Look ma, no proprietary apps!

88 comments

Try CoMaps instead of Organic Maps. It's a fork because Organic Maps is starting to enshittify
- I just ran the two apps side-by-side and barely found any differences otger than some subtle UI changes. How exactly is it different? And how is Organic Maps being enshittified?
  
  I haven't been keeping up with Organic Maps updates to see if they differ but I'd assume they're basically functionally the same, except for potentially Kayak results.
  https://openletter.earth/open-letter-to-organic-maps-shareholders-a0bf770c
  
  The only Organic Maps controversy I'm aware of was the presence of certain closed-source elements on what they claim to be a FOSS app, and that the main developer refused to open up, then partially did, then backtracked and never fully released.
  Maybe that's what that user is referring to? Not sure.
- Man, I had hoped they fixed the search.
  Those apps are fictionally useless for me. Does anyone know how to use it?
  
  you mean comaps? Search is just a bit slow but not a big deal at all. I'd rather that than having Google spy on my ass everywhere I go.
  
  You could add addresses to Open Street Maps
- Is there a reason for CoMaps not being on fdroid? I must be missing other app stores. For example, Accretium (a privacy appstore?) is not on fdroid.
  
  CoMaps is on both F-Droid and izzyondroid repos.
  https://f-droid.org/packages/app.comaps.fdroid/

Quite impressive choice of apps, usually when I look at screenshots of privacy enthusiasts they look more or less like my own phone, and with you I share 3, maybe 4 apps only

Lol. Last picture at the bottom third. "WiFiAnal" xD (Sorry, I'm childish)
- Hey, that's the only safe way to let others control your buttplug.

Quite the kinky lineup; WiFiAnal, Wetter, QuickDic... 😏

Honest question: I see a lot of people here use their mobile phones as a computer platform. I have a general uneasiness about doing so. Not throwing any shade whatsoever, I just feel there is too much out of my control on a mobile phone, for me to trust it more than I do. My general policy is not to use my phone as a mobile computing platform even tho I have a VPN installed and use Firefox as a browser.
My local network for instance. There is one pipe in and out. I can easily see what is coming in and what's going out and I can control that with the granularity of a gnat's ass. I know what my software is doing or not doing. I can allow or disallow anything I want. On a mobile phone, I feel that the control I have on my PC is not equal to the control I have on my phone.
How have you come to terms with what you can't control on your mobile phone?
- I definitely agree with you on this. My pet theory is that phones have been getting uncomfortably big, at least from my perspective, since the average consumer is expecting it to serve as a computing and productivity platform, while all I want is a nice little digital Swiss army knife. I'm only logged into my messaging apps and personal email, and don't expect to do any sort of "productivity" on my phone. When my friends and colleagues assume I'm logged in to this-or-that on my phone, all I can think about is how afraid I would be if I were logged in to so many things on my personal phone. It's so much harder to inspect what's going on in the background of mobile devices.
  One of the compromises I've had to accept is the closed, yet exploitable nature of the baseband and firmware. Also how much more spying it could do compared to any PC if an exploit were to get through. Compiling Coreboot and neutering the Intel ME taught me a lot about who's really in control - and how much control we all lose to smartphone manufacturers and telecom companies.
- What do you do when you leave the house?
  
  On occasion, I do leave the compound, but it's usually to get staples I don't grow/produce on the farm. Rarely does that process need a mobile computing platform. (I guess that's what you're asking)
  
  Touch grass? Not OP, but when I’m out of the house, it’s because I need to do something, so I’m barely on my phone except for navigation, the occasional text/call, and paying for stuff. Otherwise, I use my laptop most of the time (at home and at work).
- How have you come to terms with what you can't control on your mobile phone?
  Threat level analysis.
- I run an older android version, no google apps, rooted, and use AFWall/AdAway. I'm sure it's not as secure with root and older software but I can mostly trust it to not send weird network packets etc.

They said it couldn't be done...
- It still can't be done 100% unless you make significant sacrifices to the usefulness of your smartphone...there's plenty of really useful (and sometimes necessary) things with no FOSS or open source alternatives.
  
  Not to mention drivers... many driver blobs are proprietary and if you can find an open source one, there is a chance it works partially or not at all. I have a spare phone and I've been hesitating between flashing either PostmarketOS (all FOSS drivers but without the android ecosystem) or LineageOS, or maybe both if I can achieve that.

Where did you get super tux kart?
- F-Droid
  
  Really?? It's not appearing on mine :(
  I've got an old Samsung J7 from 2016, maybe that's why
- The GOAT

That's how my GrapheneOS phone is zero proprietary apps in the main profile and then my own separate Google profile. Essentially get to carry two cell phones with one device.
- What does maintaining a separate profile for Google stuff buy you? I'm familiar with GrapheneOS, but haven't internalized the separate profile thing yet.
  
  It keeps Google 100℅ seperate or vice versa.
  Then when it's locked down it shuts down play services and apps to complete non functionality.
  Go into system and create a new user. Set up that user exactly like you would a standard smart phone. And any apps you have on your main profile completely open source. That way it's 100℅ Google free
- I nave ho learn how ho do these two profile things. How do u switch between them, and IS it on the fly?
  
