yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Apps and Games] ze7zez:
Do as you see fit.

Android 4.0.x has no support in the store, nevertheless many of the applications also work on previous versions.

Google Play services discontinuing updates for API levels 14 and 15

The Android Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) platform is seven years old and the active device count has been below 1% for some time. Consequently, we are deprecating support for ICS in future releases of Google Play services. For devices running ICS, the Google Play Store will no longer update Play...

android-developers.googleblog.com

You can search apkmirror by API version for a specific app, and you don't need to log in to a google account, then download and install on any device.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Did you check the new version?

Yes, this is great, I also plan to add links to APKMirror in App Finder (and index all apps available there and other app stores, so we have one search engine for everything).
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I have just extended the first post significantly, more info is coming soon!
[Android Apps and Games] TheMystic:
Please consider adding the following features:

1. Does the app request internet access?

2. App Size (I would always choose a smaller app over one that offers identical functionality): shows whether apps have been coded efficiently and whether there is unwanted bundling inside.

3. Presence of trackers (which is different from ads)

4. Bundling of 3rd party services within the app (Firebase, AdMob, Facebook Analytics, etc.)

There is a lot of misleading information about tracking on Google Play Store. I have written about it here.

Thanks.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I already said that display of permissions is planned. I may also make filters for some important groups of permissions.

I agree that this would be very important.

However, this will require scanning of APKs (or getting the data from from someone who scanned APKs). I don't currently know how soon this can be done.

For now, please note that when you're looking for an app for a specific purpose, App Finder will nearly allow you to constrain your selection of candidate apps to just very few by other criteria. Then you can check the safety of those by other means.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I have just added a list of upcoming features in the first post.

Please let me know what you'd like to see first.
[Android Apps and Games] TheMystic:
I believe the following method can be one way if doing it:

1. Get the Play Store link.

2. Paste it here.

3. Import the results.

Yes, sorting by app rating has always been something I wish Google Play Store offered. So this app will be immediately useful for that (for me). Ability to add other conditions for sorting (such as app size) would make finding 'good' apps much easier.

I'll be watching how this app develops. Shows tremendous potential and surely a candidate for my unique app series.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Exodus Privacy seems to be a really good and useful service, and it would be great to have their data in App Finder, I fully agree with that!

I can't just use their web interface for this of course, they have just about 160,000 apps scanned currently, which is 7% of App Finders apps. Since analysis of one app seems to take about 10 secs, 2 million apps would take 230 DAYS, and that would have to be repeated for app updates.

I will contact Exodus and propose cooperation with scanning apps. But probably not in the next weeks, I have many other features to implement.

Thanks. When you had the opportunity to use it, I'd be grateful to hear your experience.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I have added the requested features to the upcoming features list.

Also, I've added a changelog and credits.
[Android Apps and Games] TheMystic:
This confirms my statement here.

I guess they would have covered most of the popular/ good apps in each category.

That's true. But what alternatives do you have to provide more details not available on Google Play Store about an app?

Sure. I haven't yet downloaded it to test it. When I do, I'll get back to you with my feedback.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I agree with your statement that > 95% or so of the apps on Google Play are pure garbage. And Exodus has likely covered the most popular apps.

The problem is that "popular" not always coincides with "high quality", and "unpopular" not with "garbage". Therefore my goal is to index and provide information for as much apps as possible, to also make the apps of developers without a big budget for advertising discoverable.

As I said, I'll try to work together with Exodus or others to scan apps. I think the computational effort can be handled when App Finder generates some revenue.

By the way, App Finder is already quite expensive to operate. Since I provide data for all countries, I have to scrape 180 sites for each 2.3 million apps, plus more to discover apps.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
The user guide is now on the first page
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Reserved
[Android Apps and Games] TheMystic:
I'm wondering if this is a feasible project from a profitability point of view. Don't get me wrong. I don't want to sound negative or demotivating.

1 Firstly, only a very small % of users will actually know about this app.

2. An even smaller % of people will actually use it.

3. Given that this app only helps in filtering search results based on user criteria, the app will be used only to find apps when someone wants to install an app. And then the app is unlikely to be launched for a long time. An app that is rarely launched is not one that most would pay for, especially on a recurring basis.

These are some practical considerations which should drive your future investment in time and money.

All the best.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Thanks for your thoughts!

I disagree however. I am very confident in the usefulness and also the profitability of App Finder.

This is a challenge every app developer faces (if it's not a big popular company).

This is a challenge every app developer faces. I don’t have many users yet, but I also didn’t do any advertising yet apart from posting it here and in some other forums.

