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What are some of your favourite, lesser-known mobile apps?
Two of my personal favourites are NexTrain and Radio Garden (the latter of which is also available online).
Two of my personal favourites are NexTrain and Radio Garden (the latter of which is also available online).
Some Android suggestions:
I have some more suggestions for rooted devices, but I imagine the majority is not rooted right now.
Well, the good thing is that there's a fork of the server code, so if Bitwarden starts cutting off free users, you can still use it
Open source alternative for those who don't mind putting in a bit of work:
https://keepass.info/download.html (on that page is also a list for different (mobile) operating systems)
The database will be a local file which is locked in various ways. Personally I keep it synchronised between my computers and phones with https://syncthing.net/downloads/
I've been using this combo (keepassXC) for a while on computers. Helps me sort stuff out when I accidentally wreck an install, or distro hop, or just want continuity between desktop and laptop while also working offline, or whatever.
I like it a LOT more than typical cloud services.
I just made the switch from iPhone to android (GrapheneOS) and this setup was part of the motivation. That and lightning... USB-C or bust.
Personally, I couldn't live without Keepass2Android -> https://github.com/PhilippC/keepass2android. It manages syncing, and has a decent integration via a dedicated keyboard.
Thanks for posting, I didn't know that. It's a shame. At least we still have the option to self host if some bad policy changes or weird behaviour starts happening, but the integrated service is a lot more streamlined. If we get a few more good years out of it, I think thats fine, and a new service will come along eventually
That's really sad. It's getting a little bit tiring having to switch my services as often as I have to. Bitwarden is excellent, and it's going to take me a while to both find a new service and migrate everything again.
Just use a keypass file and cloud sync it however you desire.
Makes you completely portable and independent. There are multiple apps for KeePass files for each platform, and a plethora of sync providers including running your own.
Good to know. I switched to Bitwarden away from a self-hosted solution, looks like I may be switching back. I really enjoyed the compatibility Bitwarden has with my chosen Android keyboard (Typewise).
You can self-host bitwarden so that's best of both worlds for ya
https://bitwarden.com/blog/new-deployment-option-for-self-hosting-bitwarden/
I have a fool proof password management system that doesn't rely on third party apps.
I create long, convoluted passwords for each site, so complex and confusing that there is almost no chance I will remember my login details. If I don't know the one time hash, malicious actors have even less chance.
With things like the Truecrypt saga, Dual_EC_DRBG among many, many, many others I'd rather use my utterly fallible passwords. I know I sound like aul fella hiding my cash under the mattress, but maybe they had a point.
I had a password I only used for internal services (~2013). At some point during an emergency my long term business partner needed access to something and I gave him that password.
A year later I was working with a client and needed access credentials and they sent back to me MY password. Turns out my business partner found mine easy to remember and had been using it with a load of third party servers. I was so angry with him hahahahaha.
Can confirm Bitwarden is great on IOS too.
What a great app, I was just looking for something like this the other day. Thank you!
I haven't used Tasker myself but I've seen the capabilities of it and it's amazing how much it can do.
I bought it a few years ago and made some super simple task in it. Haven't installed it again since, still good to support the developers for what the all represents. It's a shame every new version of Android further cripples its capabilities though.
I've used Bitwarden on Android, iOS and MacOS devices and it's been a seamless experience. I can't speak for Windows but I'd imagine it's similar. So I just want to jump in and recommend it as well. You're probably not going to find a better cross-platform FOSS password manager.
That's great to hear, since I've been looking for a way to sync passwords across devices and OS's. Currently on KeePass, but Bitwarden has been on my radar for some time now...
Fun bonus that it's open source as well!
I happened to write a post elsewhere, but I can recommend https://syncthing.net/downloads/ (also open source!)
You can synchronise folders that way between various computers (including phones). Not hard to set up!
Oh wow thanks for the tip! Definitely will be trying this out when I get some spare time.
Especially nice to see that it syncs to phones as well!
I use it to sync my music folder and keepassxc passwords.
