Title says it all. I’ll go first:
I don’t really have any on my computer (all I use that for is Vim, Firefox, and Git), but on my phone: Orbot (basically Tor as a VPN on your phone).
Edits: Added link, fixed formatting
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Organic Maps for … maps.
FluffyChat as chat client for matrix.
Joplin for note taking on any device.
AntennaPod for podcasts.
Organic Maps
Looks like it has supper detailed maps, has OpenStreetMap really gotten that good!?
OpenStreetMap is amazing. I always use the maps when I want to know details about some place. Much more detailed than Google Maps.
ETA: Especially when you want to go somewhere on foot or by bike, because Google Maps kinda sucks at showing footpaths etc.
I don’t know about general maps but any footpaths or off-road stuff is really good there and better than on Google or Apple Maps.
100% with you on Joplin, I use it all the time. I love it. I haven’t yet found anything I like more.
I tried Obsidian recently and was turned off because the notes aren’t encrypted in place like with Joplin. To me that’s just a really nice privacy feature that I don’t like the idea of sacrificing, especially not to a not open source project.
How does Organic Maps compare to OsmAnd?
Better UI and UX, but a few less features.
I can share files, links and clipboard items between my phone and my computer. Use my phone as remote control while watching stuff. I see phone notifications on my computer and don’t miss calls when my phone is in silent mode while I’m at my PC. It has made my life so much smoother.
Out of curiosity can KDE Connect act as a Find My alternative?
I’m not sure, because I don’t really know, what Find My can do (I think it’s an Apple app, right?) What you can do with KDE Connect is make your phone ring to locate it. You can’t access the phones location. I hope that was remotely helpful.
remotely
That was funny 😀
Out of curiosity, is this linked to a PC running a Linux distro, or Windows/MacOS?
Edit:
To clarify, I meant this as, “Are you using this with a PC running Linux?” vs. whether it was available across different OSes. Sorry for the confusion, but thanks for the replies that address both interests!All of them. You can even connect between multiple computers.
Everyone knows about VLC but I don’t think many people know it has a really good Android app! I use it as my primary music app and it’s great. Even has android auto support and a surprisingly sleek interface.
I’m assuming it doesn’t work with Jellyfin or Subsonic, does it?
I haven’t used those so I don’t think so. But it lets you add music from local networks, and you can add streams from a URL (even supports youtube links, which is a way to watch youtube without ads without pihole or a third party app).
Huh, TIL - I’ve been using VLC for ages on my phone and on my tablet, but I never knew this. I just tried it - open Youtube app, select random Video, share, select VLC, wait a bit and it plays!
Mind blown
I cycle to work. This takes like 60-70 minutes, there is a ferry ride. The app MoopMoop is like google maps and a weather app in one. It show the rain on your route.
Surprised no one’s mentioned NewPipe yet
Thank you for adding links, I didn’t think to. You pretty much have it spot-on, but also: no ads!
Yes! There’s also LibreTube also available on F-Droid
This was new to me. Thanks!
I thought it was regarded as a dick move to put a lot of traffic through tor?
I hear such mixed messages about this and would love for somebody to educate me. Do we:
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Avoid using tor to free it up for those who actually need it
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Use tor whenever, and normalise it so that somebody using tor isn’t immediately considered to be a journalist/dissident/person with something to hide.
Avoid using too much bandwidth on Tor. Do not stream or torrent over Tor. Use it for basic browsing as much as you want, without burdening the nodes in terms of bandwidth. Never use your personal login accounts over Tor.
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Yeah, you really aren’t supposed to… I rarely use Orbot to be honest, it’s just super useful if I do need to use it, like on a network that blocks a whole bunch of things and you want to catch up on Matrix messages or whatever. Also, if you’re worried about your phone updating or making a bunch of useless requests, you can turn on low data mode/mark your current connection as metered.
