hi together
i am now taking a heart and time to reply to your questions but still a little scared that rough voices hit me here.. well i believe most of the syncthing community is friendly and nice 
my intention is to continue the mission and goals of the syncthing fork app catfriend stated when they started distribute the fork on google play fdroid and github in 2018
Goals of the fork:
- Develop and try out enhancements together with the community.
- Release the wrapper more frequently to identify and fix bugs caused by changes in the syncthing submodule
- Make enhancements configurable in the UI, users should be able to turn them on and off
Comparison between upstream and fork at the time of writing this:
- Both contain the syncthing binary built from the official source at GitHub
- Syncing functionality and reliability depends on the syncthing binary submodule version.
- Only the wrapper containing the Android UI is addressed by the fork.
i am happy that nel0x has reached out to have another chat in private after first deny working together on the researchxxl repository.. atm we have different opinions on how to go on but i let them time to think about a solution that may fits us both or make their plan on going on their way..
i have asked them what their plans to contribute to the app are and if they might fit or not fit with catfriends original mission.. for example contributing code - solving issues - publishing - sth else
please be patient and do not pressure one of us.. i believe we both do our best to solve the situation the best way each of us or we can
also cool to see security researchers recently posting about the researchxxl repo if you sort your search results from newest to oldest.. they did check the changes between 2.0.11.2 and 2.0.12.1 many many thanks for this and keep on!! this is not meant you should trust me now more than you did before but deescalates the threat aura fog
here is some plan to solve the unclear situation which i appreciate feedback on from app users if they think it will satisfy or not
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researchxxl repo holds the designated and ongoing project with code issues and releases for the syncthing fork app as wished by catfriend the former maintainer and owner of the projects name
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we will slightly rebrand the display name of the app to syncthing fork wrapper because imo this was the most misunderstanding for years and not wisely chosen by catfriend to make clear it is not confused with the original go written syncthing.. the app description already tells that it is just a wrapper.. and hopefully this might also help support tickets which before arrived at catfriend because users did not know which is the right area to put them - wrapper repo or syncthing repo
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users can expect to get the same app if they read syncthing fork wrapper or com.github.catfriend1.* on release artifacts as they got from catfriend from 2018 to 2025 now.. this in mind catfriend signing keys will be used to allow friction free upgrade
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for reference and security researchers to be able to verify if a published app with the name syncthing fork wrapper in it i put signed release artifacts as immutable github releases to my repo in all variants that users are known to have already installed that might be apk aab and split apk.. those can be analyzed who has signed them and easily extracted and compared by common tools like 7z.. this can be binarly compared without consuming much time because the builds on my repo are reproducible and can be compared against releases on apk mirror sites, foss stores and so on
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so anyone can make their fork or rebrand of the app but if the contents do not 100 match our upstream they are forced to distinguish their work clearly from what users expect to be from the catfriend successorship
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i welcome contributors
contributions are very welcome.. help in issues or support as well.. if we get more people involved i might ask to move the project to the syncthing org which would be a good idea in the longterms when theres more commits of multiple people there -
the current state of the repo is not what i read of some peoples posts on social media and here.. please check yourself and realize that most.. lets say 90 percent.. of the work was done by catfriend between 2018 and 2025 regard the syncthing fork app after they forked the official syncthing android app in 2017 (i hope their notes are accurate because citing them)
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from my pov nel0x is still unknown to the community because pulling exactly catfriend commits to their repo but i am happy that im getting to know them now by chat and can form an opinion of them and their abilities.. this was the simple reason i did not accept their invitation to just continue at their repo no offense was intended.. with nel0x on board we would be able - if they agree - to release one syncthing fork app to fdroid github and google play that would be 100 percent identical the same and verifiable by the community.. nel0x would also be in control as a reviewer as i do not have access to their google play.. the community would be assured that the reproducible build released on researchxxl repo is identical to the google play offered version by binary compare made possible.. beside the advantage this has downside for nel0x themselves they could not run their own brand of the app this way with another strategy for example feature set in the longerm in mind.. but i promise to be open and willing to accept deeper changes as contributions to the app as a tryout release candidate awaiting community feedback if they would want to change something fundamental in the future on my repo.. just to take the fear if they read this post - i would not block deeper changes by them nor force them into the need to make their own app.. that promised with the community in mind as i guess you users reading this do not want to end up with two different apps where features deviate
my plans to work on the app
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solve that nasty battery problems on the v2 track
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improve the app notification in the status bar it seems useless to me because i cannot see if syncthing is running or not without pulling down the bar :-/
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migrate parts of the ui to material 3
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solve some support issues
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do release candidates to get your feedback and a monthly stable release