It's great on Windows as well. They have both a Windows standalone app as well as browser extensions in popular browsers.
I believe they also offer the option for you to host your own password bank locally instead of them hosting it in the cloud. I haven't done that yet personally, but it's nice to know that's an option for those who need that kind of security.
This is great to hear! I got a deal on Nordpass a few years ago but my "new customer" deal is going to run out. I wasn't super thrilled with it being a Nord product to begin with, and the regular price is ridiculous. Definitely coming back to this when my current subscription ends.
On iOS, Strongbox is a nice alternative to Bitwarden. I use it with OTP Auth.
iOS has KeePass also in some apps. Though sometimes it doesn't update properly.
Every so often I've tried to find a FLOSS file manager app (especially back when I had a rooted device and wanted to be careful about what got those permissions), but MiX was just too irreplaceable. Explores and extracts practically every archive format I've ever run into, truly supports multiple tabs rather than just the two-pane mode a lot of explorers use, can start a simple local server for file transfer, keeps up to date with Google's attempts to kill off access to
/sdcard/Android, even has plugins for music tag editing, the whole works. Definitely recommend it as well.Rooted user here! Just getting into the depths of "things possible with root" and so far, I've mostly used it for Tasker. I'll happily take some suggestions.
Sure thing! I will split my recommendations in three parts. For reference, I run a Pixel 6 w/ Android 13 (
TQ2A.230505.002) and Magiskv26101.Magisk modules
I assume you are rooted with Magisk. There are some good modules out there:
LSPosed modules
Now, LSPosed itself does have a module system, too. Here are some recommendations:
There are also apps that allow you to modify and enable certain "cheaty" behaviour, but I will not supply links to those. LSPosed is rather powerful, but some modules are badly maintained or may even cause damage. I would always look at the author on GitHub or XDA-Developers and use your best judgement.
Apps
These are some traditional apps, not bound to any manager or module system:
Tasker and MiXPlorer (mentioned previously) can also use root for some advanced features. I recommend Shelter too, this was already mentioned by @Beowulf.
I hope this helps!
Will have a look at Bitwarden and Neolauncher - really sad Nova has been bought out by an ad company of all things. The app itself had been excellent all this time for me. Never realised Mixplorer was still ongoing.
Oh dang, I had no idea about Nova. That's a shame, it's been my go-to since forever. Does anyone have any experience with Niagara? Seems neat.
I've experimented a bit with different launchers (because I never liked the icons-on-desktop metaphor of stock Android (and iOS, for that matter)), but don't think I every used Nova, NeoLauncher, or Niagara. My experimentations ended when I found Final Interface, which I've used for years now.
These iOS apps, all selected because they have little to no tracking and do have a decent privacy policy. All made by independent devs:
Cross-platform apps, also privacy-friendly, not necessarily indie:
Stretchly | Reminds you to take breaks and stretch, take a walk, or breathe.(not a mobile app)And finally a web app: Podbay.fm Not privacy-friendly per se, but a good in-browser alternative to a podcast app. It also allows for mp3-downloads of episodes.
I've been using Paprika for recipes for ages, but it sort of tries to do too much for my uses - Mela looks amazing, and I'm already using Reeder, so that's a nice bonus.
My pleasure, glad I could help :)
Seconding on Structured. I have ADHD and with that pretty bad time management and visualization issues. Helps me also realize how much time I have in between tasks to maybe do something else or just relax. The color coding also helps a ton. Super useful.
I came here to recommend Mela. I use it all the time.
Joplin is great, perfect if you have a NAS to sync with, total data ownership.
OneSec is interesting! Didn’t think an app like that would be able to run on iOS
I bought Reeder on a whim after seeing a recommendation for it on a Reddit thread. So glad I did, it’s awesome. I really like the Bionic Reading feature.
I haven’t used RSS feeds in years, but with social media all going to crap I’m interested in getting back into it. Where do you typically subscribe to feeds, is it via specific websites or is there like a ‘library’ somewhere? At this point, I don’t even know what I’m missing, so a big list of feeds would be a helpful starting point.