I’m using Aves Libre as my gallery app in my phone, i really like it, works pretty well and looks pretty clean. It can classify the media by the apps (It need to access to the app list to do this). To watch some videos i use Libretube, but it’s a shame that (i think) there’s no invidious related apps in android. And the maps that i use are from OpenStreetMaps, OsmAnd in my phone. Works pretty well despite not using google services that it is pretty good in my opinion. I also use it to add some notes or interest points and then back phone contribute with that i wrote.
Clipious is an Android Invidious client
Thanks to you i started using this one. Imo Invidious Instances work better than the Piped ones, and this apps is like a game changer to me. Really like it
Ohhh, thanks for mentioning Aves Libre, been looking for a map-feature like that for a long time! UI ks kinda weird though and displaying of photos is really slow in my device. I also can’t find a setting for the anonymous data collection they mention in the TOS. Do you happen to know where I can enable/disable that?
Check out OrganicMaps if you ever have problems with Osmand (which I also use and love).
I feel like either Newpipe or LibreTube can use the Invidious api but not sure …
I was using F-stop previously for the map feature and the ability to add descriptions to the photos (I love having notes on the photos but hate being locked into a specific app like Google Photos).
Aves has a much nicer UI and can edit the geotag information, too. Glad I found this.
Oh nice, so it adds the comments into the photo’s metatags?
F-Stop adds an XMP tag imbedded into the image file. I’m going to assume Aves does the same but I haven’t used it much yet to know.
I would love to be able to find an image service (like PhotoPrism) I can run on my server that can read the tags that I like to use (Date/time, geo location, title/descriptions, and faces). I want that info in the image file itself so that I can easily switch to another service if needed.
I’m still trying to find a way to make back-up copies of the original and then tag/organize photos to be used with a self-hosted viewer, whatever it may be.
I use Tachiyomi (J2K fork) for reading manga and manhwa, and Shosetsu for fanfiction (AO3 extension). MoeList for MAL (My Anime List), Myne for public domain books, and Librera for EBUPs (I like using TTS). Also NewPipe (SponsorBlock fork) is my only YouTube client.
Habits !!
Edit: replaced gplay with fdroid link. The proper way
Are there any in app purchases? It looks pretty neat
I just replaced the gplay link with the fdroid. On github it says ;
No limitations. Track as many habits as you wish. Loop imposes no artificial limits on how many habits you can have. All features are available to all users. There are no in-app purchases.
That’s pretty rad I think :)
I’ve recently discovered Organic Maps that allows offline viewing of open street maps. I’ve been using it since maps.me has completely gone down the drain with premium subscriptions and paid download limits (for the same open street maps data lol).
I’ve started filling my neighborhood in openstreetmaps because I want to use Organic Maps
Check out StreetComplete. It shows you missing osm data close to you so you can add that information directly. Very good way to get highly detailed information into OSM, like accessibility for stairs (handrail, ramps, etc.) or opening hours for shops (including updating older data)
Anyone know of an iOS version?
Off the top of my head
- Signal
- VeraCrypt
- LibreWolf
- BitWarden
Veracrypt has been stale but at least they released a new beta last month
I still find it invaluable, for easy encryption of whole thumbdrives.
Oh shoot! I forgot about Bitwarden, I feel like I use it so much that it just fades into the background now!
SyncThing - to sync my files between devices and avoid the big corporations cloud (use it for notes, Keepass database, photos, etc)
Logseq - super advanced note taking with tagging and relationships between notes (all store locally)
Authpass - opening my Keepass password database on my phone
GrapheneOS Camera - just to avoid the Google camera app as I have Google Photos disabled on my phone and needrd a good app that doesn’t break when going to view the gallery (since it tries to open Google Photos)
Simple Gallery - to view my photos on my phone
Signal - I have it but I have very few friends that use it unfortunately
AntennaPod - for podcasts, I’m thinking of self hosting a podcast tracker to sync my listening habits across my devices, we’ll see if that happens
Vinyl Music Player - to play my local mp3 files and playlists (I use MusicBee to manage what I sync to the phone as my mp3 library is quite large, and SyncThing to actually copy stuff over)
Signal - I have it but I have very few friends that use it unfortunately
It’s a shame they got rid of SMS support. That was basically my selling factor when trying to convince someone to install the app. Now, it’s next to impossible to get someone to install it…
Logseq
I’ll have to give this a shot, it looks super cool. Although, is it more of an Obsidian, Notion, or Evernote style?