You're right that since it's only used to find other apps, users will spend comparatively little time with it. But I'm confident people will see the value of quickly finding good apps which they will then spend much time with.

I won't give exact numbers, but the % of users that already paid for it is better than I expected (considering that the % of paying users is generally quite low for Android apps).
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Currently, most users of App Finder actually search for games, and it is not hard to see its advantage for this.

Say you’re looking for 3d space games. Compare Google Play’s result list with App Finder’s (and remember the screenshots can even be resized):

Google Play:

App Finder:
[Android Apps and Games] TheMystic:
This app is very useful indeed. At no point have I questioned it's usefulness. It is also a very unique app today.

My limited point is this:

Unlike a browser, file manager, gallery, video player, launcher, etc. this isn't an app that one would use daily or even regularly.

If you're incurring running costs to provide this service, you should define a time frame for break-even, if planning to make this profitable. If the app is successful, then good for you. If not, you'll have to see if it is worthwhile continuing incurring the costs.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
You're right with this of course.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
In this post I tried to demonstrate App Finder's advantages for searching games.

But for searching apps, the advantages are no less clear.

Suppose you’re looking for a good reliable scientific calculator. Clearly, the best candidates would be apps with a high average user rating based on a high number of ratings.

While Google Play sorts search results according to these criteria of course, you must check one result after the other and don’t know how far you need to look.

With App Finder however,

you can exactly specify criteria for apps to be included,

you get an exact result count,

and a list with all essential data

that can be sorted systematically:

Google Play:

App Finder:
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I have just added a search syntax reference to the user guide.

I think that all information needed to use App Finder optimally is now included.

As listed in the upcoming features, the possibility to search for exact words and to include synonyms automatically will be added soon. Further, semantic (AI) search is planned as an alternative for later.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Version 1.0.10: Links to the Google Play website are now available to see reviews in other languages

In addition to the links to the Play Store app, there are now links to open the Google Play details pages in a browser.

This makes it possible, for example, to change the language by appending &hl=xx to the URL, where xx is the language code, e.g. en for Englisch.

This way you can see reviews in different languages.

To activate the links, tap the cog-icon beside the Play Store link on a details page. There is also an option to set the language to English automatically.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Version 1.0.10b: Problems with some keyboards fixed

APK here
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Latest version now always in this thread as APK

Because it sometimes takes longer for updates to be available Google Play, you'll find the latest version now always in the first post of this thread as APK.

Minor improvement and bug fix updates may not be published to Google Play at all.

The latest version is also probably the most stable. There are currently no Beta versions.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Version 1.0.10c: Small improvements

Available on Google Play soon, APK here

The introductory prices have been extended a last time until June 30!
[Android Apps and Games] ze7zez:
Is it not possible to upgrade from version 9a?
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Sorry, had unsigned version uploaded here by mistake, have replaced it now. But you can also just update via Google Play, the update is live.
[Android Apps and Games] ze7zez:
From the change log:

"1.0.10: There are now links available to show the apps on the Google Play website, which makes it possible to change the language to see reviews in another language"

Do links cause a huge increase in apk file size?

1.0.8 = 1.4 MB

1.0.9 = 1.4 MB

1.0.10c = 8.8 MB post #45 (unsigned)

1.0.10c = 6 MB post #1 (signed)
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
There was NO notable increase in APK size over the last releases.

Where did you get the numbers from?

The unsigned 1.0.10c I uploaded here by mistake was larger since it was the unoptimized debug version.

The APK linked now is the "signed, universal APK" generated by Google Play, which is always much larger than the device-specific version Play delivers to users, which is still much larger than the updates that Play delivers.

You may also check that there was no size increase here https://apkpure.com/app-finder/scadica.aq/versions
[Android Apps and Games] ze7zez:
1.4 MB is the size of the apk after installation.

Is it then

libstatic-webp.so
libnative-imagetranscoder.so
libnative-filters.so
libimagepipeline.so

do they come from you or from google?
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I verified that the installed APK size is about 1.5 MB when installed from Google Play, and 6 MB when installed from universal APK, for all versions. This must be mainly because the universal APK includes native code for 4 different architectures and resources for different screen resolutions, but I also wonder why the difference is that big. (Note that the code for x86 architectures is larger than that for ARM architectures which most phones run on.)

These .so files are from the Fresco image loading library, that is also listed in the About dialog.

libstatic-webp.so is to support webp on Android < 4.2.1, forgot to remove it when I dropped support for those Androids, will be removed in next version.
[Android Apps and Games] Sentimental Sugarcube:
Thank you for linking me to this thread! I'm excited to check it out!
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
The current state of the poll:

I hope that my recent posts will change some people's minds ...