I've only added them through blogs that I know of and like. My favorite is Raptitude. There's probably a big list somewhere that would be helpful but I don't know of any.
Is Reeder iOS only?
Yup looks like iOS only
Merlin. Bird identification. It's pretty well known in the birding community, but I've never really been a bird watcher and only recently learned about the app... and I'm kind of becoming a bird watcher. It lets you ID birds by sound, photographs, or by selecting up to three colors. Even just sitting by an open window in my dining room and letting it listen to the various birds is interesting and informative. And it's completely free.
I’ll second this one - Merlin is amazing. I used it in Yellowstone last week and it made every little hike interesting.
Wow, what a coincidence as I just downloaded this today before seeing this thread. I was a little disappointed that the bird pack for my reason is close to 1GB and I realllyyy don't want to sacrifice that space on my phone, so I might wait until I am about to go hiking somewhere to load up.
And it's worth the mention that it isn't US-centric! I use Merlin here in Brazil, and it's no lesser or weaker in its databases for South America.
1Password has a lot of nice bits to it; it's a subscription but the apps are all very full-featured. It's worth the price just to have cross-platform and cross-application password syncing. Two features that I really like is OTP auto-filling and the ability to create private email addresses via my fastmail account automatically.
I've mentioned the Forks Over Knives recipe app before, but I'd also like to bring up HappyCow, which is basically a listing of businesses that are relavant to vegetarians and vegans. It's a lot easier than manually combing through the results you'd get with other apps like it.
Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection is great for Android, but unfortunately the iPhone version is both incomplete and has issues that make some games nearly unplayable.
I find Ally's banking app has so many useful features that it's almost worth switching to them just for them. My only gripe is that it doesn't support their bill payment system.
Can't believe I forgot HappyCow! It's really useful especially in smaller towns where vegan options can be harder to come by.
Ever since my wife discovered the app several years ago, it's literally the first thing I check whenever we decide we're going somewhere. Even if we're not planning on getting a meal!
Ally's savings account rate keeps going up, its up to 4% now.
It always makes me laugh every time I get the email of "Hey, your interest rate just went up another 0.1%" because it happens like clockwork
Seeing my interest payments more than double in the past few years has been very satisfying.
It’s still basically pocket change though.
While not fully comparable, Wealthfront now offers 4.55%.
CFG Bank is 5.12% (just switched to it)
These are all FOSS android apps (I linked their github page, but they can all be found on F-Droid and occasionally the play store as well). In no particular order:
Trail Sense, the holy grail of hiking apps. It has tools for virtually everything you could possibly need. Offline backtracking, packing tracker, navigation, beacons and many many more. If you like hiking, this is a must-have.
Birday, a birthday, nameday, anniversary etc tracking app. It is very simple and can import calendar / contacts entries. It also has an export feature and runs entirely locally!
Catima, a loyalty card manager, but it can scan and store virtually any barcode card, so you can get rid of them for good!
Drinkable, a virtual cocktail recipe book that supports tracking your ingredients and can suggest cocktails based on what you have at home.
wger, an open source gym workout logger that can be self hosted as well.
FitoTrack, another workout logger but it's more for running and cycling, as it has GPS tracking as well!
Anki, the undisputed king / queen of flashcard apps using spaced repetition. Great for studying languages for example.
Lichess, open source chess app. Also has a web version, which is, IMO, superior to chess.org. There are so many resources there, so if you'd like to get started with Chess, look no further!
Droid-ify, a beautiful F-Droid client, much nicer than the original one. You can find basically every app I listed on here.
Aegis, a 2-factor authenticator, that can import from other authenticators like google or authy. Supports local and cloud backups as well!
Drinkable is exactly what I've been looking for! I've built up a massive liquor collection over time because I love making a fancy cocktail occasionally, but now I have shelves full of ingredients I've only used one time. It's great that the app supports metric and imperial measurements too.
I'm a long time BackCountry Navigator user. I'm not at all dissatisfied with it, but do you happen to know how it compares to Trail Sense?
