I’m kind of new to android. F-droid is kind of hard to navigate. some apps doesn’t load their thumbnails and some doesn’t even have them at all. It’s hard to decide which ones are good other than how recent It’s updated.
What I need atm:
- Music player
- Writing / Note taking
- Diary app
- VPN?
- Maps
- Messenger app
- Social media / Fediverse frontends (if it exists)
- Peertube client (to upload and manage videos)
- Reminders / To do list app
You can recommend me any android apps that might be useful.
These are the applications that I personally recommend and that I use on a daily basis (I hope it helps you! <3)
- Music Player: Music Player GO
- Writing / Note Taking: Markor and Notally
- Diary app: Diary
- VPN: Mullvad VPN
- Maps: OsmAnd+
- Messenger app: Telegram FOSS or Nekogram X (if you use Telegram) and Molly (if you use Signal)
- Social Media / Fediverse frontends: Lemmur (for Lemmy), PixelDroid (for Pixelfed), Tusky (for Mastodon), Twidere or Twidere X (for Twitter, both are great but I recommend using the old one because Twidere X it’s a bit buggy for now), Infinity for Reddit or RedReader (for Reddit, I prefer Infinity for Android but RedReader is great too), Twire (for Twitch) and Barinsta (for Instagram)
- PeerTube Client: Thorium and NewPipe
- Reminders / To-Do List App: Tasks.org + Birday (to remember birthdays)
use Aurora droid or Foxy droid, the official F-Droid client is buggy.
for fediverse: tusky for mastodon, husky for pleroma, lemmur for lemmy, pixeldroid for pixelfed
But if you have some apps installed in F-Droid and I switch to Aurora Droid for example, the apps installed by F-Droid will be deleted or what? I have a lot of apps installed with F-droid and I don’t want to lose them in the transition…
No, you can swich wich no problem, but personaly sometimes I have issues with AuroraDroid search, nothing big enough to be a problem, maybe I’ll open an issue, but someone one knows more clients to give them a try?
So I will be able to keep my apps even if I uninstall F-Droid and I install Aurora Droid? Good to know, thanks for the answer, I gonna try now.
yeah, it has a problem with searching. when you search, type what you’re looking for, delete the last character, and type it again. it fixes it for me.
Good to know.
While we’re at it, the privacy friendly browser Mull, based on Mozilla technology has landed in F-Droid : https://f-droid.org/packages/us.spotco.fennec_dos/
“The upstream source code is not entirely Free” What does this mean?
This Anti-Feature is applied to apps where the upstream source code includes proprietary software by default in their own releases.
mull is a fork of fennec, which is a fork of android firefox which is not entirely foss, and includes some telemetry and tracking. fennec removes proprietary parts and telemetry from firefox, but is able to connent to some servers of mozilla and google, which can track users. it’s not hardened either. then mull comes and forks fennec, and adds features from Tor uplift and arkenfox-user.js preferences. but since the upstream code comes from firefox for android, it has this anti-feature. if I understand it correctly, mull is the best android browser for now.
This actually explains a lot to me. Thank you. I have switched to Mull recently and so far so good. There have been some worries about broking a few websites because of all the hardening, but as it seems for my usage, there are no problems whatsoever. I must agree with you. Mull is the best browser for Android I have been able to find so far.
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You can see all the changes made in the build scripts repo (which at a glance looks like it’s mostly based on F-Droid Fennec’s build scripts) mainly prebuild.sh and the *-liberate.patch
Thank you.
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For maps, Organic Maps or OSMAnd (this last gas antifeatures).
Music player: Metro Writing / Note taking: Joplin Diary app: VPN: Mullvad Maps: organic Maps Messenger app: I need more info Social media / Fediverse frontends (if it exists): Lemmur for Lemmy, Tusky for Mastodon Peertube client (to upload and manage videos): NewPipe has Peertube features but unsure if you can upload since I use it as a front end to YouTube Reminders / To do list app: Joplin
Weather: Geometric Weather
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Lots of nice suggestions here ! Maybe 2 points worth mentioning :
- Since you are using the fediverse already and are looking for f-droid app recommendations, it may be worth to consider the f-droid client gdroid, which uses the Fediverse as a source for comments.
