Hi all,
I've created an app for reading the latest news, using news API, v2.
The news are available from 54 countries and many, many sources.
In general, this application consists of two main parts:
1. Top - here we can see the top articles from the selected country. The articles are categorized, the available categories are: General, Business, Sports, Health, Entertainment, Technology, Science.
This part corresponds to "Top Headlines" in news api.
2. Feed - many non-categorized articles from the specific sources of the selected country.
This part corresponds to "Everything" endpoint in news api.
Every article can be opened in browser, shared or saved for later. All saved articles are displayed in "Saved" section.
In Settings we can choose the countries for Top and Feed sections. The countries are selected independently, so it's possible to read news from two different countries at the same time.
TBD: add manual source selection for Feed, to better customise this part.
The app inteface is available in several languages.
Registration is not required. The application does not collect any personal information.
Google Play Store: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.alex.news.app
Screenshots:
(Sorry, cannot upload here because I'm a new user, see Google Play for screenshots)
Many thanks in advance for your feedbacks, as well as for any bug reports and advices!
Updated:
Version 2.1: now you can switch berween countries much more effeciently. Afrer changing the country all the articles in all categories are refreshed in one click.
Coming soon in the next updates:
- Source selection, as well as adding more sources
- Search by keyword
- Users will be able to add any custom source.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
App Finder
Innovative advanced search engine for Android apps and games
2,300,000+ apps from Google Play are indexed, with data for all 200+ countries / regions.
Get in on Google Play, or download the latest version 1.0.10c here.
A web interface is coming soon.
Feature OverviewThe features in italics require a Plus license for a small fee
The other features are always free, without ads
Powerful search language
Usual search operators like quotes, OR, and minus
Special operators, e.g. + to require words to occur in title or summary
The search terms are highlighted in the results (the app descriptions)
.
10+ filters and 6 sort options
Filter for apps without ads, for free / paid apps, for apps with / without in-app purchases
Category filter with multi-select
User rating filter (0.1 star steps) for country-specific or world-average rating
Filters for number of ratings and downloads
Filters for update date and release date
Filters for price range and in-app price range for local prices
Filter for the minimally required Android version
Age rating filter for local ratings
Sort by relevance, user rating, number of ratings up / down, and release date up / down
.
10+ essential data about every app directly in the result list
Average user rating with two decimals, country-specific or world-average or both
Number of ratings and downloads with two significant digits
Unique visual representation of the rating distribution
Update date and release date
With or without ads
Local price and price range of in-app purchases
Category
Age rating from the local rating authority
Required Android version
Short description
Result list can be customized
.
Details view and links to Play Store and Google Play website
In the details view, all information is shown also without Plus license
It can be swiped sideways for the next / previous app
The apps can be opened in the Play Store app, directly from the result list
There are also links to the Google Play website so that language or country can be changed to see more reviews
.
Scalable screenshots in the result list
The feature graphics are displayed along with the screenshots
.
Flexible user interface
The UI scale can be adjusted independent from the system settings
The interface adapts to screen-size and -orientation, and selected UI size
Many options, 1-, 2-, or 3-pane layout
Optimized for tablets also
.
Easy to use, with integrated documentation
Also available here
Notice: There was a feature to export the results as a spreadsheet, which has been removed temporarily. If you need it, please let me know.
Major Upcoming Features
A web interface
Indexing of other app stores, later also iOS apps
Support for other languages
Recommendations of apps based on apps the user has installed
Possibility to save apps to custom lists from the search results
Search history
Search language improvements, e.g.
search for exact words
automatic inclusion of synonyms
later semantic (AI) search as alternative
Spoiler: Smaller Upcoming Features
Lists of all country specific ratings
Display of reviews, search in reviews
Display of ratings calculated from most-helpful reviews (the average rating of the first reviews sorted by relevance by Google Play. This often differs significantly from the rating calculated by Google Play, and may be a much better indicator for the quality of the app, especially for apps with many fake reviews)
Display of app size*
Display of permissions, filters for important permission groups*
Display of and filters for trackers integrated in the apps*
Possibility to set arbitrary values for the filters
A dark theme
Comprehensive documentation
Interactive tutorials
* These features will require scanning of APKs. It is currently not clear if this can be done for all apps.
Further ideas are welcome!
User GuideClick here for the user guide, it is available in the app also
App Finder was designed to be as intuitive and self-explanatory as possible. However, some things still require explanation. To make the best use of App Finder, please read this guide.
