Has Anyone Ever Considered a Federated Alternative App Store?
I was curious—has anyone ever thought about attempting a Fediverse-based alternative app store? Something that embraces the decentralized, federated philosophy but applies it to distributing apps.
Imagine an app store combining the best ideas of platforms like F-Droid, AltStore, Aptoide, or Aurora Store, but with the following Fediverse twist:
- Federation: App repositories could be hosted on independent servers that communicate, similar to Mastodon instances, Lemmy, or PeerTube.
- Openness: Developers could host their own apps on their servers, or join community-based app hubs.
- Community Moderation: Users could rate, review, and verify apps collectively to ensure safety and quality.
- Decentralized Privacy: No centralized tracking or data collection—apps could exist in line with the privacy values many of us in the Fediverse cherish.
- Cross-Platform Focus: Not just Android or iOS—this could support Linux desktop, custom ROMs, or a potential future Fediverse OS.
Drawing inspiration from existing app stores like:
- Aurora Store (privacy-focused),
- Aptoide (community-driven recommendations),
- AltStore/Scarlet (sideloading and modded apps),
- F-Droid (free and open-source apps with community involvement),
- or even BuildStore (subscription-based security assurance),
a federated app store could offer something revolutionary in contrast to the monopoly of Google Play/Apple App Store.
Potential Names for This Hypothetical App Store:
1. FedApps – Simple and straight to the point.
2. Appiverse – Merging "App" and "Fediverse" to highlight its federated nature.
3. DecentraStore – Emphasizing decentralization as the core concept.
4. OpenWave – Suggesting an open and free flow of apps across the Fediverse.
5. AppHaven – A safe haven for apps, rooted in community trust.
6. LibreStore – Inspired by "libre," pointing to freedom and openness.
7. FediHub – A central hub for apps, aligned with the federated ecosystem.
8. CommApps – Highlighting the community-driven aspect of the store.
9. NodeStore – Tying it to the networked nature of federated nodes.
Questions for the community:
- Would something like this align with the ethos of the Fediverse?
- What would the technical hurdles look like—building decentralized repositories, ensuring verification, and avoiding malicious apps?
- How would we overcome the challenge of making this accessible to non-technical users? Could it scale to mainstream use?
- Could such a platform serve as a foundation if the Fediverse community ever developed its own federated operating systems?
- And just for fun: If you were to create this app store, what features or design principles would be must-haves?
I’d love to see something like this, but I unfortunately have neither the time nor the technical know-how to take it on. However, the idea of a community-driven alternative app ecosystem feels like it could be a natural evolution of the Fediverse’s decentralized ethos.
EDIT: If a federated app store DID gain traction, it could potentially plant the seeds for future Fediverse-powered devices—phones, tablets, PCs, etc. Imagine an entirely federated tech stack.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts, ideas, and feedback.
Scott M. Stolz
in reply to Teknevra (She/Her) • • •Teknevra (She/Her)
in reply to Scott M. Stolz • • •drspod
in reply to Teknevra (She/Her) • • •like this
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Max-P
in reply to Teknevra (She/Her) • • •Why does everyone tries to shoehorn the fediverse into everything? I swear it's becoming the new bitcoin.
F-Droid supports additional custom repos. Anyone can already host their own custom repo with their apps on it. Failing that, you can still sideload APKs fron your web browser.
Only the reviews part of it could use being federated.
How would a federated operating system even work? What is it gonna federate and where, and for what purposes?
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haverholm
in reply to Max-P • • •This exactly. With a federated app store, how would users verify that apps hadn't been tampered with? Federation isn't a one size fits all solution.
And yes, "a future Fediverse OS" isn't a potential, it's a hallucination.
edel
in reply to Max-P • • •I presume the concern is governments banning apps left and right so a federated repository will be mostly immune from that. But you are right, technologically is not as straight forward.
What surprised me is that F-Droid is avoided by many FOSS enthusiasts (due to signing it themselves so delayed updates and potential tampering).
Aurora is great but 100% on Google's merci and Google frequently cuts its winds.
Did not know Aptoide was community based... have to check it out.
Max-P
in reply to edel • • •Yeah but you can still add third-party repos if you don't like the official ones, like the FUTO repository.
The F-Droid app and the F-Droid repository are two different things and don't have to be used together. So if you don't want to submit your app to F-Droid for them to build and sign, you can use a third party repository without needing a whole new app.
It's still not federated, but it is distributed which makes more sense for an app store.
Scott M. Stolz
in reply to Teknevra (She/Her) • • •To create something like this, you would need to federate two components, and optionally a third.
1. The applications.
2. The app store.
3. Curation groups.
You would also need to create a standard (a protocol) for the app store to talk to the websites hosting the applications.
Application Hosting: Basically, everyone can create their own website with their own apps. That part would be unmoderated, similar to how you can go to a software publisher's website today and download a Windows program. They publish their application and data about their apps in a machine readable way where an app store could take that data and create a listing.
The App Store: There would be open source app store code that allows people to run their own app store. The people operating an app store decide what gets listed in the app store. Some app stores will be for a particular niche while some will attempt to list everything. For example, you might have app stores that only have open source software. This would still make the app store operator the gatekeeper,
... Show more...To create something like this, you would need to federate two components, and optionally a third.
1. The applications.
2. The app store.
3. Curation groups.
You would also need to create a standard (a protocol) for the app store to talk to the websites hosting the applications.
Application Hosting: Basically, everyone can create their own website with their own apps. That part would be unmoderated, similar to how you can go to a software publisher's website today and download a Windows program. They publish their application and data about their apps in a machine readable way where an app store could take that data and create a listing.
The App Store: There would be open source app store code that allows people to run their own app store. The people operating an app store decide what gets listed in the app store. Some app stores will be for a particular niche while some will attempt to list everything. For example, you might have app stores that only have open source software. This would still make the app store operator the gatekeeper, but what is different here is that anyone could use the same software and set up their own app store.
Curation Groups: This allows people or groups to create their own curated list of approved apps. This provides the app stores a shortcut so they don't have to review every single app themselves. This would allow individuals, communities, associations, and even businesses to create moderated lists of apps they reviewed and believe should be listed in app stores. Mastodon could publish a curated list of Mastodon Apps they recommend. Open source organizations could create a curated list of apps they recommend. The app stores could consume such lists.
People can then choose the app store and the apps they trust. App stores can choose the curated lists they trust.
This is similar to how podcasting platforms work, where a podcaster publishes their audio files and an RSS feed with information about their Podcast, and various Podcast Directories list their podcast. Or similar to how platforms like Steam work, where they list games, many of which can be obtained on the game author's website as well. The key point being that the authors of the apps can get listed in multiple app stores.
Optionally, both the Application Hosting software and App Store can be integrated with protocols like ActivityPub, AT Protocol, or Nomad/Zot protocol for the purpose of sending out notifications to followers who may be interested in updates and news about the apps or the app store. At the very least, it should list an existing fediverse handle where people can follow them.
So, yes, it can be federated.
To be safe and secure, you would want multiple organizations with resources to run competing app stores using this software and protocol. These organizations can be non-profits, cooperatives, or even small businesses. The reason why is because an organization is more likely to have the resources to moderate the list of apps in their App Store, whereas an individual most likely would not, unless that was their full time job.
Whereas anyone who created an app could run their own website with information about their app, and then request to be listed in various app stores and curated lists.