The android apps I use

I don't do much with my phone, and despite that, still manage to be disappointed with most of the default applications android phones tend to be ship with. Finding suitable alternatives is hard for two reasons: I refuse to log into a Google account of my phone, hence the Google Play Store is inaccessible to me, and the only alternative I want to use, the F-Droid store, has pretty poor discoverability. So here's a list of the apps I use, to help others discover them and myself re-install them the next time I change my phone.

Breezy Weather

A pretty weather application. I don't use it much anymore since I started working remotely and do not need to check weather it's going to rain later during the day before leaving.

K9-Mail

An e-mail client. I don't find it particularly great, but it's certainly not bad. The Thunderbird team has taken over K9-Mail and I've not been a fan of the changes they brought so far, so I'm slightly worried about K9's future and hope it doesn't get worse.

DAVx⁵

A fantastic CalDav/CardDav client to synchronize (backup, actually) my contacts and calendar events. I set it up and then promptly forgot about it on every android device I've owned, which is exactly what I expect from such a tool. I like it so much I've donated a bunch of money to the project and will do it again at some point.

F-Droid

The F-Droid app itself. Many security experts recommend against using F-Droid due to their weakening Android's security model. I don't worry much about that - I like that apps that work against their users aren't allowed on there, and have seen the reviewers' work enough times to be more confident in their ability to review apps that in my own.

Feeder

I used to use Newsboat (and before that Newsbeuter) as an RSS reader on my desktop. Three years ago, I decided to move my RSS reading to my smartphone in order to have an easier time reading RSS feeds while commuting. I tested every feed reader on F-Droid and only two could be said to more-or-less work: News and Feeder. I opened a few issues for news but the maintainer did not seem interested in solving them while Feeder's maintainer went above and beyond solving the issues I encountered, so I went with Feeder. I liked the app and the maintainer so much I donated a bunch of money.

Fennec

Firefox on Android. Similarly to F-Droid, security experts decry the use of Firefox on Android. I don't care, I need to have uBlock Origin to browse the web, and Firefox's "send tab to phone/desktop" feature can be a lifesaver.

Fossify Calculator Beta

I don't expect much from a calculator app, and yet Sony's default calculator app still manages to provide terrible user experience. In particular, Fossify Calculator enables easily re-using the result of previous calculations, a basic feature Sony's app does not have.

Fossify Calendar

Before buying my current Sony Xperia 10 VI, I had a Google Pixel 4A. When Google stopped providing updates for the 4A, I installed LineageOS, whose default calendar app is Etar. Etar is truly the worst calendar app I've ever used and plaged me with awful rendering bugs until I discovered Fossify Calendar, which is pretty nice and user-friendly.

Fossify Gallery

Honestly, Google's default gallery app would be fine if it didn't ask me to update the app and then failed to update the app due to not having a Google account every time I opened it. Fossify Gallery doesn't do that and that's enough for me to use it.

jtx Board

Honestly way too complicated for my needs. As far as note taking/task tracking apps go, I just want something where I can jot down things to remember for later and to be able to cross things off of my grocery list. I went with jtx Board because DAVx⁵ advertised some synergy with jtx board when I installed it, but the amount of flexibility jtx Board has goes in the way of usability for me. Still, I've found worse note/list apps and can't remember the name of the one I used to use ten years ago, so jtx it is.

MoneyBuster

A way to keep track of how much money I've lent my relatives. I use it without any cloud synchronization and honestly jtxBoard could do the trick there, but I must admit I like being able to go over the list of transactions that happened, their dates and reasons.

MuPDF mini

Love me MuPDF. Simple as.

Organic Maps

After a decade of inclicting OsmAnd~ on myself for no good reason, I discovered Organic Maps, and it was a breath of fresh air. Finally an app with a usable UI, where I could understand how to start and stop navigation without having to randomly tap and swipe on the screen for minutes on end. Organic Maps was recently forked into CoMaps due to the entity behind Organic Maps taking advantage of its community, if I remember correctly. I'll wait a year or two to see if CoMaps still has momentum and probably switch to that then.

QR & Barcode Scanner

A simple QR code scanner. Not much to say.

Waistline

The best calorie, macro and micronutrient tracker I've found. It's truly a gem of UX, and the maintainer was great the few times I interacted with him. Liked the app so much I donated some money.

Yubico Authenticator

I used to store my SSH keys on an aging Yubico key. I still store my OTP tokens there. I use the app to read said tokens when I need to 2FA somewhere. Newer versions of the app are broken and can't read my key anymore, hence I'm stuck on version 7.1.1 of the app. Luckily F-Droid let me pin that version. I am terrified of losing my key or the app breaking forever and have been telling myself I need to move my OTP tokens somewhere else for the past half-decade without having actually ever done it (not for want of trying though, I started switching to BitWarden the week they decided to turn proprietary, and KeepassDX keeps breaking on my phone for reasons I do not understand).

Music Player?

Five years ago, I tried every music player on F-Droid and they were all absolutely terrible. I think the least bad may have been Vanilla Music, but it was still pretty bad (slow to start up, difficulties handling playlists...). LineageOS' Twelve music app is fantastic, but unfortunately unavailable on non-lineageOS platforms. At the moment I am using Sony's default music app, which is also pretty great. It's a shame good music apps seem to be android-distro specific.