I’d say it’s closest to Obsidian but not quite
deleted by creator
Does it only work on a custom rom?
deleted by creator
ah, yeah, I tried disabling and replacing one app, I can’t remember which, but it caused weird problems…
I disabled and uninstalled using adb and it’s fine for me. I use the native gallery which I like.
SyncThing - to sync my files between devices and avoid the big corporations cloud (use it for notes, Keepass database, photos, etc)
Amen, sibling.
Logseq - super advanced note taking with tagging and relationships between notes (all store locally)
Quite nice, although I’m still struggling to integrate it with my workflow. I just haven’t taken the time to learn how to best use it.
Authpass - opening my Keepass password database on my phone
Do you trust it? Why?
I’m really cautious (nervous) about the program(s) I give access to my kbdx. On the desktop, I’ve actually code audited the tool I use; I can’t as easily do that on Android.
GrapheneOS Camera - just to avoid the Google camera app as I have Google Photos disabled on my phone and needrd a good app that doesn’t break when going to view the gallery (since it tries to open Google Photos)
I’ve been using OpenCamera for this, but recently started using PhotonCamera - it has a great UI.
Simple Gallery - to view my photos on my phone
That’s a good one. I ended up with Aves because it allows fairly complex filtering, and the UI is nice.
Signal - I have it but I have very few friends that use it unfortunately
A few years ago, I talked my wider family into using Wire, and now we’re all stuck on it. It keeps getting progressively worse with each release, and sooner or later I’m going to have to pick something to replace it. I don’t know what that will be, but it will be federated, and it won’t mandate IDs tied to a phone number.
Vinyl Music Player - to play my local mp3 files and playlists (I use MusicBee to manage what I sync to the phone as my mp3 library is quite large, and SyncThing to actually copy stuff over)
God, I seem to change music players every couple of months. I guess I’ve been using Metro for a while and haven’t found the thing that irritates me and sends me on a search for a new player, so maybe it’ll stick. That’s interesting about MusicBee, though - I’ve been looking for something like that, so thank you!
I’ll add to your list:
- PhotoBackup, which is a reliable and fantastic replacement for Photos syncing. This is then tied into PhotoPrism on the server, for web access and sharing. I had to cobble it together, mostly b/c of limitations in PhotoPrism, but it does replace the whole Goog Photos workflow.
- NewPipe, which is superior to the YT app in all ways, and is one of the best OSS all-around mobile apps.
- QKSMS, which I keep coming back to. I haven’t found anything better yet, in any case.
- DAVx⁵. Unseen, but does some heavy lifting. One of the apps I make sure to support; replaces 1/3 of the critical “core” Google Android services
- Wireguard, which Just Works, and is always on.
- M.A.L.P., for when I’m playing music on the house system
- openScale, a quite nice OSS weight tracker that supports a lot of off-brand smart scales, without phoning home
- KDE Connect, what for sending stuff to/from other computers amd phones. Works great, even without KDE (mconnect is an alternative desktop service)
- Etar, as my calendar app. Been using it so long, I’ve forgotten it’s not stock.
- ntfy replaces so much notification on my phone, and it does so reliably and well. Worth a shout out.
- SimpleTask, the best to todo.txt Android app. Another app that I’ve been using so long it seems almost stock.
- I’ve been using FlorisBoard for several months now. It has no text prediction, but has a ton of features I use. I try other keyboards every once in a while, but end up back on Floris. The only thing I miss is prediction, and with it better (any?) correction. Still, aside from DAVx⁵, it’s probably the most used app on my phone, so…
- Geometric Weather! Such a great weather app.
- Material Files replaces the stock file manager. Great program, and while remote FSes are limited to ftp, it does the job.
