Hi all!
I was just wondering about install options for ODK Collect.
Currently it's most up to date on the Google Play Store.
The version on F-Droid is a build from 2013.
Is the reason for the lack of updates on F-Droid because of Play Services usage in the ODK Collect code to determine location?
Incidentally, is it possible to use ODK Collect without Play Services?
If the package is eligible, I would be more than happy to do the legwork submitting to the F-Droid repository
Can you say more about what you mean by "mostly" here? We release to the Play Store immediately when we tag a release! Maybe you mean that there can be useful work in beta or otherwise merged that's not yet published?
Yes, I believe there are a couple of libraries that make it ineligible for F-Droid. See https://github.com/getodk/collect/issues/5625 for details about a similar repository. If you're up for checking whether the F-Droid requirements might be less strict, that'd be fantastic. If not, I think we should get the version from 2013 removed.
You could produce a fork that strips some of those libraries out but you'd have to also change the way location is captured.
By 'most up to date' I meant that it's the location with the most up to date releases.
Sorry for the bad wording!
Thanks for clarifying 
It would be quite a big burden to maintain a fork with very little gain.
I was mostly wondering if the releases can be made available on another source than Google Play.
Would APKMirror be an option?
But I would understand if there are concerns around verifying the authenticity of the APK 
We have APKs for every release at https://github.com/getodk/collect/releases. They are as authentic as it gets 
Sorry for the bad reading, how did I make "most" into "mostly"?! 
Hopefully the Github releases work for you for sideloading but if not, it'd be helpful to understand your use case in a bit more detail. Are you using devices that don't have the Play Store or maybe using a Mobile Device Management solution or something like that?
The APK releases on Github are perfect, thanks guys!
I have a phone with sandboxed Google Play services and mostly use alternative app stores
Removing the release on F-Droid may be for the best to avoid confusion and someone accidentally installing a release 11yrs old!
But to be fair F-Droid does give plenty of warnings that it's built for an old SDK and may not be compatible, so it's probably fine
I've asked the F-Droid team to remove or archive the ODK Collect app so that users aren't at risk of using something outdated (and likely insecure).