this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2023
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Asklemmy

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I'm back! This is a continuation of my series on platform-specific hidden gem apps that you have discovered that are the best in their class for your usecase.

We've done iOS+MacOS so far so lets get universal and share our Android hidden gems.

For mine, I would say NewPipe for YouTube... Lets do it!

Edit: Please try to avoid apps that cannot be purchased (subscription apps) since it is important that the creator cannot cut you off once you've taken time/effort/money to integrate it into your workflow and dependance. No Apollos, which have that fatal flaw + relying on an external API that they additionally cannot gurantee

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[โ€“] [email protected] 45 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Syncthing.

Allows you to use a laptop and sync your phone to it. No iCloud or Google drive needed. All syncs locally.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Wanted to also suggest Resilio Sync if you need something a little less fussy or smaller learning curve. I use it for many thins between devices, I never really "got" Syncthing altho I support their mission and excellent work the community benefits greatly from.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (6 children)

You have used both. How does Resilio compare to Syncthing?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 38 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Aegis is a FOSS, local only 2 factor TOTP generator. Essentially a Google authenticator without the Google.

[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I feel like KeePass is a preferable portable format that you can do everything any TOTP app can do without being tied into non-standard apps. Like .kdbx is a standard that works in any KeePass app

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

I'd be concerned about storing both authentication factors in the same location, maybe if you kept passwords in one db and passwords in another. Not sure how well mobile apps support multiple dbs though

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Local to the Device? Google already did that to me. Then my phone died and I had the world's worst time trying to convince some of my vendors that I really was me. Like, I had to get my ID notarized in person and sent that paperwork off by international post in one example.

I wouldn't want to go through that drama again. I moved to Authy, they keep my tokens encrypted on a cloud service. I could potentially be convinced to move to something self hosted, but never local-only again.

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

Aegis can do automatic encrypted backups to a cloud provider or locally.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

That's why you back up your shit.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 37 points 11 months ago (2 children)

AntennaPod. It's easily the best podcast player I've tried, it's open source too which is nice.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I wish it had a self hostable sync feature

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)
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[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Every time I have tried a different app because I wanted some feature have realized I don't use the feature and end crawling back...

[โ€“] [email protected] 26 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

KDE Connect (FREE, open source) is definitely a gem. I love using my phone as a remote mouse and keyboard for my HTPC, and syncing clipboard, files, links, and notifications with the other devices I've paired with. (BTW, despite the name, you don't need KDE - or Linux even - to use it. It works on Windows and Android too.)

URLCheck (FREE, open source) is fantastic. It's a little pop-up that appears when you click a link, showing you the full URL and letting you modify it before you open with your browser/associated app (e.g., to remove tracking parameters):

URLCheck acts as an amazingly customizable and powerful intermediary when opening url links, allowing, among other things: to remove trackers, affiliate links, unnecessary elements, check Hosts, facilitating link holding and sharing, protecting against certain phishing techniques and many more...

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

+2 for KDE Connect, the integration is amazing. I've used it on KDE and Gnome (gsconnect), all works very well

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[โ€“] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago (2 children)

So I did NewPipe for using YouTube and that's all I have to say on the matter ๐Ÿ˜˜

[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Smart tube for Android TV.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Would it be ok for you to do that as a top-level comment as well?

Edit: Thanks!

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

Grayjay has completely replaced NewPipe for me because it automatically updates my subscriptions

[โ€“] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Smart tube for Android TV.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Ever work on electronics?

I use an apk called "Electrodoc" and it identifies and helps you figure out what all you need for all sorts of transistors and capacitors and smd's and inductors and all that sorts of crap. Has loads of info and pictures and calculations you can punch in for stuff. Super handy.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago (2 children)

KISS Launcher. Fast and flexible homescreen replacement that puts quick search first, letting you optionally scroll through an app list.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Niagara Launcher for me. Love the minimalistic approach!

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[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

I switched to it one year ago from nova launcher, after getting used to the change, I don't miss nova at all.

[โ€“] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

Aves Libre - Image Viewer

Just tried it 30mins ago. Super slick and feature packed. Available on Fdroid too.

[โ€“] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

Genius Scan. A shameful exception in my otherwise fully FOSS phone.

It scans multi-page documents with the camera, OCRs them, then uploads them automatically to Nextcloud (or manually to any other app, like Paperless).

