Accrescent, for those who don’t know, is an alternative android app store. They aim to compete directly with the play store, so unlike F-Droid they include both FOSS and proprietary apps. They are also very security focused. They’re still small but I find their approach interesting and their ambition worth supporting.
Unfortunately, as with many FOSS projects, funding is a challenge. If you believe they are worth supporting, please read the linked blog post.
Disclaimer: I’m not affiliated with the project in any way, just a fan trying to raise awareness.
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After 4 years and 42k users, they have a total of just 32 apps?
Yes. I assume that’s partly what this is about.
To date the majority of the coding has been done by one person after work. Their infrastructure was also too slow.
They released a progress update and roadmap a few days ago. They’ve already implemented some infrastructure upgrades and are prioritising back-end updates. Presumably this will make the store more attractive for app developers.
The funding push is to make it possible to have a developer working on the project fulltime.
Edit: a word
2nd edit to add: I found this thread from about a year ago, when they only had 10 apps. Relevant quotes from the developer:
Developer of Accrescent here. Yes, there are only a handful of apps available right now. The reason for this is that the recent focus hasn’t been directed on getting more apps in the store, but instead on internal changes to allow Accrescent to include more features and scale to more users. It will be able to include more apps once more of those changes are implemented.
Yes, we may take on some additional apps over time. This depends on how much the project can handle maintenance-wise and how willing those app developers are to deal with the early and changing nature of Accrescent. We’re not directly reaching out to any developers at this time, however.
So apparently it’s a deliberate choice.
Man it’s so sad. I wish I had more money to donate to people. Projects I like like Lemmy, Signal, Grapheneos, projects like Accrescent, and with the Corporation of Public Broadcasting going under eliminating funds for PBS and countless Radio channels.
deleted by creator
Fdroid probably needs funding, too. And it’s not a neverheard.
Here is a link to F-Droid’s Open Collective page. If this is accurate, they seem to be doing OK for funding right now. I’m sure they’d appreciate another sponsor though, if you’re not already donating.
Awful take
Classic case of xkcd 927
Great project with seemingly no business plan to make it viable. I still hope it all works out. That $16k anonymous XMR donation was sure to help.
Yes, that is a weakness with many FOSS projects. Developers with great ideas lacking business acumen.
That said, I expect that they can become financially self-sustaining from selling proprietary apps if they can get enough scale. I wouldn’t mind making a small monthly donation long-term but it needs to be less than what they are currently asking.
Not enough apps to have yet another app store on my phone. If they combined the catalog if both fdroid and play store then they might be able to replace them, but years later they’ve never even gotten more than one or two apps I actually use.
Some relevant comments from the developer on another forum from about a year ago, when they only had 10 apps:
Developer of Accrescent here. Yes, there are only a handful of apps available right now. The reason for this is that the recent focus hasn’t been directed on getting more apps in the store, but instead on internal changes to allow Accrescent to include more features and scale to more users. It will be able to include more apps once more of those changes are implemented.
Yes, we may take on some additional apps over time. This depends on how much the project can handle maintenance-wise and how willing those app developers are to deal with the early and changing nature of Accrescent. We’re not directly reaching out to any developers at this time, however.
So apparently it’s been a deliberate choice so far.
My understanding is that the whole point to trying to hire a full time developer is to be able to finally scale their services.