From what I understand, BackCountry Navigator is mainly a topography map app, whereas TrailSense is a hiking companion, so they are essentially 2 different apps that complement each other.
Here's a quick list of what I think are the two most important differences between the two:
BackCountry Navigator (BCN) is a paid, closed source app, while TrailSense is open source and completely free.
BCN's main feature is topo maps. This is currently in early beta in TrailSense and IMO not quite there yet. Give it another 6-12 months and it will probably be quite good, but currently BCN is superior on this one.
With that being said, TrailSense has a lot of tools using your phone's sensors that I find very very useful, such as:
You can create your own paths, and can backtrack them easily. Useful if you're just wandering through a forest or a more difficult to navigate area.
Solar panel aligner based on the sun's location
Clinometer (to determine avalanche risk or height of a distant object)
You can measure a cliff drop's height
Tide tracker
Sunset / Sunrise and moon tracker
Offline weather monitor and cloud diary
Digital ruler and whistle
and a few more
It is completely free with no ads, so just give a quick try and see if you like it!
TL;DR: Currently, BCN's topo map features are way better than TrailSense's, which mostly offers a variety of tools for hiking in addition to GPS. They are best used together :D
Been using Aegis last few months with a few services including Twitch - cant fault the product - came over from Authy (Aegis is better imho)
A few apps on F-Droid that I really like:
13 years later and I still haven't found a better mobile game than shattered.
I haven't played it in many years, but the only other mobile game I've every really liked is RYMDKAPSEL.
Another F-Droid app that comes in handy for me is Termux. When I need to remote into my home media laptop when I'm already in bed and troubleshooting our shows... I don't have to even find another laptop around the house, I can just log in from my phone and do what I need to do.
If anyone has a recommendation for a better terminal emulator please let me know :)
I encourage anyone experiencing food insecurity in the UK to try the olio app. Post covid I was made aware just how many people could use a bit of help so beyond donating money, giving my time to help people in my community has really made me feel I can make a difference instead of just raging about the state of everything all the time. No idea if olio is worldwide but hopefully it will catch on everywhere.
I don't use too many "specialized" apps.
PocketCasts probably gets the most usage. I first started using it back when you paid for desktop/web access which means I was lucky enough to get grandfathered into a lifetime premium account. I'm unsure if I would pay for it now, but I do love the features I get.
Tody is what I use to organize all the chores and cleaning that need to get done around the house. It would probably be more effective if other people who lived in this house used it as well, but even just with me using it I find I'm able to keep the house neater.
Seconding Tody.
It has freed up so much mental management for me. I used to have running mental log of household tasks, and it took up a non-negligible amount of space in my brain. When did I last clean the washer trap? Is the house air filter due for a change?
I now have everything plugged into Tody, and I just do things as they pop up. It sounds hokey, but Tody has made housework feel so much lighter. I didn’t realize how much of chores was mental labor until I offloaded it onto Tody.
I even have recurring non-house stuff like scheduling a haircut in the app. It’s also great for those tasks that you only have to do once in a blue moon. Turn off the water supply to my hose and drain the pipe before winter? Set a reminder for November!
The other great thing about it is that my husband and I share the task list, so now if one of us does something, it’s taken care off for both of us. That way we’re not both running a dishwasher self-cleaning cycle in the same week because neither of us knew the other one did it.
If I recall correctly, the app just switched from a one-time paid model to a subscription (I believe my account got grandfathered in), but, I’ll be honest, I’m so happy with not having to manage all those tasks anymore that I would pay a subscription for this if I had to.
PocketCasts is SO good. I've been a podcast user on iOs since 2013 and it's the best imo. The 'silence cutter' is a work of magic and has saved me literaly days of nothing in some poorly cut audio.
What trim silence setting are you using? I’ve felt like recently there’s been more awkward pauses then in the past, so your comment reminded me to bump it up a level. Looks like on the base level I’ve saved 1 day 15 hours of silence on 96 days of listening so far.
