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
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.
What do you think about Voyager?
Great app but maybe too similar to the rest of Lemmy apps.
I mean, they’re kinda all based on or inspired by Apollo, the 3rd party Reddit app. That was arguably the biggest most violent stcking point for many new Lemmy users
Voyager is the closest carbon-copy and therefore many’s fave (certainly mine ;)
AnyList. I’ve tried many list apps and this one is easily the best. Not FOSS disclaimer. The free version has very minimal ads, it has a great, intuitive UI, you can create custom list types and item categories, it has built in quantity and unit of measure fields, and you can share/sync a list with others by email address. The amount of features included in the free version is uncommon in the market without getting more harassed by advertisements. I hope it doesn’t change in the future; it’s remained relatively unchanged for the 3 years I’ve been using it!
Syncthing.
Allows you to use a laptop and sync your phone to it. No iCloud or Google drive needed. All syncs locally.
OruxMaps is an awesome alternative to Google maps. It does require some configuration to get Google imagery working since they were required to remove it, but there’s also a huge variety of other online sources it can use (wmts etc), plus off-line maps, overlays. You can use your own maps from qgis or other gis software, and there’s multiple navigation options. Tracks, routes, way points, and so much more.
MagicEarth’s amazing too
KISS Launcher. Fast and flexible homescreen replacement that puts quick search first, letting you optionally scroll through an app list.
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.
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.
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…
I switched to Device Connect because there’s an issue with KDE Connect & mconnect (since a few months ago) where it re-pairs every time the phone loses network connection. DC has far fewer features, but its reliable and doesn’t require running a KDE or Gnome service stack.
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.
I got frustrated by the difficulty curve. It’s easy for a few levels, and then suddenly impossible. There are enough easy levels at the beginning that it quickly becomes tedious to grind through back to something interesting.
That said, I’m not a huge fan of the monotonous nature of rogue-like games, and Shattered Pixel is well-done and good-looking. I just wish the level difficulty scaling were more linear.
Leon, the URL cleaner. Use it to remove tracking links either before opening them or before sharing them.
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AntennaPod. It’s easily the best podcast player I’ve tried, it’s open source too which is nice.
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).
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.
thx, just downloaded
Cool. Really gives good info repairing boards.
Into the breach. One of the best mobile games there is. Sadly you can’t get it legally anymore without Netflix subscription.
You couldn’t get it at all before Netflix paid to port it to Android could you?
