I've been using GrapheneOS for four years now and I have never used Google Play Services. My navigation app of choice is OSMAnd+~ in F-Droid with the downloaded maps from opensupermaps.com. I find it to be the most accurate and best open source and free navigation tool.

For email: Protonmail
For Calendar: Etar Android App to display, Etesync to cloud store and encrypt calendar entries to display cross device.
For Tasks: Tasks.org F-Droid app and Etesync.
For Contacts: Etesync
For Podcasts: Antennapod

Etesync by far is the best tool to replace the proprietary google services to keep track of your life.

  • b2cb replied to this.

    b2cb Not a notes app specifically, can create text files for notes with Cryptomator secured in a vault(s).

      BalooRJ

      Thanks for your recommendations! I downloaded the OSMAnd+ apk, but i couldn't yet figure out how to import a separately downloaded map. I found a site where i can download a map in the format osm.pbf or osm.bz2. Can you tell me which one i should get and what to do with it to get the map running in the OSMAnd+ app? I revoked the network permission of the app, as i am understanding it should work fine without?

      Thanks in advance!

          For Element, be careful, there are two versions

          • one on Github, Aurora Store and Google Play, that requires Google Play to have notifications,
          • the other on F-Droid store that works without Google Play.

          Only install Element from F-Droid.

          b2cb The maps from OpenSupermaps.com are in obf format and when you download them to your phone, they should automatically open up and import into OSMAnd+.

          Note that the maps are large. And you will need the larger overlay maps before you can download individual state maps for everything to work properly. Simply go to the left-hand side of the app's "Download Maps" tab and download the requisite world and country overlay maps. Then the individual maps from OpenSuperMaps will have the embedded street addresses so they are easily searchable in OSMAnd+~.

          There are also quite a few navigation settings for driving and using OSMAnd+~. f you want TTS prompts while you're driving from OSMAnd+~, you will have to download a separate app called RHVoice from F-Droid and configure it to your liking.

              BalooRJ Thanks for clear instructions!
              I managed to skip the step of downloading world and country maps - but my (U.S.) state maps seem to function find.

              1. What functions am I missing? Perhaps greater generalized detail?
              2. Have you compared OSMAnd with OpenSuperMaps to MagicEarth and/or Organic?
                TIA

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                  • Post #14
                  • Edited

                  b2cb
                  cascaderainfall's answers are very great.
                  1 yes, it is possible to have realtime notifications with these apps
                  2.No

                  1. No to grant them too much permissions, running them in a separate user profile and not connecting to your google account are good measures to protect your privacy and not be linkable to an account. Leave battery optimisation diasabled.
                  2. Yes, you can get notifications across profiles (Multiple users> notifications)
                  3. being free does not necessarly imply they are stealing you data. I think that they're very good privacy-wise. Magic Earth works very well without GSF. I suggest you to use it in your general profile since it is privacy-friendly. but if your threat model implies to not risk other apps on the same profile than Magic Earth, run it in a separate user profile.
                    I would suggest you to also look at Organic Maps (the best for me IMO), HEREWe go and Google's PWA.

                    • [deleted]

                    • Post #15
                    • Edited

                    2dognight

                    you have some great options such as :

                    • Notally (for offline notes)

                    • Standard notes (very limited if you do not pay but it is sufficient for my usage)

                    • Notesnook (very complete free version)

                    • Turtl

                    • Joplin (very complete, premium),

                    • Obsidian (there is a little learning curve)

                    • Cryptee

                    I know that Standard notes and notesnook can use require a password. Idk for the others

                        • [deleted]

                        • Post #16

                        [deleted]
                        Moreover, you could use Signal and Bitwarden to make notes and ask for authentification for both

                            newbie24689 Truth be told its hard to say what is missing without the overlay world and country maps. But I will say that last time I tried Organic Maps it was not nearly as good as OSMAnd+ using OpenSuperMaps. I have found OpenSuperMaps makes all of the address data very easily searchable, and I can get great car navigation through OSMAnd+. Been using this setup for quite some time now with no problems.

                              b2cb I prefer organic maps for its open source nature and the fact that it has been really good in my experience. None of the apps you stated require google play to my knowledge. Also in my experience, fair email is the best open source client, supports pretty much every email provider out there, and has some exceptional security features. Since tutanota (and I believe proton as well) doesnt support IMAP, I would recommend checking out startmail, especially since they have that unlimited alias thing. Fair warning though, an ad company or something along those lines has a significant share of company ownership. Their privacy policy is strict though and one of the more reputable privacy websites online questioned/audited them and found their answers to be suitable so 🤷‍♂️

                                Protonmail supports IMAP on but on desktop using the bridge. FairEmail has way too many settings and the developer is mercurial and has stopped and started development twice now in the last year, so I moved back to K-9 Mail when development was restarted, which is going to be codeveloped by the Mozilla Thunderbird folks.

                                OSMAnd+ is also open source so it really just becomes at that point what you like to use best.

                                a year later

                                [deleted] Honestly I use Signal's "Note To Self" feature to write all my little notes and ideas in when out and about, it syncs up with my laptop and I don't need another app that I'll forget exists within 5 minutes of me installing it