Nobody here heard about termux yet? It's a very powerful app which can potentially turn your android phone into a linux distro!
BookPlayer for iOS. It's a FOSS audiobook player. There's not much more to say about it, it's just a dependable little app. If you want you can "tip" the devs through an IAP a minimum of $2.99 to get a bunch of cosmetic themes and icons but none of the core functionality is behind a paywall.
I downloaded this when I bought an audiobook bundle from Humblebundle. This is also when I discovered that transferring audiobook files from my MacBook over airdrop was way faster than I would have expected, and Book player not only supported it but told me I could do it before I even came up with the idea. Great app!
I was going to recommend an audiobook player too, went to go check what its name is, and sure enough, it’s BookPlayer. Such a good app and it just works.
Thanks! This is exactly what I was looking for - a no frills mp3 player for language learning.
Android:
Didn't realize KDE Connect was available on non-KDE desktop environments. Thanks!
Simon Tatham's Puzzle Collection isna collection of fun puzzles
F-droid is a collection of FOSS Android apps, I check here for most things.
Pysolfc is a great cross-platform solitaire collection. Somewhat hypocritically I also like Microsoft's solitaire collection and happily pay $10 a year dor the Android port for when I want certifiably solvable games.
The puzzle collection one is on iOS as well, and is exactly what I've been looking for for ages now - a simple, fleshed-out collection of games to pass the time. Thanks for this :)
I just installed the puzzle collection! Thanks for the recommendation
I've used that puzzle collection for years and love it. No fuss, just some good puzzles.
RecipeSage is a good one, although I'd say Notion isn't "lesser known" at all
Interesting, the Play Store just says that Recipe Sage isn't available.
Huh, it shows up for me under "RecipeSage Recipe Keeper" and the icon is a green leaf. The app itself is basically just a mobile browser for their web app. It's all very well done, though.
Ah I just installed the PWA now. But yeah over here (Germany) and on my hardware (Fairphone 4) it shows as unavailable.
The thing is great though, love how it can auto-fill everything from just a URL!
Ah, it might be a hardware thing... not sure. But glad you got it working! The URL autofill is super helpful.
For iOS:
Been a few months since I checked out the Apple Reminders app, so let me know if it also does this now, but for an overdue task Due will pop up a notification every 15 minutes* until I swipe the task to complete it (or I can snooze it).
It's also very quick to create a new task: open app, swipe down, type the task out, then it comes up with a simple "when's it due" dialog.
* This is totally configurable
We both seem to have a preference for indie & tracker-free apps, yet we didn't have any overlap in our lists. Thanks for sharing these!
MagicEarth is very cool too. I'm curious what other people think about it.
Not that obscure, but I like the app TickTick for to do lists and scheduling. I defined a gesture shortcut that opens the interface to add an event. I can then use voice recognition to say something like "call mom at 5pm next Wednesday" and it'll make a task with a reminder at the appropriate time.
It's very feature rich, with tagging, folders, 'smart lists', recurring events, habit tracking, focus/stats tracking.
I like the app Sweepy for organizing chores between myself and my partner. There's some overlap with TickTick but Sweepy lets you define how much effort a task takes and set how many effort points per day each person should accomplish. It works well for us!
EDIT: Oh, and if you play Pathfinder the app Pathbuilder2e is pretty good!
I like one called PeakFinder. It's for the times when you're looking out at a view and want to know the names of the hills you're looking at - using your location and compass it generates a labelled line drawing of the surrounding horizons. I've got it on Android but I believe there's an iOS version too.
On a slightly different tack, one of my favorite "apps" is actually a keyboard, MessagEase.
I've always hated trying to type on those cramped "let's just squeeze QWERTY into two inches" keyboards, and as a fan of weird input methods, MessagEase's total redesign fascinated me from the moment I heard about it.
The core concept is a grid of the nine most commonly used letters (a n i h o r t e s), each activated with a single tap, and then spaced around the inside edges of each key are the rest of the letters, accessible with a directional swipe from the large key. This approach also leaves plenty of room for all the special characters you could want, without needing a special mode shift action.
