Syncthing's Android App is Going Away, Google Play Store Policies is One of the Reasons to Blame

Those who have used Syncthing know how good of a tool it is. It allows them to seamlessly sync their files securely across multiple devices by making use of peer-to-peer networking.

Thanks to its decentralized and open source nature, Syncthing has become one of the best tools for synchronizing files across computers and smartphones.

Sadly, there is some bad news for users of the Android app for Syncthing.

Syncthing Android App To Be Retired

As announced by Syncthing maintainer Simon Frei, after December 2024, there will be no new releases for its Android app.

According to Simon, two main factors drove this move. The first was the lack of contributions to the app, where only he and a handful of other people were contributing to the code.

The second was that Google's publishing policies were making it very difficult to publish the app on the Play Store. Earlier this year, the Syncthing app for Android was taken offline on the platform due to inadequate communication by Google over the initial unpublishing of the app.

And, even when the maintainer tried his best to resolve issues, they kept rejecting the releases, resulting in a long chain of back-and-forth email conversations leading to nowhere.

Closing out the announcement, Simon added that:

The app saw no significant development for a long time and without Play releases I do no longer see enough benefit and/or have enough motivation to keep up the ongoing maintenance an app requires even without doing much, if any, changes.

Thanks a lot to everyone who ever contributed to this app!

Well, I do not think this is a one-off case, the Google Play Store has become more restrictive compared to what it was a long time back, citing security reasons. While that is a good thing, they should not lose their focus off quality developers on their platform.

Do We Have Any Alternatives?

Well, you can get the most recent release of the Syncthing app for Android from F-Droid before the final release arrives in December.

But, if you are searching for alternatives, then the Syncthing-Fork app might be the next best bet, as it is a direct fork of the original app with some additional improvements.

On the other hand, if you are looking for an entirely different solution, then you might want to check out FreeFileSync and Rsync.

Similarly, those looking to transfer files manually between two devices can go for LocalSend. As someone who uses it regularly, I can vouch for it.

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