Notice. If you're seeing ads in this channel, you should know that it's only Durov's latest breach of promise and nothing else.

#stable #release
App Manager v3.1.4

- Fixed an intermittent crash in the App Info tab
- Fixed disabling components in Android 14

Full Changelog: https://github.com/MuntashirAkon/AppManager/compare/v3.1.3...v3.1.4

Funding App Manager, 2024

Background
All the projects I work on are hobby projects. However, with a growing number of users and requests since its release in May 2020, App Manager has become more than a hobby project. It currently has 243,000 lines of code (24,000 new lines since December 2022) and roughly 5,200 commits among which some 3,150 commits are my own. It is packed with so many features that one cannot count all of them, but at the same time, it is designed in such a way that most features are invisible to the users unless they look carefully. This design makes App Manager complex yet free from clutter. Most importantly, it offers a modern user interface based on latest technologies such as Material 3 and supports a wide range of devices (from Android Lollipop to Android 14) including Android tablets and TV. It also provides an extensive Documentation (in a website and within the app) with support for a few languages. This is why, within the 3 years of its existence, it has been downloaded over 190,000 times (110,000 more since December 2022) from GitHub (in addition to how many times it has been downloaded from F-Droid, IzzyOnDroid, or other unofficial channels) despite it being completely absent from the mainstream app stores such as Google Play Store, and no advertisements. Thanks to the translators, it has also been translated or is actively being translated into 33 languages.

With more users comes more responsibilities as the number of issues and feature requests is ever on the increase. Those who are following the project from the start know that there used to be a support group on Telegram which was discontinued, as it quickly grew to be unmanageable for me. Besides, with such a large codebase, more capable hardware are required to develop, emulate and test the application in various ways to ensure it functions properly. As I have mentioned in the Readme page in GitHub or the donation section elsewhere, App Manager does not support donation, it only supports funding. This is due to fact that short-term donations do not ensure the longevity of a project. With that in mind, I have since been looking for long-term funding by contacting institutes and foundations, but so far (and considering the fact that we’re living in a difficult situation due to COVID-19 and subsequent wars), I have yet to secure any long-term funding, which is becoming increasingly necessary to sustain the project. So, I have decided to restart the funding campaign for App Manager for a second time. The purpose of the campaign is to ensure the longevity of the project by ensuring a fixed funding.

The campaign will last from 21 December 2023 to 31 May 2024 (roughly 5 months). This is different from the regular donations in the sense that I expect people to donate however much they can within this time frame. Since this campaign runs for 5 months, recurring donations are also possible for at least four months. Unlike the last campaign, the campaign will run on both Open Collective where you can contribute using PayPal, bank accounts, credit/debit cards, GitHub, and Patreon. See the FAQ below for details.

Summary
Campaign duration: 21 December 2023 to 1 April 2024 (~3 months)
Target amount: $6,000
Campaign website: https://opencollective.com/app-manager
Available payment methods: PayPal, Bank accounts, credit/debit cards
Direct links: Open Collective - GitHub - Patreon
Contact:
- E-mail: muntashirakon [at] riseup [dot] net
- GitHub: https://github.com/MuntashirAkon
- X: @AppManagerNews
- Mastodon: @[email protected]
- Matrix: @muntashir:matrix.org

Please convey this information to others who might be interested in funding App Manager.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Can I donate anonymously?
Open Collective supports guest donations where you can use a temporary email in the email section.

Where will the funding be spent?
The funding will be spent on buying new hardware, a domain, increasing my focus on open source projects in general by getting rid of other commitments, sending small gifts to the contributors and so on. Open Collective has an updates section where you will be able to see how the funding are being spent.

Would you accept recurring donations after the campaign?
If the campaign goes well, I will accept any donations for App Manager. In any case, you can still donate me via my page on Open Collective.

I want to provide funding from my organisation. Can I contribute here?
Yes, you can. However, if you are willing to contribute a large sum of money, you might want to contact me first.

Does App Manager support bounties?
No. App Manager only accepts funding. Features are prioritised according to the developer’s current state of mind.

