# OpenAPK: a directory of open source Android apps, rebuilt as a site

> OpenAPK is a CC0-licensed catalogue of open source Android apps and games, published as a GitHub repository of category pages and mirrored on a website that serves per-app pages with direct APK downloads. The judgement is that its value is the catalogue's curation and the download path, and that the CC0 licence and the issue-based submission process make it a reference other projects can copy.

**mobilenetworkltd/openapk** — List of awesome open source apps for Android. Updated daily!

- Repository: https://github.com/mobilenetworkltd/openapk
- Website: https://www.openapk.net
- Stars: 1,128 · Forks: 44
- Language: Unknown
- License: CC0-1.0
- Published: 2026-10-19 · Updated: 2026-10-19 · Language: en
- Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/mobilenetworkltd-openapk

## A list of apps, published as a site rather than a README

OpenAPK is described in the simplest possible terms: a list of awesome open source apps for Android, updated daily. The repository is at `mobilenetworkltd/openapk`, and the site is at `www.openapk.net`.

What makes it more than a README full of links is that the repository is the data source for a website. The top-level entries are `.github/`, `.gitignore`, `LICENSE`, `README.md`, `categories/` and `public/`. The `categories/` directory holds one Markdown file per category, and the `public/` directory holds the static assets, including the icons referenced in the README and a `openapk-512.png` logo.

The README is generated from that structure, and it carries the category links as a table of contents:

```
- [Automation](categories/automation.md)
- [Connectivity](categories/connectivity.md)
- [Development](categories/development.md)
- [Food](categories/food.md)
- [Games](categories/games.md)
```

There are twenty-five categories in total, and the range is a useful indication of the catalogue's scope. Automation, Connectivity, Development, Food, Games, Graphics, Internet, Messaging, Money, Multimedia, Navigation, Office, Phone and SMS, Reading, Religion, Science and Education, Security, Social Network, Sports and Health, System, Theming, Time, Weather, Writing, and Xposed.

The Xposed category is worth noting on its own. It means the catalogue covers apps that modify other apps through a hooking framework, which is a category with real technical and security implications, and its presence alongside Security and Theming tells you the curation is not restricted to conventional end-user applications.

The site carries a `Popular`, `New`, `Updated` and `Featured` navigation, so the same catalogue is browsable by popularity and by recency as well as by category.

## Each app gets a page, an APK link and an author

The entry format is where the site's structure becomes visible, and it is worth reading closely because every entry carries the same four things.

Take the most recent additions. Gymbro is a private, local-only Android workout tracker, from `github.com/brokenpip3/gymbro`, by @brokenpip3. ReminDiary is an offline daily journal that surfaces what you wrote this day in past years, from `github.com/grantstephens/ReminDiary`. UnlicenseLauncher is a simple and secure FOSS launcher. SlimBook is a clean, ad-free Facebook feed with real-time content filtering. SmartVoice is multilingual speech synthesis. Monica F-Droid is an open-source password manager with local encryption, autofill, TOTP and Passkey. Mock Location that actually works is a mock location provider for replaying GPX tracks. EXIF Remove strips, randomizes and views photo metadata before sharing.

Each entry links to a per-app page on the site, and the URL pattern carries the application id:

```
https://www.openapk.net/gymbro/com.brokenpip3.gymbro/
https://www.openapk.net/remindiary/xyz.hub13.remindiary/
https://www.openapk.net/slimbook/uk.org.retallack.slimbook/
```

The application id is the piece of information that makes the site work as a catalogue rather than a link farm. It is the same identifier the app publishes to, it disambiguates two projects that happen to share a name, and it is the key the site uses to assemble a per-app page from a repository's releases.

From each per-app page there is a download link, following the same `/apk/download` pattern, and a link back to the source repository, and a credit to the individual author. The author credit is per entry rather than per project, so a project with several contributors still names the person who submitted it.

The practical value of this shape is that a reader can go from a category page to a working APK without leaving the site, and a reader who wants the source can get to the repository from the same entry.

## Getting listed means opening an issue

The submission process is documented in a tip block near the top of the README, and it is deliberately minimal.

To get an app listed, you open an issue mentioning your repository. There is no form, no application process and no stated review criteria. The tip also suggests using the download banner in your repository readme, and shows the banner image hosted at `www.openapk.net/images/openapk-badge.png`.

So the pipeline is: open an issue, get a per-app page, get a category entry. The listing is under the control of the project's own author, who mentions the repository, and the catalogue is the union of those submissions.

That has an obvious advantage and an obvious risk. The advantage is that a project that maintains its repository can keep itself in the catalogue, since the site can follow the repository's releases rather than needing a manual refresh, which is consistent with the claim that the list is updated daily. The risk is that quality control is distributed to the submitters, and the entry format carries no maintenance signal, no licence field and no version history, so a reader has to open the repository to find out whether the project is alive and what it is licensed under.

