In general, you do have to manually download and install updates. However, some apps will automatically check and download their own updates. Also, if the APK is available on a site such as Github or Gitlab, there is an app called Obtainium that you can use. It will notify you when an update is available, and download and install it for you if you choose: https://github.com/ImranR98/Obtainium

This worked, thank you!

I get “Could not find a suitable release” when I try to add it to Obtainium on my Pixel 7 Pro

You download and install the APK file. When prompted to allow your browser to allow installation from unknown sources, you grant the permission.

My instance defederated 🤷‍♀️

I think you would need a separate account for Mastodon since you need to login through a server

Meta has the right to join the fediverse, but instance admins have the right to defederate from them. If a user doesn’t like that, they can make an account with another instance. How does it go against “fediverse principles?”

You know you can interact with posts and users on other instances without having to login on their instance, right?