FOSS mobile apps recommendations

[Desmond]

This thread is dedicated to discussing and recommending free, libre and open source mobile apps apps distributed with copyleft licenses.

Most of such apps are available on F-Droid, an app store for FOSS apps.

That being said, I currently use some of the following FOSS apps on my phone (all from F-Droid unless mentioned):

• HeliBoard - A keyboard app for Android, forked from OpenBoard, which itself was forked from the AOSP keyboard. 100% offline and good word suggestions when typing. Swipe support is available but via another app though I don't use the swipe feature.
• Syncthing - A free file syncing app that allows syncing to any number of devices. Just configure a directory and any files you copy into those will get synced to all devices that you permit to sync with. Completely P2P and end to end encrypted.
• Seal - A video downloader that uses yt-dlp in the background. Just page the video link and the app automatically detects the video and gives options for downloading based on video quality or even only audio.
• K9 mail - A mail client. This will soon become Thunderbird Mobile.
• NewPipe - (via GitHub) A completely non-Google Youtube app. Does not support login or writing comments, but you can save your subscriptions locally and subscription updates lists all latest videos and not personalized updates like youtube does. Also acts as a client for peertube, soundcloud and bandcamp.
• Joplin - A free notes app. Supports syncing data with Dropbox, OneDrive, Nextcloud, AWS S3 or normal file system among others.
• KDE Connect - A great app for integrating your phone with your PC. Supports browsing and copying files wirelessly, reading and sending SMS and managing calls from your PC, remote controlling your PC from phone, etc. Functionality can be extended via plugins.
• Translate You - A completely non-Google translator that translates text using LibreTranslate and DeepL among others in the backend.

 

[Cyberghost]

Telegram FOSS: Client for the Telegram messaging platform.
Fennec F-Droid: Fennec F-Droid is based on the latest Firefox release (codenamed Fenix). It has proprietary bits and telemetry removed.

 

[Desmond]

I used to use Telegram FOSS earlier but switched back to regular TG because new features used to come in late to the FOSS TG version.

Might switch back one day.

 

[Aravind Ram]

Cashew - FOSS budget and finance tracking app - *play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.budget.tracker_app

LibreTorrent - Android Torrent Client

RxResume - Resume builder

 

[Desmond]

Cashew - FOSS budget and finance tracking app - *play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.budget.tracker_app

LibreTorrent - Android Torrent Client

RxResume - Resume builder

Wow. Cashew is actually pretty good. Not available on F-droid unfortunately but I got it from their Github.

I have used LibreTorrent before, it's pretty good as well.

I'll check out RxResume builder.

One more app I forgot to mention is OSS Document Scanner. A less s***ty alternative to Microsoft Lens and Camscanner.

 

[thetechfreak]

Battery Charge Limiter (BCL) is a fork of Battery Charge Limit whose development has been stalled for some time.

This app is a work in progress. If a feature is not working, do not hesitate to file a report.

Features:

• Free and open source.
• Material 3 with dynamic colours.
• Control when to start and stop charging — either directly or via an widget.
• Set voltage threshold.
• Set custom battery control configuration if the supplied ones cannot be used properly.

*apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/io.github.muntashirakon.bcl

*github.com/MuntashirAkon/BatteryChargeLimiter

 

[Desmond]

View attachment 22816

**apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/io.github.muntashirakon.bcl

**github.com/MuntashirAkon/BatteryChargeLimiter

Does this need root?

 

[thetechfreak]

Does this need root?

indeed it does

NOTE: This is app currently requires root to function. While it is not possible to control charging without root, an alarm-based solution might be implemented for no-root users in the future.

 

[Desmond]

indeed it does

Yeah, I suspected because of that "Control file data" field looks like it uses a system file which is in the root FS.

Been a while since I've used rooted apps since I don't own any rooted phone for now. Might consider rooting my current phone.

One of the best root FOSS apps I've used it AdAway: adaway.org. A system wide ad blocker that uses a hosts file to block ads.

 

[billubakra]

Tracker control used to be the FOSS version of DDG to block trackers from apps but it has started breaking apps now i.e. the apps don't work if its activated. Can anyone check and get back? Or any other alternative?

Second there was a thread on fdroid forums, in which a guy in detailed mentioned what settings we can turn off in an android phone to reduce the tracking/data being sent to google. These options are supposedly hidden in various options. Anyone having a link for that? He also disabled google play services in his phone and his phone worked fine. Ofcourse this won't stop all the data being sent back but something is better than nothing. BTW some apps like samsung's bixby, googles inbuilt some app the name of which I cant recall, has all the apps even if you disable them.

 

[Desmond]

Tracker control used to be the FOSS version of DDG to block trackers from apps but it has started breaking apps now i.e. the apps don't work if its activated. Can anyone check and get back? Or any other alternative?

Normally I'd just not use apps that break if you turn off tracking or ad domains.

Also here DDG = Duck Duck Go?

Second there was a thread on fdroid forums, in which a guy in detailed mentioned what settings we can turn off in an android phone to reduce the tracking/data being sent to google. These options are supposedly hidden in various options. Anyone having a link for that?

No idea. Sorry.

He also disabled google play services in his phone and his phone worked fine. Ofcourse this won't stop all the data being sent back but something is better than nothing. BTW some apps like samsung's bixby, googles inbuilt some app the name of which I cant recall, has all the apps even if you disable them.

The only way to address this I think is to flash a custom ROM that comes without any Google Play services related packages. But too many mainstream apps rely on play services (banking et al) so might not be fully feasible unless you flash something like opengapps or microg pico packages.

 

[billubakra]

Normally I'd just not use apps that break if you turn off tracking or ad domains.

Also here DDG = Duck Duck Go?

No idea. Sorry.

The only way to address this I think is to flash a custom ROM that comes without any Google Play services related packages. But too many mainstream apps rely on play services (banking et al) so might not be fully feasible unless you flash something like opengapps or microg pico packages.

Yes ddg= duckduckgo. Check trackercontrol on fdroid once. It used to work great. It blocked around 500+ trackers from zomato in less than 20 minutes. This was the time took to deliver an order.
The other way to address that is to use an os like graphene but not all phones support it. You are right that they will always have access to us no matter what. But atleast we can try to switch/turn off whatever is possible. FYI the advertising id can be and is used to track a person all the times but it cannot be turned off.

 

[RumbaMon19]

Normally I'd just not use apps that break if you turn off tracking or ad domains.

The video player breaks on Hotstar and Sony Liv on Web when using Ublock origin.

 

[Desmond]

Then you can temporarily disable it.