Comment by sandreas | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sandreas | Hacker News Reader

I personally tend to own two Phones. One all-day carry GrapheneOS device (Pixel 8) and an older WiFi and at home only iPhone for all payment and ensurance stuff.

This is inconvenient in some ways, but at least it is sort of privacy as good as it gets while still being able to run official apps when I need them at home.

To de-google the phone, I use F-Droid as primary App store, Aurora as fallback for non-f-droid Apps and as a last resort Obtainium to install Apps that are not in these stores.

The only google App I really "need" (kind of) is the Camera App, which is sandboxed via GrapheneOS Storage Spaces and without Network permission (why would a camera need internet?).

To backup my phone, I use the integrated GrapheneOS Solution (seedvault!?) for storage and apps, immich for Photos and MyPhoneExplorer for Contacts.

Sometimes it is a bit hard to find good apps for specific purposes, so for everyone interested, here is a list of Apps that I personally use or have used.

  Newpipe - Youtube Client
  Audiobookshelf - Audiobooks
  Voice (PaulWoitaschek) - Local Audiobook Player
  Substreamer - Music
  DSub - Music (alternative)
  VLC - Video-Player
  Organic Maps - Google Maps alternative (not as good)
  PDF Doc Scanner - Open Source Document Scanner
  Wireguard - VPN
  Immich - Photo Backup / Viewer
  LocalSend - File Transfer
  K9 Mail / FairMail - Email Client
  KOReader - Ebooks
  Binary Eye - QRCodes and Barcodes
  Pure Todo - Self hosted PWA PHP Todo List 
  Signal - Messenger
  Open Camera - Open Source Camera App

Some other FOSS apps I use daily:

Aegis - 2FA (https://github.com/beemdevelopment/Aegis)

Breezy Weather - A very good looking weather app (https://github.com/breezy-weather/breezy-weather)

OnlyOffice Documents - MS Office suite replacement (https://github.com/ONLYOFFICE/documents-app-android)

Fossify Calendar (https://github.com/FossifyOrg/Calendar)

Fossify Messages (https://github.com/FossifyOrg/Messages)

Aves - Local gallery with great organization (https://github.com/deckerst/aves)

Termux - Terminal emulator (https://github.com/termux/termux-app/)

Unexpected Keyboard - A unique keyboard that pairs nicely with Termux (https://github.com/Julow/Unexpected-Keyboard)

WG Tunnel - WireGuard client (https://github.com/wgtunnel/wgtunnel)

These are all easily installed through Obtainium: https://obtainium.imranr.dev/

Some others that I use:

* NextCloud -- client for personal NextCloud server; this app is used primarily for file sync, with other features accessed with other apps. (https://nextcloud.com/features/?filter=Clients#android-clien...)

* KeePassDX -- password manager, shares DB with KeePassXC on desktop, which is synced via NextCloud. Also functions as a TOTP authenticator. (https://www.keepassdx.com/)

* DAVx5 -- CalDAV and CardDAV client; keeps mobile calendar and contact list synced with private NextCloud server. (https://www.davx5.com/)

* AntennaPod -- excellent FOSS podcatcher. (https://antennapod.org/)

* KDE Connect -- desktop sync tool; allows file/clipboard/keyboard/audio/etc. sharing between phone and a Linux desktop. (https://kdeconnect.kde.org/)

* Kore -- remote control app for a Kodi instance running on your LAN. (https://kodi.wiki/view/Kore)

And I don't see F-Droid itself mentioned -- it's the most popular repository of FOSS software for Android, with an accompanying app: https://f-droid.org.

I also like AntennaPod for audiobooks--fewer apps that way.

> I don't see F-Droid itself mentioned

F-Droid itself is great, but I find that the NeoStore front end to F-Droid is superior because it has multi-repository capability, offering a long list of alternative apk sources that can readily be verified for quality.

Additionally, the official F-Droid app creates unnecessary friction for GrapheneOS users they refuse to address: https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroidclient/-/issues/2914

Neo Store looks interesting, but the readme in the GitHub repo includes emojis in the feature list, which is a bit of a red flag for me, especially since the project appears to have started only two years ago.

What is the concern about emojis in the feature list?

It's an indicator of LLM output, so calls into question the integrity of the software itself.

I'd add that KDE Connect works great with Gnome too

Can't believe I've never heard of Unexpected Keyboard. Installing immediately. Thank you.

Thanks for the links. I am concerned about supply chain attacks and such with FOSS tools these days. It seems like the easiest attack surface. In my dev opinion it’s not if it’s when. Kinda sucks and I think the adversary is moving faster than the provider. (I have created and maintained public domain software but not currently. Now I’m crapping on the thread sorry. But no one else is sorry for crapping on threads…I need to stop over thinking or maybe just close this tab)

I like Organic Maps because it isn't full of the social things. Every time I open Google Maps it shows that card at the bottom with "what's popular in your area", full of pictures of people's breakfasts and other nonsense. Organic Maps is free of this noise.

Also, the desktop client on Linux is quite useful.

Alternatives for Windows etc. are Cruiser Maps, a Java application (and also available as an Android app).

All map apps I tested so far were kind of usable but nowhere near Apple or Google maps. Especially for longer trips I often got lost and had to re-navigate by different reasons (voice announcement too late, no lane instructions, etc.).

However, I listed it because it is a "usable" alternative that works offline.

Idk, pedestrian navigation has been pretty decent for me so far. (There’s been one case of it showing a path in Tbilisi that would require me to jump from a 3 m wall, but it was exactly once.) I suppose it depends on which city you’re in and how well mapped it is on the OSM.

