Hey, Android enthusiasts! 📱
Let's take a tour of your favourite non-game paid apps in 2023 that are worth every penny!
No APKs please. Play Store links and app screenshots are encouraged. FOSS projects worth a contribution or two (whether a donation or paid version) are also more than welcome!
Let's skip the games (that's a story for another day) and spotlight some ever-reliable paid apps recommended by @Deconceptualist@lemm.ee:
- Tasker: The master of automation, turning your device into an efficiency wizard.
- Titanium Backup: Safeguarding your data with finesse.
- SD Maid: Your neat freak companion, maintaining cleanliness and speed.
- BigBag: Organizing your shopping escapades like a champ.
- Wolfram Alpha: The answer guru for all things complex.
Here's to building a treasure trove of invaluable apps and supporting those who keep the Android landscape innovative and vibrant!
Don't forget to subscribe to !askandroid@lemdro.id for everyday Android questions and suggestions.
This week's discussion idea is brought to you by @Deconceptualist@lemm.ee. Include your suggestions for a future !android@lemdro.id post in your response below!
How about Solid Explorer. It's my favorite file browser.
Also Network Analyzer Pro is a bunch of great network tools that I use quite often.
Solid Explorer is great. Works for everything I've needed from it, including remote servers.
❤️
Some others I previously forgot:
- Twilight is great for dimming your screen or shifting the color balance to red near bedtime. This is mostly baked into Android OS now but the app still gives a bit more control.
- Sleep as Android is an alarm and sleep tracking app with a ton of crazy and innovative features. Even if you don't use most of them, having a smart alarm match your sleep cycle and wake you up gently with a fade-in is worth it.
- Accubattery does what it says and helps you track battery health and get the most longevity out of your device.
- Musicolet is a feature-packed audio player, and for me basically perfect. It even plays uncommon formats like Musepack.
- The Simple Mobile Tools set is quite good (esp. Gallery and File Manager) with minimal permissions and definitely worth a few bucks to the dev as a thank you.
For me, it's very helpful in the ways it prevents me from oversleeping. I have it set to that in order to turn off my alarm, I have to go scan the barcode on my mouthwash in my bathroom, thus forcing me out of bed. The sleep tracking features are neat too and will hopefully wake you up when you're out of deep sleep so you're less groggy in the morning.
My life is basically run out of this app. The pomo timer is an excellent bonus that I use for when I'm alternating between various work tasks
A lot of great stuff recommended here already. Ditto a lot of them but here are a few others I use:
- Bitwarden Password Manager: been using this for years and recently decided to subscribe.
- Hermit : Create lite web apps.
- Repainter: Dynamic theming for Android 12+.
- Wavelet: Custom headphone/earbud equalizer with AutoEQ database.
- JuiceSSH: Great SSH interface.
- Obtainium: Keep apps from GitHub updated.
- Shizuku: Wireless ADB functionality.
- Droid-ify: F-Droid client with support for Shizuku for automatic app updating without root.
- Cryptomator: For encrypting cloud storage.
- Groundwire: VoIP SIP softphone with push notifications.
- SunSurveyor: Really great sun tracking for photography.
- PhotoPills: Decent sun tracking but lots of other photography reference tools.
- My Lightning Tracker & Alerts: Don't really need this but somehow enjoy tracking lightning during storms. The alerts can be useful for an early heads up.
+1 for Repainter. I bought it when it didn't use a subscription yet. It's really great for theming your device!
For book lovers like me, Moon plus reader pro. I have used it every single day on my phone for years and am very happy with it.
Moon plus reader pro
That's a great one! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.flyersoft.moonreaderp
Keepass2android is a great password manager. Technically it’s free but the dev asks for donations once in a while, which I’m happy to do to support the project.
PowerAmp is also an awesome music player.
how do you feel about that compared to KeepassDX: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kunzisoft.keepass.free ?
- X-plore file manager - paid version allows you to run an FTP server on your phone, so you can easily transfer data over wifi with any device on the same network - also works phone to phone via hotspot
- Ice Box - Freeze apps for good (no auto launch, no updates, gone from the app drawer) but allows to start them via shortcut. Ideal for battery hogs and apps forced onto you by work, school etc. (works without root, but it's complicated, easier with)
- Storage Isolation allows to restrict apps from accessing certain folders (root only)
If you want just a good file manager with the FTP server option - I use Material Files, which is free and open source app. here's the link
I freeze apps with SD Maid and App Manager would I see a benefit while using Ice Box?
I can't tell, haven't used either. What I like about ice box is that I can put a link on my home screen that looks just like the real app icon and opens it on click, with auto hibernation right after use. And that it's completely removing apps from automatic updates, since there are some I absolutely want to preserve in their existing state. But if you're happy with your existing setup, why change a running system :-)
That sounds kinda cool, actually I struggle a bit after the freezing action because when I unfreeze them they take forever to re appear in the homescreen/app drawer, or they never do... (maybe a restart or cleaning cache would bring them back, IDK).
I can't live without, seriously. Living in China means there's a lot of proprietary shit I must install, and that won't be tolerated without a means to control it.
Wallabag is an excellent open source alternative to Pocket with RSS support. It's free (as in free beer), but you can pay a small amount of money if you don't wanna self-host.
Lumai fusion powerful video editing tool. Play store link
Oto music player. Great for local listening Play store link
Symfonium is great for streaming music from my media server to my phone Play store link
Kwgt is great for making/edit your custom widgets or using others. Play store link
It's worth mentioning. If you have a Samsung smartphone. The luma fusion app is available at 50% discount in the galaxy store compared to the Play Store.
Nice! I bought mine during early access so I paid around the same price.
Do you have any screenshots of your setup? Samsung builds in panel support but I always just disable it. I'm curious to see what real world use looks like.
What sets it apart from something like Google Maps or OpenStreetMap maps
How is Nova on a pixel?
Really trying to stop using Google services and the Google search bar at the bottom is too convenient, shame you can't rid
Smart launcher 6 awesome launcher with dynamic themeing and customization.
Pix material you icons awesome material you themed icon pack IMO
