I have 2 android devices, asus and xiaomi. I don't really use much them, meaning the few times I do I have several standing updates, most of them from f-droid.

On debian I enter a command and the machine downloads and executes all standing upgrades at once.

I don't know if I don't understand android, but on the gui I have to first download the application and then click again to install it. I am never shown an option to bulk download and install, which would save much time.

Is it supposed to be like this? Is there something I don't know?

This happens on both an asus and a xiaomi device.

In F-Droid, you can queue downloads up by clicking/touching every application you want to update, and IME it usually automatically installs the updates after downloading, too - but maybe that depends on settings, the specific version of F-Droid or the specific Android ROM you're running.

on the gui I have to first download the application and then click again to install it

What "gui"? Are you using the Google Play Store app or something? Because other apps like F-Droid, Obtainium, Aurora Store, or the default GrapheneOS App Store indeed do offer a one-click "update all" button. I cannot speak for Google Play, though.

Yes, google play also has an update all option.

And if you are installing one by one, you do not have a separate download and install step. And you don't have to wait before starting another install.

Not sure what op is seeing here.

f-droid

Apparently I don't actually have the normal F-Droid app installed. I use Neo Store and can recommend that as a better F-Droid client

https://github.com/NeoApplications/Neo-Store

Droidify is also another popular option.

https://github.com/Droid-ify/client

I myself use Droid-ify and it has a setting for auto update. Note that, no auto update for third-party appstores below Android 13, including F-Droid.

Neo is great.

With shizuku it can do full auto updates without user interaction at all.
Neo also has the fdroid, Izzy, guardian, and dozens of other repos built in.

FF updater i use for browsers. Same deal with shizuku for updates.

For op: shizuku is an app that makes use of hidden APIs and allows ADB / shell privileges and commands.

I would suggest getting the still developed and maintained fork which has substantial improvements and features over the dead rikka version

https://github.com/thedjchi/Shizuku

Mirror: https://upd.dev/thedjchi/Shizuku

I am currently using the Droid-ify client for F-Droid, and I can definitely update all my apps at once. I believe this "update all" option exists for the official F-Droid client (as well as other third-party clients), it might just be a colourful icon rather than text that you don't recognise.

I have it configured to install with Shizuku, if the default "session" installer doesn't work, it might be worth a try!

I am moving to Piefed at scallisto@retrofed.com (https://retrofed.com/u/scallisto)

F-droid basic does have it, not sure why the base app wouldn't