Apps to install for an Xmas present phone

Lizard

Hi All,

I've bought my wife a Pixel (7a) which I've installed GOS on which I'm going to give her as an xmas present tomorrow.
I want her to have the least amount of "system shock" while she transitions to using GOS so I've installed Play services in the owner profile and have installed the following apps:

Playstore
Aurorastore
Gmail
Proton Mail
Whatsapp
Signal
Google Maps
Pixel Camera
Google Wallpapers
Bitwarden
Aegis
Newpipe
Joplin
Banking app

I've also configured NextDNS as a private DNS.

I know this is pretty subjective, but are there any other apps that you think I should add, or any other recommendations before wrapping it up and giving it to her?

Many Thanks

jufstp

Lizard I also gave her a pixel 6a, she has installed all Google and she uses the Google password manager, so with a single account she has everything.

Aeon

You might also want to install Google Gallery as Pixel camera always tries to open it when clicking on the photos just shot with it.

otherwise a offline map sofware can come in handy. I use OsmAnd but there is also magic Earth.
perhaps also Gboard as keyboard, to reduce friction. Once its downloaded its dictionary it works without network permissions.

RRZishe

A weather app, I use breezy weather. And set up the widget.

Also definitely recommend Gboard, and if you enable faster voice typing and leave it with network permission overnight it'll download the language for speech to text offline, although it only works for some languages. But for any language it'll download autocorrect and word suggestion if you leave it overnight with that language enabled as one of your languages.

If she listens to music or podcasts get a nice foss alternative like Metro and antenna pod and transfer over her podcasts.

FindMyDevice if she often loses her phone, you can find it on fdroid.

An alarm clock app that feels more modern.

Locus for location sharing (fdroid).

A recorder app because it comes by default in most phones.

I strongly recommend magic Earth, it's a fantastic app.

Also, the dialer, SMS and contacts app have an old feel to it compared to the stock version. You might want to give her a third party app for those. (I happen to love the old feel so I'm not complaining)

Lizard

Thanks for the recommendations guys, much appreciated.

E24

You can use g photos shim to let pixel camera open photos for preview even if you aren't using google photos. I'm using simple gallery pro and just turned ifd updates until the fork is ready.

Would recommend tasky for a task app

[deleted]

E24 How to do the shim thing?

grapheneosfan2

I would suggest installing Markup from the "Apps" app for editing screenshots/images and also Aurora Store seems unnecessary if you already have Google Play Services

grapheneosfan2

To continue, I don't see the purpose of using the Aegis authenticator app when you already have Bitwarden which can do 2FA. Newpipe is also a very functionally lacking app which gets little updates and barely works for me, I would suggest using Grayjay instead.

Dumdum

grapheneosfan2 To continue, I don't see the purpose of using the Aegis authenticator app when you already have Bitwarden which can do 2FA.

Compartmentalization. Using Bitwarden for 2FA is trading security for convenience.

grapheneosfan2 Newpipe is also a very functionally lacking app which gets little updates

Newpipe dev team are doing a huge overhaul at the moment.

treequell

grapheneosfan2 The Introduction to Passwords on Privacy Guides sums this up rather well:

https://www.privacyguides.org/en/basics/passwords-overview/#storing-passwords

Don't place your passwords and TOTP tokens inside the same password manager

When using TOTP codes as multi-factor authentication, the best security practice is to keep your TOTP codes in a separate app.

Storing your TOTP tokens in the same place as your passwords, while convenient, reduces the accounts to a single factor in the event that an adversary gains access to your password manager.

Furthermore, we do not recommend storing single-use recovery codes in your password manager. Those should be stored separately such as in an encrypted container on an offline storage device.

E24

[deleted] https://github.com/CaramelFur/GPhotosShim

Install this and grant is photos access and you're all set

[deleted]

E24 tysm

E24

Also openboard is an excellent alternative to gboard just without gesture typing