Howdy everyone! I’m happy to say I’ve finally gotten off the iOS ecosystem and loaded into grapheneos! Does anyone have any recommendations for apps to get? I’ve been away for a long time and saw tachiyomi was killed so I’ve lost my edge on apps for this side of the mobile space. Currently I’ve got: F-droid (god I’m happy this has never died) Aurora store Obtanium Mihon (I think this might be a successor to tachiyomi) And the fossify communication apps (phone, messages, contacts) But let this also be a good thread for others like me having privacy back in their lives, even if a slow transition like mine.
- Accrescent of the GrapheneOS appstore, its another appstore
- Ironfox(accrescent) as my main browser, hardened firefox
- Aurora Store for the very rare case i need something from the playstore
- Comaps for navigation
- Etar, calender
- Quillpad, note taking
- Breezy Weather, weather…
- Material Files, file manager
- KDE Connect, connecting with pc, file transfer, virtual trackpad, etc
- Tubular, YT with background playback, only audio, downloads, sponsorblock, adfree
- VLC, for local video and music playback
- Google Cam and Photos from the aurora store. I just dont give them internet access.
- Image Toolbox, i dont really need/use it. But it has cool tools for image manipulation
- Silicone Calculator, …
- Duckstation, PS1 emulator
- PPSSPP, PSP emulator
Thank you for the suggestions! I’ve just gone and installed half your recommendations after reading them.
IronFox having uBlock Origin offered at first time setup was so premium that was so nice.
To add to the list:
-
F-droid Basic (app repository/app store)
-
LibreTorrents (for downloading Linux ISOs)
-
Obtanium (supposedly, a safer way to install apps from F-droid, etc)
To clarify Obtainium is used to get and update apps from github/gitlab/forgejo/dev website directly and somewhat comfortably. Instead of using f-droid as an appstore.
Why you might want to do that is eg explained in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAoCfrqxIEg
Personally(!) idgaf and just use f-droid. This is no security advice because am dumb.
-
GrapheneOS came with Google Play Store (mirror).
Consider me dum, I am on this stuff, but is Aurora Store better than that, privacy-wise?
Depends.
My threat model is practically: I want to avoid Google, i dont want to see ads, i avoid tracking as much as comfortably possible, i liek open source. Thats it.
Theoratically it would be safer to have a burner google account(created on a public wifi) and get those apps via the playstore integration of graphene and only use the phone via a vpn you trust. Or smth like that. Dont trust me because i consider myself dum too.
Personally(!) i like the Gcam and G Photo Gallery app so much that i dont want live without them. And they live happily sandboxed by Graphene on my phone without internet access. But i once used the playstore integration and all the google apps started happily sharing my information between them. Like beeing logged into my google account magically in the photos app. Which is exactly what i dont want.
So i rather just use Aurora Store once or twice in a year if i need some stupid app for one reason or another.
Heres a youtube channel which i consider good for Graphene stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/@sideofburritosAlso dont forget to read the great resources on graphenes website like:
and
So do you need a google store account to use the android based apps? I want to be free of google. I am currently on Iphone and it will be going in the next month or so.
My music/email etc i can live with alternatives. So say i want a few specific apps, say signal and the NYT games app, my bank…Can i get these without having a google account?
Signal shouldnt be an issue at all. You can even download the apk(installation file) from their website. Unpaid apps can be obtained via the Aurora Store without an google account.
But some apps require the play store services and wont work without them. Tbh idk if you need to be logged into an Google account or the play store/ services just need to be installed in those cases. Banking apps are known to be really picky when it comes to custom roms/rooting/no play services. My banking apps arent happy about the lack of play services on my device but so far i can do everything i want even though the apps complain everytime via pop ups. But ymmv.
Thanks for taking the time to reply. Appreciated
Howdy pardner, for comicbooks I use Kahon which is basically Mihon but in F-droid repo. I like Voice for audiobooks, works a charm with .m4b files with chapters and pretty covers;
Privacy Browser I don’t see mentioned often, it’s a fantastically efficient android-webview-based browser, with built in Easylist blockers, and defaults to javascript off (and a single button to turn JS on): great for skimming a news article or opening a random link
I also like to promote LibreFind .
It is an app to find FOSS alternatives on your phone.
Not the project owner but I like to highlight this app because I think it’s important to make finding FOSS alternatives easier.
They need help to propose alternatives into their database
Community Contributions
Propose new FOSS alternatives for review Submit pros and cons for existing alternatives Vote on app recommendations Help build a comprehensive alternative database
You can contribute from within the app, or you can go to librefind-submission.web.app and use the web version.
You can use Futon instead as a manga reader.
So far my favorites are Phocid (music player, found on F-Droid), and Grayjay (works for multiple video/music services)
App repo: F-droid
YouTube: Pipepipe (newpipe fork with sponsorblock)
YouTube Music: RiPlay (vimusic/rimusic fork that currently works, but be ready to change forks every few months)
DSP: rootless James DSP (not sure if this one works with grapheneOS, works with stock android, but try it, you need adb to give it special permissions)
Video player: mpv
Manga: kotatsu ? ( tbh I haven’t used to in years so idk if it still works, either way, just search on f-droid
PDF and epub reader: Librera
Email: Fairemail
Lemmy: Voyager
Browser: Firefox or it’s forks (fernec, mutt) and ublock origin
System-wide adblocking and/or global or per app wireguard client: Rethink DNS
