yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
View attachment 6020701

.

APP FINDER

Comprehensive & Innovative Advanced Search Engine for Android Apps and Games

The objective is to make the apps and games optimally discoverable, for the benefit of both users and developers​

Get in on Google Play

, or

download the latest version 1.3.3 here

.

You may support the operation and further development by

making a payment here

.

A web interface is coming soon!

View attachment 6006513 View attachment 6006517

Information on this page

Features and advantages + examples

Planned features

Comparison of the free and paid features with the Play Store search (table)

User Guide

Changelog

Detailed comparison of search results from the Play Store and from App Finder

Detailed comparison of App Finder with other tools for finding Android apps and games

See also

https://skyica.com

Credits

The Google Play scraper is partially based on google-play-scraper and googleplay-api

The database is powered by PostgreSQL

The app uses the following open source libraries:

Fresco by Facebook (MIT license)

Gson by Google (Apache-2.0 license)

Kotlin Coroutines by Jetbrains (Apache-2.0 license)

View attachment 5903433

The APK that you find attached to this post is always the latest and probably most stable version.

New versions appear on Google Play about 1 hour to 1 day later.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Detailed comparison of search results from the Play Store and from App Finder

Summary: While the Play Store search works well for finding apps by name or developer, it makes it difficult to find the best apps for a specific purpose, or apps with specific features.

Without using quotes, it is highly unreliable and often does not return some of the best and most relevant apps, or returns them only after tens or hundreds of irrelevant apps.

Using quoted words often leads to significantly better results. However, different forms of words and synonyms must be included in this case and combined with the OR operator, which leads to unnecessarily complicated queries.

These are serious problems, as many people may not think of using quotes, or of combining different word forms with the OR operator, especially since all this is undocumented.

With App Finder’s advanced keyword search, finding good apps is significantly easier, faster, and more reliable.

Quotes are not generally needed to get good results, and different word forms are searched automatically.

Additional advantages include special search operators, keyword highlighting, many filters, systematic sort options, display of the exact result count, and a highly informative result list with short descriptions and scalable screenshots.

In this article, the results from various searches with the Play Store and with App Finder are analyzed in detail to demonstrate these things.

Contents

Searching with the Play Store

Searching with App Finder

Comparison and Further Examples
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Comparison and Further Examples

The results for our search example (calculator apps that can draw 3D graphs) are summarized in the following table.

It shows the number of relevant apps (according to the description) with a good user rating (4.5+ stars) or high popularity (100k+ downloads) that are returned by the search engines.

Since the Play Store seems to hide two such apps deliberately (Mathematics by daboApps and Calculator++, see above), I have excluded them from counting.

Play Store	Play Store	Play Store	App Finder	App Finder
Query	calculator apps that can draw 3d graphs	calculator 3d graphs	“calculator” “3d” “graph” OR “graphs” OR “graphing” OR “plot” OR “plots”	calculator 3d graph/plot	+calculator 3d graph/plot
Relevant apps with 4.5+ stars or 100k+ ratings in the first 20 results	3	5	11	11	13
Relevant apps with 4.5+ stars or 100k+ ratings in the first 50 results	5	7	All 15	All 15	All 15
Total number of results	~240	~225	~110	126	53

The following table compares the results when filtering for 4.5+ stars:

Play Store	Play Store	App Finder
Query	calculator 3d graphs	“calculator” “3d” “graph” OR “graphs” OR “graphing” OR “plot” OR “plots”	+calculator 3d graph/plot
Relevant apps with 4.5+ stars in the first 20 results	4	9	All 10
Relevant apps with 4.5+ stars in the first 50 results	5	All 10	All 10
Total number of results	~230	30	14

Finally, compare the information in App Finder's result list with that in the Play Store's result list:

View attachment 6013045

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View attachment 6013047

Here

and in the following post you'll find comparisons of App Finder with the Play Store search for further examples.

Of course, examples do not prove that App Finder always returns better results than the Play Store, and sometimes you may find a good app with the Play Store that you don’t find with App Finder.

However, the problems with the Play Store search are clear enough, and the advantages of keyword search are well known as it is for example still used in library catalogues and many domain-specific search engines.

Also note that App Finder’s search is based on PostgreSQL, a highly reliable open-source database system with over 35 years of active development.

From all the above, it seems clear that

App Finder makes finding good apps significantly faster, easier, and more reliable.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Detailed comparison of App Finder with other tools for finding Android apps and games

Introduction

Since this article is quite long and detailed, it might seem that the results are academic, and that App Finder is only for Nerds. However, this is far from the truth.

Regarding App Finder, the objective of the article is to show that it makes it easier and faster to find good apps, for everyone, for any purpose.

For example:

In the Play Store, quotes need to be used around each keyword to get reliable results.

