ARK-Store 1.6.0 beta 3

• Android version in the details: the details tell which Android an app needs, as "Requires: Android 8.0 or later", once the index has read it from the APK, and a file the device cannot run is no longer offered
• Index: reads the lowest Android version from every APK, wherever the uses-sdk element stands in the manifest
• README: says that a file is refused by its keys only when its keys can be read

Download ARK-Store-1.6.0-beta.3.apk below and open it on your phone to install, or turn on Show beta versions in ARK-Store's settings and update from inside the app.

ARK-Store 1.6.0 beta 2

• Scrolling left alone: a list being scrolled at the moment the updates section or an error comes first is no longer pulled back to the top; a list at its top still shows the newcomer at once
• README: the section What you trust when you install now says what the store can and cannot tell. The service hosting the release, the index and HTTPS are trusted; the comparison of signing keys is a first sieve, with Android deciding; and an update without asking is a possibility on Android 12 and later under Android's conditions, not a rule

Download ARK-Store-1.6.0-beta.2.apk below and open it on your phone to install, or turn on Show beta versions in ARK-Store's settings and update from inside the app.

ARK-Store 1.6.0 beta 1

• Updates seen at once: the updates a refresh has just found show at the top of the list right away. Until now a list at its top kept its first item in place when the updates section appeared above it, so the section stayed hidden above the list until it was scrolled up; the same held for an error shown above the list. A list scrolled further down stays where it is
• The README has a new section, What you trust when you install, on what the store checks before installing an app and what it leaves to you

Download ARK-Store-1.6.0-beta.1.apk below and open it on your phone to install, or turn on Show beta versions in ARK-Store's settings and update from inside the app.

ARK-Store 1.5.0

• Icons: every app is shown with its own icon, read by the index from the APK, as an image or as the vector paths the app then draws itself; IzzyOnDroid and F-Droid give theirs. An app whose icon cannot be read is shown by its initial
• Material surfaces, on by default on Android 13 and later: the screen and everything on it, the search field, the chips, the buttons, the badges, the cards and the sheets, are drawn as brushed metal lit from above, the graphics processor computing the light, the grain and the bevelled edge for every pixel. The setting under Appearance turns them off for flat colours or to save power. The metal is tried once off screen before it is drawn, and a device whose graphics driver cannot draw it keeps the flat colours and says so in the settings. Measured with the release build on a Pixel 8a and a Galaxy Z Flip 4, the metal costs nothing measurable in scrolling, and the text keeps a contrast of at least 7:1 on it, light and dark
• Places as chips: chips under the categories narrow the list to the apps of GitHub, Codeberg, GitLab, IzzyOnDroid or F-Droid, or all of them; the chip of a place that is off in the settings turns it on
• Where an installed app came from: the details say whether it was installed from Google Play, F-Droid, Aurora Store, ARK-Store or another app, and whether it is signed with the same key as the version offered here, so that ARK-Store can update it. The index names the key each file is signed with, read from the APK's signing block, only when every signature scheme in the block agrees and the key has not been rotated
• Forks and look-alikes: the original of a fork that kept its package name is listed on its own, a build of another project is not offered as the installed app's update, and another app altogether installed under an app's package name, such as Google's own under microG Companion's, is shown as what it is, with nothing to open, update or remove. That is told only from a key seen to differ and a name read from the APK itself, never from a catalogue's translated name or a conflict remembered from before
• Search: the apps a search names come first, then those whose repository, developer or package it names, and the result is shown from the top; the number of apps and the order stay above the list with the search and the chips

Download ARK-Store-1.5.0.apk below and open it on your phone to install, or update from inside ARK-Store.

ARK-Store 1.5.0 beta 4

Beta version for testing.

• Material surfaces on by default on Android 13 and later: the screen and everything on it are brushed metal lit from above. The setting under Appearance turns them off for flat colours or to save power
• Measured with the release build on a Pixel 8a and a Galaxy Z Flip 4, the metal costs nothing measurable in scrolling; the text keeps a contrast of at least 7:1 on it, light and dark, and large fonts, high-contrast text and TalkBack work as before

Install it from inside ARK-Store with "Show beta versions" turned on, or download ARK-Store-1.5.0-beta.4.apk below.

ARK-Store 1.5.0 beta 3

Beta version for testing.