And I hope that whoever voted that App Finder is also no good will explain this ;)
[Android Apps and Games] mat1371:
I wish it also had a web / PC interface.

Many times I want to search in comfort of my desk and PC.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
You can check that this is at the top of the upcoming features list. My current estimate is that it should be there in about 2 month, but I may have to do some other things first so that it would be delayed a bit.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Introductory prices end today!

Today is the last chance to get a Plus licence at the reduced price of $9 per year / $24 for ever.

(Standard prices: $12 per year / $36 for ever)

Your purchase would contribute to the operation and improvement of App Finder.

See the list of upcoming features in the first post.

Note that the operation is quite expensive, especially since Google does not provide an API, and the data thus need to be scraped regularly (A page for each about 2.4 million apps for 180 countries = 430 million pages, plus more pages do discover new apps, which is about 73 TB of data. Further, a high-performance database server is needed to handle the search queries).
[Android Apps and Games] Fytdyh:
Is there a way to use your app without Google play services? Got a huawei device without google play services and the app crashes when I open it
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Thanks for calling my attention to this. Currently App Finder requires the Play services.

I suppose on that device App Finder will be of limited use anyway because the found apps cannot be installed from Google Play, you would need links to AppGallery?
[Android Apps and Games] Fytdyh:
Not necessarily. I can access apps from Google play store with Aurora store. About 70% of those apps will work even without Google play services.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I see. I'll make it work without Play services as soon as possible (currently network operations are done with Cronet, so I'll have to implement an alternative to this).
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Version 1.0.10d: Various small improvements

Available on Google Play and here.

@ze7zez, the size of the universal APK has been reduced to 3.6MB.

New features coming soon!

(and one is already there)
[Android Apps and Games] ze7zez:
1. Using "Screen zoom: 0" is still not enough. For me, on the 6.7" Amoled display, the letters are small and thin, which, in the absence of dark mode, causes my eyes to burn through the GUI of the apk.

2. During installation, eliminating useless lib folders for the device could still reduce the size of the application by at least 1 MB. It's not much, but without unnecessary files it's elegant. Manual removal in the apk does nothing, because the installer checks for their presence and suspends the installation.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Thanks for the report! This is very helpful as there are so many different devices and I can't test on all myself.

Could you please give a screenshot with the screen zoom slider?

I currently don't know how to do this, and since App Finder is very small compared to most other apps anyway, this is not a priority currently.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I have now eliminated the Play services dependency. I have tested it on LineageOS.

Could you please check if the attached APK works with your device?
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I have just fixed a problem with opening links in alternative app stores.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Version 1.0.11: Devices without Google Play services are now supported

If the Play Store app is not available, the app links will be opened in another installed app store.

If Play Billing is not available, the Plus features are free for now!

APK here
[Android Apps and Games] bernarbernuli:
Great app, I just became a fan of your app. I congratulate you, I support you to recover the function to export the results to Excel.

I am also looking forward to the web version of the app.
[Android Apps and Games] rodken:
@Skyica

Requesting an option to increase the font size in the app. Aging eyes allowed me to find it difficult to read the text on my phone. If you were to add an option to increase the font size, I would be able to use your app more easily.

Specifically, I would like to be able to increase the font size by 20%+. This would make the text much easier to read and would allow me to use your app more effectively.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Great to hear that, I'll restore the export functionality.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I'll see to it.

I'm not sure if there's maybe a bug that prevents larger text size on some devices. Could you please make a screenshot with the "Screen Zoom" slider? Thank you!
[Android Apps and Games] rodken:
OP8 running crDroid ROM based on Android 12.1
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Thanks. Then it's not a bug, this is actually the largest font size that is currently possible.

It will be difficult to make a larger size possible as the complete layout would need to be changed (especially the result list). Or what would you suggest?
[Android Apps and Games] ze7zez:
I suggest setting the option to display on a rotated screen, because on a tablet the visibility of the font is much better.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Landscape layout is also possible on phones (must be enabled in Settings > Display Options). Currently this forces 2-pane-layout.

I could of course make 1-pane landscape layout possible for a much larger text size, but this would result in much less overview as only about one list item would be visible at a time. Also, I suppose most people would prefer portrait layout on phones.

PS does it look on your phone like on the screenshot from @rodken, and is this too small for you also?
[Android Apps and Games] ze7zez:
There is indeed a Landscape layout. Fonts very small, so I didn't notice.