Where it’s lacking is POIs – there’s way more stuff on Google Maps, and if I’m looking for some place in particular, I usually go straight to Google, then copy the location over to CoMaps.¹ I then try to add it to OSM when I have the time. Still again, there’s no reviews or photos (in the app; OSM does support photo linking).

Public transit is another problem. It’s usually okay for metro (MRT/LRT/etc), but I wouldn’t trust it with buses just yet.

¹ – yes, there’s been another fork: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CoMaps#History

I used OrganicMaps for navigation from the UK through France, Germany, Switzerland, back into France and then Spain last year on a 2 week enjoyable camper van trip. It can take a while for routing changes if you ignore it and decide to drive elsewhere, and I don't really use the voice alerts (I just have it on my phone on the dashboard via a magnet), but all in all it worked really well.

Although I would like speed limits shown in MPH in the UK, OrganicMaps' KMH limits were useful on the Continent.

Google maps discover feature is a dumpster fire for fomo driven brain fog

> I like Organic Maps

Does anybody know of a project that offers public transport routing? Ideally with real time information, but I can live with only using schedules or even just average passage interval.

The other general sticking point for me is the reviews, but I could invite more serendipity to my restaurant search.

Öffi, if it has coverage for the areas relevant to you: https://oeffi.schildbach.de/index.html

Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out for when I am back in central Europe, but I am currently based in south Europe and sadly my country/city are not covered.

FWIW Organic Maps are aware of this issue. In the poll on their mastodon account, lack of public transit information was voted as number one missing feature. As far as I’m aware, they are looking into integrating the public APIs for it wherever possible.

Due to [0] and [1] I'm using the new fork "CoMaps" now, feature comparison: https://www.comaps.app/support/how-do-the-features-differ-fr...

It's pretty excellent! The improved integration with OpenStreetMaps to provide edits/additions is great. I made my first contribution to OSM via CoMaps.

[0] https://www.comaps.app/news/2025-04-16/1/

[1] https://www.comaps.app/news/2025-04-25/2/

I like your recommendations mostly, just wanted to point out that Organic Maps has had a falling out with the Open Source community that built it, so I wouldn't use that anymore. The community fork is called 'CoMaps' now.

Great... I consider this for my next App listing. Unfortunately there is no edit option at the moment. Since I don't use Organic Maps any more, I just remembered it being the most usable alternative.

Comaps seems to have a lot of benefits though.

Isn't organic maps itself a community fork of maps.me?

Thanks for this, it's so helpful for people trying out a new platform.

I'd love to have something like this for Linux desktops as well. Maybe a website that has app-lists, where people can then potentially add info about their use cases and reasoning for their choices. Could be a great subreddit!

I tried Omarchy specifically because installed an opionated selection of apps to covered most bases, and it got me started in Arch fairly quickly. I've now completely swapped out all the components so I no longer use Omarchy at all, but it was a great way to get back into desktop Linux after being away for 20 years.

Maybe you might want to try out my zarch[1] repo, which is a Linux on ZFSBootMenu installer script for ArchLinux with configurable profiles - basically a folder with some package listings.

The t480s profile is my personal Notebook config, which is not fully up to date but probably a pretty good start. You can also only take a look at the archpkg.txt and the aurpkg.txt to see the packages that I'm using.

1: https://github.com/sandreas/zarch

Grayjay is another good YouTube (and other streaming platform) client made by the company that owns Immich

Uh this looks nice. Thank you.

What would sandboxing an app like Google Maps look like? There are definitely situations where a sub-par map app would be detrimental. Obviously it's going to send data to Google, but do I have to sign into an account or will it have some other way of identifying my phone if I used a one-off account just for it?

It doesn't need to be logged on to a Google account, and it supports locally storing map data and generating routes, so you could turn on network access, download local maps, block network access, then use it for navigation without it calling home.

There's also value in live traffic and road closure information.

That's a more difficult one, because that traffic data itself is aggregated from location sharing.

Google Maps is sandboxed even on the stock Pixel OS. Sandboxing is part of the AOSP. GrapheneOS hardens the sandbox a bit, but it's not the most significant feature of the project. What isn't sandboxed on Android OSes that license Google Mobile Services (GMS) is Google Play (Play Store, Play Services and for older installs also Play Services Framework). On GrapheneOS Google Play is sandboxed as well, so it's treated as any other regular app, it's doesn't get priviliged exceptions.

Sandboxing isn't what would prevent an app from sending data. Sandboxing restricts what an app can access on your device because access is gated behind permissions and apps also can't peek into other apps. So it won't just be able to grab and send out data you don't give it access to, which is the most important of course.

You can install Google Maps and use a dedicated Google account for it with limited personal info. You can avoid giving your real name and also giving a phone number if you make your Google account from within the app and on a trusted network (not a VPN adress but public WiFi or cellular). It won't be able to identify your phone using hardware identifiers because non-system apps don't have access to those, the only regular app that might be able to acces such hardware identifiers is an app which is set as the default SMS app. See: https://grapheneos.org/faq#hardware-identifiers

Voice audiobook player is so nice and simple, a pleasure to use

I recently PR'ed some improvements within the search (series and part are now searchable).

I also made a custom fork with some quality of life improvements, like series and part visible on screen, headset remote click patterns (tap for play/pause, double-tap for next, etc.).

Currently I'm working on a totally DIY build offline audio (book) player with the footprint a bit bigger than the iPod Nano 7g that maybe never will be finished, but ATM it is fun to work on... (see https://github.com/sandreas/rust-slint-riscv64-musl-demo for the testing repo and https://github.com/nanowave-player/nanowave-ui for the latest code I'm working on)

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