Has anyone noticed that apps on F-Droid or that you just get from GitHub are just better than the ultra-popular apps on the play store? Most of them are open source and have no ads or trackers. But this isn’t true on the Play Store at all.

I see myself always getting apps from F-Droid now because there is always an alternative to the ad-infested bloated privacy infesting BS that I find on the play store. It’s unfortunate that it’s gotten this bad, where the only reason I even use the play store is to install updates or games.

  • Calypso7899@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Here are some apps I’ve switched to

    AntennaPod - For podcasts, pretty much the best app out there

    Simple calender - For calender use

    Feeder - RSS feed reader. Useful replacement for news apps

    Simple Gallery Pro - As the name suggests, it’s a clean, simple offline photo and video viewer with some neat features

    Lawnchair - My launcher of choice. A good balance of speed and customisability.

    Just notes - Keep replacement

    K9 mail - Gmail app replacement. FairEmail is a strong contender too.

    Keepass2Android - Password manager

    Neostore - F-droid alternative

    Geometric Weather - My preferred weather app of choice (Edit - For a more updated fork of this, check comment below)

    Wefwef - Kinda mimics apollo for lemmy. It’s pretty neat imo.

    Honourary mention - Infinity for reddit (RIP)

    • zxo@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      I loved Infinity. Shame they aren’t moving it to Lemmy, and instead they’re making it a subscription.

      • Calypso7899@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Agreed. Although I’m pleased to see them survive through this, I really hoped they’d make a Lemmy client. As a platform, this just makes more sense.

        • NightOwl@lemmy.one
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          1 year ago

          Seems so bizzare though and contradictory. Like not wanting to use the official reddit app that is free and not restricted, but too addicted to reddit to quit that they are willing to pay a subscription to be able to continue to reddit on the app they want. That’s like a super hardcore reddit addict more than regular users who scoffed at the idea of a boycott.

          • Calypso7899@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Haha, funny and sad at the same time. Apart from addiction though, the sentiment to support the developer who had worked so hard to bring to app to them might be at play too. I know many users who are willing to either donate to the Infinity dev directly and patch the apk for themselves, or pay the subscription cost only if it has a profit margin for the dev. Nobody wants to pay reddit.

          • lka1988@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            the official reddit app that is free and not restricted

            Hahahahahaha

            Oh you’re serious

            HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

            • NightOwl@lemmy.one
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              1 year ago

              To me someone paying monthly to continue posting on reddit through a third party app because they are too addicted to quit is more ridiculous than using the official app. At that point they are participating and adding content that increases engagement on reddit. There’s no stance of being anti reddit at that point. They are officially a reddit addict. So yeah, I do look down on them more than official reddit app users.

    • Illecors@lemmy.cafe
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      1 year ago

      May I suggest you check out KeepassDX? I found it’s UI/UX to be much better a few years ago. Haven’t looked back since.

    • WillyWonksters@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Lichess - rather than chess.com

      Rustdesk - remote desktop software

      Syncthing - rather than Dropbox

      KDE Connect - phone/computer integration (notifications, media control, mouse and keyboard, file sharing, presentation remote, clipboard sharing, etc)

      Aves gallery,

      Organic maps

      PlayBook - audiobook player

      Bitwarden - password manager,

      Droid-ify - F-droid client

      Element - matrix client (potentiall alternative to discord)

      GrapheneOS is also great.