If you require developers to update apps that still work just to keep them on the store, you're going to lose apps for no reason. Not every app needs updates to keep working.
F-Droid
F-Droid is an installable catalogue of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) applications for the Android platform. The client makes it easy to browse, install, and keep track of updates on your device.
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If an app still works, it doesn't matter whether or not it is being maintained.
It's amazing to me how people have been indoctrinated when it comes to updated/maintained.
If it ain't broke...
I use apps from 10 years ago still.
especially if there aren't obvious security concerns. Rather use an android text editor from 6 years ago if it works well than a trash one that's updated once a month and has a million features i don't care about
everything always has a security flaw. this is horrible logic
right... but so what? in a relatively sandboxed environment without network access. If I wanna play a random game, it's there. If I'm using an old phone, old apps are there. I think it'd kill fdroid more to have only 10 new apps per category. Maybe you could maintain your own repo with only fresh updates
no...? If an app doesn't load content from un-trusted sources, (files, websites, sms messages, etc.), then there isn't really anything to worry about. It is also just as likely for something newly developed to contain a vulnerability as something developed a long time ago. Or even more likely, as there has been less time for people to discover vulnerabilities.
Why? I can't find a reason in your post.
Especially your suggestion of 3 years is very short.
But: the latest release date/ month should be directly visible in the apps, or at least you should be able to filter them.
Its not going anywhere tho just to the archives. And also read again if you can't find any readon in my post
Why?
Maybe add to the caveat if it's internet connected? I kinda like some old apps that don't require network access and don't really need an update (think guitar tuners, the frequency of a note hasn't changed and as long as the underlining OS API still runs then I don't see much of a problem)