  Pull down your notification bar twice. In other words expand it all the way. There is a small person Inside of a circle icon. That is how you can select the other profile. It's super fast and easy.
  Then when you are done inside the profile. Hold the power button and select "Lock Out" and this will completely close down the second profile and put you back in the Main profile with the other completely shut down.
  Downside is you wont get notifications in one area or the other from the opposing profile when it's not in use.
  An alternative that is pretty secure too instead of profiles is to do the same thing in Private Space. This is found in the settings under the Security tab. This WILL get notifications to your main profile and when you shut down Private Space all apps stop completely including Play Services. But it's not as isolated as profiles

Thank you. Most of thoese i even dont know. Can you make a list?
- Of course
  Accrescent: Store ~~run~~ (edit: advocated) by the GrapheneOS team for third-party apps
  Aegis: 2FA TOTP code generator
  AirGuard: Scans for persistent AirTags in the vicinity, notifies if I may be victim to AirTag tracking
  AntennaPod: Podcast manager, also supports importing local folders of podcasts
  AudioMonitor: Measure sound level
  Binary Eye: Support for many types of 1D and 2D barcodes
  ByeDPI: routes internet traffic through the DNS port to bypass certain types of filtering
  Canvass: doodle app, useful for mid-conversation diagrams and clarifying things visually in the absence of pen and paper
  ClassiCube: Minecraft Classic clone
  Conversations: XMPP client
  Editor: raw text editor
  Elementary: periodic table
  SimpleEmail: minimalist e-mail app that does not automatically fetch linked images. Refereshes in the background every 15 minutes and sends notifications without need for Play Services or equivalent
  FakeStandby: for edge cases when I want something to keep running in the foreground, but don't want to keep the screen on
  Feeder: RSS client
  Fintunes: Jellyfin client optimized for music
  FlorisBoard: customizable keyboard
  Fruity Game: Suika but with MS-Paint art style
  Graph 89: Graphing calculator emulator
  Invizible: Tor and DNS client
  Kiwix: Offline Wikipedia (you can download just the parts useful to you, e.g. medical articles without storage-hungry media files)
  Lemuroid: GBA emulator
  LocalSend: instant P2P filesharing over WLAN
  Markor: notes app with markdown
  Material Files: files app with SMB share support and various handy features
  Molly: Alternative Signal client
  Fossify Messages: I use it over the default messages app since it is easy to block numbers by pattern
  Notally: notes app with nice checklists
  Open Camera: as easy to use as the regular camera, but with a bunch more features below the surface
  OpenContacts: saves contacts as individual .vcf files to a directory for easy backup and allows dropping unknown callers without bothering me with a notification
  Organic Maps to be replaced with CoMaps later
  OSS Document Scanner: best FOSS scanning app I've found so far. Includes auto-cropping (given enough contrast) and adjustable B&W filter to eliminate off-white background colors.
  phyphox: view output of sensors like the barometer, magnetometer, accelerometer, etc.
  PipePipe: NewPipe but better (except for the occasional memory leakage)
  QDict & QuickDic: offline dictionaries and bilingual wordbooks
  RadioDroid: IP radio client. Can tune in to international news, music, sports broadcasts
  RHVoice: TTS app
  RiMusic: NewPipe, but for ~~Spotify, etc.~~ YT Music
  SecScanQR: QR scanner and generator with history, useful to save QR addresses for later use since I don't want to fill out forms or read documents on my phone
  SuperTuxKart: the only [edit: other] game on my phone
  Symphony: Music app with a slick UI
  Trail Sense: Compass with various goodies useful for outdoor activities
  Breezy Weather: weather app and homescreen widget with a slick UI
  MicroMathematics: Math engine, but I never learned how to use it
  
  Spotify
  You had me going til that one.
  
  That TI calculator app is the shit. I am in the generation who used those in engineering school. Goddamned things were like $150.
  
  Btw Accrescent isn't run by the GrapheneOS team, they just advocate for it's use
  
  Cannot find canvass on f-droid, got a link?
  
  Thank you!

So about that Wifi app in the third screenshot...
- Forgot to put that on my list earlier, it scans for nearby WiFi access points and returns the signal strength, band frequency, and various details about each.
  
  Does it grant "backdoor" access?

I love the mandatory Super Tux Cart anyone of us has installed but played like 4 times

Stop, you're gonna make me cum
- WifiAnal

That is the way! Excited to flash my phone to LineageOS. Thanks for sharing the apps !

Fucking legend! I'm going to spend the weekend exploring these apps and see what changes I can make on my phone. 👍

Whoa, I have like half of these, nice!

Attack surface who dis?

I see you have freetube. Grayjay is also a great addition as it has plug ins for lots of sites
- Unfortunately FreeTube and Newpipe never worked for me. Only NewPipe works, but I have to disable my VPN.

I wish I had friends to use xmpp apps to text..I'm a whatsapp hostage
- To be fair, I only have a few of my friends and some of my family on XMPP. I'm also guilty of having WhatsApp on my work phone for colleagues and the rest of my friends.

damn bro gat the juice

Is that a pixel 4?
- Based on the placement of the time on the status bar I would guess it's a Pixel 5, as it needs to make space there for the camera punch out
  
  Pixel 5, unfortunately a bit out of date since I'm putting off the repair of my 7a. Same app selection on the 7a though since I've maintained this as my backup.

Lemuroid and PipePipe <3
Btw if you're signed it with your youtube account on pipepipe you might not be able to watch videos. There were recent changes to the youtube

Last I tried RHVoice is was very unnatural sounding.
Sherpa-onnx is a much much more natural option. I personally use vits-piper-en_GB-southern_english_female-medium because I thought it sounded the most natural. You can also use Glados from Portal
- I second sherpa! Love it. I use with with Librera FD so basically made PDFs audiobooks.
  
  Ohhh I'll have to check that out. Thanks for the tip!

Congratulations!!!

88 comments