Improve perception of Flathub as app store for phone apps

[cahfofpai]

Why

The world of (GNU/)Linux phones still lacks an universal app store. Currently, apps are installed using the distribution's own repositories or Flathub. Thus the app distribution ecosystem is quite fragmented.

Flathub currently has more than 250¹ apps suited for (GNU/)Linux phones. But it is currently not recognized as the universal app store for (GNU/)Linux phones, e.g. because:

• there are many apps not compatible with (GNU/)Linux phones
• there is no easy way to find out whether an app is compatible with (GNU/)Linux phones
• it is not possible to filter for only phone apps
• it is only slightly promoted to be the app store for (GNU/)Linux phones (e.g. at the About page)

I would like to see Flatpak evolve into the go-to place for getting phone apps and must-be place for phone app developers. This way the distribution of phone apps could be highly improved.

Options

These options could be implemented to improve the situation. They differ in the amount of work and how far-reaching their changes are. The options could also be combined.

1 Improve support for phone apps on the current Flathub store

E.g. by better filter options, a global filter and better support for phone screenshots; see #4020

2 Global switch for form factor

Add a dropdown to the navigation bar to let users choose their prefered form factor. It uses the global filter (part of option 1) to only show apps compatible with the chosen form factor. Initially unset, so all apps are shown.

3 Landingpage

Create a landingpage (e.g. at flathub.com/phone) which explains why Flathub is the app store for phone apps and which functions it offers for it, e.g. specialized filters.

4 Substore for phones

A subdomain (e.g. phone.flathub.org) points to the main Flathub instance. Flathub detects that the visitor comes from the phone subdomain and thus only shows phone apps. Further it enables enhancements for phone apps, e.g. showing phone screenshots instead of desktop screenshots.

This makes the code more complex as it has to distinguish between the different stores. But it hardly needs additional efforts for running as it is the same instance as the main Flathub store.

5 Separate store inside Flathub organisation

A subdomain / different domain points to a separate instance of Flathub. This instance only contains phone apps and has enhancements for phone apps enabled.

This needs less changes to the codebase than option 3. But more efforts for running it because it is a separate instance.

6 Separate independent store

Same like 4, but run independently of the Flathub organisation.

This would include pointing at Flathub's flatpak repo for downloading the apps (if allowed).

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I would prefer option 3 or 4 in combination with option 1, as this would highly improve the perception as phone app store while still being tied to the Flathub organisation.

Of course there are many technical issues to be solved. But with this issue I want to discuss the high level perspective first: Which option would be the best solution for the problem? Which options would be fine for you as Flathub organisation, which options would you not accept?

What do you think about it?

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Edits

• 04.11.2024: Add option "2 Global switch for form factor" and adapt the numbering of the following options

Footnotes

1. filter for "'mobile fit' 'equals' '5'" and "'distributions' 'contains' 'flathub'" at https://linuxphoneapps.org/find/apps/ to see the number of apps at the bottom of the page ↩

[plata]

I believe that a more general approach should be considered which allows for filtering for a supported device category.

This might be:

• phone
• tablet
• smartwatch
• gaming handheld
• TV
• ...

The required fields to implement this already exist in AppStream metadata (e.g. display_length and control). The main issues here are that many (most) apps do not fill this and that it's not understandable for the average user.

If there's interest in implementing such filter mechanism, my proposal would be to:

• Update the Flathub MetaInfo guidelines with a description of what is considered e.g. a phone.
  For example:
  • phone: control touch and minimal display_length 500px
  • gaming handheld: control touch or control gamepad and minimal display_length 700px
• Raise upstream awareness to fill the required MetaInfo.
• Add filter option on flathub.org. Adding a new "device" category on https://flathub.org/apps/search should be enough.

EDIT: I didn't see that #4020 covers most of what I've written here already.