this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2023
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Technology

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Value your health by keeping track on your training. It records as you go running or walking, and gives you a bike computer with a bigger screen for cycling. You can even mark interesting locations along your way with pictures. The app keeps recorded statistics in great detail for analysis.

It also has voice announcements, and supports Bluetooth LE sensors for heart rate (Polar, Wahoo Kicker/Ticker, moofit, Mi Band 3, Amazfit Neo, Garmin HRM, and more), speed and distance (running and cycling), cadence (cycling), and a power meter (cycling). It measures altitude gain/loss via the phone's barometer sensor. You can export data without any restrictions, as tracks either as KMZ (incl. photos), KML, or GPX.

It requires no Internet access, or extra permissions, and there are no adverts nor in-app analytics. You share only the data you want others to have. It can be installed from the Google Play Store, but also from the F-Droid store, with all Google services excluded.

It is not aiming to be a direct competitor to Strava because there is no public website, and also no iOS app. Strava's website does help create more of a social and peer pressure type motivation for many, across both Android and iOS users. But OpenTrack is focussing more on preserving privacy by not using such a service, although one can import the recording into other apps and share from there. Regarding iOS, well the app is fully open source, so maybe someone could consider compiling it for iOS if the dependencies are not an issue.

See https://opentracksapp.com/

#technology #fitnesstracker #health #OpenTracks #opensource

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

Why's it free on F-droid but $3.49 on Google Play? Or is the dev on Play just shamelessly profiting off an open source app? Edit: My bad. As everyone pointed out, purchasing on Google Play is how you can donate to the project. Sorry to jump to conclusions.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Because Play Store is the "voluntary donation" option.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago

Or think of it as "convenience fee" for the people who can't use F-Droid.

If my friend, who thinks I'm IT support since I majored computer science, asks me which tracker they should use - I would just tell them to pay the $4 for OpenTracks.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I have no problem with FOSS having a monetary cost. Devs have to eat too. The dev on Google Play store does seem to be on the core team for the app. (https://github.com/OpenTracksApp) I would hope the money is going to the project and not just that one guy but I don't see anything transparent about it. That being said it would really not be hard for any of that team to notice that the app is on the g play store and for money with that person's name attached to it. So it's most likely on the up and up.

Edit: Other people have noted that the play store version is essentially the donate to project option. I need more coffee since I didn't find that link lol

It is great to see support for the devs here though!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Also, publishing on F Droid is free while publishing on Play Store requires a developer account which costs money. Charging for the Play Store version makes sense if the dev even wants to offer it on a paid storefront. The free and FOSS option is free so I'm happy with that. I dislike when ALL options to acquire binaries of a FOSS app are paid but charging for the version on the pay2play store is understandable.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Nothing wrong with that? Loads of devs do that and point to fdroid for a free alternative. Just view it as a donation for the devs work.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

In the Fdroid page there is a link to the google play store version next to their donate button so they're using it as a way to make it easier to donate to them.