Don’t want to get Vivaldi on Android from Google Play? We give you a choice.
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Looking to download Vivaldi on Android from outside of Google Play? Let’s look at the alternatives.
Click here to see the full blog post
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Why not working officially with ApkMirror.com too? They have a very good reputation.
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@ouzowtf: For what I understand with apkmirror although pretty neat, majority of their APKs weren't exactly submitted by the app authors/publisher themselves. So basically they host apps which were not permitted to be hosted on the site to begin with. Would there be implications if Vivaldi were to upload their app on the site? Not sure. But they are already there officially or not.
As a general rule though, regardless of reputation, one should be wary of 3rd party sources as opposed to officla/permitted repositories which uptodown is.
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Hmm... hadn't heard of this one - I recently started using APK Pure to update my local TV apps (Google insist I must register a new credit card (WTF!?!) to change to my current country; despite having lived here (with locally bought Android phones on local phone networks) for EIGHT YEARS already!).
If Vivaldi recommends it then I implicitly trust it more...
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I had never heard of Uptodown until it was mentioned in the app-store poll on this blog, but I like the sound of this. An "automatic update" mechanism for Vivaldi is desirable, including on Android, and it seems that App stores are the way to do this.
I like that Uptodown scans everything with Virus Total. Despite VT being owned by Goggle, this suggests that Uptodown APKs are actually subject to more scrutiny than the software in Goggle's own Prey store. The only times I've ever seen anyone get a virus on their Android handset, it was bundled in with something they assumed would be safe because they'd got it from the Goggle Prey store.
Because Vivaldi isn't under a completely free (libre) licence, it could never be included in the main official F-Droid store, but it would still be possible to implement an F-Droid compatible repo that F-Droid users could manually add to their client. This would then mean that F-Droid users could have automatic updates without the need to install more than one app store. I suspect anyone with the knowledge and motivation to use F-Droid in the first place, would find it almost-trivial to add an extra repo to the F-Droid client.
I'm also so glad that Uptodown (like F-Droid and Aptoide) doesn't require a user account. I hope enough users start to migrate away from the (cr)Apple and Goggle stores that these companies take note. There is no reason why anyone should need to give away unnecessary details or create an account just to use the basic functions of their device or keep it secure and updated. You've already paid money for the device. The manufacturers and their partners have an obligation to support it for a reasonable amount of time. There should be no need to sell your details or track you in order to make that basic obligation "commercially viable".
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@jamesbeardmore , F-Droid also has apps which a not completly OpenSource, but with an advice of this. See for Example the Gloomy Dungeon games in F-Droid, and others which includes codes which are not completly free, like Vivaldi.
https://search.f-droid.org/?q=Gloomy+DungeonsF-Droid has Free AND OpenSource apps, not only OpenSource., but only the OpenSource apps has beside the Download Symbol in the apps list, the others only in the descriptions page.
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@Catweazle Yes of course, I made a bit of a generalisation there. They can include non-free blobs, such as advertising libraries, but it is fortunately not normally practical to be any more "non-free" than that, and I forget such programs exist because I normally hide apps with anti-features.
As inclusion in the main F-Droid repo requires that F-Droid have to be able to build each APK from source themselves, in practice this normally means that the software has to have sufficient source available, and a permissive-enough licence for them to do this. This normally means that any "not entirely free" stuff in the main F-Droid repo normally fits into the following categories:
- The licence isn't completely free, e.g. doesn't permit modifications to the code even though the source is still available
- Upstream there's an advert or analytics library included in otherwise free-code
- Upstream there's an advert or analytics library included in otherwise free-code, but the F-Droid version is patched to remove it.
I think these games fit cases 2 and 3, because they're mostly released under an MIT (X11?) licence.
Regardless, I like that the F-Droid developers warn you of these anti-features. Just imagine if Goggle warned you of every app in their store that contained a tracker or an adware component!
Sadly I think Vivaldi has too many proprietary components to realistically be built by F-Droid's builds system (and therefore included in their main repo), but I live in hope!
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Too many distribution channels will increase your maintenance costs.