[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Tachiyomi is a brilliant manga reader and tracker. Or you can get its fork, Aniyomi which has anime support and sources as well, not just manga.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Not sure how "hidden" these are, but they can be really useful

"AMdroid" by Smart Alarm Clock Team (Higley-configurable alarm clock with different alarm profiles, options for a post-alarm confirmation, and dismiss challenges)

"Engineering Converter Plus" by thermofluids.net (Has every unit conversion I've ever needed without needing to be online - Free version avaliable)

"Network Analyzer" by Jiri Techet (Good for helping to find the best spot/s for a wireless router or access point)

"Oldschool Editor : Text Editor" by AbhishekPandey (A no nonsense text editor)

"Unseen - No Last Seen" by Firehawk (Good to help look through message spam without alerting the spammer with a read receipt that your account is active)

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[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

Phonograph plus if you are a local music nut like me and obtainium if you prefer to not use fdroid to manage your foss app updates

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[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Minimalist phone. If you have ADHD and/or want to increase productivity or get anxiety about your phone notifications, look into this app. It's been sooooo beneficial for me.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

MiX

Very good file explorer and server

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[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Oto Music (Play Store link) has been my mp3/offline music player of choice for years now. Stable, pretty, performant, and has tag editing features built in. Still gets updates at least once or twice a year, which is all ya really need for an offline player.

Megalodon (Play Store link) is my Mastodon client of choice, tons of little ease-of-use improvements over the official client. Some people might already be familiar with this if they're on Lemmy, but maybe someone looking for a better Masto client will get something from this.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Into the breach. One of the best mobile games there is. Sadly you can't get it legally anymore without Netflix subscription.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

You couldn't get it at all before Netflix paid to port it to Android could you?

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Just Run Zero to 5K.

For me it's the Golden Age of apps. Easy to use, minimal, good UI, no ads with the ability to buy premium, all the features that you need and non that you don't.

If you want to start jogging I highly recommend it. I think it's perfect.

Edit: I went from barely able to jog an exhausting half mile to jogging 4.5 miles in 13 weeks. It wasn't easy and I think I "failed" a jog twice but having a clear goal with the encouragement of seeing a timer motivate you really helped me.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

JINA App Drawer.

My most used app on my device.

Basically lets you swipe up from the home button to reveal a customized grid of apps + app search.

Makes it so:

  • I never have to go back to my home screen to launch a new app
  • I can use my entire home screen for widgets and to just look nice
[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Similar but, IMO better option, would be Sesame Search & Shortcuts for those who are interested in these types of things.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Buzzkill for control over notifications.

Musicolet is the best audio player I've found.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Leon, the URL cleaner. Use it to remove tracking links either before opening them or before sharing them.

https://github.com/svenjacobs/leon

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Been really impressed with the open-source spending tracking app Cashew

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[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Shattered Pixel Dungeon - a pretty good FOSS roguelike, gets updated every month or so. Can be a bit hard to learn and beat the game for the first time but trying to go farther and farther each run is really fun.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

ResilioSync for synching files between devices (all platforms as far as I know)

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Thumb-key and Auxio (music player)

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Voice - Audio book player Minimalistic audio book player that supports folders with ".nomedia". Great if you want to keep your audio books and music library separated.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

I like Weather Warbler because it's simple. Not perfect, but free, simple, no ads.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Read You, probably the best RSS reader available on Android. The bad: still in beta and no sync with Feedly (yet).

Sync for Lemmy, also the best client for Lemmy in Android by far. Design and user experience are delightful. Bad: ads with an expensive subscription. Good: with adguard DNS ads disappear.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

YouTube Revanced Extended - No ads, almost endless customisation options, built in Return Dislikes and Sponsorblock

SmartTube Next - Same thing for Android TV devices

Boost for Lemmy - The best Lemmy client as far as I'm concerned, highly customisable too

AIMP - No nonsense music player with a clear UI

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Feeder an RSS feed reader. It is amazing, reading all the news I care about without leaving Feeder. It saves me a lot of energy declining cookies. It is available on F-Droid.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

SpeechCentral, reads almost any text aloud and basically turns anything into an audiobook that follows along (highlights) so you can read and listen at the same time or export audio for hands/eye free listening!

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