New top story on Hacker News: Ask HN: Robust and affordable alternatives to Google Play for app distribution?

Ask HN: Robust and affordable alternatives to Google Play for app distribution?
14 by m_kos | 7 comments on Hacker News.
TL;DR: I am looking for a platform to distribute my dissertation research data collection Android app to ~50 adult study participants in the US. The most important features are the ability to quickly and reliably deliver app updates over one year, safety, affordability, and good UX (participants are non-technical Android users). I don't want to use Google Play Store. To give you some context, for my dissertation project, I need to collect data using a custom Android research app installed on participants' phones for one year. The app requires a lot of permissions and continuously collects a lot of data. My colleagues discouraged me from using Play Store because Google banned their apps for no good reason and with no recourse, even though their research was approved by research ethics and human subject protections committees (IRB). This jeopardized their federally-funded studies and caused issues with their findings. For this reason, I would like to distribute my app to ~50 adult study participants in the US using a different platform. Four features are especially important to me. First, app updates need to be delivered reliably and relatively quickly over one year. Second, there can be no spyware, excessive tracking, unnecessary notifications, nudges to download other apps, and no annoying ads. Third, affordability is important because I would be paying for the distribution from my personal student savings. Finally, I would prefer a platform with good app update UX for non-technical users, including older adults. So far, I have looked into APK Mirror, but according to their policy [1], > If your app is new, doesn't have a proven track record, and not > unique, it will likely not be approved. I have also tried F-Droid, but at least on my Pixel 2 XL, updates of some apps downloaded from F-Droid often fail to install. Would you have any recommendations on what other platforms I could look into? Thank you. [1]: https://ift.tt/3oQcehl...