• List: the number of apps and the order stay above the list with the search and the chips; in a window too low for that they scroll with the list. A search puts the apps it names first and shows the result from the top
• Same package name, another app: the original of a fork that kept its package name is listed on its own, and a build of another project is not offered as the installed app's update; its key is compared once the file has been downloaded. Another app altogether installed under an app's package name (such as Google's own under microG Companion's) is shown as what it is
• Index: no key is named for a file whose key has been rotated, and the keys of known files are read once again
• Material surfaces: tried once off screen before being drawn, with the flat colours kept where the graphics driver cannot draw them; the background is drawn once into an image, the shaders are shared and the lighting is computed in half precision, so scrolling is smoother. Still an experiment, off by default

Install it from inside ARK-Store with "Show beta versions" turned on, or download ARK-Store-1.5.0-beta.3.apk below.

ARK-Store 1.5.0 beta 2

Beta version for testing.

• Material surfaces: an experiment behind a setting. With it on, the screen and everything on it (the search field, the chips, the buttons, the badges, the cards and the sheets) are drawn as brushed metal lit from above; the graphics processor computes the light, the grain and the bevelled edge for every pixel. Needs Android 13
• Places: the chips are always shown, in a tone of their own and with a choice of all places; the chip of a place that is off in the settings turns it on
• Details: the details say where an installed app came from (Google Play, F-Droid, Aurora Store, ARK-Store or another app) and whether it is signed with the same key as the version offered here, so that ARK-Store can update it
• Index: each file carries the key it is signed with, read from the APK's signing block when every signature scheme agrees; the IzzyOnDroid and F-Droid lists are built again once so that their icons appear
• More room between the search field, the chips and the list, and the search field's background lines up with its outline

Install it from inside ARK-Store with "Show beta versions" turned on, or download ARK-Store-1.5.0-beta.2.apk below.

ARK-Store 1.5.0 beta 1

Beta version for testing.

• Icons: every app is shown with its own icon. The store index reads it from the APK, as an image or, for an icon drawn as a vector, as the paths the app then draws itself; IzzyOnDroid and F-Droid give theirs. An app whose icon cannot be read is shown by its initial
• Places: chips under the categories narrow the list to the apps of one place: GitHub, Codeberg, GitLab, IzzyOnDroid or F-Droid
• The icons of the apps found by searching GitHub fill in over the next day or two, as the index looks at those apps again

Install it from inside ARK-Store with "Show beta versions" turned on, or download ARK-Store-1.5.0-beta.1.apk below.

ARK-Store 1.4.0

• Apps under their own names: the list shows the name an app gives itself, read from its APK, instead of the name of its repository, so that for example bitwarden/android is shown as Bitwarden
• Four more places to get apps from, each with a switch of its own in the settings: apps released on Codeberg and GitLab with the arkstore topic, apps found by searching those two, and the catalogues of IzzyOnDroid and F-Droid. Their apps carry the catalogue's name as a label, show what the catalogue warns about, and are checked against the catalogue's checksum before they are installed
• Listed once: an app offered by several places is listed once, from its developer when possible; an installed app stays with the place whose files are signed the way it is, and the details name the other places
• The version that fits: from IzzyOnDroid and F-Droid the newest version the device can run is offered, also when the very newest needs a newer Android, and an installed app is offered the newest version signed with its key
• Quick to start: the apps of the other catalogues are in the list as soon as the store starts, read from the lists last downloaded
• A beta version shows how often the prereleases have been downloaded and the stable version how often the full releases have
• An app whose signing key has been replaced is no longer taken for one signed otherwise, and a file signed with the key the app has now installs whether or not it carries the history of the keys before it
• One faulty entry no longer costs a whole list its apps, two downloads running at once never write to the same file, and the download notification goes away when the last download is done

Download ARK-Store-1.4.0.apk below and open it on your phone to install, or update from inside ARK-Store.

ARK-Store 1.4.0 beta 6

Beta version for testing.

• The apps of the other catalogues are in the list as soon as the store starts, read from the lists last downloaded, instead of only once the network has answered
• From IzzyOnDroid and F-Droid the newest version the device can run is offered, also when the very newest needs a newer Android. An installed app is offered the newest version signed with its key
• The warnings shown for a catalogue's app are those of the version offered
• An app whose signing key has been replaced is no longer taken for one signed otherwise
• One faulty entry no longer costs a whole list its apps, and a list just downloaded always replaces an older copy
• Two downloads running at once never write to the same file, and the download notification goes away when the last download is done
• The index: a list that cannot be built no longer holds up the store's own index. On Codeberg a license is recognised only from its full, unchanged text. On GitLab only files kept on gitlab.com itself are offered

Install it from inside ARK-Store with "Show beta versions" turned on, or download ARK-Store-1.4.0-beta.6.apk below.