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Comment by seanw444 | Hacker News Reader

Just use F-Droid y'all. I promise it doesn't bite. FOSS software on a much more open distribution platform, which can be extended with more repositories if the base selection isn't enough... what's there not to like?

Use Aurora Store for those few irreplaceable proprietary apps, or apps you previously purchased that are linked to your Play account.

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F-Droid won't help for very long here. The next thing I see Google doing is remotely uninstalling them from everyone's phones by adding them to Play Protect's list of "malicious" packages, just like they did with Vanced Manager.

If they do that, they have a major controversy on their hands. They have the ability to do so, but they reserve that power for actual malware only.

Not only controversy, but probably lots of lawsuits in the EU once their market freedom bill (or whatever it is) goes into effect.

> they reserve that power for actual malware only.

Was Vanced Manager actual malware?

Vanced Manager wasn't remotely uninstalled as far a I know?

Technically, it didn't remotely uninstall it by itself, but it did pop up a box on everyone's devices that said "Your device is at risk" because it's a "harmful app", with only an Uninstall button and no visible cancel button.

I see, I never got that. Must've turned off Google's antivirus at some point. Not that I trusted the Vanced Manager in the first place; I prefer my weird root customisations to be open source.

I suppose it makes sense in a way; Vanced replaced an existing system package with a modified APK through root access. Google's intent was obviously not to protect the user, but the behaviour of the app was sketchy as hell. Especially for a closed source app.

ReVanced does this differently, that modifies the Youtube APK and changes the package name so it doesn't conflict.

Regardless, the notification could just be dismissed and the AV is entirely optional. The warning ("this app tries to bypass Android's security protections") is entirely justified because that's exactly what the app was doing. Anyone pirating anything knows to disable their AV at their own peril and this is hardly something new, at least this time the app wasn't flagged as a trojan with a fake name like most cracks and key generators are.

Lastly, there are tons of people reporting weird behaviour after installing a modified version of Vanced blaming it on the app itself, so the warning wasn't always disingenuous.

What apps do you recommend one to download from F-Droid?

It would be impossible to guess what is right for you as an individual, so see for yourself:

https://f-droid.org/

As others have mentioned, Aurora Droid and Aurora Store are helpful alternatives to the Google app store.

https://gitlab.com/AuroraOSS/auroradroid

https://gitlab.com/AuroraOSS/AuroraStore

Not OP, but here are a few of my favorites:

RedReader (for Reddit)

AntennaePod (podcasts)

NewPipe (YouTube)

Wikipedia's official app

Voice (audiobook player)

Book Reader

RSS Reader

Twire (Twitch)

Easy XKCD

Ning (network scanner)

Some of these are available from the Play store as well of course, but not all. For random utilities where I want something lightweight that does a basic task it's the first place I go. Ironically it's some of these fdroid apps that are what keep me on Android. I'd love to be rid of Google, but would really miss AntennaePod and NewPipe.

Not everything here will be for everyone and there's obviously a _lot_ more good stuff there, but here's a list of some good apps to look at:

- OsmAnd - offline version of Google Maps

- FreeOTP+ - FOSS 2FA app

- NewPipe and/or SkyTube - Youtube app alternatives. They break every so often when Google changes something, but when they work, the experience is much better than the stock YouTube app

- Simple Gallery Pro - view/manage photos

- OpenTracks - track running/biking/etc.

- MuPDF viewer - view PDFs

- FairEmail - privacy-first email client

- NetGuard - Application-level firewall (can block outgoing network requests)

- Forkyz - downloads and lets you solve daily crossword puzzles

- Gadgetbridge - app to connect/manage wearables

- Aurora Store - replacement for Google App Store

- Barinsta - Instagram client

- Fennec F-Droid - Firefox for Android

- Silence - Text message app

- VLC

See: https://github.com/offa/android-foss

How is ensured that there is no malware im the apps?

F-Droid discusses such things here:

https://f-droid.org/en/2022/09/30/free-software-and-inspecti...

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