The unsung heroes of Android: Remembering 8 legendary apps we’ve lost
The unsung heroes of Android: Remembering 8 legendary apps we’ve lost
www.androidauthority.com
The unsung heroes of Android: Remembering 8 legendary apps we’ve lost
Comments
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Google Plus... legendary... what?
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Legendary dumpster fire and generator of memes
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Even if it was good, the fact that they wrote Google Plus and not Google+ tells me how much thought they put into this article
I was an early user of it and, unlike a lot of Google projects, there's a reason they scrapped it: it sucked.
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And we're still stuck with its aftermath in that search engines require quotes rather than a + for requiring words, which they now ignore whenever the mood strikes.
Why?
Because some fuckwit at Google decided that the + was reserved for Google+ search results.
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I had a lot of fun on it...
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Legendar(il)y shit
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ES File Explorer was very good at the beginning, but it enshittified quickly. Nowadays MaterialFiles is the best file explorer for Android, and it has more features than ES had ever. And it's open source so it can't have a similar fate. Google Play link, F-droid link
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I would counter that I still feel Solid Explorer is the best, but I'm aware that's just my opinion.
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Solid is for people who want what es used to be. Not sledging it, but it's unshittified ES.
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Looks nice! I use the Fossify File Manager; they seem very similar.
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Fossify looks similar, but it misses some crucial features I use frequently. I downloaded it now to check it, Material can do these things, while Fossify can't:
- Open multiple windows for commander like usage
- Connect to remote shares with SFTP, FTP, SMB or Webdav
- Connect to app storage with Storage Access Framework
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Joining in on the love for material files. I've been using it a long time. The more I've got into FOSS apps I've come to realise that they are feature rich, lightweight and ad free. Its the difference between using something designed to be a good product vs something that is designed to squeeze as much out of you as possible
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The list is missing Google Now. A feature so useful Google cut it because it was reducing searches.
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It wasn't an app tho
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I still miss Swype.
To this day it is still better than every other keyboard I've tried at recognising traces.
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Microsoft has taken Swift and run it to the ground. Then it asks how it's doing as if they've improved it. The fucking gall.
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They really should've just ported the WP keyboard over to android, it's still hands down the best smartphone keyboard ever.
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This list of apps is ridiculous and none of them were even noteworthy.
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Google Play music was pretty good. simple and effective. easy to use.
Google podcasts was trash
YouTube music is ... well it's just kinda bad
wait, do I have that backwards? is it Google Podcasts that was good, and Google Play music that was trash? one of them was basically impossible to use for podcasts, like if you just wanted to find what you had downloaded, that was literally not an option you had to go to the podcast and then filter by downloads
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I still miss QuickPic. :-(
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Inbox was fantastic. I used an older version well after the shutdown date.
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titanium backup has been made obsolete by swift backup
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Y'all remember bump?
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This list is kinda of nostalgic to me. When I was younger, I was obessed with andriod mods and rooting videos on YouTube, and I remeber all those apps getting recommened in videos!
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I used none of those and have only heard of a couple, despite using Android from the beginning. Sigh.
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Loved minuum keyboard
So you don't have to click
Google killing inbox was what radicalized me to that the entire business model of big tech is bullshit
My similar turning point was when they shut down Google Reader in 2013. Never forget.
Absolutely gutted at Inbox going away. Was such a great product, and they lied about implementing its features into Gmail.
I tried using Inbox but couldn't get past the whole idea of it. I'm old school when it comes to email - just gimme everything and I'll decide if its important or not.
That said, Google's decision to kill it did open my eyes to the fuckery.
Then they killed Google Play Music a few years later. I had most of my library uploaded, but didn't delete my local copy because I'm not insane. That one radicalized me.
After google killed inbox I found out Spark Mail has that exact same feature
Google killed an app? Shocking, i say!
Huh, never used any of those, only SuperSU. Google Plus being there makes the rest of the list suspicious
Android Authority has always been Google simp along with other companies that sponsor their reviews and get them free devices, merch, trips and invitations. There's no low they won't sink to. One of their author regularly promotes Google store android merch on their social media.
Google deprecating gmail to replace it with inbox just to depecate inbox in favor of returning gmail was so fucking stupid.
Yeah, let me do it Authority
Feel free to add your own
I have no idea how they could omit Hangouts.
Allo, on the other hand, which was supposed to replace Hangouts, did not live as long as Hangouts and should probably remain forgotten.
Podcasts was good. Lightweight, cross platform and basic. YTM is a sink hole as a podcast alternative.
Apple Podcasts lives on as a far superior alternative whilst Google has left it's users in the lurch. In an alternate world, Google would still be developing Podcasts not only on mobile but also on Wear OS
Reader was a site/service, but it was THE rss reader for most people. Fuck Google for killing it (and a lot of other things).
I agree with all but G+
Replacements:
Titanium Backup -> SystemPanel2
MX Player -> Poweramp
Google Play Music -> YouTube Music
ES File Explorer -> FX File Explorer
Swype Keyboard -> Gboard
Google Plus -> Google One
Inbox -> Gmail
SuperSU -> Magicsk
You're welcome :3
I bought music off of google play, and I downloaded the MP3s. YouTube Music has an atrocious downloaded music section, and I don't enjoy it. I happily have returned to "finding" music and playing it in foobar2000.
For this I'd suggest mpvKt as its a video player
Mixplorer (unless it breaks functionality without getting an update)
FX File Explorer == > Solid Explorer
I replaced Play Music with ibroadcast but truthfully I could just self host a music player.
I still use ES File Explorer on my old phone because I'm too lazy to download anything else and I only use my old phone like once a year if even.