In AppAgg, most important filters are inconveniently implemented as operators, and the available operators are listed but not explained.

AppBrain does not support phrase search, which everyone knows from Google web search and expects to be available.

While App Finder's result list has more useful information than that of any other tool, it is at the same time designed to be as clear as possible, an the screenshots can be zoomed all together like a photo is zoomed.

The first part of this article, and to some extent also the second and third parts, also give a very comprehensive and detailed overview of the other tools available to find and obtain Android apps.

I will later create a separate thread for this that does not treat App Finder in a special way.

Inclusion criteria

I exclude only tools that are not available in English, tools with a very limited scope, tools with pirated apps, and discontinued tools.

Search for available tools

To find the available tools, I have done various searches with Google, Bing, the Play Store, and App Finder, like search for Android apps, "Android apps" "advanced search", "Google Play" "advanced search", download APKs alternative app stores for android, discover Android games, and checked List of mobile app distribution platforms and List of Android app stores from Wikipedia.

If you know of further tools, please let me know so that I can include them here.

Evaluation methods

To evaluate the comprehensiveness and search quality, two searches were done with each tool, and the total number of results and the approximate number of probably relevant results were counted.

To determine the relevance, the information available in the tool was used. Often it was already from the information in the result list quite clear whether an app was relevant. Otherwise, the details page was quickly checked.

Contents

Overview of the available tools to find and obtain Android apps and games, with test searches and analysis

Comparison of the search features

Comparison of the result lists with screenshots

Conclusions regarding App Finder
[Android Apps and Games] ze7zez:
The expected feature is a minimum version of android on which to install the application.

That is not available here.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
With the next update, the minimum required Android version will be shown in the details pages and there will be an option to show it in the result list.

Would you also like a filter for minimum required Android version?
[Android Apps and Games] ze7zez:
Just filtering the minimum version is important.

I now use apkmirror for this.

Application features are a secondary concern. They can be found easily in other ways.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
OK, I'll add a filter for minimum Android version like at apkmirror.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I suppose it would be enough to start the slider at Android 4.1?
[Android Apps and Games] TheMystic:
Very interesting and unique. I'll check it out.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
New data update frequencies

Until now, the data was completely updated every few weeks for all countries.

To provide at least partially more recent data, we will use the following schedule from now on:

For the ~ 630,000 apps with 50+ ratings, the country-independent data (incl. global rating) and the data for the US will be updated at least every 2 days.

For all ~ 2,500,000 apps, the country-independent data (incl. global rating) and the data for the US will be updated at least every 2 weeks.

The data for all apps for all 200+ countries/regions will be updated at least every 2 months.

The country-independent data and the data for the US have just been updated for all apps.

We hope the frequencies can soon be increased when App Finder has more users and more paying users.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Version 1.0.16a: The Play Pass filter is now free

The dark theme now requires a Plus license

Small improvements

APK in first post, on Google Play soon.
[Android Apps and Games] GalaxyA325G:
I just found out about this wonderful Skyica AFP app where I do not have a Google Account on my non-rooted Samsung Galaxy A32-5G (SM-A326U) so I can't use the Google Play Store app (nor would I ever wish to use it - not the least of the reasons being the Google Play Store app search sucks).

I haven't ever had a Google Account on any Android phone in many years, which hasn't been an issue since the Aurora Store skin replaces the Google Play Store skin for scraping the APKs off of the Google Play Store repository with a Aurora-specific anonymous@gmail.com login that Google sanctions.

Reading all 9 pages, the first time the Aurora Google Play Store skin is mentioned is in Fytdyh's post #66 in this thread but that message was only about eliminating the need for the Google Play Services in the app finder app.

In response, and to his credit Skyica, in post #72 says he fixed links when using the app finder to open apps "in alternative app stores", but I don't get the option to use the Aurora Store skin (instead of the Google Play Store skin) inside of the AF1.0.16a version I just now installed from skyica.com.

The FOSS Aurora Store Google Play Store GUI topic comes up again in this thread in ethicalhaquer's post #157 but, unfortunately, there's no explanation that I can find which tells us whether or not the app finder app is designed to be able to work for people who don't have a Google Account set up on their phone (and who, therefore, must use a skin over the Google Play Store repository in order to install apps in the Google Play Store repository).

My question?

How do I get the app finder search app to bring up the desired apps for download in the Aurora Store skin of the Google Play Store repository?
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Thanks for you detailed explanation. I had tested App Finder (AF) to work with the Aurora Store (AS) about 2 months ago (when I wrote post #72), and the links from AF were opened in AS.