This ensures that every touch target is large and easy to reach, and once you get adjusted to it, it can be very fast, even without autocomplete (although it also has that feature if you're into that sort of thing).
The keyboard also allows sending ctrl- and alt-characters with a modifier key, which combined with the readily accessible symbols makes it great for using with SSH (I like ConnectBot for that).
apparently messageease is now unmaintained, but somone re implemented it as an open source app: https://github.com/dessalines/thumb-key
Hey, thanks for the heads up! I knew it was on its last legs but hadn't realized that it was officially dead in the water.
Thumb-Key looks like the start of a great replacement, I'll definitely be keeping an eye on it as the team implements more of the features I depend on.
This is interesting but it seems like hell for other languages with accents...
QRAlarm has low-key changed my life since I discovered it. It's an alarm clock app, but you can't just turn it off. To turn it off, you have to scan a QR code that you configure in advance.
Before I discovered, it, I would often stay in bed past noon on days with no urgent tasks, just fucking around on my phone or going back to sleep, instead of getting up and progressing work or actually doing something interesting. I had tried to put my phone down on my desk a bit away from my bed, but it just led to me falling back into bed anyway. Now, I hear my alarm in the morning and know I have to get up and scan the code in the hallway for it to shut up.
Plus, it's FOSS!
Honorable mention to Markor as well, the best mobile note-taking app I've used.
Lesser known isn't easy but here are a few useful ones
Didn't expect to see Unexpected-Keyboard here.
I went on a journey to replace the bloated google keyboards and microsoft swiftkeys with something lighter and something that doesn't change randomly. I went through the usual suspects of the FOSS world and randomly stumbled into the unexpected. It was actually something i could use.
My only problem with it is that the spacekey swiping that scrolls left&right through the letters can scroll past the text field. It can get stuck on interface elements. For example if you want to return back to the end of your sentence, you might scroll past it and have "send" button of the app activated.
WOW! Thanks for this recommendation, just installed it and I'm testing it now. This already feels very natural unlike the stock keyboard I was using.
I just switched from iOS to GrapheneOS and the stock keyboard just felt... off. Also I need f keys (F1, F2, etc) for an antiquated DOS web emulator thing that I need for work (I dont know how to accurately describe it).
This also fixes some other small usability issues Ive been having.
Any advantages to using this DeepL app over the official one?
It just predates the official one by a bit and is a simple webview where the other one is a full app.
So probably not much except the privacy implications of using a full app.
I use these on Android:
For Android only:
Twire is one of the last open-source, 3rd party Twitch apps out there. It doesn't have a ton of customization options, but it works, and it doesn't require Google Play Services, which I always appreciate.
I've been looking for a nice way to view Twitch streams on mobile for a while now. Thanks for mentioning this one!
NewPipe is a similar open-source third party app, but for YouTube (also without Google Play Services, or needing to log in).
Glad to be helpful!
I love Newpipe - I know a lot of people preferred Vanced but it's nice to be able to watch Youtube videos without telemetry. The only thing missing is not being able to cast videos, but maybe someday... Honestly, I should get off my ass and help put together a PR or something.
There is also ReVanced, a bit more of a pain to install since you have to patch YouTube yourself but its got all of the Vanced features.
There is also a fork of NewPipe with Sponsorblock, also available in the IzzyOnDroid f-droid repository.
If you have Apple Arcade, give Good Sudoku a try. It's a fun spin on classic sudoku for when you're on the tram. Another app I love is Synth One, it works as a full instrument but I just like messing around with it
A lot of things are covered, but Solitaire Klondike for iOS is a free + ad free + no iap etc game that is simple and perfect.
Ordinary is another puzzle game that wasn't mentioned here, but its excellent.
