Accrescent Store / App opinion

DeletedUser410

Hi.
I was looking into a couple of apps that can be downloaded from the Accrescent store and I would like to know if someone is using them / have some feedback in terms of functionality / security

1- IVPN : never used it, seems similar to mullavad,what are the opinions of the users? Seems an interesting product.

2-Molly : never used it, opinions?

3-exif eraser

4- cryptomator

Thanks in advance

mrn

DeletedUser410
I'm using Molly and find it great.
For the most part you won't see a difference with Signal, which is a good thing, but it's fully FOSS I believe, which means that it won't use Google Play Services notifications.
If you use sandboxed Google Play you might want to just stay on Signal to have more reliable notifications and avoid increased battery usage.
But essentially it's Signal but FOSS, and with a few additional options compared to normal Signal, for example you can encrypt the app's database.

DeletedUser396

DeletedUser410 -Molly : never used it, opinions?

Excessive battery drain, is my opinion.
It was the only third party app installed and it halved my battery endurance. Now no longer installed.

DeletedUser410

mrn
Thanks!
Have you been using the multiple devices functionality?
I find it rather interesting
And if so, can you use it with signal?
I.e.
One device --> signal
Device 2 (android) --> Molly as client for signal
It seems a useful functionality when using multiple profiles.

wuseman

mrn f you use sandboxed Google Play you might want to just stay on Signal to have more reliable notifications and avoid increased battery usage.

There's also a non-FOSS version of Molly that uses Google. I've used it in the past and I can't tell the difference between the two.

mrn

DeletedUser410
I'm not so sure, since my main device is Molly, I can't test it that way, but in the app it says it supports linking with Molly on Android, and Signal on desktop and iPad.

DeletedUser410

Tnx
Il check it out

blusterpilgrim

Molly - I use Signal Cli as my "main" Signal client and connect Molly to it and it works perfectly. I especially love that the Accrescent version is completely FOSS and gets notifications via Molly Socket. I find the battery drain to not be that different from using SIgnal which gets its notifications via Google's Firebase.

Exif-eraser - The GrapheneOS camera and screenshot feature already erases exif data so I'm not sure if the app makes any difference to be honest. I do like the fact that it randomizes the file name though.

Cryptomator - Works perfectly, the best way to encrypt files and folders on Android. You do have to pay for a licence key though. However it does go on sale throughout the year; you can follow their Mastodon account to check out when it does.

Never used IVPN.

xxx

DeletedUser396 it halved my battery endurance.

You can use UnifiedPush or you must limit background time.
https://www.kuketz-blog.de/messenger-wechsel-von-signal-zu-molly-unifiedpush-mollysocket-ntfy/

Use a transtlate service in case.

DeletedUser421

iVPN (compared to Mullvad)

Rarely updated and bugs are not fixed as fast
More code that isn’t in memory safe languages
Worse content blocking (adult, gambling and such)

Positive:

Better ad/tracker blocking and ability to block Meta and Google totally (hardcode mode)

DeletedUser410

DeletedUser421

Thanks.
I have read that IVPN has a mock location for GPS mode. Do you know anything about it?

DeletedUser421

DeletedUser410 I don’t think that mock location for GPS is available in GOS yet.
See https://github.com/GrapheneOS/os-issue-tracker/issues/4075

Please correct me if I’m wrong.

harp

wuseman Even the non-FOSS version of Molly is more hardened than the native Signal client. For example it provides (automatic) locking the database encrypted with a passphrase and wiping the unused memory. Also you can use Molly on several devices with the same Signal account.

Both versions Molly FOSS and Molly (non FOSS) can use Websocket or Unified Push for receiving notifications. On the non FOSS you have also the choice to use Google FCM (like the native Signal client) instead. And the non FOSS version uses Google Maps for location sharing (like native Signal client) whereas Molly FOSS uses OpenStreetMaps.

mrn

wuseman
That's right, I forgot that there was a non-FOSS version, my apologies.
That one does allow notifications with Google Play Services, and uses Google Maps when you send a location.

macrosploit

harp I understand what Molly provides but what exactly is the attack vector it protects against? That your phone gets snatched out of your hand while unlocked? In that case, what if Molly was unlocked right at that time?

Imo it's security improvements are not that significant over Signal. I am not aware of many other improvements over the regular Signal builds.

harp

macrosploit I just wanted to explain (some of) the differences between the Signal Client, Molly and Molly FOSS and didn't want to give an opinion on it. Everyone can decide for themselves. For me, the possibility of using Unified Push is the biggest advantage of Molly (FOSS).