Has anyone experience with Sailfish? Can it run apps like Signal and WhatsApp? Is it stable?
I know the website says that it can, but I'm looking for actual user feedback.
EDIT: What about the KDE Connect app?
EDIT: What about the KDE Connect app?
The Android layer is only available on the commercial version, and only on officially supported device. It has been available since 2013 on the original Jolla 1, which was for me the reason to upgrade from a Nokia N9.
For me it is stable on my XA2. Though the software is made by a small company and their efforts are spread relatively thin. They don't have thousands of developers working on their mobile OS.
For Android apps, the bluetooth stack of Android and Linux/Bluez is different, and the middleware called libhybris does not support offering bluetooth to Android apps. It might come in the future, many people in the community wish it to come available. There are many native apps, and there might not be that much need for all kinds of Android apps. Also, there is talk about offering Android support for community devices, like the Sony Tama devices (high end, small form factor) or Xiaumi devices.
I will say that installing the google play store is not a simple click through, but I also don't care for it. A majority of the apps I want don't use google play anyway.
I would highly recommend you give it a try for a few weeks and you won't go back.
There was a native app for Here Maps, but IIRC it was only licensed and available for the Jolla 1. I don't have it installed on my Sony XA2 and I think it's not available either.
I ask this because I find myself numerous times disappointed: after installing a new OS, there's mostly nothing "new" or outstanding to enjoy other than the few limited different features. After that, it's just the same old terminal and Chrome with the occasional trip to the file browser.
For me it's the idea that the software provider thinks privacy is important and I trust them much more than Google or Apple. It's also very close to desktop linux. Root access over ssh is just one checkbox away in the settings. After that I can install any software that is available on Linux, or I can mess about in /etc.
The Ambience system is very nice as well. With almost only native apps and a white-on-black ambience, my phone is visually very quiet and not that much distracting.
It feels like I own this phone, almost as much as my desktop computer. I am not renting it where someone else has root access and I don't (or I have to fight for it).
I am a linux desktop user so allowing me to ssh to my phone is amazing. Easy to terminal into it, gives me sudo, easy to navigate.
For the Apps, this one is a little tricky, however I have managed to live with a few things such as open street maps over google maps. However, I can still use google maps just in browser. It is not ideal but it is not that bad. I am certain someone will come out with something in the future so it is a matter of waiting.
There are absolutely things that can be improved no doubt. My personal experience is that I like to look at things in a more positive light of, what can I do rather than what can it not do. I got to the point of how I do not like Apple's and Google's practices, that you are basically locked into their environments and malicious practices.
I own the phone and what is on it. That means a lot to me. Sailfish helps a lot with that. There are always naysayers, but they also are the same people that are too critical of things.
Finding an old oneplus one or any community supported phone for cheap is not too bad. I ended up getting an XA2 and that worked out the best for me. I find that my phone performs quite well even though it is "older" compared to the latest flagships. I am not too caring about a 64 megapixel photo or image blending etc. I can do that on my normal box.
Additionally, the user interface is swipe-focused, with little bars where yozu can swipe that are that thin that they only trigger you subconcious, while not registering them actively with my view. It's the best unser interface design I've seen so far and recent iOS/Android design changes support the decisions they made years before Apple/Google.
I ran Sailfish in the 2.x days on an old Moto G Falcon. They did not support Android apps at the time, but recent versions are supposed to.[1]
My experience with Sailfish was pretty positive, but I have a high pain tolerance and don't need or want my phone to be more than a phone. (I need it to make calls and handle SMS/MMS. MMS messaging was iffy: reception was fine, but multiparty conversations didn't always thread well. I consider web browsing on the phone a bit of a mixed bag. Tethering is a bonus.)
It was pretty. I liked being able to SSH into the phone. I appreciated the easy way to change themes (and that they migrated settings like volume, etc.). It was a slick O/S.
Sadly my Falcon died, and I got a burner phone. It's hard to argue with $40 for the phone (KaiOS) and an MVNO that handles my comms on the cheap. I've toyed with the idea of picking up another one that's compatible and flashing the phone--but it looks like it's harder to get the OS onto newer devices these days.
I flashed 2.x back then, too, back in the glory days of flashing ubuntu touch and firefox os, etc. I loved the UI of Sailfish. Fatal flaw for me was the inability to group text. As far as I know there is still no group texting. The European users/devs claim this isn’t an issue, because they all use third party messaging apps.
I’m glad they’re still developing Sailfish!
Back then they had a 3rd party whatsapp client called mittäkuuluu (litteraly what's up in finnish) in addition to the official one running through the android layer.
Since then whatsapp has blocked 3rd party clients and i believe youre not able to run whatsapp on the consumer version of sailfish.
Something really cool they had was integration with whatsapp and the facebook messenger with the sms app with contacts synced across the three.
Whatsapp also often blocked users using those apps (I had it happen multiple times) and you could reactivate your account if you logged in with the official whatsapp.apk again. A few days later the Sailfish apps were updated and I would switch to one of those again :)
So now there is no other option then use the whatsapp.apk, or just not use it and switch completely to Signal.
Maybe emulation would be needed for most current machines and be really slow, but with more ARM laptops coming in the future it seems like something GNU/Linux would need to do to compete in that space.