Kia ora!
I’ve been an ios user for 100 years at this point, but used to be deep in the android scene before then. I’ve just got an android for a work phone and am wondering what’s changed in the last 10 years - what are your essential apps, settings, customisations? I’ve had a hunt around xda but can’t seem to find much in the way of roms for my model (Samsung A04) - back in the day it seemed there was a thread for every device!
What do I need to know?
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Niagara Launcher is the coolest thing I’ve seen happen for mobile interfaces since the first touch interface. It is so clean and well-designed, it makes everything else in iOS and Android look like a cluttery mess - all while adapting to what you need and offering quick access to everything on the phone.
Is it better than Nova? I’ve been using Nova for as long as I can remember.
It’s completely different to Nova, and any other drawer based launcher. It has a free version so you can check it out. Personally, I don’t like it but I totally get the appeal.
Nova was recently bought out by an ad company, so if that’s not something you like then you might check out some FOSS alternatives such as Lawnchair or Neo Launcher (both are currently in development and less feature-rich than Nova though).
I’m trying it now - I like it but there are a few confusing choices, like how you can only have one widget visible at once.
How do you access the shortcuts that would normally be placed on the home screen? I have some webapps and e.g. OpenVPN shortcuts that I currently can’t see.
Oh, this is so neat, thank you! I’ve just had a play - especially for a work phone that has real specific uses, Niagara makes a lot of sense! Do you subscribe to pro? Have you found it useful?
Is it subscription based? Or a one time payment to unlock pro?
Both - $12.90nzd/yr or $41.90 outright
Thank you!
I do not recommend getting attached to Reddit Is Fun, although it is a great app.
It still stings… I’m gonna miss that app
Infinity is still pretty good, and my understanding is that it could easily be updated to support the free individual API keys Reddit is supposedly going to still support.
Some of my favorites:
- Launcher: Niagara
- Rom: LineageOS
- Browser: Firefox (with DarkReader and uBlock Origin)
- Reddit: Relay (is this ending?)
- HackerNews: Harmonic
Lemmy: Jerboa (haven’t tried alternatives)- Podcasts: AntennaPod (haven’t tried much else)
- Identify stuff: LeafSnap (plants), SoundHound, Merlin (birds!)
- Books: Moon+ Reader Pro
- Barcodes: Catima
- Computer stuff: KDE Connect
- File stuff: Material Files and ZArchiver
- TTS: @Voice Aloud Reader
- Passwords: Bitwarden
- Icons: Crayon or Viral
- Keyboards: MS SwiftKey, maybe someday FlorisBoard, sometimes Hacker’s Keyboard
- Scrobbles: Simple Scrobbler
- Video: VLC and NewPipe
- Weather: Weawow
EDITS:
- Lemmy: Liftoff
- Chat: Telegram
- Email: Delta Chat?
sideloading is a whole thing on android. don’t like the options that the play store gives you ? fdroid has your back
A lot has been said, but I’ll repeat a few.
- F-Droid (I use Droid-ify)
- Debloat it https://github.com/0x192/universal-android-debloater
- Change the launcher and icons (lots of choices, I use Lawnchair with Arcticons or Delta)
- Check out the different browsers
- Check out the different keyboards
- Get some key apps like Newpipe (or equivalent)
- If the phone isn’t rooted, any changes can be reset by doing a factory reset, so you have nothing to lose but time.
You need good lock, it changes the game for customization, it’s the reason I no longer feel the need to do custom roms
You also need to use adb to remove all the bloat.
do you mean a custom lockscreen ? is that a thing ? is it actually good at keeping the phone locked ?
No, goodlock is a samsung thing that just has a bunch of general customizations for the OS meant for power users.
There are no good custom lock screens.
On the topic of Android, am I the only one who dislikes the google pixel version of android UI?
I love how stock android looks but agree that it’s become too iPhone like. One UI has become a great balance!
I don’t like it because it has become very iPhone-like in the bad ways, meaning it takes several clicks to do simple, common tasks. I much prefer Samsung’s OneUI for how easily accessible everything is.
Yes! This trend towards reducing the UI because they assume their user can’t comprehend more “complex” words like “Customization”, “System settings”, “Advanced system settings”, instead just opting to remove the settings entirely, or hide them behind categories and stupid drag menus 🤷♀️
