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  • Best alternative apps for the "full" smart phone experience

A little context:
I myself am not really interested in that kind of experience and neither are the persons I managed to switch to GrapheneOS (my parents and they are really happy, so that is kind of a big compliment to the devs for the UX work, as my parents are really not tech savy and 55+).

But, my siblings and other relatives that are now getting "more interested" in privacy and security would love to have replacements for all the necassary/useful apps for their daily life and although there are great default apps like vanadium, pdf viewer and so on as replacements for chrome, safari and whatever the default pdf viewer is, there are some empty holes.

Obviously I would always prefer the most private and secure alternative, as long as it is easy to use for them, a major reason I prefer them to switch to Signal/Matrix instead of Briar or anything like that.

Maybe some of you can share their choice/replacement for some of these apps or functions:
Google or Apple Maps - ..... I personally would advice for Organic Maps, but I have to be honest, there is no live traffic or public transport (there are routes with public transport, but not including the departure time or something like that, as it shows public transports which don't work in the night in my city) inclusion for routes, so I would love to be corrected if there is anything better than Organic Maps. If not I would advice them to stick with Google Maps and research how to change the settings to get the best privacy out of it they can.

A calendar app that they can forward their appointments (most likely .ics - files) they receive through e-mails (flights and so on) to and import it easily. I sadly have no clue and don't use a calendar app at all on my phone.

Kinda the same, but somewhat different. A wallet app that can import their flight tickets, IDs and so on in one place.
I again don't use something like it, therefore I have no clue.

I again don't use any weather app. No special requirements, just the question what do you use and why? Maybe some with nice widgets and notifications?

For Google Drive and iCloud I doubt there is a good alternative for the average joe, as they are either required to pay for it or have to self host it (Nextcloud), while the UX is somewhat tricky (at least the last time I tried it) and the ability to restore it with either option is less seamless. But again, I would love to be corrected.

As a podcast replacement and youtube client I would recommend AntennaPod and NewPipe. Any issues with that or just better recommendations?

If anyone reading this is missing a certain app that he needs a private/secure replacement for that I haven't mentioned, be my guest if you think it is one of the apps that is part of the "full" smart phone experience of 2022.

Thanks to everyone in advance!

    For car navigation, there is magic earth which is even better than google maps if osm data is vailable. For a general mal app, there's osmand which is more feature rich than organicmaps. Organic maps is great but for anyone serious about maps it's too limited - like any other map.
    I have no idea about public transportation, but there's probably an app for that.

      It depends on the use case how for a cloud. I don't think that there's a general perfect solution for clouds.

      Btw there are many foss app lists and most of them are privacy respecting. r/degoogle focuses on (privacy respecting) apps that are not connected to google, apple or the like.

        For calendaring I use the SimpleMobileTools calendar. It will import/export ICS files. If you want to sync data with a server, then something like DAVx5 is required as well as an appropriate server (e.g. some webmail services support CalDAV, or setting up a CalDAV server yourself, though this would be too much for non-technical users).

        I've never used a "wallet" app, as I just use Signal's "Note to Self" to retain important information.

          • [deleted]

          I would like to have the possibility to install my bank without having to install Google...

            That bank's web app works by any chance? If so Vanadium is the way to go

              • [deleted]

              Yes it works on the web but not the application

              At least that's something! I use a couple of banks this way... On a separate user profile of cause...

              [deleted] I would like to have the possibility to install my bank without having to install Google...

              You need to speak to your Bank only they can decide whether to depend on Play Services & SafetyNet (Basic Integrity & ctsProfileMatch either former or both)

              Nothing can be done by the OS or it's team to make it work if that's what they choose to do.

                • [deleted]

                • Edited

                MetropleX I am not intimate with my bank Developers have succeeded with google play sandboxes and FIDO2 in vanadium, I am sure they will succeed with sefetynet...

                  [deleted] not going to happen:

                  https://grapheneos.org/usage#banking-apps "Banking apps are increasingly using Google's SafetyNet attestation service to check the integrity and certification status of the operating system. GrapheneOS passes the basicIntegrity check but isn't certified by Google so it fails the ctsProfileMatch check. Most apps currently only enforce weak software-based attestation which can be bypassed by spoofing what it checks. GrapheneOS doesn't attempt to bypass the checks since it would be very fragile and would repeatedly break as the checks are improved. Devices launched with Android 8 or later have hardware attestation support which cannot be bypassed without leaked keys or serious vulnerabilities so the era of being able to bypass these checks by spoofing results is coming to an end regardless."

                    mobos For car navigation, there is magic earth which is even better than google maps if osm data is vailable.

