I recently found out about URLCheck. You set it as default browser and it gives you a popup when clicking on a link. You can preview, edit the link and open it with the app you want instead of automatically opening it in its default app. Especially useful for apps that don't give a link preview on text like my comment that hide the link address.
LinkSheet is another great option for this purpose. It emulates the previous Android app-picker UI. It supports filtering URL tracking parameters, redirecting to Invidious and other privacy-respecting alternatives. Very handy.
I'm not sure if they're popular or not but I didn't see them mentioned in this thread and I rely on these fantastic open source apps daily:
- AntennaPod -- podcast app
- Orgzly -- Todo lists / reminders / notes via org files. Can be synced via syncthing.
- Aves -- gallery app
- KeePassDX -- keepass client
- Prognoza -- weather app
- Olauncher -- minimalist launcher
Honourable mention: Harmonic -- hacker News app. Not "essential" by any means but it's quite good.
Edit: added prognoza and olauncher
Imagepipe, remove the metadata of your photos before sending it to an app
Cool app, works real slick when used with share menu too.
Link to fdroid for the lazy.
YMusic. It lets you listen to only the audio from YouTube videos, even when the screen is off. You can create music playlists, shuffle, and turn the screen off, with almost no ads.
Unlauncher changed my life and helped me break my addiction to my phone by using monochrome home screen with no icons so I didn't get dopamine hits when I looked at my screen to open an app.
Tasker is wonderful for automating tasks
KLWP is great if you want to go full custom with your Homescreen and Lockscreen, allowing you to generate custom interactive live wallpapers which can act as a dashboard or as a launcher
For anyone who lives in Houston Texas or the surrounding area, Space City Weather is a phenomenal no bullshit, no ads, just weather app.
Privacy Friendly QR-Code Scanner by the research group SECUSO (Security • Usability • Society) at Institute of Applied Informatics and Formal Description Methods (AIFB) of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). They make a bunch of simple privacy respecting apps.
All it does is display the text of the QR code for you so you can copy investigate it.
Netguard firewall. I wouldn't run Android without it protecting my privacy from connecting to invasive domains.
AndrOBD for connecting to my car OBD2 Bluetooth adapter. It lets you read any diagnostic codes and let's you reset warning lights.
Aegis for managing 2FA tokens. Weawow for weather. MiXplorer for file management.
Damn. You are the first person I found ever talking about MiXplorer outside of myself.
This is getting out of hand.It's the best one that I've found since the old ES File Explorer sold out and became adware
Exodus scans your installed apps and tells you which ones require ridiculous permissions and trackers. You should download it after you try the other apps on this thread to make sure you're not using anything that's basically spyware.
How do we know it's not spyware pretending to be an anti-spyware
Exodus scans itself too. It has 0 trackers and requires 6 permissions, which makes it one of the least invasive apps I own.
The numbers can be verified in the os settings. Exodus just aggregates the data and identifies common issues.
I don't get the advantage, android already tells you "This app wants access to your contacts" or whatever?
Android doesn't give you the full story. "This app wants access to your contacts" could mean it needs 1 thing in the contacts (1 permission) or it scrapes everything from all your contacts (>10 permissions). This is the kind of thing that social networks like Tik Tok do to get so much data, and they get to hide all of it behind one "Click allow" pop up.
I always figured if any given app wants my contacts it'd scrape and upload them somewhere so I always say no, but I see the use case now
I use the Hermit app to "make" mini-apps of websites I frequently visit. They can also be sandboxed too.
A Strobe Tuner is fantastic if you play music. I've been using the open source one by Adam Foster for years, but heard the A4Labs version is good too.
