Basically, what the title says. Do you use any app, that is proprietary, but either has no OSS alternatives or they're all not good enough? If there is an alternative, what keeps you from switching?
Pedantic, but Google Messages' RCS. And it's all Google's fault because they are holding the API hostage, probably because they want to create familiarity with the app so that people don't switch once they finally open up.
For anyone wondering:
RCS
Rich Communication Services. It is a protocol designed to enhance traditional SMS. RCS allows users to send messages that can include high-resolution images, videos, audio messages, and group chats, as well as features like read receipts, typing indicators, and location sharing.
I'm glad Google is exposing how crappy RCS is.
It's been fifteen years, and all they have is a "protocol" that's still completely dependant on a phone number.
What good is that? Why would I want that?
There are numerous systems that don't rely on a phone number, e.g. XMPP did everything RCS is trying to do, in 2010 (I ran it on my phone then, with a desktop client that kept in sync).
Teleguard works on every platform, no phone number required, as does MATRIX, Simplex, Wire, Threema, etc, etc.
Not to mention the issues people have with it. It's unreliable.
RCS is not another chat app.
It's the NEW SMS. That is why it is so important, and that is why it works ONLY IF YOU HAVE A PHONE. Because that's literally the point.
Having your mom, grandpa, and everyone automatically use encrypted, modern comnunication just because they have a phone is extremely important.
Realise that in places where SMS has been historically free, SMS is the standard.
XMPP, Matrix or whatever will obviously still have its place for more "incognito" conversations. But having a phone number should also give you access to a better alternative than SMS.
Google Pay/Wallet
Right now tap and pay is completely and hopelessly corporate
The issue is that the digital tap-to-pay cards are actually reissued cards with their own unique numbers. They also require significant security measures to protect from cloning attacks.
So banks need a party that they can safely issue a digital card to, knowing that the card data will be stored safely.
Even a FOSS app that covers all the user's needs is going to have a lot of trouble actually getting a card loaded into it under current standards.
I hate to say it, but crypto wallets are likely the closest thing we're ever going to get to a FOSS tap-to-pay system. Banks are inherently corporate and capitalist, so it's not really in their nature to make things open source.
Perhaps if there were an industry standard for issuing digital cards, instead of banks partnering with centralized wallet apps, we could procure our own digital cards to load onto our phones and watches, or integrate into other devices. But that's a whole other battle that nobody is fighting right now.
A FOSS app for digital payments, must have a company front to sign deals with country retail store chains. Although customer kyc can be avoided, the payments from the front company to retail chains would be thru a corporate structure.
... maybe convenience is the wrong path
The advantages of PoW crypto, over digital (and PoS), it's possible to force between seller and buyer:
- communication with end-to-end encryption
- privacy oriented marketplaces
With the goal of fostering our own private communities. Over time, might spawn a sub-culture, identity, and ultimately people hood.
MicroG works really well
A free-as-in-freedom re-implementation of Google’s proprietary Android user space apps and libraries.
MicroG works well if you let it leak some data to Google.
I would like a free-as-in-free-from-Google Google Play Services reimplementation that lets me use any app that depends on it without hitting any Google server.
OP asked about Open Source not about privacy.
MicroG minimises connections to google servers, here you can read what addresses it still connects to and why: https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/wiki/Google-Network-Connections
Free software (not open-source, it's really free software that's important) that depends on a single for-profit vendor is not free.
MicroG is open-source but it's not free. It fails to address two problems:
- What do I care looking at the source code of a Google Play Services replacement when Google still holds my cellphone by the balls for certain critical functions?
- Why do I need permission from Google for apps to function properly on my cellphone?
I don't think OP cares about getting the source of the apps they run so much as the apps being free-as-in-libre in his original question. Many people mistake open-source for free software and MicroG is not truly free.
(I reread ops question and I can only see the term open source 2 times, but whatever, I understand what you say, and I don't want to debate about semantics.)
The point with microG is it's still the best way if you want to use android. The other options are:
- Play services (GMS), or Huawei has some similar solution because of US trade embragoes.
- You can use android without play services but notifications won't work for most apps, even if you can open them. (UnifiedPush tries to solve notification part) Wifi and cell based location won't work
- I see microG as an acceptable middle ground. I still have to give up something to goog, but it's not much compared to GMS, and I can use all available apps
And maybe tomorrow we'll see UP grow up, removing one more piece from google. And the day after, another piece.
