[Android] Offer support for LineageOS/F-Droid

[vsatmydynipnet]

We are using Brave and Firefox on all Linux and LineageOS (Android) Systems. But we setup without Gapps, so no Google Play is available. We also have no Google Account and do not use their services.

Brave was downloadable via Yalp from Play since a few days and it was possible to work that way without Google Account for the 2 or 3 Apps we use from their store.

Now Google blocks Yalp, so there is no possibility to upgrade Brave from 1.4.x to latest version.

All others have a direct APK download, Mozilla/Firefox via their server, Tor via their server or Guardian Project via F-Droid, so working without Goggle and Google Play works perfect.

Before we delete Brave from all of our Desktop and Mobile Systems there is this question for some download from a trusted server. Maybe possible to add as F-Droid repository would be great.

Thank you.

[bsclifton]

cc: @SergeyZhukovsky @samartnik @AlexeyBarabash

[AlexeyBarabash]

@vsatmydynipnet

In the future we will release browser for Android from the same codebase as the desktop browser, and then apk will be possible to find at https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/releases .

AT the current you can find the latest Brave Browser Android apk in brave/browser-android-tabs repository, https://github.com/brave/browser-android-tabs/releases . The latest version is https://github.com/brave/browser-android-tabs/releases/tag/v1.5.2 .

[kjozwiak]

@vsatmydynipnet just make sure you download a build that's being released. Sometimes builds get published for QA that might still have a bunch issues or stability issues. We've had a few instances of users grabbing a build that was still being developed because they thought it was an "official" release.

Usually builds that are uploaded to GPS have release notes associated with them as per https://github.com/brave/browser-android-tabs/releases/tag/v1.6.0. You can also use https://github.com/brave/browser-android-tabs/blob/base-78.0.3904.108/CHANGELOG.md to see the what the latest release is.

[genodeftest]

Isn't this a duplicate of #6217?

If you want to have Brave in an unofficial F-Droid repo, please have a look at #9316.

[srirambv]

+1 from @paulvi and others via #6217

[srirambv]

+1 from @stevenleeS0ht via #9682

[stevenleeS0ht]

In F-Droid, the App can be automatically update. It would take more time to do every installation manually.

[stevenleeS0ht]

You can push all formal apk release to F-Droid repository automatically via CD script (Jenkins, Travis-CI or some others).