- Wormhole William is a good between-devices file transfer tool.
- Termux, of course. Are there any real competitors?
Thing is, I’m running OEM Android, b/c I have a flip phone and don’t want to lose the outside screen support by flashing. So I uninstall or disable nearly every built in app, and replace them with F-Droid apps (via Droid-ify). It’s not much, but it’s an honest living.
Edit MusicBee… oh, Windows. Oh, well. The search continues.
I never really saw the need for Termux, but now that I selfhost at home and on a VPS, i couldn’t go without it!
Also, I just recently started switching as much as I can to a self-hosted ntfy instance from pushover. I’m really loving it so far!
I sponsored it on github because I see myself using it a lot. Plus, the dev deserves it. The documentation alone is great, let alone the software itself.
I really dislike typing on my phone, but termux has saved my bacon a couple of times when picom has frozen up on me, so it stays.
Ntfy is really nice software!
FlorisBoard for several months now. It has no text prediction
The good news is that feature is currently in development. There’s a beta build on GitHub that has it sort of implemented. There’s some details on the FlorisBoard matrix channel on getting it.
M.A.L.P., for when I’m playing music on the house system
Do you mind explaining your setup a bit more? I’ve currently got a few Sonos speakers but I don’t like being locked into their system and have always been interested in a more open setup.
I’ve seen Snapchat and I know of MPD (but don’t fully understand it, to be honest) but it seems there isn’t much information about these types of setups.
that feature is currently in development
I was following that! I’m excited to see how it works, when they release it.
Do you mind explaining your setup a bit more?
Sure!
I’d recommend LogitechMediaServer,. It’s got a ton of plugins, and despite the name is entirely maintained (more or less actively) by the community. Lots of features, easy to use, and even has themes to pretty-ify it.
That said, I had a few issues. Every once in a while, one of the clients would freak out and blast screeching static throughout the house. That may have been a client issue, or some combination of my setup, so I changed it out.
In any case, our house has whole-house audio wiring, so I have a 12-zone amp running it. To the zones are connected cheap ($50?) O-Droids running Linux. Each of these (there are 3) runs a client for the audio server. For LMS, that’s all there is - install LMS server and point it at your media, start the LMS clients and point them at the server, and the clients show up in the web interface of the server. Group them and play music to the group, and you get broadcast music streaming.
Because of that little issue, I’m running mpd as the server. It’s a bit more involved to get the broadcast. To get that, my mpd plays to a pipe, and then I use snapcast to pull that data and broadcast it to snapclient(s) running on the same ODroids. And then, if you want a nice web UI, you probably want to install something like MyMPD, although we get along fine with MALP on our Androids. Queue maintenance is easier with MyMPD.
In any case, it’s been more reliable in my house, but far more moving parts to get running. I’d really try LMS first. There are native Android clients for it as well, but the web UI is pretty nice.
Anki is pretty sweet if you’re trying to learn anything that can use flashcards.
Everything search app is easily my most used on my Windows PC. Instant, as-you-type file search by name with detail sorting and wildcard support. I set a keyboard shortcut as well. It puts Explorer search to shame. As good as Spotlight, which I was missing from when I had a Mac in 2008.
LaunchyQT - modern fork of Launchy that actually gets development. App launcher, dead simple.
FanControl - Fan curve software with all the features I want including hybrid temp sources, sensible automatic settings, visual graphs with an intuitive interface.
AutoHotKey - Hotkey scripting language that I can use even as someone who barely codes.
Transcribe! - Not open-source but it’s a reasonably priced audio and video slow down app for transcribing.
If you use the 1.5 beta version of Everything Search, you can even sort videos by their image/video width and height, audio bitrate, video bitrate, duration of audio/video and such parameters you find in Windows Explorer’s custom file attributes section.
Threema
Where Signal is secure - Threema is private and secure (e2e encrypted, uses PFS but doesn’t need your phone number for sign ups. You can be 100% anonymous should you wish)
