this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2023
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What are the coolest (privacy respecting) apps you have? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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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

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I never really saw the need for Termux, but now that I selfhost at home and on a VPS, i couldn't go without it!

Also, I just recently started switching as much as I can to a self-hosted ntfy instance from pushover. I'm really loving it so far!

I sponsored it on github because I see myself using it a lot. Plus, the dev deserves it. The documentation alone is great, let alone the software itself.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I really dislike typing on my phone, but termux has saved my bacon a couple of times when picom has frozen up on me, so it stays.

Ntfy is really nice software!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Hey man, thanks for mentioning Aves and Etar, I'm now gonna try them out and use them as I work to degoogle!!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

FlorisBoard for several months now. It has no text prediction

The good news is that feature is currently in development. There's a beta build on GitHub that has it sort of implemented. There's some details on the FlorisBoard matrix channel on getting it.

M.A.L.P., for when I’m playing music on the house system

Do you mind explaining your setup a bit more? I've currently got a few Sonos speakers but I don't like being locked into their system and have always been interested in a more open setup.

I've seen Snapchat and I know of MPD (but don't fully understand it, to be honest) but it seems there isn't much information about these types of setups.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

that feature is currently in development

I was following that! I'm excited to see how it works, when they release it.

Do you mind explaining your setup a bit more?

Sure!

I'd recommend LogitechMediaServer,. It's got a ton of plugins, and despite the name is entirely maintained (more or less actively) by the community. Lots of features, easy to use, and even has themes to pretty-ify it.

That said, I had a few issues. Every once in a while, one of the clients would freak out and blast screeching static throughout the house. That may have been a client issue, or some combination of my setup, so I changed it out.

In any case, our house has whole-house audio wiring, so I have a 12-zone amp running it. To the zones are connected cheap ($50?) O-Droids running Linux. Each of these (there are 3) runs a client for the audio server. For LMS, that's all there is - install LMS server and point it at your media, start the LMS clients and point them at the server, and the clients show up in the web interface of the server. Group them and play music to the group, and you get broadcast music streaming.

Because of that little issue, I'm running mpd as the server. It's a bit more involved to get the broadcast. To get that, my mpd plays to a pipe, and then I use snapcast to pull that data and broadcast it to snapclient(s) running on the same ODroids. And then, if you want a nice web UI, you probably want to install something like MyMPD, although we get along fine with MALP on our Androids. Queue maintenance is easier with MyMPD.

In any case, it's been more reliable in my house, but far more moving parts to get running. I'd really try LMS first. There are native Android clients for it as well, but the web UI is pretty nice.