Not an app, but these NFC tags are both dirt cheap and super handy. I have HUE bulbs and a few Kasa outlets, so I use tags to set different scenes, toggle fans, etc without having to say anything to an assistant. Anything you want to do with tasker or shortcuts can be triggered via NFC. Work away from home and have a spouse? Why not have an NFC tag in the car that texts them with 'on my way home!'? :)
I use and looove this apps on iOS:
Balance: I use Balance to do guided meditations on a daily basis. What I like the most about this app is that each time I use it, it adjusts to me, so each meditation is different among the users of the app. It also has sounds for non-guided meditations, as well as meditations for every moment of the day: If I feel stressed, there is a guided meditation for that, if I have an anxiety attack, there is a meditation to help me. I have recommended this app too much among my circle of friends because of the amount of benefits it has brought me in my life.
How We Feel: How we feel is a completely free application (supported by donations) that also revolves around mental health. It is basically a feelings diary where throughout the day you can choose from a big list the emotion you are feeling at that moment. You can then see patterns that lead you to have certain feelings and act on this. All data is completely private unless you voluntarily want to share it. This app has a solid amount of mental health professionals behind it, which makes it very valuable to me.
For iOS, there is one singular app that transformed my entire Apple ecosystem experience from just okay to excellent and that is Orion. Before discovering it, I hadn't been able to find a browser for iOS that felt good to use — mainly due to a lack of proper ad blocking which is an absolute necessity on the modern internet.
Orion features zero telemetry, adblocking out of the box, and overall a very enjoyable and sensible browsing experience. It is still in beta but I have browsed exclusively on it for the past 17 months with only minimal issues, which the development team has promptly addressed and fixed.
Thank you for mentioning Orion. I've installed it on iOS and am giving it a trial run. Bitwarden seems to work out of the box.
Have you tried any extensions on iOS? I tried installing the chrome version of Reddit Enhancement Suite but it doesn't appear to work.
What's the catch? If Orion is completely free and has no tracking then how is the company and development paid for?
Extension support for iOS is still very experimental and anything more complex is likely not going to work. I only really need my browser to block ads and trackers so I am more than content, but I understand someone wanting to achieve more on their mobile device.
You are correct about the development costs. Currently Kagi inc. (the company behind Kagi search and Orion browser) is self-funded, and, to my understanding, this means the CEO, Vladimir Prelovac, is paying for development costs out of his own pocket. The revenue model for the search engine is much simpler as there is a clear subscription model. However, making money/covering the development costs of a zero tracking/advertising browser is a lot trickier, and there have been discussions about how that goal will be accomplished.
I could see a combination of the following happening: (1) merch, (2) voluntary subscription with added perks, and (3) creating a product that is so much above the rest that satisfied users will want to keep it going and donate.
All that may sound quite outlandish to many as we have spent the past decades using internet where everything is paid for with user data, but that cannot be sustainable either. I admire Kagi's vision and I hope to see them succeed without having to compromise.
ConjuGato
Learn your conjugations and have fun!
Plenty of good apps here, but some I haven't seen mentioned yet (for Android):
Infinity+ is still great despite going to subscription (thanks to Reddit.. boo hiss boo) - is it worth the sub?. im still using it....
NexTrain is just what I've been looking for!
A lesser-known app I recently downloaded is SaverTuner, which (rootlessly) gives you much finer-grained control over Android's power-saving features than you'd normally have. Its extreme profile is a lifesaver on low battery.
Does this work with Extreme/Ultra Power saver mode or just the default one?
I believe it only affects the default power saver -- on my phone (OP Nord CE 2) a similar feature (Super Power Saving Mode) just kicks me to a more minimal launcher, turns off some radios and reduces animations. It probably modifies some similar things to SaverTuner in the background but also makes my phone much less useful by forcing the minimal launcher.
SaverTuner has its own Extreme profile, which is really aggressive and should serve you well.
One that we have been enjoying on the Android is RadioPlayer UK. A misleading name as it isn't UK centric, I wonder if it once was?