Why is Patreon added this time?
A few people have suggested me to add Patreon as they were missing out due to the campaign being held only on Open Collective. However, Open Collective is still preferred over Patreon.

Is there any advantage of donating via Patreon?
No. Donations do not unlock any features or any additional support, both are provided for free. On the contrary, we prefer that you donate using Open Collective.

SetEdit v3.0-rc01

[This is a release candidate]
- Added option to modify settings after a reboot
- Added option to create shortcuts to quickly modify settings
- Use root to modify settings if available
- Allow modifying android properties via Magisk resetprop command
- Grant necessary permissions automatically using root
and various other fixes and improvements.

Full Changelog: https://github.com/MuntashirAkon/SetEdit/compare/v2.3...v3.0-rc01

SetEdit is more or less good at what it does. However, I wanted to add a few more features to help the communities as I can see that it's become quite popular in various communities, espcially, among the Samsung phone users. It should also be noted that I do NOT use SetEdit in my personal device. So, it's largely up to the community to test the app and report issues without expecting much of a response from me. I'm saying this because lack of response often demotivate people from reporting issues. Individually addressing issues or emails is quite time consuming and is largely a waste in terms of development and motivation. For projects like this, you should expect that the developer may find enough motivation to notice and fix all the issues at once. This is entirely possible because they are not large projects, and problems are easier to solve than, say, App Manager which is both a large and a complicated project.

#stable #release
App Manager v3.1.5

- Check if the selected item is a directory before importing backups
- Fixed disabling components in Android 14
- Fixed retrieving and updating permission flags in Android 12 onwards
- Prevented the Log Viewer page from crashing on device configuration changes

Full Changelog: https://github.com/MuntashirAkon/AppManager/compare/v3.1.4...v3.1.5

🔴 This is going to be last funding campaign (at least, for the next six years or so) due to a legal obligation (If anybody knows any US lawyer/org who advices open source projects for free, please let me know). This is why I'm extending it to two more months (until 31 May) in order to raise as much funds as I can. From beginning of August or September, all recurrent donations may also be terminated, and the web pages may no longer be publicly available. An detailed explanation may be posted in my blog when it happens. Thanks everyone for supporting the projects all these years without expectations of any kind!

🟢 App Manager and other projects will continue to be maintained. So, please do not worry about the fate of the projects.

PS: If you continue to be a member in Patreon, it'll start charging you again if the account is activated again. So, be sure to switch your membership to unpaid by August if you want to avoid accidental charging by Patreon.

To developers: I've just released v3.0.0 of libadb which fixes a semi-critical security issue. Please update your applications as quickly as possible to ensure the safety of your users. Both App Manager stable and beta will be updated with the fixes later today.

#unstable #beta #release
App Manager v4.0.0-beta01

Funding campaign dates have been updated as this is going to be the last campaign in many years.
If you're running ADB, you may need to restart your device first.

- Added full support for Android 14
* Fixed compatibility issues
* Support installing apps that targets SDK 22 or earlier (privileged mode only)
- [Experimental] Use outlines for color codes

App Details page
- Allowed launching non-exported activities in no-root/ADB mode
The “Search assistant” (usually set to Google Assistant) feature allows setting arbitrary activity via the assistant key-value pair stored in the secure settings database. Hence, non-exported (that is, app private) activities can be launched even in no-root mode by exploiting this feature. However, modifying a secure setting require android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS permission which is granted automatically in ADB mode and has to be granted manually in no-root mode via ADB.
App Manager also cannot trigger the assistant on its own in the no-root mode, because it doesn't have enough permissions (it requires android.permission.INEJECT_EVENTS permission which cannot be granted to the user applications). Activity shortcuts also use this feature when they cannot be launched in privileged mode.

App Usage page
- Make the combo-box static on top

App Info tab
- Fixed handling multiple users in no-root mode
- Fixed listing granted URIs
- Prevent crashes in tablets running buggy GSI firmware

Code Editor
- Prevented the editor from crashing if it is restarted from Recents

Installer
- Enabled installing system apps with a different signature
The “Install only” button is enabled for system apps when the signatures are different. This is useful for only those who have disabled signature verification using methods, such as CorePatch.

