this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2023
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Android

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Hey, Android enthusiasts! πŸ“±

Let's take a tour of your favourite non-game paid apps in 2023 that are worth every penny!

No APKs please. Play Store links and app screenshots are encouraged. FOSS projects worth a contribution or two (whether a donation or paid version) are also more than welcome!

Let's skip the games (that's a story for another day) and spotlight some ever-reliable paid apps recommended by @[email protected]:

  • Tasker: The master of automation, turning your device into an efficiency wizard.
  • Titanium Backup: Safeguarding your data with finesse.
  • SD Maid: Your neat freak companion, maintaining cleanliness and speed.
  • BigBag: Organizing your shopping escapades like a champ.
  • Wolfram Alpha: The answer guru for all things complex.

Here's to building a treasure trove of invaluable apps and supporting those who keep the Android landscape innovative and vibrant!

Don't forget to subscribe to [email protected] for everyday Android questions and suggestions.

This week's discussion idea is brought to you by @[email protected]. Include your suggestions for a future [email protected] post in your response below!

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How about Solid Explorer. It's my favorite file browser.

Also Network Analyzer Pro is a bunch of great network tools that I use quite often.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Solid Explorer is great. Works for everything I've needed from it, including remote servers.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (6 children)
  • FairEmail: a FOSS email client with features such as a unified inbox, PGP encryption, and more! F-Droid Play Store
  • Aegis: a FOSS 2FA app with backups and biometric login F-Droid Play Store
  • Findroid: A native Jellyfin client for Android F-Droid Play Store
  • Kvaesitso Launcher: An Android launcher unlike any I've seen that I love! F-Droid
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Doesn't Jellyfin already have a FOSS app? What's the difference to that one?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I'm giving Kvaesito Launcher a shot since I haven't been too happy with KISS Launcher. So far I'm enjoying the experience!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They are great, but OP asked for paid apps. These are all free.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

FOSS apps worth paying for, either through a premium option like FairEmail or donation, are also welcome πŸ™‚.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

TickTick is a great reminders app. Cross platform too

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

My life is basically run out of this app. The pomo timer is an excellent bonus that I use for when I'm alternating between various work tasks

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

❀️

Some others I previously forgot:

  • Twilight is great for dimming your screen or shifting the color balance to red near bedtime. This is mostly baked into Android OS now but the app still gives a bit more control.
  • Sleep as Android is an alarm and sleep tracking app with a ton of crazy and innovative features. Even if you don't use most of them, having a smart alarm match your sleep cycle and wake you up gently with a fade-in is worth it.
  • Accubattery does what it says and helps you track battery health and get the most longevity out of your device.
  • Musicolet is a feature-packed audio player, and for me basically perfect. It even plays uncommon formats like Musepack.
  • The Simple Mobile Tools set is quite good (esp. Gallery and File Manager) with minimal permissions and definitely worth a few bucks to the dev as a thank you.
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I've used Sleep as Android for yearrrrrs now. Absolutely love it!

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Torque if you have a Bluetooth OBD2 device.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I would like to recommend "Piston" https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.clockworkbits.piston as well. It is the only app I found that feels modern and well-built vs all other OBD2 apps looking like they're 6+ years ols

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Oh an actually decent-looking OBD2 app! I'm too cheap to fork over the money for the Bluetooth ECUTek dongle (I have the license and cable). I'll have to give this one a try.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

This is great, I love torque but it's definitely dated. I'll check it Piston.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

A lot of great stuff recommended here already. Ditto a lot of them but here are a few others I use:

  • Bitwarden Password Manager: been using this for years and recently decided to subscribe.
  • Hermit : Create lite web apps.
  • Repainter: Dynamic theming for Android 12+.
  • Wavelet: Custom headphone/earbud equalizer with AutoEQ database.
  • JuiceSSH: Great SSH interface.
  • Obtainium: Keep apps from GitHub updated.
  • Shizuku: Wireless ADB functionality.
  • Droid-ify: F-Droid client with support for Shizuku for automatic app updating without root.
  • Cryptomator: For encrypting cloud storage.
  • Groundwire: VoIP SIP softphone with push notifications.
  • SunSurveyor: Really great sun tracking for photography.
  • PhotoPills: Decent sun tracking but lots of other photography reference tools.
  • My Lightning Tracker & Alerts: Don't really need this but somehow enjoy tracking lightning during storms. The alerts can be useful for an early heads up.
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

+1 for Repainter. I bought it when it didn't use a subscription yet. It's really great for theming your device!