Also White Noise for Android generates all types of noise. Sometimes when Im on the train and dont want to listen to music, pink noise as a background is very soothing
Also Package Disabler Pro. From the website "The only NON-root solution that let’s you disable any unwanted packages that come pre-installed / installed with your phone / tablet. "
Though I don’t actually use them, if you have a bit of extra cash to spend on... apps you already have, the Not Boring Apps Collection has fun and well designed takes on weather, calculator, timer, and habit tracking apps. I personally don’t think the pop up, or subscription for “full access” (the app works fine w/o it) is worth it, but you might.
Jeff Beachbum Berry’s Total Tiki app for iOS. Good selection of drinks including all the classics, but what really makes it great is the ability to filter (by what ingredients you have, or what you should get to let you make more, or drinks with a certain ingredient, or specific formats, or substitutions, or…), and extensive rum lists. It also is updated every few months with new drinks.
It’s not a substitute for Cate, or any of the other classics, but good lord is it useful to have that information digitized and available in your pocket. Wonder if there’s any other cocktail apps this good :)
Seek by inaturaliat is amazing at identifying plants and bugs.
A bit late to the party but has anyone heard about the "ES File Explorer"? It used to be an awesome file manager app on Android in circa ~2012. But a few years down the line, I came to hear that the developers went all ballistic and started showing ads and became intrusive of permissions.
But those early version APKs were a real classic with things like built-in FTP Server, Network Management Tools, etc. which is probably tough to get in today's apps and especially in free apps.
Yeah used to be great. I went to Solid explorer after than. Not sure i stopped using it. Gone back to MiXplorer mentioned further up in the discussion - thats pretty good atm
Readup
It presents itself as a reading app (in the same vein of Pocket and such), but what it really is is a link aggregator / social network for readers. Share and comment on articles and interact with people who have read the same article. The killer feature is that it won't even let you post or comment without finishing reading the article first.
No one mentioned, so. Tapet - abstract wallpaper generator, with a lot of customization options, timers, and perfect quality of generated wallpapers. Just check the gallery on store page. For me its one neat app that makes my phone colorful and not boring to use. Also all generated wallpapers are perfectly sized to your screen.
I'm still not sure why I become so bored with standard wallpapers but this app solve its issue perfectly.
Living Worlds is a favorite of mine. Someone on this site told me about it. It’s well worth the purchase in my opinion.
Clipboard Manager is a go-to, although I've heard that clipboard access is limited in newer versions of Android (my BlackBerry KeyOne is stuck on Android 8.1). Similarly, I use an open-source clipboard manager, Clipy, on MacOS, as I often need to copy and paste a variety of things at one time, e.g. when creating and formatting citations.
MTBProject is a great, free app for mountain bike trails. My city has a bunch of mountain bike trails abutting downtown, and this app downloads offline maps for the area, with trails, elevation profiles, user reports of conditions and more.
Been using clipboard manager since i installed it on my LG V20 (android v7.0 Nougat). Still works great although i dont use it much - has come in handy when needed
Haven't explored much of other clients, but I've used Revolution IRC for IRC. It does look like there's not much development on it however.
A prominent one on other comments for 2FA is definitely Aegis.
musicolet - an offline ad-free music player.
I wish I had an app like it for each thing.
Been using the same for a few years now. After trying a fair few including some of the bigger popular ones, Musicolet is like free air for me. Cant do without.
Kvæsito: a FOSS android launcher that is fast and with nice features.
Florisboard: highly configurable keyboard with clipboard history and other nice things. Lacks a lot of things tho. It's fairly new.
I use Smart Tools for work every day. Mostly unit conversions, but it's handy having so many tools in one neatly organized place.
I use CloudPlayer for music. I have my entire collection up and organized in Dropbox, and it can read and play music directly from that file structure.
I really like StoryGraph as a Goodreads alternative.
Me too. I love how you can visualize all the books you consumed.
AnyList. Great shopping list app that you can share. Whenever we have a multi-family trip we start a new list and several different people can add things to the shared list.
Web Video Caster - Great for casting video from websites that don't have an app, way better than casting your phone's entire screen. Fullscreen video without smartphone UI up on the display. It allows you to cast and ffwd/rwnd from the lockscreen so you don't need to keep your screen active the entire time either.