Spoiler: Changelog
Note: Only notable changes are listed. For the time before App Finder, only the milestones are listed.
AppQuery 1.0 - Sep 21, 2022
App Finder was first published under the name AppQuery
.
It was released in the United States with data for the US only. 1.5+ million apps were indexed
AppQuery 1.2 - Dec 22, 2022
AppQuery was now available worldwide with local data for all countries/regions supported by Google Play. 2.2+ million apps were now indexed
App Finder 1.0 - Mar 31, 2023
The privacy of users was greatly improved by dropping the requirement for sign-in.
.
1.0.1 – 1.0.2: Results can now be exported as spreadsheet with clickable links to Google Play.
.
1.0.3: Feature graphics are now included with the screenshots (these are advertising graphics from the developers that are shown on Google Play only sometimes).
.
1.0.4: Result list layout has been improved.
.
1.0.5: New display options: Allow screen rotation, hide status / navigation bar, disable images effects.
.
1.0.6: The privacy policy was updated to explain the collection and usage of user data in greater detail. No substantial changes were made. No personal data is collected.
.
1.0.7: There is now a filter available for the minimally required Android version, and it is shown in the details pages and optionally the result list.
.
1.0.8: For more clarity, the less important filters are now hidden by default.
.
1.0.9: World average user rating is now shown for apps without country specific rating, and can be shown instead of or in addition to country specific rating. World average rating can also be used for filter and sort.
For high ratings, two decimals can now be shown.
The number of downloads is now shown with two significant digits.
.
1.0.10: There are now links available to show the apps on the Google Play website, which makes it possible to change the language to see reviews in another language
Spoiler: Credits
The Google Play scraper is partially based on google-play-scraper
The database is powered by PostgreSQL
The app uses the following open source libraries
Fresco by Facebook
Gson by Google
Kotlin Coroutines by Jetbrains
The APK you find attached to this post is always the latest and probably most stable version.
New versions appear on Google Play about 1 hour to 1 day later.
Minor improvement and bug fix updates may not be published on Google Play at all.
The expected feature is a minimum version of android on which to install the application.
That is not available here.
ze7zez said:
The expected feature is a minimum version of android on which to install the application.
That is not available here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With the next update, the minimum required Android version will be shown in the details pages and there will be an option to show it in the result list.
Would you also like a filter for minimum required Android version?
Just filtering the minimum version is important.
I now use apkmirror for this.
Application features are a secondary concern. They can be found easily in other ways.
OK, I'll add a filter for minimum Android version like at apkmirror.
ze7zez said:
Just filtering the minimum version is important.
I now use apkmirror for this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suppose it would be enough to start the slider at Android 4.1?
jake n said:
View attachment 5896531
App Finder
Innovative advanced search engine for Android apps and games
2,300,000+ apps from Google Play are indexed, with data for all 200+ countries/regions.
Available as an app, a web interface is coming soon.
Powerful search language
Usual search operators like quotes, OR, and minus
Special operators like + to require words to occur in title or summary
The search terms are highlighted in the results
.
10+ filters and 6 sort options
See the screenshots
More filters can be enabled
One or multiple categories can be selected
.
The essential data about every app directly in the result list
See the screenshots
The colorful stars are a visualisation of the rating distribution
The screenshots in the list can be resized
.
Flexible user interface
Adapts to screen-size, -zoom, and -orientation
Optimized for tablets also
Many options, 1-, 2-, or 3-pane layout
.
Easy to use, with integrated documentation
The essential features are free to use, without ads.
Some advanced features require a licence for a small fee.
Get in on Google Play
App Finder is under intensive further development, suggestions for improvements are highly welcome!
View attachment 5896583 View attachment 5896585
View attachment 5896587 View attachment 5896589
View attachment 5896593
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very interesting and unique. I'll check it out.
ze7zez said:
The expected feature is a minimum version of android on which to install the application.
That is not available here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Permission Pilot will give you a lot of useful information.
TheMystic said:
Permission Pilot will give you a lot of useful information.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you are referring to another application?
Permission pilot is used to check the installed applications on the phone, not to search for applications to install from the google store.
jake n said:
I suppose it would be enough to start the slider at Android 4.1?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know, Google has not ended support for android 4.0.3.
ze7zez said:
Maybe you are referring to another application?
