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Asklemmy @lemmy.ml
Daniel @lemmy.ml

What are the coolest (privacy respecting) apps you have?

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

140 comments

  • 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 :)

      • Looks like it's on GitHub and F-Droid, so probably not!

    • oooh, I like all the different graphs it gives you, we all know the more colors and ways to display the data the more accurate it is.

  • 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)

  • 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)

    • 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.

    • 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...

    • Simple Gallery and AntennaPod are gloriously amazing.

    • 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

      • Logseq is very similar to Obsidian, I made the switch earlier this year. If you’re a fan of how Notion does things but you’re more interested in privacy check out AnyType. I haven’t played with it too much yet but I dig it.

  • On my PC

    • Rednotebook for journalling and Tomb to easily encrypt it through the command line
    • Librewolf because manually making tweaks to Firefox was kind of tiring

    On my phone

    • PokerTH because I wanted to learn to play Texas Hold 'em without micro transactions and a required online connection
    • AntennaPod because I dislike using Spotify for podcasts
    • Aegis because it was easier to transfer authenticator codes. I think Google Authenticator now allows for local backups and exports

    Edit: Actually the coolest (but least useful) has to be brow.sh. I'll attach an image but essentially it lets you run a browser through your terminal in a way that's a little more indepth than apps like Lynx.

    In order to really see the extent of what it can do you really need to see how it handles video playback.

    • brow.sh

      Wow! That's crazy! I never thought I'd see video playback like that on the terminal! Also, how are you liking Tomb?

      • Love it. I wrote some custom scripts to basically combine it with anything I wanted an extra layer of security on and didn't want to manually go through and use a program like Veracrypt

        The commands are also humorous and easy to remember. When you close a Tomb file for example it says something along the lines of "Your bones can now rest in peace".

  • Not really an app, but I'm going to add https://kagi.com/ here; it's time for a shakeup in the search industry that actually works, and Kagi delivers.

    Controversial, but Telegram is such a solid open source app in terms of UI/UX and a good middle ground between something like Discord and Signal.

    Now that I've shared my unpopular opinions...

    • Standard Notes is a really solid secure note taking app.
    • All of the Proton AG apps and services (Proton Drive, Proton Calendar, Proton VPN, Proton Mail, SimpleLogin).
    • Bitwarden.
    • "Privacy" (while not FOSS) is a pretty great software for using unique billing information per site (which helps with fraud protection, tracking, etc).
    • ZeroTier is awesome for remote access (everyone seems to recommend TailScale these days, but ZeroTier is very much of the "do one thing and do it well" mindset, they're also the "OG" FOSS encrypted VLAN solution).
    • Kopia I've been really liking for backups (great features include: the ability to clone a cloud repository of backs to a hard drive or different cloud via the software itself, a GUI, a simple CLI interface, and configurable policies to keep track of your preferences so you don't have to)

    • Kagi

      Prices seem high... Features, seem nice (but not crazy):

      • "Boosting" and blocking domains: basically permanent filters.
      • "Lenses" - Similar to SearXNG's different tabs, but more like a profile style system.
      • Bangs are the same as in SearXNG, and I think you can do the same, or similar, thing in Firefox.
      • Custom CSS is cool and all but you can get that with a browser add-on (like Stylus).
      • Their "Comprehensive result filtering" seems that same as every other browser
      • They have Vim-ish keybinds, which SearXNG and DDG have.
      • "Widgets" - Seems like Google's quick answers, user created ones are cool I guess.
      • The "crystal orb" - Allows you to determine the "quality" of sites, and also open them in the Wayback Machine or adjust that boosting/blocking level.

      (Source)

      Additionally, it seems that they don't have seem to have any external audits or releasing of code (correct me if I'm wrong). Additional they have a web browser, that's only for Apple's ecosystem. Overall, you pay for no-ads, I feel like for this feature set you could just use DuckDuckGo with advertisements off, or the HTML version (which doesn't include JavaScript either). I'm kinda skeptical about it, but if it ends up taking off I'll be happy there will be another alternative to Google.

      Kopia

      This actually looks very cool, so many new backup solutions to try after this thread. 🥲

      • Prices seem high

        They talk about their prices better here: https://blog.kagi.com/update-kagi-search-pricing. Including:

        Q. What is your cost per search? A. Currently it is 1.25 cents per search. But search indexes are about to become several times more expensive and we now have the AI integration cost. We will try to keep the cost at 1.5 cents per search or below by rethinking our partnering strategy and investing more into our infrastructure.

        “Boosting” and blocking domains: basically permanent filters.

        I mean, yes and no; it's not quite a filter as it can tweak the ranking not just outright put something at the top or remove it.

        “Lenses” - Similar to SearXNG’s different tabs, but more like a profile style system.

        These are actually super cool because they put things like the old "site:reddit.com" trick on steroids and https://help.kagi.com/kagi/features/code.html is like site:stackoverflow.com on steroids.

        Bangs are the same as in SearXNG, and I think you can do the same, or similar, thing in Firefox.

        You definitely can do this in plenty of things; I don't think it's all that compelling really, but it's a nice feature none the less, and it's arguably easier to sync "bangs" than it is to sync these shortcuts between browsers and different software; but yeah, not a big motivator for me.

        Custom CSS is cool and all but you can get that with a browser add-on (like Stylus).

        Similar comment about the syncing of this; but yeah, this also wasn't a big motivator for me.

