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Opensource @programming.dev Admiral Patrick @dubvee.org

Favorite FOSS Android Apps for a De-Googled Phone

Just setup a new de-Googled phone and figured I'd share some of the good FOSS apps I'm using. Please feel free to chime in with any you'd recommend (or better options than what I have listed)

  • Weather: Breezy Weather. Note that the version in F-Droid is the "freenet" version and only has one source (Open-Meteo I believe). The "standard" release is available on Github and has additional sources like AccuWeather, OpenWeather, etc. Absolutely gorgeous app as well as widgets.
  • Maps: Organic Maps What Google Maps should be. Absolutely gorgeous, functional, and works 100% offline.
  • Google Play Store: Aurora Store. Sometimes you need an app that's only available in the official Play store. Aurora store lets you download apps without having Play services installed or requiring a Google account. Even if you do have Play services and Play store available, Aurora is just so much more usable since it's not a flaming dumpster fire of "suggestions", "recommendations", and ads.
  • Email: K-9 Mail. Basically Thunderbird Mobile. Enough said.
  • Calendar: Etar Fast and efficient, syncs easily with my DAVx5 synced calendars from Nextcloud
  • Tasks: OpenTasks. Create, edit, update, and complete tasks. Can sync to a CalDAV server via DAVx5.
  • Contact/Calendar/Task Sync: DavX5 WebDAV sync utility that I use to sync my calendar, contacts, and tasks from Nextcloud to my phone.
  • Matrix: SchildiChat. So much better than Element for Android. Was having constant issues with encryption keys failing to sync in Element that hasn't (yet?) been a problem with SchildiChat.
  • Launcher: FastDraw: This is more of a preference, but I really like this launcher for its simplicity and ease of organization. Don't recommend this if you use a lot of widgets as it only supports one at a time (feature, not bug).
  • Authenticator: Aegis
  • SIP/VOIP: Linphone I really wish the desktop version of Linphone had this kind of polish.
  • MPD Client: M.A.L.P Absolutely gorgeous and intuitive MPD client. I pair it with Snapcast to control my whole-house audio.
  • Quick Share: Snapdrop/Pairdrop I don't use the app (rather, I have my self-hosted one pinned as a PWA), but this is great for sending one-off files or text between devices.
  • Music: Tie between Apollo and Mucke. The default LineageOS (AOSP?) music player is nice, but the phone I setup wasn't supported with LineageOS and didn't have a good music player included. Additionally, those two scale well on the small screen of the device I'm using where others would crop off the controls at varying points.
  • Web Apps: NativeAlpha. Uses the Android System WebView to wrap any website into a standalone "app". While most mobile browsers will let you do that with the "Add to home screen" button, only ones with a manifest.json will work as apps; the rest are just shortcuts. Also includes other niceties such as adding adblock, controlling cookies, defaulting to a desktop version, and modifying the user agent string (among other options).
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  • Excellent list! Does DavX5 support scheduled exports and backups? Here are some additions primarily from F-droid and Izzy:

    • Quote Unquote: Excellent motivational/creative quotes app with a set of widgets.

    • NetGuard: Local firewall you can use to deny apps internet access. Good for privacy and limiting data usage

    • SD Maid 2/SE: Basically BleachBit Mobile--useful for managing storage.

    • ExifEraser: detect and remove metadata from images.

    • PipePipe: FOSS Android app to let you brose YouTube, NicoNico and BiliBili.

    • FFUpdater: ensure you have the latest version of Firefox, along with certain other web browsers. Useful if you want the beta version of...

    • Mull: Privacy-oriented, up-to-date fork of Firefox.

    • BitWarden: Highly secure, open-source password manager and information organizer.

    • Neo Backup: Open-source tool to backup your apps and data.

    • NeverTooManyBooks: Keep track of your books and comics

    • Irregular Expressions: Virtual keyboard for writing expressive messages in various text styles.

    • Calculator++

    • VLC Media Player

    • +1 for PipePipe. As a vocaloid/UTAU/etcetera fan, it's nice to be able to view songs that aren't on yt without having to switch to a web browser to look them up.

    • Does DavX5 support scheduled exports and backups?

      I don't see an option for that, so probably not. TBH, since I run the backend it syncs with (Nextcloud in my case), I handle backups and exports there. I believe there are other apps (don't have a recommendation on hand) that will allow you to backup/export your contacts and calendars regardless of where they're synced from (not sure about tasks).

      Great additions, too. I apparently missed VLC when I put this list together. Definitely recommend that on any device.

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