However, I just tried again with the current versions of AF and AS (4.3.1), and noticed that you now need to enable App Links when you start AS the first time after installation:

Tap ENABLE

Tap Add link

Tap the checkbox, then Add
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
PS: Switching back from AS to AF does not work correctly (at least on my device). You have to tap back two times and then open AF from the home screen again. I'll contact the AS developer to try to make everything work better.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Did you try reinstalling Aurora and enabling the links in setup step 5 as I described?
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Aurora Store (AS) and App Finder (AF) are doing quite different things. AS is a Google Play client, as its main task is to get and install/update apps from the Google Play repository. AF is a search engine for Android apps as its main task is to search the information about apps and then provide links to clients.

As you'll see in the planned features list in the first post, I plan for AF to be able to search other stores (i.e., also other repos) soon.

Amazon app store and Galaxy store also.

Could you please try

this App Finder version

, it may solve the problem.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
@GalaxyA325G I updated the previous post.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I have made some more important improvements to the

user guide

.

The in-app help will be changed accordingly with the next update.

If someone didn’t read it yet, now is the time!

Especially, please take note of the + and / operators. They are so useful that I’d say one should consider for every query if they can be used to get better results.

The guide is in its final form for now. I think that all current features are really well described now.

Please let me know if you think otherwise.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Version 1.0.16b: The in-app help has been significantly improved

Other small improvements

APK in first post, on Google Play soon.
[Android Apps and Games] GalaxyA325G:
Installed the latest AF 1.0.16b from the link on the original post and tested it for the ability to add any category=market:// to the "Open With..." menu.

Given I had installed the F-Droid Basic app earlier today (where F-Droid Basic is a new improved skin of F-Droid that replaces the recently deprecated Aurora Droid) I was happy to observe (even though the App Finder doesn't [yet] scrape apps from the F-Droid repositories) that this newly-installed F-Droid Basic app successfully showed up in the App Finder set of available "Open With..." choices (as it should).

The conclusion is that the App Finder "Open With..." is working rather nicely by displaying all apps registered to the market:// category.
[Android Apps and Games] yalcincihand:
Danke
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I have made my "small" color tool

Precision Color

completely free to use now.

While it will not in general be of interest to App Finder users, it has (at last for me) some connections to App Finder:

I created it before App Finder, after a long pause of developing for Android, inter alia to try some UI ideas.

And I've used it to design the color themes for App Finder.

Anyway, if someone at some point needs a tool to design color themes (or even just to get the HSL/HSV/RGB/HEX notation of some color or to convert between them), I'd suggest to check it out.

You'll notice the advantages of the indirect touchpad-like crosshairs movement immediately.

You can also see it as a (very small) preview of Skyica's upcoming 2D and 3D graphic design apps.

(Actually, I had a similar color picker already in a temporarily discontinued 3D modeling app.)

Note on the user interfaces:

Both Precision Color and App Finder use the android.view.* and android.widget.* classes directly (without Compose or other androidx.* classes, with the exception of RecyclerView and ViewPager for App Finder).

This gave me more freedom and made the very flexible UI of App Finder possible. Also I think the performance is really good in comparison to some other apps.
[Android Apps and Games] GalaxyA325G:
UPDATE:

Woo hoo!

It was a LOT of frenetic activity recently to improve the two-way flow between the Aurora Store and the App Finder... (both ways!) but we succeeded today!

At the request of Skyica and me, the very responsive Aurora Store development team kindly fixed today two of the bugs we've been observing lately in the forward:backward flow between the two tools...

App Finder passing intents to the Aurora Store

Aurora Store returning back to the App Finder

It's documented in gory detail in the Aurora Store thread, so allow me to just post my test summary of the two bugs fixed today.

Bug #1:

App Finder can't pass results to "Open with..." Aurora Store

<https://xdaforums.com/t/app-5-0-aurora-store-open-source-google-play-client.3739733/post-89023947>

Bug #2:

Back doesn't pass Aurora Store back to App Finder

<https://xdaforums.com/t/app-5-0-aurora-store-open-source-google-play-client.3739733/post-89024071>

Related posts in that Aurora Store thread are listed below - where you can ignore the posts by me and focus on on those from the respective developers, theimpulson and Skyica called out below...

#2,172

#2,171

#2,170

#2,168 (by theimpulson - Aurora Store dev)

#2,167

#2,165

#2,161 (by Skyica - App Finder dev)

#2,160 (by Skyica - App Finder dev)

#2,159

#2,158 (by theimpulson - Aurora Store dev)

#2,155

#2,153

#2,152

#2,151

#2,149

Many thanks to the wonderfully responsive and caring key developers for both apps, with the result being everyone benefits from the improved flow between these two apps!
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Comprehensive comparison of App Finder with other tools for finding Android apps and games

Moved to the first page.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
moved
[Android Apps and Games] rodken:
Here's a few notable APK Sites of some that were already mentioned:

