[Phemist]

While we are at it, please also reject the framing of "sideloaded" apps. This framing pushes the use of legitimately installed, often high-quality, software to the periphery. This framing is an essential step in extinguishing our computing freedoms, as "sideloaded" apps are easily cast aside.

Recently I wanted to find a good app to manage my shopping lists as well as keep an ordering of this list so that I could run through the supermarket more efficiently. I really hate backtracking the supermarket to get some item on my list that I forgot was in a spot I'd already been. Of course, it had to work offline-first and I didn't mind a bit of configuration.

Everything on Google Play Store was some cloud-integrated garbage app. The only app that came even close was an app on F-droid called Aisleron, which lets you manage both your home stock and supermarkets in terms of "aisles" of products, flipping easily between what is in stock and what is needed and then managing an aisle-based sorting of these products per supermarket that I frequent.

Great App! However, I worry that this app would never have been released had Google considered actively blocking the author from creating legitimate and highly useful pieces of software like Aisleron.