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Recommended F-Droid apps

NOTE: Though I care about open source software, I can no longer recommend F-Droid as an app store as of 2023-04-18. Please see F-Droid Security Issues. These days I prefer to update apps via Really Simple Syndication (RSS) instead.

I may rewrite this post or delete it later, but I felt I should at least mention this concern first.

Table of contents

What is F-Droid?

From the F-Droid website:

"F-Droid is an installable catalogue of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) applications for the Android platform. The client makes it easy to browse, install, and keep track of updates on your device."

F-Droid apps

  • ImagePipe or Scrambled Exif. Both apps remove Exchangeable Image File Format (EXIF) data, metadata in photos that can reveal personal information, before you send pictures. Despite serving a similar purpose, the two apps differ in implementation and features. Notably, ImagePipe also reduces image size (though it keeps the original unaltered and stores the changed copy in a separate folder), which may or may not be desirable depending on your use case.
  • Keep It Simple, Stupid (KISS) Launcher. I find that pinning a few choice apps and searching for the rest with KISS Launcher provides a more pleasant experience relative to the default GrapheneOS launcher. Also, launchers let you use custom icons (I use Arcticons Dark).
  • Meditation Assistant. Practice agnostic and doesn't do more than I need it to--in other words, perfect for my use case.
  • mpv-android. For those that love mpv and want it on their phone, too.
  • Netguard. Block internet access per app. Unfortunately, I haven't found a way to combine it with Orbot yet.
  • NewPipe. NewPipe lets you watch YouTube privately on your phone; you can also keep up with your favorite content creators without signing up for an account.
  • Orbot. An invaluable tool for privacy, Orbot tunnels the traffic of selected apps through Tor.
  • RedReader, an unofficial open source client for Reddit. It has a clean UI with no nonsense. I found it through word of mouth, as I've never liked the redesign and wanted to find a less feature-rich (and less buggy) client than Slide. This is exactly what RedReader delivers.
  • Termux. Termux provides a terminal emulator for Android and offers an incredible amount of power. I use Termux to securely transfer files between my phone and computer using SSH.
  • Yet Another Call Blocker (YACB). A useful app. You can add problematic area codes to YACB and it filters them out automatically. You can exempt contacts from being treated as unknown callers, and YACB even has an option to stop the call before the phone starts ringing on Android 7+.
  • UntrackMe. UntrackMe transforms certain links, such as YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram, to point at a Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) privacy respecting alternative. In the case of Twitter, it changes the domain to a Nitter instance.