APKMirror

APKPure

Aptoide

F-Droid

APKMonk

Softonic

Uptodown

APK4Fun

Softpedia

AppsAPK

Blackmart Alpha

9Apps

Allapks

APKsecured

ApkClean

APK Downloader

APKGrail

APKTurbo

APK4Free

AppApks.net

Appcake

GetApk

OfferGyan

ApkHere

El3ab.tech

APK50

APK Dose

Pirate APK
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Interesting, I thought the 18 that I found were already many. I wonder what the use is of them. Do they have apps that APKCombo and APKPure do not have?
[Android Apps and Games] rodken:
I haven't taken the time to venture into that rabbit hole as of yet.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
That would be useful. However I doubt that this is the case. I've never seen an app the was not on APKCombo (although I didn't check many), did you?
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Also, does any of them have a good search? (other than for name / package name)
[Android Apps and Games] rodken:
The answer might be yes, considering that there are some apps that were published on Github, Gitlab or Pling that never made it the vast archives of APKCombo.

Not to mention:

-- Some Apps that have been removed from the Google Play Store

-- Some Apps that require Google Play Services

-- Some Region-locked apps

I've yet to determine why Whatsapp business only displays and not Whatsapp.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Apps that have been removed from the Play Store and Region-locked apps should be on APKCombo / APKPure. What about Play services?

For apps on Gitlab, Github etc, one can search there directly or use Obtainium.
[Android Apps and Games] rodken:
Only a third of these have an adequate or acceptable, but not outstanding search engine, e.g., Blackmart and APKMonk.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Just did Google searches for your list and it seems that several do not work or offer pirated apps. Could you provide a list with links of working, trustworthy, no-pirate sites that are not in my article?
[Android Apps and Games] rodken:
-- AppsAPK

-- ApkClean

-- APK Downloader

-- APKTurbo

-- APK4Free

-- ApkHere

Spoiler content hidden.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
thanks, I'll check them. The first is no loading for me.
[Android Apps and Games] rodken:
Try again.
[Android Apps and Games] ethical_haquer:
Same here.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
The first does still not work. APK Downloader has no APKs itself (many of the other sites have downloaders additionally to the stored APKs). The last was already in my list. I've added the others.

Additionally I found 9apps, which seems to be one of the better sites.
[Android Apps and Games] rodken:
[Update]

-- AppsApk
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
that's in my list already
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
The first two parts of the

Comprehensive comparison of tools to find and obtain Android apps and games

are now finished.

I have made many corrections, improvements, and rearrangements, but there may of course still be some mistakes. If so, please let me know.

I would be grateful to hear if the experiences of other people are in alignment with my findings.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
The

third part

is now finished, including screenshot of the result lists of many important tools.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
I have now added an introduction and conclusions. The article is finished.

Since it is currently mainly intended to show the advantages of App Finder, I have renamed it.

However, the first part, and to some extent also the second and third parts, still give a very comprehensive and detailed overview of the other tools available to find and obtain Android apps.

I will later create a separate thread for this that does not treat App Finder in a special way.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
The number of apps could again be significantly increased due to a new scraping method.

There are now 3,000,000+ apps and games indexed that are currently available on Google Play ( 2,600,000+ available in the US)!

As far as I know, App Finder is now the most comprehensive publicly available search engine for Android apps apart from the Play Store search.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Version 1.0.17: New icon

The number of apps could be further increased. A total of 3,500,000+ currently available apps and games are now indexed (2,900,000+ available in the US).

This is significantly more than the number of Android apps available on other third-party search engines (see

here

and

here

)
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
The number of indexed apps that are currently available on Google Play could be increased further to 3,700,000+ (3,000,000+ available in the US).

The number is still increasing at a significant rate, and we are still finding many apps with a significant number of installs (>1000) and ratings (>20) that were released long ago.

It is currently impossible for me to say how many more apps there are on Google Play, but it's clear that there are more than reported by 42matters.

Version 1.0.17a was just released with various small improvements.

App Finder will launch on

Product Hunt

in the next few days. I'll let you know when I'm sure of the day. I will be grateful for any support (upvotes / comments).
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Slow queries fixed

Although no one complained, occasional very slow queries were a problem of App Finder in the past.

While about 85% of the ~74,000 queries that App Finder processed in the last 3 months took less than half a second, ~5,000 queries took more than 1 second, ~600 more than 5 seconds, and ~66 more than 20 seconds.

The very slow queries were mainly due to not all data being cached in RAM. We have now upgraded the database server from 16GB / 2 vCPUs to 64GB / 8 vCPUs. Nearly all queries should now complete in under 1 second, some special cases may take up to 2 seconds, and very few exceptional cases up to 5 seconds.
[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Since I first wrote the user guide, I have struggled to explain how App Finder handles search queries, so that everyone can quickly understand it. After many improvements, I think I have finally succeeded. What do you think?