The Ultimate FOSS Guide For Android!
First thing to do is install F-Droid which is an open source alternative to Google Play that only contains FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) apps. This way you can easily update the apps and find new ones... All the Android apps are available on F-Droid unless otherwise stated.
One common feature among the following apps is being privacy-friendly.
This list isn't in anyway exhaustive so feel free to ask for other apps.
If you don't like F-Droid's design then you can use an alternative client like Aurora Droid. Aurora Droid also comes with a lot of repositories that you can easily enable.
Repositories: F-Droid is very strict about the apps that are included in the official repository but there are other repositories you can add to have access to more apps. Izzy's repo is a popular one which you can easily add.
Browser
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Fennec which is Firefox on F-Droid
- tracking protection, dark theme, pic-in-pic mode and extensions e.g. uBlock Origin (adblocker) and Dark Reader (force dark themes on any site)
Youtube
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- Lightweight, background playback, video or audio download, no accounts needed, subscriptions and more.
Peertube is a decentralized Youtube alternative:
- Newpipe also supports Peertube.
Google Play
If you still have to use apps not avialable on F-Droid
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- Update and explore apps without a Google account.
If you wanna completely get rid of Google Play Services, check microG out.
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- Modern material design, very customizable themes, multiple post layouts, lazy mode (auto scroll) dark mode, multiple account support.
Lemmy is a federated Reddit alternative:
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- Libre twitter client, classic material design, supports mastodon as well, very customizable.
A completely new version of Twidere, called TwidereX, is being actively developed.
There is now an app that support Nitter (a FOSS front end for Twitter):
- Fritter
- No account needed, Twitter doesn't get to track you at all.
Mastodon is a federated Twitter alternative:
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ProtonMail The app isn't available on F-Droid but ProtonMail is open source and very good privacy-wise.
spoiler
There are no FOSS search engines but I absolutely recommend DuckDuckGo for privacy. Google is evil, folks.
Password manager
You should absolutely use one.
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- Material design, Biometric recognition, 2FA, Auto-Fill and more.
Shelter
- Isolate the nasty apps that you can't get rid of (e.g. WhatsApp) and control the data they have access to. The app uses an Android feature called Work Profiles.
Messaging
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- Client for the decentralized Matrix protocol. It's E2E encrypted by default. Supports bots and bridges and is an alternative to WhatsApp and Discord.
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- Very convenient and easy to use, lots of features, group voice chats similar to Discord's and more. It isn't E2E encrypted by default.
Zoom alternative
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- No accounts needed, E2E encryption...
Music player
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- light, customizable, slick material desgin with multiple themes (including a dark one), sleep timer and a tag editor
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- Feature rich, customizable, uses the modern material design, sleep timer and multiple unique themes.
Video player
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- ton of supported formats, beautiful interface, dark theme, subtitle support, playback speed control and more.
Ebooks
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- great interface, customization, night mode, support for popular offline dictionaries and a lot more.
Adblocker
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- doesn't need root
Launcher
Gallery
Maps
File sharing
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- Share files and clipboard via WiFi, notifications sync, supports Linux, Windows and MacOS.
File syncing
Keyboard
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- Modern design, Swipe typing, okay autocorrect, suggestions, themes, incognito mode and more.
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- More like gboard, modern design, no swipe typing, good autocorrect, incognito mode.
Notes
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- supports E2E encryption, cross platform, notes can be automatiacly synced.
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Joplin The app isn't available on F-Droid but it's open source.
Memes
- MemeTastic
- Meme creator with many customization options.
Weather
- Weather
- Open source weather client, very small >5MB
- YOU WILL PROBABLY HAVE TO USE NONFREE SERVICES TO GET WEATHER DATA
Document scanner
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OpenScan follow the instructions here to add Izzy's repository to F-Droid
- Scan anything, simple and powerful cropping features, great user interface, share as PDF/JPGs
Calendar
Camera
Scrambled Exif & ImagePipe
Remove metadata from your pics before sharing them. Very important for opsec.
Podcasts
Anki
- A powerful flash cards app.
Games
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- Inspired by Minecraft, multiplayer, mods, being actively developed and more.
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Lichess avialable on Izzy's repository.
Avoid using Facebook if possible
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- Multi account support, full theming, PIP videos and more.
Avoid using Instagram if possible and use Pixelfed instead
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- alternative FOSS client for Instagram which you can use with or without an account. It has a lot of features you can check out.
Pixelfed is a federated Instagram alternative
Twitch
Don't engage with gam*rs!
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- Ad-free Twitch client that supports accounts
Office
RSS reader
Use the search feature in F-Droid, :LIB: I use an RSS bot on Matrix so I don't know about the RSS apps on F-Droid and there are a lot.
TO-DO
This is on my to-do :)
For websites that don't have an app
you can use PWAs (Progressive Web Apps) instead by clicking on Add To Home screen in Firefox's main menu.
Contribute to F-Droid:
Which apps you still can't replace? Do you have any FOSS recommendations? Questions?
Huge thanks to @kitten & @SirLotsaLocks for their contributions to this post!
I actually can't add anymore to the post because it reached the character limit so all I can do is upbear you.
Edit: here is a link for the curious.
Well it looks like I don't know how to crosspost lol I'm just gonna make a regular post then.
Bitwarden is on F-Droid for anyone who wants to both switch to more open source software and switch away from LastPass
The actual purpose of this post is to show how much iOS sucks! :big-cool:
This is cool stuff my ADHD ass will almost certainly never do but commenting for visibility and hopefully self reinforcement
Hopefully some of the features I mentioned entice you to try the apps out.
also uninstall the OS and reinstall a privacy-focused OS
Planning on getting GrapheneOS eventually
Yeah I have to upgrade too. Very expensive. But worth it for privacy's sake. The other option is a linux phone and they aren't that good.
I use https://lineage.microg.org/ and it's pretty good. It's probably not as security hardened but my phone is already slow enough as it is.
I'd recommend Organic Maps before OsmAnd+ nowadays. I've found it performs better and is easier to navigate. Power users may want to stick with OsmAnd+.
From their site:
Organic Maps: Offline Hike, Bike, Trails and Navigation
Organic Maps is a free Android & iOS offline maps app for travelers, tourists, hikers, and cyclists based on top of crowd-sourced OpenStreetMap data. It is a privacy-focused, open-source fork of Maps.me app (previously known as MapsWithMe), maintained by the same people who created MapsWithMe in 2011.
Organic Maps is one of a few applications nowadays that supports 100% of features without an active Internet connection. Install Organic Maps, download maps, throw away your SIM card (by the way, your operator constantly tracks you), and go for a weeklong trip on a single battery charge without any byte sent to the network.
Download and install Organic Maps from AppStore, Google Play, FDroid, Huawei AppGallery
For launchers I'd also reccomend KISS launcher from f-droid. I've been using it for the last week or two and it's really nice and minimalist
Hey! I tried to check with you on Matrix before I post but I don't think you got my message. What do you think of the post now?
I did not I'm very sorry, I didn't notice because I usually don't check dms paired with a more subtle indicator so that's mostly my bad. It looks great though, Y'all did great. It's amazing. I hope that the text limit gets upped soon so we can have richer megathreads because these are amazing.
No worries! Thanks again for all your help :) Without it, I'd probably have given up lol
another launcher worth checking out is KISS. instead of scrolling through icons, you just type the name of the app you want and hit enter
I'd like to take this chance to remind @ScreamoBMO of the request for a libre comm :)
