Florid — A Modern F‑Droid Client for Android

Browse, search, and install open‑source Android apps from the F‑Droid repository with a clean Material 3 UI. Built with Flutter.

Features

• Latest and trending: Browse recently added and updated apps
• Categories: Explore apps organized by topic
• Powerful search: Instant filtering by name, summary, description, or package
• App details: Rich metadata, versions, permissions, links, and changelogs
• Screenshots: Inline screenshots when available from the repo metadata
• Downloads: Reliable APK downloads with progress and notifications
• Install/uninstall: One‑tap install of downloaded APKs, uninstall via intent
• Updates: Detect newer versions for apps installed on your device
• Appearance: Material 3 design with light/dark and system themes
• Localization: Choose repository content language (e.g., en‑US, de‑DE)
• Offline cache: Fast local database with smart network/cache fallback

Screenshots

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Flutter (stable channel)
• Dart SDK >= 3.9.2
• Android SDK + device/emulator (Android 8.0+ recommended)

Setup

1. Install dependencies

flutter pub get

2. Run on a device

flutter run

First launch performs an initial repository sync and caches data locally for faster subsequent loads and limited offline use.

Build

Build a release APK:

flutter build apk

Architecture

• State management: Provider
• Data layer: FDroidApiService (network + download) and DatabaseService (SQLite via sqflite) with cache‑first fallback
• Serialization: json_serializable + build_runner
• UI: Flutter Material 3 components and custom widgets
• Notifications: flutter_local_notifications for download progress/completion

Repository & Caching

• Fetches index-v2.json from F‑Droid, parses into models, persists to SQLite
• Falls back to local DB or JSON cache when offline or on failures
• Extracts screenshots from raw metadata when available

Project Structure

lib/
├── models/          # Data models (FDroidApp, FDroidVersion, ...)
├── providers/       # App, download, and settings providers
├── screens/         # UI screens (Latest, Categories, Updates, Details, ...)
├── services/        # API, database, notifications, utilities
├── widgets/         # Reusable UI components
└── main.dart        # App entry point

Permissions

Florid uses the following Android permissions for core functionality:

• INTERNET: Access the F‑Droid repository and app metadata
• REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES: Install downloaded APKs
• POST_NOTIFICATIONS (Android 13+): Show download notifications
• QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES: Detect installed apps to surface available updates
• Storage access: APK files are stored in the app’s external Downloads dir; on Android 13+ this typically works without the legacy storage permission

Actual permissions are declared in the Android manifest and requested at runtime where required.

Development

• Regenerate splash screen (configured in splash_screen.yaml):

flutter pub run flutter_native_splash:create

• Regenerate app icons (configured in icon_launcher.yaml):

flutter pub run icons_launcher:create

Dependencies (selected)

• provider, http, dio, cached_network_image, flutter_cache_manager
• sqflite, path_provider, shared_preferences
• permission_handler, package_info_plus, installed_apps, android_intent_plus
• flutter_local_notifications, url_launcher, share_plus
• json_annotation, json_serializable, build_runner

Contributing

Issues and PRs are welcome! Please:

• Open an issue for bugs or feature requests
• Keep PRs focused and include concise descriptions
• Follow the existing code style and Provider architecture

License

GPL‑3.0 — see LICENSE for full text.

Disclaimer

Florid is an independent project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by F‑Droid. “F‑Droid” is a trademark of its respective owners.