                    I just tried it out and it is amazing, never heard about it before. It is including the traffic of my city and actually has public transport as well and knows at what point it has to include to nightlines and exclude the usual public transport.
                    Thank you very much for that recommendation! I'll forward it and maybe even start using it myself.
                    Have to read up on the privacy and security implications.

                    mobos Geometric weather is currently my choice but it'll depend on where your wheather data shall come from.

                    I think this one does everything a weather app needs to do.

                    mobos It depends on the use case how for a cloud. I don't think that there's a general perfect solution for clouds.

                    Btw there are many foss app lists and most of them are privacy respecting. r/degoogle focuses on (privacy respecting) apps that are not connected to google, apple or the like.

                    I'll look into r/degoogle. Thanks. The cloud replacement is most likely not gonna happen by a single simple solution.
                    As one uses it just to backup his pictures, the next one uses it to share files/pictures between devices and so on.
                    And it's kind of a thing that you won't have those features without either putting in the work and hosting something yourself, trusting someone or paying for this service.

                    TranceSeven For calendaring I use the SimpleMobileTools calendar. It will import/export ICS files. If you want to sync data with a server, then something like DAVx5 is required as well as an appropriate server (e.g. some webmail services support CalDAV, or setting up a CalDAV server yourself, though this would be too much for non-technical users).

                    Yeah, the syncing is going to be a no-go for the majority, but I think the one or other might be satisfied with Simple Calendar.
                    But I have to say that hosting a nextcloud server pretty much achieves everything and it is getting easier and easier (at least from my experience, even though I'm not using it myself anymore and just hosting it for someone else).
                    Maybe we get lucky and get to a point at which people buy finished servers for sub 200 bucks and host them theirself and it is super easy and the whole culture changes.......well....who am I lying to, ain't gonna happen. :D

                    TranceSeven I've never used a "wallet" app, as I just use Signal's "Note to Self" to retain important information.

                    Well, what I was thinking about was more like the apple wallet which links debitcards, flight tickets and so on, which either doesn't work at all with Signal (debitcards and paying over NFC with them) or it doesn't have the same smooth UX (PDFs of flight tickets and QR Codes for the terminals).

                    evalda That bank's web app works by any chance? If so Vanadium is the way to go

                    That's the way I do it and it works like a charm, the only downside I have is that I need a card with me to pay with at places that don't accept cash compared to some people which can do it over NFC with their linked card in their banking app and leave their card at home, but I can live with that.

                      krvopije There are privacy respecting clouds. drive.proton.me, filen.io, crypt.ee, ente.io . You can use a cloud to backup your files, sync files between devices, send images/files to others, or to have access to files from a different computer without USB stick.
                      I use syncthing for syncing my files between my devices, phone, laptop, desktop, server. There are 4 copies of everything. Since not all devices are online at th same time, you could consider it a backup. But a regular backup from your server won't hurt. To send files there's always the option to use signal or matrix for smaller files and croc for larger files.

                      It just depends on your needs.

                        mobos There are privacy respecting clouds. drive.proton.me, filen.io, crypt.ee, ente.io .

                        I don't think I disagreed with that. As I said, there are multiple ways: -) Hosting yourself, trusting someone (taking an open public nextcloud instance or Apple/Google) or paying for it (all the providers you mentioned, unless the "free 1/10 GB" are considered a solution by themselves, while I would diasgree with that).

                        mobos You can use a cloud to backup your files, sync files between devices, send images/files to others, or to have access to files from a different computer without USB stick.

                        Yes.

                        mobos I use syncthing for syncing my files between my devices, phone, laptop, desktop, server. There are 4 copies of everything. Since not all devices are online at th same time, you could consider it a backup. But a regular backup from your server won't hurt. To send files there's always the option to use signal or matrix for smaller files and croc for larger files.

                        It just depends on your needs.

                        Obviously it depends on what someone needs. I myself am fine with 6 apps besides the default apps:
                        Signal, NewPipe, Mail-Client, Rsync, Wireguard and AntennaPod

                        I went through a lot of steps in between where I had a lot of alternative setups with multiple Nextcloud Apps, DAVx5 and so on, but neither was it very necessary for me nor that useful to "invest" the time to keep it up-to-date or regularly check out the newest alternative setup.

                          krvopije I myself am fine with 6 apps besides the default apps:
                          Signal, NewPipe, Mail-Client, Rsync, Wireguard and AntennaPod

                          I'm surprised not to see Aegis or even Scrambled Exif in there. Is there some other solution you're using for 2fa? I also like to keep Briar installed because I can see it being unexpectedly useful.

                            FU6QydnIELkx I use AndOTP for my TOTP tokens. Finding independent comparison reviews of competing apps is tricky, but it's the one I went for.

                            I had one of the EXIF stripping apps installed but I rarely use it as I set the option in the camera to remove EXIF data.