Note that the natural level layout on a tablet (1200 x 1920 pixels, 10:16 ratio) divides the screen differently than on a smartphone (1080 x 2400 pixels, 9:20 ratio), so that on a smartphone the space on the right side is wasted.

Scrolling the screen with settings in a Landscape layout is no problem on a touchscreen.

Yes, I wrote about it in post #64.
[Android Apps and Games] ze7zez:
Why do I have "Screen zoom: 4" on my tablet, but on my smartphone "Screen zoom: 0"?
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
The space is not "wasted" but reserved for the result list. In landscape layout with maximal screen zoom the screen division should be exactly the same on all devices.

Not sure what you mean. I was worried about the lucidity of the result list in 1-pane landscape layout on phones.

Just wanted to make sure it was not a bug in my app after all.

Screen zoom 0 is always the default that my algorithm determines as optimal based on the screen-zoom and text size system setting. Depending on screen size and resolution, the slider can be used to increase the zoom, decrease the zoom, or both.
[Android Apps and Games] ze7zez:
In portrait mode, the results are displayed "as if" on the second screen and you can return to the selection screen by "<-".

Could it work the same way in horizontal mode?

Does 0 mean no zoom?

=======

I really like the advanced search in apkmirror with three drop-down checkboxes.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Yes, working on it, will upload APK in some minutes.

It means you didn't change the zoom in App Finder.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
@rodken, @ze7zez

I have now enabled 1-pane layout for landscape. This should be applied automatically, else try the screen zoom slider. Note that you can hide the status bar for a bit more vertical space.

I'm not happy with it and will probably later make larger font size possible in portrait layout (with an alternative result list layout).

But maybe the current solution helps you for now?
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
@bernarbernuli

It is now possible again to save the results as spreadsheet (tap the disk icon below the filters), APK attached.

Since this is an advanced feature, it requires a Plus license.
[Android Apps and Games] bernarbernuli:
fantastic, mean that this latest version does not allow to pay for the Plus version, however if I did it with the latest version available in play store and then I updated.

I also propose to translate into Spanish the app if you are interested.
[Android Apps and Games] ze7zez:
This solution I think is the best. In horizontal mode, the zoom can be set to 4 and the fonts are really good. Now I am looking forward to the black version, not only beneficial for amoled, but also for the eyes when the environment is gray or dark.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Must be since it was not installed from Google Play, didn't know that. Good that you found a way.

Thank you, will come back when I'm ready. Since for people who don't speak English the app descriptions must also be shown and be searchable in other languages, it is quite some work.

If you didn't review App Finder on Google Play already, I would appreciate this much.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Great that it works for you! I'll implement the black theme next month.

If you didn't review App Finder on Google Play already, I would appreciate this much.
[Android Apps and Games] bernarbernuli:
Yes, of course, the translation can be done by me without any problems. I am happy to help in interesting projects like yours.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Version 1.0.12: Saving results as spreadsheet, larger font on phones possible

The results can now be saved as spreadsheet again (see the disk-icon below the filters).

.

1-pane landscape layout is now supported for larger font on phones.

Available on Google Play, APK in first post
[Android Apps and Games] ze7zez:
How do I increase the font?
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
With the screen zoom slider, is this not possible?
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
@ze7zez I thought I explained why this is the maximum size for portrait currently. In landscape mode (must be enabled in Display Options), a much larger size should be possible. Note that the size is saved for portrait and landscape individually.
[Android Apps and Games] bernarbernuli:
Hi, would it be possible that when exporting the results to excel also include the field on the Android version minimally required.

When viewing the search results in the app I find that many apps do not show the Android version minimally required, that's because the developer of the app did not write that data in the corresponding tab in play store, is not it?

If so, there is little that can be done to obtain this information that is missing in many files, isn't it?

Another question, the Android Target version of each app can only be obtained by scanning the apk?
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Yes of course, I can include it if you need it.

This is because the version varies with device for these apps, and no further information is available on the Play website.

This information is in the manifest file included in the APK. I plan scanning APKs later, but I don't know when this can be done and to what extend.

This information is on the Play website also, but I don't have it in the database currently. Of what use would it be?
[Android Apps and Games] bernarbernuli:
It lets you know that the app complies with Google's policies for a given Android version. The minimum required version of an app can have a very large spectrum, and be compatible with Android 5, but with "Android target" you know that it was built for Android 12, for example. You can also get a rough idea with the release date, but this data is more precise.

In the case of Wear OS it is even more justified because you know with this data that the app was developed for Wear OS 2 (target: Android 9), and that is relevant, as it happens that there are several apps built for Wear OS 2 that do not work on Wear OS 3 (Android 11).