- OSMAnd is a nice OSM frontend. Now the question is whether OSM is complete enough in your region for it to be used as a GPS app. In that regard, I recently discovered StreetComplete, which makes contributing to OSM easy and fun.-
I love using StreetComplete! It has been fun to help map out areas I’ve lived in. Also I often use OSMAnd to add notes that I’ll then fix when on a desktop computer.
- VLC
- Nextcloud Notes (together with Disroot, you will have your notes on Disroot cloud)
- don’t know
- don’t know
- Osmand, Organic Maps
- Blabber (for XMPP) or Schildichat/Element (for Matrix)
- Dandelior (for Diaspora) or Fedilab (for Mastodon)
For XMPP there is also Conversations that is great and for Mastodon I use Tusky
Not really, is there some interesting fact to know?
wait, isn’t VLC a video player?
works well as audio player for me as well. The home-screen widget that it provides is very useful.
I had VLC on my phone and used it for video. I tried a bunch of different foss audio players for local files and finally thought to try out the audio tab in VLC. Now it is my go to.
It’s both video and audio player.
https://lemmy.ml/post/54596 here you go, no need to thank me
Thanks
Hey @TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml, One more thing. I’m planning to install lineageos first before using your guide, is that alright?
PS: You should host your guide in github or similar for easy access and to make it readable.
Totally fine to install LOS. And I am planning something else.
I’m fine with the default F-Droid app but I know there is several alternatives like for example G-Droid : https://fossdroid.com/a/gdroid.html
Todo : Simpletask
Music player - Metro music or Pulse music
Thanks, I’ll decide which ones better.
Music I use Metro, mostly for its UI. Most of the other music players in fdroid look kinda ugly or crowded, so Metro was one that works and looks much better (or different). It works and looks like Samsung Music player hence why I picked it.
For note taking app, I enjoy using Notally, it’s the closest to how the Samsung Notes app worked, so I can easily make a todo list or jot down a note (and putting things on seperate lines! Surprising to find some apps didn’t let me?) I also have Joplin to sync some references and such.
I haven’t found a good Diary app yet, but looking for one to use for gardening purposes.
Vpn don’t know, I have NordVPN and they dont have their app on fdroid
Maps, what everyone else suggests
Messenger apps again, what everyone else suggested
Social media again, what others suggested
Peertube I don’t use for uploading videos, I watch using NewPipe
Todo app I use Notally mentioned above! I also have SimpleTask for grocery management but it’s meant to be a todo app. That one has lots of functionality tho so I’m sure it can work well for you!
- Music Player: Music Player
- Notes: Joplin*
- Diary: Diary
- VPN: Riseup VPN is the only decent free one, but it tends to be slow. You can also use Mullvad VPN or iVPN, which are paid.
- Maps: Organic Maps
- Messenger app: If you meen SMS, use QKSMS
- Social media/fediverse frontends: Tusky for Mastodon, Syphon for Matrix, Conversations for XMPP, Fritter for Twitter, Newpipe for YouTube, Stealth for Reddit, Lemmur for Lemmy, PixelDroid for Pixelfed, and BarInsta for Instagram
- Peertube client: Thorium
- Reminders: Tasks.org
*You need to enable Izzysoft’s repo by going to Settings–>Repositories, clicking the plus sign, and then pasting the following link: https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/repo?fingerprint=3BF0D6ABFEAE2F401707B6D966BE743BF0EEE49C2561B9BA39073711F628937A. Also note that PixelDroid has two entries, one of which is on Izzysoft’s repo. The one on the main repo is the newer one.