        Their “Comprehensive result filtering” seems that same as every other browser

        True, but I think it's there 1 for completeness, and 2 because the count of ads and trackers as a criteria is pretty unique to them. It's also quite a bit more user facing, and easier to work with than say, getting the same options from Google search.

        “Widgets” - Seems like Google’s quick answers, user created ones are cool I guess.

        Not sure what you mean by custom ones, haven't seen anything about that; but it's definitely in the feature parity category.

        Don't forget things like redirects (change your lemmy UI?) and their own index, which includes things like wayback machine results -- particularly relevant with CNET deleting old content to boost their Google ranking.

        Their generated summaries are also pretty cool, e.g. from the CNET article:

        • CNET has been deleting thousands of old articles from its site in recent weeks in an effort to improve its search engine rankings on Google.
        • CNET confirmed it removes old content to appear more "fresh, relevant and worthy of being placed higher than our competitors" according to an internal memo.
        • However, experts say Google does not encourage deleting old content simply because of its age and that older content can still provide value to users.
        • The perception that "the Internet is forever" and content placed online will always remain accessible has proven untrue over time.
        • Link rot threatens old web content as links go dead and content disappears from original locations.
        • Copyright trolls have pressured sites to remove old images rather than risk expensive lawsuits over fair use.
        • Large portions of the historical web record are missing or inaccessible now due to link rot and deliberate content removal.
        • Archives like the Wayback Machine help preserve some content but can't capture everything.
        • Sites focused on SEO are driven to extremes like mass content deletion to rise above noisy search results.
        • Archivists play an important role in preserving digital history by making copies of content before it disappears.

        Additionally, it seems that they don’t have seem to have any external audits ... (correct me if I’m wrong).

        They don't, but they do have a clearly worded privacy policy https://kagi.com/privacy.

        or releasing of code (correct me if I’m wrong).

        The search engine itself, no; but their browser extensions are open source: https://github.com/kagisearch/browser_extensions

        This actually looks very cool, so many new backup solutions to try after this thread. 🥲

        I've tried a lot of different backup solutions... I'd be curious where you're leaning, but I'd say this one is likely going to be your winner for ease of use, privacy, and cross-platform functionality.

      • I used DDG for like 2 years. Almost every single search I had to search in both DDG and then in Google since the results from DDG were terrible. I recently switched to Kagi and have only had to try to find something in Google twice, and neither time Google was able to find what I needed either. You're not just paying for no ads, you're paying for actual search engine results, whereas the other companies, you are the product.

        The only things I've cared about using Kagi are the ability to completely block domains, lenses, bangs, and actual search results that get me what I need. The rest is just a bonus.

    • I did the trial for kagi and completely stopped using Google within 3 days. Kagi is so much better it’s easily worth it. And it has actually useful features unlike Google. It’s insane how long google sat on their haunches and waited to let others surpass them.

    • How can Privacy.com be open source If they have to survive in the business they have to make it some propreitory I am a non american and i dont care about its proprietoryship , what i care is when would they open it to people like us! It seems such wholesome service and that too for freemium

    • Infinity for Lemmy
    • Innertune
    • Immich
    • Neo Store
    • Jellyfin

    • Out of curiosity, has Immich gotten easier to setup? I've been using Nextcloud Memories and would like something with some nicer sharing features for the family photos.

  • 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)

    • Threema

      Yeah, but how many people use it (half-joking, I'm a Matrix user myself and understand the pain)?

  • 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.

  • Krita, a free and open-source art app

    Elisa, a FOSS music player

    Birday, an open-source app to remember birthdays and other events

    Note to Self (Play Store), a note-taking app with a chat-like format, data is stored locally

    • Note to Self

      Wow! That's actually amazing! My only concern is do you remember to use it, or do you still find yourself opening messages, Matrix, or whatever?

    • KeepassXC [password locker]
    • SyncThing [keep some dirs synced between computers]
    • Thunderbird [Check 4 email accounts simultaneously]
    • PikaBackup [Relatively easy disk backup utility]
    • FSearch [Fast searcher of all files on my computer. Like Search Everything for Windows but worse in many ways]
    • AudioBookshelf [Podcast server]

    I use all of those pretty regularly. Honorable mention on iOS is a program called Is It Snappy? which helps me measure input lag. It doesn't collect any data or run ads (rare trait on a phone app). I actually made a purchasing decision with the help of this thing to correctly conclude that the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller had a noticeable input delay (enough to make me return it). The funny thing about that was if I just looked up spreadsheets others have done I would have seen that same conclusion there, too, without having to go through the effort of buying it myself :P.

    • PikaBackup

      Out of curiosity, its there a reason not to just SyncThing your ~/Documents, or is it more of a Time Machine for Gnome kinda deal?

      FSearch

      Oh wow, that looks nice, epically that RegEx support (actually serious, I am a huge fan of RegEx).

      Nintendo Switch Pro Controller had a noticeable input delay (enough to make me return it)

      Nintendo do be like that... have you found a good alternative, or just the Joycons?

      • PikaBackup is more of a Time Machine style backup system. Not just for Gnome, it simply is made with the GTK.

        Ultimately, I went with a Sony DualSense for my latest gaming controller. It has low latency when wired and the buttons are not clacky. Solid construction. I also have an 8BitDo Pro 2, which has one thing I especially like -- hardware turbo buttons. The rest of the controller is merely OK, and IMO not worth the extremely high praise it otherwise receives. Serviceable controller.

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