out later.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Of course the required Android will not tell for sure if it'll work on a device, but the info is clearly useful to some people.

True. And I think filters for permissions don't make sense. However my idea is to show warnings for potentially dangerous permissions in the details pages, and also for suspicious data collection practices.

But this will not come that soon.
[Android Apps and Games] TheMystic:
Information is good to have. But sometimes people fall for what is considered 'eye candy'.

Your app searches the Google Play Store for information. What use is knowing about the minimum supported version number when Google Play Store simply won't show it if the app isn't supported on the device. In either case, user just needs to know whether the app would work on his device or not. And that is all that matters.

This feature will be severely limited as your source (Google Play Store) itself contains too little information. This can be useful if you create your own database, but that would be not only too complex, but also a very dynamic process that will require a lot of resources to keep it up-to-date.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
We'll see.