Stop Using F-Droid: Why ‘Obtainium’ is the New Standard

Let’s be honest: in 2026, waiting three days for an app update feels like waiting three years.

For a decade, F-Droid was the holy grail of open-source Android apps. It was safe, it was reliable, and it was… incredibly slow. If a developer pushed a hotfix for your favorite emulator on GitHub on Friday, you might not see it on F-Droid until the following Tuesday.

Enter Obtainium. If you are still relying on traditional repositories in January 2026, you are doing it wrong. This app has quietly become the most essential tool for the Android power user, especially now that Android 16 is making our lives slightly more complicated.

Here is why Obtainium has officially snatched the crown, and why you should switch today.

1. The “Middleman” Problem is Gone

The biggest flaw with F-Droid is that it re-signs apps. It takes the source code, builds it, and signs it with F-Droid’s keys, not the developer’s keys. This creates a “trust gap” – you are trusting the repository, not the maker.

Obtainium works differently. It isn’t a store; it’s an automation tool.

• Direct from Source: It goes directly to the GitHub Releases page (or GitLab, Codeberg, etc.) and grabs the APK that the developer actually uploaded.
• Original Signatures: You get the app exactly as the developer intended, signed with their own keys.
• Zero Delay: The second the release goes live on GitHub, Obtainium sees it. No build queues, no review delays.

2. It’s the Only Way to Keep Up with Emulation

If you are into the emulation scene, and let’s face it, with Winlator 11 and Sudachi dominating 2025, you probably are, Obtainium is non-negotiable.

Emulator developers move fast. They often push “Nightly” or “Canary” builds every few days to fix specific game crashes. Repositories like F-Droid simply cannot keep up with this cadence. Obtainium lets you track these rapid-fire releases effortlessly, ensuring your Cyberpunk 2077 save file doesn’t corrupt because you were on a version from last week.

3. Conquering the Android 16 “Advanced Protection”

If you updated to Android 16 recently, you might have hit a wall. Google’s new “Advanced Protection” mode defaults to graying out the “Install Unknown Apps” button to protect users from scams.

Obtainium has a workaround that feels like magic: Shizuku integration.

• The Old Way: Manually tapping “Update,” approving the prompt, and hitting “Install” for every single app.
• The Obtainium Way: By linking Obtainium with Shizuku (a tool that uses wireless debugging to grant system-level privileges), updates happen silently in the background.

Pro Tip: If you are on Android 16, enable Shizuku in Obtainium's settings. It bypasses the manual "Allow this source" prompts that Google added this year.

4. It Scrapes (Almost) Everything

Obtainium isn’t limited to just GitHub. In late 2025, the developer (ImranR98) polished the “HTML Fallback” feature, effectively turning the app into a universal web scraper.

Do you use an obscure app that is only hosted on a random website?

• Paste the URL: Obtainium scans the page for links ending in .apk.
• Set the Filter: You can tell it to only grab links that contain “arm64” or “stable”.
• Auto-Update: It will check that website daily for changes, so you never have to visit the site again.

5. Obtainium vs. F-Droid: The 2026 Scorecard

Still on the fence? Here is the breakdown of why users are migrating.

The Verdict

In 2026, the “App Store” model feels outdated for power users. We don’t want a curated list; we want the files directly from the people who wrote the code.

Obtainium cuts out the middleman. It is faster, more secure (by using original signatures), and handles the chaos of Android 16’s security theater better than anything else.

So, go ahead and archive your F-Droid app. It served us well, but it’s time to get your updates from the source.