Tasker: I haven't used it, but I've seen useful automations over the years from people online and I would probably use a good FOSS alternative.
I use "Automation" (on fdroid) - the UX could do with some improving but it thoroughly covers the basics.
Newer versions of Android make it difficult to automate certain things though, I find root helps to get around that in some cases
I used to be a heavy Tasker user. I think I hit a wall with building more complex rules using their interface, which made me stop using it. Maybe they have a way to just write a script instead now, but I haven't looked into it.
Logseq is good but it doesn't have all the obsidian features: it handles markdown a bit differently, does not just use the file tree and has no tags.
I'm not sure if this fits but here is mine:
I want to get away from Samsung but the "Sound Assistant" app let's me control the volume of every app, kind of like a mixer. Sometimes an app doesn't have a mute option, I can set the volume of that app to 0 without effecting the volume of whatever music I'm listening to.
I also like to listen to my local police scanner and music at the same time. I can set the volume of the scanner app low enough to not really bother the music but loud enough that if something happens I can still hear it and pause the music.
I can't believe Samsung and their app is the only way, but I haven't found an alternative.
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My Motorola has it built into the sound settings so you should be able to find other alternatives
Symfonium. There are plenty of music apps, and I've used a lot of them, but none combine the UX and functionality that Symfonium offers to anywhere near the same quality :/
Synfonium is the only thing that I could get to work with my selfs hosted jellyfin server and with downloading of music. I haven't had any problems with it though.
People have hit on most of them here, but here is another big one:
Fitness apps. Mainly calorie tracking, workout tracking and heart rate tracking
Health app
Sleep as Android
(No, gadget bridge is not a replacement for 99% of cases and doesn't even support the gold standard for heart rate tracking, polar H10)
For calorie tracking, the massive food databases required, barcode scanning, and crowd sourcing are generally not compatible with the open source community's privacy ideals. OpenNutriTracker has promise though!
For workout tracking, none of them have any device support and most of them are dead and abandoned. Not to mention heart rate zones, stats and training trends, etc... FitoTrack and Opentracks are good starts though.
And then a google fit alternative. Something that can integrate sleeping, workouts, heart rates, sensors, etc.. Data all in one aggregates place. It is a huge task and it makes sense that there is no open source alternative for it. Especially when the components aren't individually there to aggregate.
I was looking for Sleep As Android too!! Separately to this I saw a comment on R a while ago asking for FOSS alternatives, and to say the dev's response was out-of-touch would be an understatement. They just complained about not being able to make a living from a FOSS app...
Regarding Gadgetbridge though, those devs and contributors are running into more and more accessories using encrypted protocols which is a bit worrying. Right now I've settled on the BangleJS which has official support, just wish it had a more accurate heart rate sensor!
My dream FOSS health app would be some concoction of OpenScale and Gadgetbridge 😂
I really need a libreoffice calc on my android phone. Not just opening (where currently only Microsoft Excel on Android works for me) but also editing and saving to my connected nextcloud (where I have also problems with Excel)
File Manager Plus:
It connects to all my SFTP servers effortlessly, and it's an absolutely stellar file Manager.
JuiceSSH:
Manages all my SSH servers and identities, and has an extremely usable terminal. It's got extensions too.
Try Material Files file manager. It's the best file manager I've used, connects to remote servers, and is open source
https://github.com/zhanghai/MaterialFiles
There already was a post like this this year but now my answer is "a standardized push notification system (most likely federated) that's actually possible to be implemented in a user friendly way". Google doesn't want to encrypt theirs afaik and apparently some people are concerned about the traditional "every app is responsible for its own notifications" approach consuming much more battery, even though I didn't notice it myself (I guess it's possible if you have 50+ apps installed but it's not something that should be a thing in the first place).
I know about that but afaik almost nobody uses it. The only app I know that supports it is Mercurygram which is a Telegram client.
Idk about Element but Signal uses the Google's insecure implementation if the device has gapps installed and it uses the traditional system which is not push if gapps are not installed.
Ah okay, thanks for the insight. I don't have Gapps (MicroG or otherwise), so I do wonder how these services deliver their notifications.
If it's not using GCM then it must be long polling, unless signal servers are set up to use a 3rd form of push (APNS for iOS, GCM for Android)
Molly (a hardened Signal mobile client fork) has a UnifiedPush version.