Permission pilot is used to check the installed applications on the phone, not to search for applications to install from the google store.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It gives you the minimum Android version details of apps installed on your device. True that it doesn't work for searching on Google Play Store. But you'll only be able to install apps that your current Android version/ device supports.
These apps too give that information:
AppChecker - App & System info - Apps on Google Play
Check, which of your installed apps are compatible to the latest Android APIs.
play.google.com
AppDash: App Manager & Backup - Apps on Google Play
Easily clean and organize your apps using a beautiful and modern UI
play.google.com
TheMystic said:
It gives you the minimum Android version details of apps installed on your device. True that it doesn't work for searching on Google Play Store. But you'll only be able to install apps that your current Android version/ device supports.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It makes no sense. In this thread we are discussing App Finder, not any other apps.
ze7zez said:
It makes no sense. In this thread we are discussing App Finder, not any other apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These apps are not competing with App Finder. App Finder appears to be a very unique app. I gave you the links because I thought it may help you. But you don't seem to appreciate it. I have taken note of this.
ze7zez said:
As far as I know, Google has not ended support for android 4.0.3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
in which way does Google support it?
According to Google (new project dialog in Android studio) more than 99.3% of devices run on Android 5.0+, but since I have myself an old test phone with Android 4.1 that works quite well for some purposes I thought to start there (future versions of App Finder will also support Android 4.1+)
But I can start the slider at 4.0.3 also.
ze7zez said:
It makes no sense. In this thread we are discussing App Finder, not any other apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TheMystic said:
These apps are not competing with App Finder. App Finder appears to be a very unique app. I gave you the links because I thought it may help you. But you don't seem to appreciate it. I have taken note of this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ze7zez, yes, since these 3 apps only show info about apps installed on the device they are no alternative to App Finder.
TheMystic, thanks anyway, interesting apps, didn't know them, future versions of App Finder will also show permissions.
App Finder 1.0.7 was just released and includes a filter for the minimally required Android version.
It can be enabled from Settings > Filter options.
Now that for some apps, the required Android cannot be shown, where it varies with the device. There is an option to include our exclude these apps.
Also, the required Android is now shown in the details pages and optionally in the result list.
The filter is free, only displaying the required Android in the result list requires a Plus license.
Please let me know if something does not work as expected.
jake n said:
includes a filter for the minimally required Android version.
It can be enabled from Settings > Filter options.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google Play Store will show only apps that are supported on the device where search is done. Not sure how useful this is going to be.
jake n said:
TheMystic, thanks anyway, interesting apps, didn't know them, future versions of App Finder will also show permissions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Permissions shown on Google Play Store hardly say the full story. Anyway, I'll have a lot more feedback when I test it out later.
TheMystic said:
Google Play Store will show only apps that are supported on the device where search is done. Not sure how useful this is going to be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course the required Android will not tell for sure if it'll work on a device, but the info is clearly useful to some people.
TheMystic said:
Permissions shown on Google Play Store hardly say the full story.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True. And I think filters for permissions don't make sense. However my idea is to show warnings for potentially dangerous permissions in the details pages, and also for suspicious data collection practices.
But this will not come that soon.
jake n said:
Of course the required Android will not tell for sure if it'll work on a device, but the info is clearly useful to some people.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Information is good to have. But sometimes people fall for what is considered 'eye candy'.
Your app searches the Google Play Store for information. What use is knowing about the minimum supported version number when Google Play Store simply won't show it if the app isn't supported on the device. In either case, user just needs to know whether the app would work on his device or not. And that is all that matters.
jake n said:
However my idea is to show warnings for potentially dangerous permissions in the details pages, and also for suspicious data collection practices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This feature will be severely limited as your source (Google Play Store) itself contains too little information. This can be useful if you create your own database, but that would be not only too complex, but also a very dynamic process that will require a lot of resources to keep it up-to-date.
TheMystic said:
Information is good to have. But sometimes people fall for what is considered 'eye candy'.
Your app searches the Google Play Store for information. What use is knowing about the minimum supported version number when Google Play Store simply won't show it if the app isn't supported on the device. In either case, user just needs to know whether the app would work on his device or not. And that is all that matters.
This feature will be severely limited as your source (Google Play Store) itself contains too little information. This can be useful if you create your own database, but that would be not only too complex, but also a very dynamic process that will require a lot of resources to keep it up-to-date.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We'll see.