The Linux Phone
App Ecosystem
Apps for Sailfish OS, Ubuntu Touch and and GNOME or Plasma Mobile
slides available at
https://media.linmob.net/fosdem2026
and a Call to Action
AGENDA
- About me
- Goals/What's not in Scope
- Apps on Sailfish OS
- Apps on Ubuntu Touch
- Plasma Mobile and Phosh/GNOME on Mobile
- Call to Action
- Q&A
About me
... and part of the "Linux on Mobile" stand in building
UD level 2
find me there tomorrow!
- Changes of the past two years
- Highlight/encourage collaboration between operating systems
- ...#nospoilers
Goals
Not in Scope
but worth checking out, too
*
* CLI/TUI apps are not in scope
Motivation
The space is a tiny niche, that may or not be stronger due to being heavily fragmented.
Goals
- encouraging more collaboration across "fragments"
- learning from what other projects do
- personal: spending some time with Ubuntu Touch and Sailfish OS ;-)
2024: Assumptions
- Apps for open standards should be implementable
- Apps for services with free API access too
- Apps for services that have an API should be doable
Conclusion then:
Nope, people just scratch their itch :-)
This is still true, so ... no need for different assumptions.
Sailfish OS
- risen from the ashes of Nokia and Meego
- 2013: Jolla Phone
- Wayland, btrfs, systemd - in 2013
- latest release: 5.0.0.72 (Tampella) / 2025-11-11
- 2024: Sailfish X - buy license, bring a Sony device
- now: Jolla C2 and Jolla Phone (2026) pre-orders
- Android App Support
- three sources for native Apps
Open source with added closed-source components and extensions of third parties which can be of other licences as well
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailfish_OS
Jolla Store
- requires Jolla account
- no for pay apps
- no web interface, did not count
- Storeman frontend
- no for pay apps
- also list apps for other projects
- 2116 (2024: ~1800) apps (and packages) listed for Sailfish OS
Chum
- the newest contender
- also has a web frontend
- no for pay apps
- 214 apps listed for Sailfish (2024: ~170)
- including Kirigami apps!
Sailfish Verdict
- With numerous new apps and continued efforts, the overall outlook is positive.
- The reliance on Qt 5.6 is unfortunate, as it will make collaboration across ecosystems harder with the "world" moving on to Qt 6.
- Also, the compositor currently prohibits running GTK-based app, which is unfortunate for browsers alone
Ubuntu Touch
- envisioned in 2011
- 2015: bq Aquaris E4.5
- Mir, Upstart, Unity 8
- dropped by Canonical and continued by UBports in April 2017.
- Unity 8 is now Lomiri, Mir supports Wayland too now and from 20.04 on systemd is used , also Waydroid helps with Android apps
- immutable, sandboxing!
- latest releases: 24.04 1.1/ 20.04 OTA 11
Mark Shuttleworth announced on 31 October 2011 that by Ubuntu 14.04, the goal was that Ubuntu would support smartphones, tablets, smart TVs and other smart screens (such as car head units and smartwatches)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Touch
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downsides of sandboxing
Open-Store (2024)
- https://open-store.io/
- 2024
- App Count 16.04
- Apps ~610
- Web Apps ~210
- App Count 20.04
- Apps ~210
- Web Apps ~22
- App Count 16.04
Numbers: Late January 2024
Open-Store (2026)
- https://open-store.io/
- App Count (unified)
- Apps: 839
- Web Apps: 192
- Bookmarks: 352
Numbers: January 24, 2026,
https://next.open-store.io/stats/
Other ways to install apps
Tangent:
Lomiri on $distro
- Lomiri is available in
- Debian
- Alpine
- NixOS
- this also includes core apps, but they may not work with your shell
Example: Morph Browser
Ubuntu Touch
Verdict
- Ubuntu Touch has managed to make great strides forward, and is going to keep doing so (Qt6)
- I think other app install GUIs should add a donation nag, too
- 2017/2020 ff. Librem 5 / PinePhone + ported devices
- lots of projects based on desktop distributions
- PureOS, postmarketOS, Mobian, Droidian, FuriOS, Pocketblue - to just name some distributions
- Main UIs: Plasma Mobile, Phosh, GNOME Shell Mobile
- No proper app store solution (ish) for a long time
Plasma Mobile
& on Mobile/ Phosh
New contenders
Title Text
and, since January 2025:
How to get a Flathub app into that collection?
Tangent: AppStream Metadata
- specified by FreeDesktop.org
- may seem boring, but is super important for appealing app listings on desktop Linux
- can contain
- form factor information (duh)
- licensing, descriptions, release notes
- ...
- Blog post on Form factors
- AppStream Documentation
- Metainfo Creator
Bazaar
UI: GTK4 / libadwaita
LPA.org lists
- 315 (2024: 156) libadwaita apps
- 53 (2024: 66) libhandy apps)
that are rated as fully compatible (2026.)
Does not do this (yet.)
But: It uses Kirigami and is adaptive!
LPA.org lists
119 (2024: 114) Kirigami apps
+ 35 additional QtQuick and
+ 7 additional QWidget apps.
There's more than libadwaita and kirigami, btw
...and more than C and C++
PureMaps on Phosh
PureMaps on Ubuntu Touch
PureMaps on Sailfish
You can make apps that work "everywhere"
Also worth mentioning (I)
Fluffychat on iOS
Fluffychat on Android
Fluffychat on Phosh
You can make apps that work "everywhere"
Also worth mentioning (II)
... and there's more
Community favorites
Yes, I asked on Fedi, again.
Community favorites
Tooter (Sailfish OS)
DeltaChat
GNOME Web
Iotas
GNOME Maps
tut
alhena
DeltaTouch
Kasts
Tuba
Fractal
Shortwave
KDE Itinerary
Music (Ubuntu Touch)
PureMaps
Tokodon
Tangram
Fotema
Dino
Pipeline
Sly
Passes
GNOME Podcasts
Errands
Foliate
Exhibit
Jogger
Mousai
Common Gaps
Mainstream attention stealing apps
Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok ...
... or is not having those a strength?
Banking apps*
Apps for Bluetooth gadgets (including medical devices)
Reverse-engineering is possible, but feels QUITE risky!
Government ID apps
We also need better security (hardware attestation and stuff) first
Common Gaps
hard to address - we need others
cooperation to solve them
Video Calling
On XMPP/Matrix/you name it
...
maybe better Navigation?
Apps for Bluetooth gadgets (low risk)
My Pebble watch would like to send notifications ;-)
A good email client
for Plasma Mobile (Merkuro Mail when?) and GNOME (GTK4/libadwaita)
Common Gaps
easier to address - it just needs a
lot of work
Call To Action
1.
2026
means that I will in all likelihood retire from LinuxPhoneApps.org, due to happy personal news
thus...
I plan to publish some screencasts filling the gap in documentation before I step down
2.
BAD METADATA
Apps that are too wide claim to be mobile friendly
Apps that are mobile friendly don't say so in metadata
also...
use the Length app and measure
before putting a wrong
length value :-)
3... 4... 5...
SO MUCH MORE
help build x86_64 apps for aarch64
help bumping flatpak runtimes
add Linux build targets to FOSS Flutter apps
help out with Framework changes across multiple apps
(e.g., when things get deprecated/replaced in libadwaita/Kirigami)
always be nice, kind and supportive!
make apps that are 4**px wide 360px narrow
Thank you!
Q&A
... find me at the "Linux on Mobile" stand in building
UD level 2
tomorrow!
Thanks!
Check out
https://linuxphoneapps.org/
https://linmob.net/
Follow
@linuxphoneapps@linuxmobile.social