F-Droid 2.0 Lands: The Open-Source Android App Store's Biggest Update in a Decade

The biggest F-Droid update in ten years

F-Droid, the long-running free and open-source (FOSS) Android app store, has announced F-Droid 2.0, which it calls a complete redesign of the official app and the largest update in a decade. After more than a year of work and 14 test releases, the new version is rolling out to users over the coming weeks. It is not just a visual refresh: key components were rewritten using Kotlin and Jetpack Compose, the modern standards for Android development.

A streamlined, three-tab interface

The main navigation is simplified into three core areas: Discover, Search, and My Apps. Categories are now folded into Discover for easier browsing, while My Apps centralizes installed apps, updates, and issues. Settings and Nearby Swap remain a tap away in the top bar rather than crowding the main navigation. A redesigned Discover screen surfaces newly added, recently updated, and, for the first time, the most-downloaded apps in the repository, all without tracking you or trying to maximize your time in the app.

Better discovery and search

F-Droid has significantly expanded its category system, adding specialized categories for things like VPNs, firewalls, and password managers, and grouping them under higher-level 'meta' categories. The Games category alone now distinguishes 17 genres. Search has been overhauled too: it can now match app descriptions, categories, and translated content rather than just names, with much-improved support for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, plus recent-query history and powerful combinable filters (category, device compatibility, anti-features).

Automatic updates and a smoother installer

F-Droid 2.0 now fetches and installs updates automatically by default (existing preferences are respected). The old pull-to-refresh gesture is gone, replaced by background update checks, with manual refresh moved to the overflow menu. Most notably, F-Droid now uses a unified installer that taps Android's new pre-approval API, an option the project credits largely to pressure from the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) and antitrust actions worldwide. On supported devices, you can confirm an install right after choosing it rather than after the download, bringing the experience much closer to the built-in app store.

Privacy features, refined

F-Droid's privacy and security tooling remains, with some changes. Tor handling is simplified (a prior 'Use Tor' setting migrates to generic Proxy Settings, with Tor VPN now recommended), and the 'panic' features are retained. The app-hiding disguise has been simplified to only change the icon and name, so users understand its limits (F-Droid still appears in system app settings and is detectable in forensic inspection). One feature not yet returning is app-wiping in response to a panic trigger; the team is seeking feedback from users who rely on it.

Why it matters

Beyond the visible polish, the Kotlin/Compose rewrite lowers the barrier for new contributors and gives F-Droid a maintainable foundation for the next decade. The project notes the effort was funded by NLnet (via the Mobifree fund), the Open Technology Fund, the Calyx Institute, and others, and included an independent security review. For anyone who values an Android app ecosystem free of tracking, F-Droid 2.0 is a significant step forward. (Note: F-Droid 2.0 drops support for Android 6 and does not currently use the Privileged Extension.)

Related on Skillo

See also: Android 15 released (Vanilla Ice Cream), Ubuntu 24.04 LTS released.

Sources

• F-Droid 2.0: A New Chapter for Android Freedom (F-Droid official blog, 24 Sep 2026)
• F-Droid gets its biggest update in a decade with new UI and smoother app installs (Ars Technica, Sep 2026)

Published date reflects the original event date (2026-09-29). This article is original Skillo editorial written from the sources above; facts were verified in September 2026.