[–] Cris_Color 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Its worth mentioning that SD maid has a new version in development, so it may make more sense to buy the new version, although its presently in beta

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Cris_Color 7 points 1 year ago

Very helpful of you to include a link for folks :)

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

MiXplorer Silver File Manager

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For book lovers like me, Moon plus reader pro. I have used it every single day on my phone for years and am very happy with it.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Sync for Lemmy

[–] ulemmyagain 5 points 1 year ago

Big sad. But at least there's Connect for lemmy.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Keepass2android is a great password manager. Technically it’s free but the dev asks for donations once in a while, which I’m happy to do to support the project.

PowerAmp is also an awesome music player.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (4 children)
  • X-plore file manager - paid version allows you to run an FTP server on your phone, so you can easily transfer data over wifi with any device on the same network - also works phone to phone via hotspot
  • Ice Box - Freeze apps for good (no auto launch, no updates, gone from the app drawer) but allows to start them via shortcut. Ideal for battery hogs and apps forced onto you by work, school etc. (works without root, but it's complicated, easier with)
  • Storage Isolation allows to restrict apps from accessing certain folders (root only)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

If you want just a good file manager with the FTP server option - I use Material Files, which is free and open source app. here's the link

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I freeze apps with SD Maid and App Manager would I see a benefit while using Ice Box?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I can't tell, haven't used either. What I like about ice box is that I can put a link on my home screen that looks just like the real app icon and opens it on click, with auto hibernation right after use. And that it's completely removing apps from automatic updates, since there are some I absolutely want to preserve in their existing state. But if you're happy with your existing setup, why change a running system :-)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That sounds kinda cool, actually I struggle a bit after the freezing action because when I unfreeze them they take forever to re appear in the homescreen/app drawer, or they never do... (maybe a restart or cleaning cache would bring them back, IDK).

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[–] ulemmyagain 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Interesting! Link for others: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.tacit.android.foldersync.full

Do you know how it compares to alternatives like AutoSync?

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[–] hansmeiser666 6 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wallabag is an excellent open source alternative to Pocket with RSS support. It's free (as in free beer), but you can pay a small amount of money if you don't wanna self-host.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Lumai fusion powerful video editing tool. Play store link

Oto music player. Great for local listening Play store link

Symfonium is great for streaming music from my media server to my phone Play store link

Kwgt is great for making/edit your custom widgets or using others. Play store link

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Beans

Fastest I ever signed up for a recurring subscription.

[–] regular_human 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What's up with the 2.2 rating?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

It used to be totally free. Glancing at the reviews, many people were very upset when they switched to a $4.99 monthly subscription model.

They did crowdsource the data (they have a companion app where they will pay you per property map). And as a result, they don't have information about every single complex. But I have found the data that is available has been invaluable to me in time savings.

The app also defaults to HERE maps (with Google maps as an option), and some people don't seem to like those.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Panels

Highly recommend this to everyone.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Do you have any screenshots of your setup? Samsung builds in panel support but I always just disable it. I'm curious to see what real world use looks like.

[–] keyez 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Same I'm curious what it might offer over Samsung's panels since I have those customized and use almost daily for apps like calculator, notes and shortcut to bitwarden plus quick access to the screenshot utility.

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[–] AnotherPerson 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I have never actually found anything to use Tasker for...

[–] Brandonb0013 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The most useful profile I use Tasker for is controlling ringer volume at specific times. I always run it on vibrate at home and away from work (I have a watch for important notifications). So if I'm at work and in the office I set the ringer to lowest level 1 so I hear it but it doesn't go off super loud in a meeting or whatever. If I'm at work and out of the office (in the plant or outside on site) the ringer is at full volume. Automatically goes back to vibrate when I leave the property. Next step to this is when I'm on call. I need to hear my phone ring when I'm on call so when my Google calendar event called weekend duty is occuring I have a profile that keeps my phone on vibrate but when a call is incoming it ~~says~~ sets it to the loudest setting before it starts ringing. This prevents me wife and I from hearing notification dings and beeps from daily use.

This is my favorite use for Tasker but I have others that are almost as good. Maybe this sparked a little inspiration for you.

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