Awesome Android Apps - my curated list of ~250 apps

Psyhackological@lemmy.ml to Open Source@lemmy.ml – 252 points – GitHub - Psyhackological/AAA: :iphone: Curated list of THE BEST FOSS Android apps to maximize your freedom & privacy!
github.com

Awesome Android Apps

AAA

Hi all,

for 2 years, sporadically, I've been adding awesome FOSS apps with the following:

Rules

  • Open Sourced
  • Free of charge (on F-Droid and source code repository releases)
  • Free as in Freedom
  • Ad-free
  • Installed and tested by me or by contributor
  • Privacy-friendly aware
  • Easy to use
  • Still in development or polished experience
  • Does not lack features compared to proprietary app
  • Does not need an account (the only exceptions are self-hosted) apps)
  • Has dark theme

...tested by my and then later by contributors. I think many of you will appreciate this simple README.md repo, and I would love some help with it.

🏔️ Codeberg version

I hope you will find it useful! 🤩

64

Ahem. I don't see the Lemmy app on there.

Prolly cuz there aren't any awesome ones

You’ve never used voyager I see

I have.

Is it that really good compared to Jerboa?

I never used jerboa. On Reddit I used Apollo and voyager is basically the same which is why I like it so much. It’s very polished and it’s always getting better (and open source).

Jerboa comes from the same dev as Lemmy does, so I "trust" that he know its bests. But I will try Voyager.

Browser list doesn't include Firefox?

Also this goes to show that F-droid needs a rating system IMO 🫠

It kinds has it? Anti-Features | F-Droid

Calling the anti-features indicator a rating system is a biiiiiit of a stretch.

How would you implement it then? 🤔

I wouldn't because I am not a dev. I stay in my wheelhouse and don't try to pitch features as something they aren't.

The concept of it wouldn't require code, just some idea to implement that you don't have to agree to do. I'm just trying to get your point and visualize through creativity and brainstorm.

Awesome list. Have you found any app for recording calls? (I live in Hungary and receive calls in Hungarian sometimes and would like to record them to translate and understand what the call was about.)

Also, I don't see anything for audiobooks. I use Smart Audiobooks, but was wondering if there are more open source options.

I use Voice by Paul Woitaschek (available on F-Droid). It has a nice, simple interface and a few really useful features. I've gone through dozens of audiobooks in various formats with it and haven't had any problems yet.

Yeah, it looks superb. However, I have only one issue with it. Why is it so big - almost 80 MB?

Thank you!

I see... quick search and I found this beauty, try it out, I haven't yet, but keep in my first sentence of it:

MOST PHONES DOES NOT SUPPORT CALL RECORDING. Blame Google or your phone manufacturer not me!

I've seen many stars coming in to this Voice Audiobook Player repository.

Any mastodon client? Also can I recommend the Right apps collection from Goodwy and Voyager as Lemmy client (I think they match the requirements to figure on your list).

I thought of Mastadom but I have never used it yet and that's why no clients. Thanks for suggestions. I know about Voyager but not Right apps collectiom from Goodwy. I will add Voyager soon but I cannot find this Goodwy collection.

Great. If you search for Goodwy in Aurora for example you'll find a bunch of apps starting with "Right". Here is the list on GitHub as well: https://github.com/Goodwy
I may have additional suggestions if you're interested.

Goodwy in Aurora

Ah, I see it now. Yeah, also a good suggestion, very minimalistic guy, though. 😆

That's why he get me: minimalism is my motto ;)
Another suggestion: Magic Earth for navigation Also curious to know if we'll see you on mastodon one day? (my client is Yuito btw)

This way, you get me a little hyped for these. ;)

Looks excellent and nice, but I dislike this:

Magic Earth is a closed-source mobile app providing free worldwide navigation based on OpenStreetMap data and free speed cameras in 59 countries, available for no charge.

Not open source...

However, the Privacy Policy looks nice. 😁

And yeah, I will be this year on Mastadon, just having a tough time with college...

Also, Yuito is the fork of Tusky. What are the advantages? I don't see Yuito on F-Droid when Tasky is.

Yeah I avoid close source as much as possible and forgot about Magic Earth. As you noticed the features and privacy policy were sufficient to me to make an exception.

For Yuito, here is the F-Droid link that also lists the difference with Tusky (which I used first).

Thanks for the list!

Öffi (transport) shows up under the podcasts heading.

Thank you for this awesome list! I had terrible experience with OSS Document Scanner and Image Toolbox though.

The scanner would just distort every image like crazy!! Would 100% of the time utterly fail to detect the paper edges even against high contrast backgrounds without any patterns and under very good lighting. I did like 20+ photos and immediately deleted the app, it didn't produce a single usable result.

And image toolbox was just a pain to use. If you compare how you apply filters in e.g. Instagram to this app, the UX is purely frustrating :( Though the app looks nice and has lots of features :)

Sorry for all the negativity 😅 I'll try to be more positive by sharing my favorite Spotify alternative, which is basically a YouTube music client with premium features. The service remains proprietary but the same applies to discord. InnerTune

No problem, I'm glad you like it! I had with OSS Document Scanner too, but not with Image Toolbox.

The basic edit is fine in many Gallery apps if you're looking for it. The Image Toolbox is fine with UI even modern, but when you look for quick edit I understand.

No worries, we all know that FOSS software is imperfect and not polished like some enormous alternatives like you've mentioned edit on Instagram... It's mostly 1 main contribution up to 10 - 20 vs many very well-paid developers that were working on it until it works perfectly with spying. 😆

I added to suggestion of apps project InnerTube, thanks. ;)

When Authy dropped their desktop app, I picked this up for 2FA: https://2fas.com/

EDIT: oops, just realized this isn't listed on f-droid...

Looks wonderful despite not being on F-Droid... I get more and more apps that are open source but not on F-Droid. It's a weird constraint now, I see... However, I wanted this list to be as DeGoogled as possible (without Aurora Store or Google Play). At least there is .apk file in releases.

I use Obtainium for all apps with no f-droid presence, I just forget which ones sometimes. It's the browser extension that makes this one great. I wanted something pretty easy after losing the convenience of Authy desktop

True, Obtainium is a fix for this problem if .apk in the releases is present... just not only Google Play. Yeah I understand, I use Aegis only on my smartphone.

F-Droid has high inclusion standards (not high enough IMO but apparently too high for many Android developers). If a project isn't in F-Droid and has no interest in being in F-Droid I consider it a red flag, but it's crucial to find out if an issue has been opened and what the project's response on that issue is. Sometimes it's just because the developer(s) haven't gotten around to it yet, but other times it's because there's a proprietary component that can't be easily removed.

For example on this app (2fas) the reason it's not on F-Droid is apparently because it uses Google cloud messaging (FCM) and there's no interest in developing a version without. https://github.com/twofas/2fas-android/issues/14

Unfortunately with the security FUD against F-Droid peddled in part by PrivacyGuides and other organizations (which Obtainium and its fanbase happily help spread) there is decreasing interest even in using, let alone developing for, this repository.

Yeah, it mostly depends on the let's say GitHub issues that are maybe understandable and living without F-Droid and with this app or having a suspicion. Occasionally, what's not on F-Droid is on IzzyOnDroid. I try to have F-Droid over IzzyOnDroid, though.