Kia ora!
I’ve been an ios user for 100 years at this point, but used to be deep in the android scene before then. I’ve just got an android for a work phone and am wondering what’s changed in the last 10 years - what are your essential apps, settings, customisations? I’ve had a hunt around xda but can’t seem to find much in the way of roms for my model (Samsung A04) - back in the day it seemed there was a thread for every device!
What do I need to know?
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I do not recommend getting attached to Reddit Is Fun, although it is a great app.
It still stings… I’m gonna miss that app
Infinity is still pretty good, and my understanding is that it could easily be updated to support the free individual API keys Reddit is supposedly going to still support.
A lot has been said, but I’ll repeat a few.
- F-Droid (I use Droid-ify)
- Debloat it https://github.com/0x192/universal-android-debloater
- Change the launcher and icons (lots of choices, I use Lawnchair with Arcticons or Delta)
- Check out the different browsers
- Check out the different keyboards
- Get some key apps like Newpipe (or equivalent)
- If the phone isn’t rooted, any changes can be reset by doing a factory reset, so you have nothing to lose but time.
Thanks for that debloat link, that’s super useful!
Some of my favorites:
- Launcher: Niagara
- Rom: LineageOS
- Browser: Firefox (with DarkReader and uBlock Origin)
- Reddit: Relay (is this ending?)
- HackerNews: Harmonic
Lemmy: Jerboa (haven’t tried alternatives)- Podcasts: AntennaPod (haven’t tried much else)
- Identify stuff: LeafSnap (plants), SoundHound, Merlin (birds!)
- Books: Moon+ Reader Pro
- Barcodes: Catima
- Computer stuff: KDE Connect
- File stuff: Material Files and ZArchiver
- TTS: @Voice Aloud Reader
- Passwords: Bitwarden
- Icons: Crayon or Viral
- Keyboards: MS SwiftKey, maybe someday FlorisBoard, sometimes Hacker’s Keyboard
- Scrobbles: Simple Scrobbler
- Video: VLC and NewPipe
- Weather: Weawow
EDITS:
- Lemmy: Liftoff
- Chat: Telegram
- Email: Delta Chat?
So many great apps and I see several familiar friends. Have you found a way to have Jerboa send youtube links to NewPipe rather than default to the native youtube app? I am sure there is a easy way that I just don’t know.
If you don’t have an open by default setting on your phone, follow these steps:
- Install the app ‘Hidden Settings for MIUI’
- Open it and go to ‘Manage Applications’
- Select ‘NewPipe’
- Click ‘Advanced’
- Select ‘Open by default’
- For ‘open support links’ select ‘open’. For ‘supported links’ select ‘open youtu.be and other URLs’
Anytime you click a YouTube link it will now open in NewPipe, no matter what app you’re in.
It will be somewhere in settings-> default app-> opening links
Plant.Net is also good for plant id, though I like leafsnap as well. Better than trying to use Google lens on them.
Relay I think is still up in the air. It’s either shutting down OR going paid subscription, which, despite how good Relay is, would be a deal-killer for me - but I don’t blame DBrady (the dev) for that, I blame reddit
sideloading is a whole thing on android. don’t like the options that the play store gives you ? fdroid has your back
Niagara Launcher is the coolest thing I’ve seen happen for mobile interfaces since the first touch interface. It is so clean and well-designed, it makes everything else in iOS and Android look like a cluttery mess - all while adapting to what you need and offering quick access to everything on the phone.
Oh, this is so neat, thank you! I’ve just had a play - especially for a work phone that has real specific uses, Niagara makes a lot of sense! Do you subscribe to pro? Have you found it useful?
I do subscribe to Pro. Not really because it’s necessary, because the free version is already pretty great, but it offers a bit more customisation - and it is cheap. I really just wanted to support the devs more than anything.
I’ve been subscribed for a while. I don’t think I could ever go back to another launcher.
Combined with Tapet for subtle geometric wallpapers, my home screen is a dream.