Log Viewer
- Added a batch option to copy the selected logs
- Changed list selection modes.
1. Normal mode
- Click: expand/collapse text
- Long click: Open context menu
2. Selection mode
- Click: Select clicked item
- Long click: Select items between the last selected item to the clicked item if possible. Otherwise, only click the item.

Main page
- Avoided reopening the keyboard while searching is active, but the keyboard was closed manually
- [Batch Ops] Fixed saving some APK files due to naming issues.

Profiles
- Fixed applying profiles
- Fixed loading label after refreshing the app list.

Running Apps page
- Refresh running apps every 10 seconds.

Scanner page
- Fixed scanning using VirusTotal.

Settings
- [Experimental] Initial support for custom command for mode of ops
- Avoided auto-detecting ADB port number if Wi-Fi is inactive
- Display ADB pairing dialog directly when a pairing may be required
- Improved auto-connecting to ADB
* When mode is set to auto, instead of checking the active ADB host and port first, the status of the ADB daemon is checked
* When mode is set to “Wireless debugging”, developer settings and wireless debugging are enabled automatically before attempting any connections. This requires:
1. android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS to be granted to App Manager, OR
2. App Manager connected via root or ADB at least once (in which case, the permission above is granted automatically)
* Attempt to fetch the current port for ADB over TCP via service.adb.tcp.port property instead of using the default 5555 port or the previously saved value.
- Pair ADB via notification
- Improved preferences and dialogs
* Added a dedicated page for VirusTotal
* Added a dedicated page for mode of operations
* Moved “Use the Internet” to Privacy settings
* Added feature toggler for Log Viewer and Installer
* Display build expiry and funding campaign notices only in the main settings
* Replace “Remove all rules” with a primary button
* Input boxes are focused by default
* For numeric inputs, only the numeric keyboard is displayed
* Input texts aren't added to the user suggestions.
- Avoided displaying “Imported” for Watt and Blocker when nothing is selected
- Check if the selected directory is actually a directory before attempting to import a backup
- Fixed displaying wireless debugging options when App Manager is unable to enable Wireless Debugging.

UI
- Draw activities around the display cutouts
- Tint combo-boxes in primary container color to match Android 12+ styles
- Used circular progress for initialization
- Fixed styling some popup menus.

Others
- Added more network policies from Motorola devices.
* POLICY_REJECT_METERED
* POLICY_REJECT_BACKGROUND
* POLICY_REJECT_ALL
- Automatically grant usage stats permission in privileged mode
The feature, as usual, can be disabled in settings.
- Enabled creating activity shortcuts for other users
- Avoided fetching packages for other users if there's no permission to do so
- Fixed blocking components in Android 14
- Fixed blocking providers when only IFW is set
Intent Firewall (IFW) does not support blocking providers. So, when IFW-only mode was enabled, it tried to apply only the IFW rules which resulted in the providers remaining unblocked. From now on, the providers are blocked via “disable” option.
- Fixed launching remote services in OnePlus devices
- Fixed retrieving the list of packages in some devices
- Fixed retrieving and updating permission flags in Android 12 onwards

Full list of changes: https://github.com/MuntashirAkon/AppManager/compare/v4.0.0-alpha02...v4.0.0-beta01

⚠️ Important.
From now on, if you want to contact me via email, please send it to am4android [at] riseup [dot] net. This shall be enforced with the release of the next stable release, which means that any attempt to contact me via any other email addresses will be ignored and may be reported as spam. Also, due to a high volume of emails of late, I may not be able to reply to all of them, especially the ones that does not contain any helpful info such as crash reports or the steps to reproduce the issue. If you're blocked on GitHub for your misconduct, chances are your messages will be filtered in my email client as well. This is a part of the ongoing measure to ensure the safety and longevity of my projects by blocking anybody who tries to harm the projects by any means. It should also be noted that only official sources should be used to download the applications. Third-party sources may provide modified version of the applications which may contain malware.

Third-party app stores should also take note of my message and take necessary actions to update the email address.