Just keep Google Play and Vivaldi.comThere are many Android app stores in this world and users of these app stores are convincing you to publish Vivaldi on the app store they are using.
You should know that you can't spend several times as much effort on maintaining the publishing channels.
Google Play is the app store with the highest market coverage and Vivaldi.com is the official distribution channel. Non-Google Play users choose to download the installer from the official website, which is the best solution.
Unless there is an automated solution that can automatically publish update packages to each app store, it is not recommended to maintain too many distribution channels if it is done manually
i7-6700HQ 2.6GHz / 32G DDR4 Ram / 128G SATA SSD / NVIDIA GTX 960M
Vivaldi Stable Latest Version in Windows 10 OS Latest Version
Vivaldi Stable Latest Version on Oneplus 3 with Android 9Always update in a first time
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@Poto Good point, but Goggle Prey isn't available in some regions, therefore one additional appstore is a nice courtesy to those users, so that they can still get automatic updates.
The alternative store they've included Vivaldi in is Uptodown. Uptodown has significant usage worldwide, especially in regions where the Goggle Prey store is banned/restricted/unavailable, and is apparently the second biggest Android appstore worldwide.
Based on this, I think the decision to offer a Goggle Prey version, an Uptodown version, and an APK on the web site, is the perfect balance. I think it provides the best worldwide audience coverage at minimal effort. Any more appstores than this would probably be excessive (or wasted) effort (although I have always pushed F-Droid because the poll revealed that it was the most popular app store of all amongst the Vivaldi userbase).
Hopefully there are automated ways to script pushing updates to all distribution channels, so that it doesn't take up too many resources.
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@Poto , for a few reasons, Google Play is still irreplaceable, especially because many official apps for administrations, public services, etc. are only available in this #€@
️__store. -
Another one which has also Vivaldi, include old versions (Online)
Other good alternative to F-Droid, with much more content, all FOSS
https://fossdroid.com (Online)
(It would be nice if you can add these two to the list of search engines in Vivaldi Android, in the same way as in the Desktop, for searching the apps and download the apk file)
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I thought apk4fun or apkmirror will have it. https://routerforce.com/192-168-1-10/ Click this link. I found it here.
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What of Apkpure? I have used it for some time and it seems fairly legit.
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@jamesbeardmore: Actually, virus scan on android is rather ineffective. Even if the installer itself does not contain any malicious code, the app can easily download and run one after installed, thus it can not really be checked by such virus scanners. In practice, you can probably much better protect your device by carefully checking the sources and reputation of the apps you install. After all, installing any app involves some trust in its creators and distributors unless it is open source and you checked the code yourself and compiled it.
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@Zsul , in Android I trust BitDefender. It is a trustworth AV. A good AV OpenSource don't exist, Clam (I don
t know if there is a version for Android, in Linux and Windows is a better placebo) isnt better than Gargle Play Protect. I don't have the skills for checking a complex code in the apps from developers I don't know. -
@zsul: The AV isn't in android, it is online. VirusTotal is also a sandbox which can check for behaviour with multiple sandboxes.
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I need advice , I'm reading up on this app vivaldi and want to know if I can delete google and chrome completely from a android phone?? I'm not tech. Savy and need some advice ..
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@Peanutt69 , you cannot delete Google and Chrome from Android, they are part of the system, Android is a Google product.
The only thing you can do, if you have root access, is to replace Android with Linux, eg LinageOS.
In Android there is no other, to avoid both Chrome and the Play Store, apart from stopping using any other Google app or service, replacing them with Vivaldi and OpenSource alternatives. -
@Peanutt69 Yes you can. Check on XDA Forums for deleting and/or "how to" install a custom rom. In case you don't want to root you're phone and you wish to stay with you're stock rom you can try Aurora Store (since Yalp Store seems no longer manteined) which seems a good project.
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@Peanutt69 If the android is quite recent you can probably disable some google services as "google" [search] and "chrome" [browser] in the app settings without particular issues. On older versions, the only way could be rooting&replacing the rom which is an hard route for non tech users.
Rooting was easier years ago, due a lot of unpatched Android exploits. But most are patched, now.