The daily update claim is the other thing to hold in mind. It means the New and Updated sections reflect whatever the automated pipeline found on the previous run, and it means the category pages are regenerated rather than curated by hand over time.

## CC0 for the catalogue, and the licences of the apps are separate

The licence is CC0-1.0, which is a public domain dedication rather than a conventional software licence. That choice is appropriate for a catalogue and it has a practical consequence: the category pages, the site assets and the entry text can be copied, remixed and republished by anyone without attribution requirements.

It also means the licence covers the catalogue, not the applications inside it. Each listed app keeps its own licence, and the entry format does not surface it. A reader looking at an entry for a password manager or a launcher has to visit the repository to find the terms.

The repository has a `LICENSE` file at the root, and the `public/` directory with the site assets is covered by the same dedication. There is no `package.json`, no build tooling and no source tree in the conventional sense, which is consistent with a repository whose purpose is to hold Markdown and images that a site generator consumes.

The topic tags include `obtainium` and `playstore` alongside `apk` and `kotlin`, which is a hint at the distribution channels the catalogue covers: direct APK downloads, Obtainium as an update mechanism, and the Play Store for apps that are both open source and commercially published.

## What the catalogue does not tell you

There are three gaps a reader should know about, and none of them are hidden by the project.

The first is maintenance. The entry format gives you a name, a one-line description, a repository link, a download link and an author. It does not give you a release date, a version, a licence or any indication of whether the project is still being worked on. The Updated section of the site is a proxy for this, since a project with a recent release will surface there, but the per-app page is where you would have to look.

The second is the trust question around the download path. Because the site serves an APK that it assembled from a repository's release artefacts, the useful question for a security-conscious user is whether that artefact is the one the project published. The entry links to the repository alongside the download, which is the right shape for answering that, but the answer is on the repository's side rather than the catalogue's.

The third is the content mix. A catalogue with a Popular section and a Featured section mixes an editorial judgement with a list, and those two things are not the same. There is no stated criteria for what earns a place in either, and the Featured list in particular reads as a curated selection rather than a mechanical one.

None of this makes the catalogue bad. It is a discovery aid with a direct download path, which is more than most lists of open source apps offer, and its scale across twenty-five categories is the part that is hard to reproduce by hand. But it is a directory, not a review site, and the difference matters when you are deciding what to install on a phone.

## Conclusion

OpenAPK fits an Android user who wants free and open source applications without hunting through release pages one repository at a time, and who wants a direct APK download rather than a build instruction for every app. It does not fit a user who needs to know whether a given app is maintained, because the listing format carries a description, a repository link and an author but no maintenance signal, and it does not fit a publisher who wants a review process, since submission is an issue and listing appears to be automatic. Verify first that the app you are about to install is the one the entry describes, since a per-app page aggregates releases from a repository, that the download you fetch comes from the linked repository's release artefacts rather than an unattributed mirror, and that the licence of the app itself is what you expect, because the CC0 licence covers the catalogue and not the applications it lists.

## FAQ

### What is OpenAPK and how is it organised?

OpenAPK is a curated list of open source apps and games for Android, published as a repository whose `categories/` directory holds one Markdown file per category and whose `public/` directory holds the site assets. There are twenty-five categories, and the same catalogue is browsable on openapk.net by popularity, recency and featured status.

### How do I get my Android app listed on OpenAPK?

Open an issue on the repository mentioning your project. The documentation gives no form or review criteria, and the tip also suggests placing the OpenAPK download banner in your own repository readme.

### Can I download an APK directly from OpenAPK?

Yes. Each app entry links to a per-app page on openapk.net, and that page carries a download link, a link back to the source repository and a credit to the author. The per-app URL includes the application id, for example `https://www.openapk.net/gymbro/com.brokenpip3.gymbro/`.

### What licence applies to the OpenAPK catalogue?

CC0-1.0, with the `LICENSE` file at the repository root. That dedication covers the catalogue entries and the site assets. The applications listed inside keep their own separate licences, which the entry format does not display.

### Does OpenAPK show whether the apps it lists are still maintained?

No. The entry format carries a description, a repository link, a download link and an author credit, with no version, release date or maintenance status. The site's Updated section surfaces projects with recent releases, and the per-app page is where you would look for more.

## Sources

- [Issues](https://github.com/mobilenetworkltd/openapk/issues)
- [License: CC0-1.0](https://github.com/mobilenetworkltd/openapk/blob/main/LICENSE)
- [mobilenetworkltd/openapk on GitHub](https://github.com/mobilenetworkltd/openapk)
- [Project website](https://www.openapk.net)
- [README](https://github.com/mobilenetworkltd/openapk/blob/main/README.md)

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Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/mobilenetworkltd-openapk