Last night Organic Maps was removed from the Play Store without any warnings or additional details due to “not meeting the requirements for the Family Program”. Compared to Google Maps and other maps apps rated for 3+ age, there are no ads or in-app purchases in Organic Maps. We have asked for an appeal.
As a temporary workaround for the Google Play issue, you can install the new upcoming Google Play update from this link: https://cdn.organicmaps.app/apk/OrganicMaps-24081605-GooglePlay.apk
The Announcement on various Networks:
Fosstodon Post
Twitter Post
Telegram Post
If you don’t know what Organic Maps is, it is an alternative to OsmAnd and google maps, more info on the official site (link) and GitHub.
Maybe an error? Honestly this is a weird one. I hope we will learn more in the coming hours.
You can still get it on the other channels, like F-Droid or Obtainium. Still, we all know that not being on the Play Store is an heavy sentence for any Android app.
EDITs
- Added F-Droid link.
- Fixed Typo in the obtainium link.
I installed it under Waydroid recently and it included it by default. Maybe it’s a newer thing? Or dependent on which image you choose?
I think bundling it might be unique to the Waydroid FOSS image. I recently set up Waydroid with GAPPS rather than with FOSS (because AuroraStore still won’t run on Waydroid, grrrrrrr) and it didn’t come with it.
(Side note, if you figure out how to get Aurora to show a list of apps in Waydroid x64 without instantly crashing, I will love you)
Alright, so apparently I’m about to get loved? Aurora just worked for me, but I installed Waydroid under Bazzite using one of the included just-scripts. So I went and figured out how it does it. To “configure”, which is the second step in setting up (on Bazzite) it calls this set of scripts: https://github.com/casualsnek/waydroid_script
The microg installation handles Aurora. In case you want it here’s the just script, tho it’s obviously tailored to bazzite: https://github.com/ublue-os/bazzite/blob/d5097a5e971c46912188a9004b2289cff3798221/system_files/desktop/shared/usr/share/ublue-os/just/82-bazzite-waydroid.just
What you showed in that video is AuroraDroid which is an alternative frontend for F-Droid and distinct from Aurora Store (which is a frontend for the Play Store). Do you have the actual Aurora Store also?
Welp, egg on my face because it in fact, did crash.
Edit: Okay so I installed a much older version from the f-droid archive, 3.1.7.17 (random choice) and got it to show me the list of apps. Clearly some sort of regression happened. If I had the time, I’d figure out the exact version.
Edit 2: Which is the only way I can install play store apps. Play Store through microg crashes when I try to look at an app.
I searched “waydroid aurora store crashing” on DuckDuckGo a while back and found a thread that said it was a regression in Aurora Store v4.3 and that v4.2 works. I’m not sure how to download old versions of apps from F-Droid though.
It’s easy in Aurora Droid at least, there’s an “Other Versions” tab on the app page.