Aurora Store

Works great! Allows you to download all the apps from the Play Store without need to have Google account. Does what it promises, is stable, super fast and looks beautiful. What else could you want?

DON'T Use it! HUGELY Insecure! And incompetent. It offers 3 sign in choices: You can sign in with Google, or, you can go in as an "anonymous sign-in", or as an "anonymous (insecure) sign-in". So, obviously I tried Google (which, when you think about it, it's odd that you are given the one sign-in that you had been trying to avoid with the Aurora download, but whatever) and so I tried to get it to trigger my Password Manager to cough up the Google sign-in info and admittedly, sometimes takes a few taps to reset the cursor/prompt to make it wake up, but it was not, I would realize in a few moments, the fault of my Password Manager. Anyway I dragged down the notification bar to manually trigger it and then after my decryption of Password Manager, I had to call up Google by manually typing in a search for Google as the sign-in triggered the Manager to look for an Aurora password which is extremely rare when it happens and it's always due to the crummy website or something else that... well, anyway it's like a 2-3 times/year occurrence. Finally pull up Google, sign in email and password and it looks for 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) which Google always knows where to find my phone, like within milliseconds. It puts up a 2-digit number, say 26 for example, and then Google puts a notification on my phone...I said, and then Google puts a notification on my phone...,... well what is the deal here? I hit resend and it does, changing the new number to 27 or 25. I waited for 90 seconds (I watched the clock) and resend, etc, etc...I went back to try another method and suddenly an alert pops up on my phone, and I was like, okay, better late than never, but it was not Aurora by way of Google, It's one of my friends, but at least it was not me possibly being in a dead zone. I tried the Google Authentication app and it would reset every time I came back to enter the now 6-digit code. It is useless! But just in case, I closed and uninstalled Aurora and did a regular Google sign on, and Bleep! Instantly it came up. 12 minutes later, the first one came through, after I had taken it off my phone!

The best Appstore for Android. Privacy aware and very stable

Any alternative to slow and heavy bloatware is more than welcome! Over the years, the Aurora Store has improved a lot, becoming more stable and modern. A huge feature is the possibility to use Shizuku to install apps in the background.

The real use case for this is if you are using an AOSP (Android Open Source Project) OS on your device, like /e/OS, Lineage, etc. Given that they're pretty much de-Googled, your access to Google services are very much limited. So with Aurora, you can access the Google Play Store and download apps with your account or an anonymous account.

A big drawback to this is that the updates of your apps are not so straightforward. This was my experience a few years ago when I tried it. Another drawback is that you will not be able to access previously purchased apps. I was not able to do this.

In terms of positives, you will be able to bypass geographical restrictions and potentially access other apps you would not have seen.

However, it is of my opinion, that if you've already got an official Android OS on your phone, stick with the Play Store. For more app freedom you can go with an F-Droid client.

I will miss this store unu I love it

Wonderful gem to get apps without that crappy ever-spying google-kraken and its stupid account coercion.

Will we ever overcome our tyrannous overlord google? Dunno, but we can make as hard as possible :D