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With the exception of the standalone apps and the GrapheneOS apps repository, most GrapheneOS stock apps are subpar compared to the OS itself. The files, dialer, and settings apps are up-to-date, since Google uses them elsewhere, but the calculator, clock, contacts, and messages apps still don't even have a dark mode. The gallery app, by contrast, has only a dark mode that predates material design, as it seems it hasn't been updated since its release or before it. There is no calendar app to speak of, because the one that is included in the system but hidden has a similar out-of-dateness problem as the Gallery app. There's also a search app that is included but also hidden with the stock launcher. I was told I could install a different search provider, but I don't know how to do that because from what I can tell the concept has pretty much been abandoned in modern Android. The one included seems to be the exact same one as from the first versions of Android, literally.

The apps that are included do work to a reasonable, but still low degree. It's quite disappointing to be using Android 12, with material you in the OS and even some user apps now, and yet not even have the first version of material design in all apps, or a dark mode in all apps, let alone material you in all apps.

If you're looking to replace them, you're going to be faced with a similar problem, as other versions of Android that maintain a more up-to-date copy of their stock applications only release them in the form of source code, the Google apps are all proprietary, and no independent developer is maintaining a lot of the stock apps.

You can find suitable replacements for the files and dialer apps, but since those are fine it makes no sense to do so. But if you wanted an independently maintain replacement for the calculator, clock, contacts, or gallery apps, you'd be out of luck. There are replacements for the messages apo though.

For the remaining apps, you pretty much only have the option of either using the stock app, and living with its outdated design and lack of features, or installing the versions from the simple mobile tools project, since they're the only ones to have maintained replacements for the aforementioned. However, if you do that, you'll have to install most or all of them from F-Droid unless you also want to purchase them from the proprietary Google Play Store. And you'll have to additionally install or purchase their thank you app to be able to then switch on the material you theme in each app individually. You can also change the icons, but they don't change in context or file picker menus, so you'll have an inconsistency if you do that.

Obviously all of that's not an ideal solution either, so you're basically left with having to decide between two bad options. I'm nonetheless keen to hear your thoughts on this. If there are other alternative apps I haven't considered, or if, like me, you think GrapheneOS should also put work into maintaining or themselves replacing their stock apps for everyone who uses the OS.

As for the calendar, I use etar, but I think if the stock calendar app is not going to be included, an option such as etar should become the official and the included version.

Anyway, thanks for reading this and thank you in advance for any and all feedback. And thank you to the GrapheneOS team for using and promoting open source forum software!

    Hello there!

    I agree that the current situation is not ideal. That said, I know that the GrapheneOS team plans to replace at least some of the AOSP apps.

    The biggest example of this is the AOSP Gallery app, which GrapheneOS wants to and will replace.

    It would be nice to have modern and up to date replacements for all of these apps, and it would go a long way towards making GrapheneOS an even better experience out of the box, but that requires contributors to step up and assist with development. The same goes for the apps that GrapheneOS has created, such as the "Apps" app, and the PDF Viewer. Lots of improvements need to be made, both in terms of UI and features, but that will require contributors to step up and help.

    I've been using GrapheneOS for quite a while now across two different devices, and in that time I've seen a lot of improvement and refinement, both in terms of the OS itself, as well as the introduction of the amazing Camera application among other things. I'm hopeful that given more time (and hopefully more people willing to help out), GrapheneOS will not only be the most private and secure OS, but also the most beautiful. :)

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    As for the calendar, I use etar, but I think if the stock calendar app is not going to be included, an option such as etar should become the official and the included version.

    We will never do this as Etar is under GPLv3. Projects under GPLv3, AGPLv3 and LGPLv3 and other extreme copyleft licences are forbidden for inclusion in GrapheneOS.

    We are looking at a project which has potential to being a replacement Gallery app in future.

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    We won't bundle more apps than necessary into the base OS, but we definitely want to replace the legacy sample AOSP apps. Some like Dialer are more maintained, but still have annoying bugs that we have to fix ourselves. Others like AOSP Calendar, Gallery, and Messaging are so old, legacy, and deprecated that it would take more effort to fix it all up than just writing our own app. We currently don't have the resources and time and effort to do that at the moment. We can't simply replace them or remove them because they provide intents for other apps to work such as gallery intents, camera intents, etc and we need to verify intent functionality for everything.

    We intend on adding 3rd-party app support to our app store so people can just install some extra apps they need.

    We won't be adding GPL licenced software into our OS as they're too restrictive for what we're intending to do.

    See https://grapheneos.org/faq#bundled-apps

    If you don't want to include so-called restrictively licensed apps, then what options are left as possible replaments for the stock apps? Simple Mobile Tools is GPL3, so is Koler, and QKSMS, and Material Files, and Etar, and that's about all the options I can find in F-Droid.

    Don't need F Droid for SimpleMobileTools or to purchase the Thankyou. All can be gained direct on GitHub including the Thankyou so you can then make a one off donation via Github for that too. Its how I get and use them.

    [deleted] or installing the versions from the simple mobile tools project, since they're the only ones to have maintained replacements for the aforementioned. However, if you do that, you'll have to install most or all of them from F-Droid unless you also want to purchase them from the proprietary Google Play Store. And you'll have to additionally install or purchase their thank you app to be able to then switch on the material you theme in each app individually. You can also change the icons, but they don't change in context or file picker menus, so you'll have an inconsistency if you do that.

      10 days later
      7 days later

      MetropleX I couldn't find the APK files in the repo, you mean you cloned the repos to compile them or am I missing something?

        clr2329 https://github.com/orgs/SimpleMobileTools/repositories?type=all

        That is the link for all their repos.

        Using Gallery as the example that repo is here:
        https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/Simple-Gallery

        The APK is found under releases:
        https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/Simple-Gallery/releases/tag/6.23.12

        That link above is found at the end of the README on the page above it.

        Each of those links above are linked through each in order and can be repeated from the top level for each app. The latest release link is found at the bottom of each apps repo front page README.

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        MetropleX Yeah that's actually true. For some reason I thought Simple Thank You was required. Maybe it used to be? In any case, I've now got my own F-Droid repo that automatically builds a version of all the apps with a white icon available. The developer didn't want to include that option in the icon customisation settings, but it looks a lot better on GrapheneOS and blends in with the stock apps if you still use some. (I have also set it as the app's base icon, which will show up in the settings, widget selection, and context menus, but that's my personal preference. Otherwise, you can still use any of the other colours).