Is it subscription based? Or a one time payment to unlock pro?
Both - $12.90nzd/yr or $41.90 outright
Thank you!
I’m trying it now - I like it but there are a few confusing choices, like how you can only have one widget visible at once.
How do you access the shortcuts that would normally be placed on the home screen? I have some webapps and e.g. OpenVPN shortcuts that I currently can’t see.
agreed, highly recommend for anyone reading this thread who hasn’t tried it yet. it’s one of the main reasons i can never switch to ios
Is it better than Nova? I’ve been using Nova for as long as I can remember.
It’s completely different to Nova, and any other drawer based launcher. It has a free version so you can check it out. Personally, I don’t like it but I totally get the appeal.
Nova was recently bought out by an ad company, so if that’s not something you like then you might check out some FOSS alternatives such as Lawnchair or Neo Launcher (both are currently in development and less feature-rich than Nova though).
cant really say whats essential as thats on a per user basis, but stuff that has made my experience enjoyable include f-droid, aurora store, and youtube revanced.
I second f-droid. It’s really good!
I’m using NewPipe for a YouTube replacement, but I hear good things about ReVanced!
You need good lock, it changes the game for customization, it’s the reason I no longer feel the need to do custom roms
You also need to use adb to remove all the bloat.
Yeah, I see that launchers are way more common now! Got any you’d recommend?
I used lawnchair for years as a launcher, allowed for excellent customisation and doesn’t require any root tinkering or custom roms.
I only stopped using it when I got a foldy-thingo and it didn’t support it as well as the stock launcher.
neo launcher and lawnchair are the two open source options, I don’t think I could justify using a proprietary piece of software for something that should be so simple.
Oooh thanks for lawnchair, that’s great!
do you mean a custom lockscreen ? is that a thing ? is it actually good at keeping the phone locked ?
No, goodlock is a samsung thing that just has a bunch of general customizations for the OS meant for power users.
There are no good custom lock screens.
I’m interested to hear what others say but I’ll throw in my two cents
- Nova launcher is still king
- Fdroid store for open source apks
- Newpipe app -> disable YouTube
UGH that is awful.
Thanks for posting that. Goodbye Nova.
Are there any launchers that are recommended?
lawnchair is open source and on fdroid
I personally wouldn’t recommend a closed-source Launcher owned by a marketing/analytics company, especially if you’re the kind of person to use F-Droid!
As a long lasring Nova launcer User: what other launcer would you reccomend with the Same Features?
Google’s a much bigger part of the ecosystem by default. Used to be the Google app store was a selling feature, now Google is integrated into pretty much every device (and has contracts with manufacturers to force that).
It’s also, like Shortwavefilter mentioned, much harder to root or flash a devices.
Though the AOSP has gotten better in ways too. It’s gotten a lot better hardening, and still is fairly open (e.g custom app stores added one click).
Last, there’s still plenty of bloat pre-installed on some brands, but I think that was the case a decade ago as well if my memory is correct.
Honestly I can’t think of too many essential settings or apps that’d be a necessity for everyone. Usually I’d say change privacy settings and disabled as much bloat if you’re not using a ROM; but that might not be applicable if you’re on a work phone. Apps wise, I’d say stick to open source if you can for the basic offline utilities -F-Droid is great for that if you’re allowed to install it.
Try out F-Droid! It’s basically a more free and open version of the play store. Plenty of cool apps on there. Def worth checking out!
On the topic of Android, am I the only one who dislikes the google pixel version of android UI?
I love how stock android looks but agree that it’s become too iPhone like. One UI has become a great balance!
I don’t like it because it has become very iPhone-like in the bad ways, meaning it takes several clicks to do simple, common tasks. I much prefer Samsung’s OneUI for how easily accessible everything is.
Yes! This trend towards reducing the UI because they assume their user can’t comprehend more “complex” words like “Customization”, “System settings”, “Advanced system settings”, instead just opting to remove the settings entirely, or hide them behind categories and stupid drag menus 🤷♀️
