Basically, what the title says. Do you use any app, that is proprietary, but either has no OSS alternatives or they’re all not good enough? If there is an alternative, what keeps you from switching?
- Head ( @Head@lemmings.world ) 55•5 months ago
My banking app ಠ_ಠ
- onlooker ( @onlooker@lemmy.ml ) 2•5 months ago
And mine. And probably everyone else’s since the only banking app I can find on F-Droid is something called Varengold.
- unknowing8343 ( @unknowing8343@discuss.tchncs.de ) 33•5 months ago
Pedantic, but Google Messages’ RCS. And it’s all Google’s fault because they are holding the API hostage, probably because they want to create familiarity with the app so that people don’t switch once they finally open up.
- BearOfaTime ( @BearOfaTime@lemm.ee ) 5•5 months ago
I’m glad Google is exposing how crappy RCS is.
It’s been fifteen years, and all they have is a “protocol” that’s still completely dependant on a phone number.
What good is that? Why would I want that?
There are numerous systems that don’t rely on a phone number, e.g. XMPP did everything RCS is trying to do, in 2010 (I ran it on my phone then, with a desktop client that kept in sync).
Teleguard works on every platform, no phone number required, as does MATRIX, Simplex, Wire, Threema, etc, etc.
Not to mention the issues people have with it. It’s unreliable.
- unknowing8343 ( @unknowing8343@discuss.tchncs.de ) 11•5 months ago
RCS is not another chat app.
It’s the NEW SMS. That is why it is so important, and that is why it works ONLY IF YOU HAVE A PHONE. Because that’s literally the point.
Having your mom, grandpa, and everyone automatically use encrypted, modern comnunication just because they have a phone is extremely important.
Realise that in places where SMS has been historically free, SMS is the standard.
XMPP, Matrix or whatever will obviously still have its place for more “incognito” conversations. But having a phone number should also give you access to a better alternative than SMS.
- ReversalHatchery ( @ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org ) English1•5 months ago
as I understand a phone number “gives you access to” RCS as much as it does to Signal. at that point it’s just about what was pre-installed
- unknowing8343 ( @unknowing8343@discuss.tchncs.de ) 1•5 months ago
RCS is supposed to be a distributed protocol, just like SMS, but using data. It is not the same as Signal. Tho, currently, Google is the main provider for almost all phone companies.
- tetris11 ( @tetris11@lemmy.ml ) 5•5 months ago
For anyone wondering:
RCS
Rich Communication Services. It is a protocol designed to enhance traditional SMS. RCS allows users to send messages that can include high-resolution images, videos, audio messages, and group chats, as well as features like read receipts, typing indicators, and location sharing.
- bitwolf ( @bitwolf@lemmy.one ) 29•5 months ago
Google Pay/Wallet
Right now tap and pay is completely and hopelessly corporate
- ExtremeDullard ( @ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org ) 22•5 months ago
Google Play Services
- infeeeee ( @infeeeee@lemm.ee ) 16•5 months ago
MicroG works really well
A free-as-in-freedom re-implementation of Google’s proprietary Android user space apps and libraries.
- ExtremeDullard ( @ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org ) 8•5 months ago
MicroG works well if you let it leak some data to Google.
I would like a free-as-in-free-from-Google Google Play Services reimplementation that lets me use any app that depends on it without hitting any Google server.
- infeeeee ( @infeeeee@lemm.ee ) 10•5 months ago
OP asked about Open Source not about privacy.
MicroG minimises connections to google servers, here you can read what addresses it still connects to and why: https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/wiki/Google-Network-Connections
- ExtremeDullard ( @ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org ) 4•5 months ago
Free software (not open-source, it’s really free software that’s important) that depends on a single for-profit vendor is not free.
MicroG is open-source but it’s not free. It fails to address two problems:
- What do I care looking at the source code of a Google Play Services replacement when Google still holds my cellphone by the balls for certain critical functions?
- Why do I need permission from Google for apps to function properly on my cellphone?
I don’t think OP cares about getting the source of the apps they run so much as the apps being free-as-in-libre in his original question. Many people mistake open-source for free software and MicroG is not truly free.
- infeeeee ( @infeeeee@lemm.ee ) 10•5 months ago
(I reread ops question and I can only see the term open source 2 times, but whatever, I understand what you say, and I don’t want to debate about semantics.)
The point with microG is it’s still the best way if you want to use android. The other options are:
- Play services (GMS), or Huawei has some similar solution because of US trade embragoes.
- You can use android without play services but notifications won’t work for most apps, even if you can open them. (UnifiedPush tries to solve notification part) Wifi and cell based location won’t work
- I see microG as an acceptable middle ground. I still have to give up something to goog, but it’s not much compared to GMS, and I can use all available apps
- ReversalHatchery ( @ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org ) English1•5 months ago
The point with microG is it’s still the best way if you want to use android.
btw I’m perfectly fine without even MicroG. When I was installing my phone it asked whether I want that too, said no, and didn’t fell the need to then it on yet
- infeeeee ( @infeeeee@lemm.ee ) 3•5 months ago
Huh? Which rom asks this? Usually you have to go through hoops to get microg, and only a handful of roms have it builtin. It can only ask if you want to enable microg not installing it or not, microg to correctly work it should be installed in
/system/priv-app
, to do that after boot on device, you have to be root.Do you use any app from aurora or outside fdroid? If your answer is no, than you can use android without a GMS package.
Also as I wrote, location won’t work for you underground or inside concrete buildings. If you are fine with these kind of limitations than you can obviously.
Marwin (the main developer of microg) said in some interview that he doesn’t want microg to exist, and in a perfect world we shouldn’t need such workaround. I would be also happy if android wouldn’t depend this muhc on google
- BearOfaTime ( @BearOfaTime@lemm.ee ) 1•5 months ago
And maybe tomorrow we’ll see UP grow up, removing one more piece from google. And the day after, another piece.
- superkret ( @superkret@feddit.org ) 16•5 months ago
A keyboard with swipe typing, multilingual autocorrect and speech to text support that actually works.
Other than that, my only proprietary apps are from commercial services I use and pay for (banking, Spotify, Carsharing and public transport). I’d love for them to become open source, but it’s probably not ever gonna happen, cause they rely on verifying my identity.
- Blaiz0r ( @Blaiz0r@lemmy.ml ) 8•5 months ago
I’ve had a good experience with HeliBoard
- PlexSheep ( @PlexSheep@infosec.pub ) 2•5 months ago
Japanese has been an open issue for months now, so it’s a nope from me.
- selokichtli ( @selokichtli@lemmy.ml ) 1•5 months ago
X2. I don’t like it, but I still use that libswype Google blob to get swipe-writing. I wish they could produce their own in the future.
- jsnfwlr ( @jsnfwlr@lemmy.ml ) 2•5 months ago
Have you tried openboard? Admittedly it doesn’t the text to soeech
- superkret ( @superkret@feddit.org ) 3•5 months ago
yes, tried it.
- Kasupke ( @Kasupke@discuss.tchncs.de ) 2•4 months ago
HeliBoard in combination with FUTO Voice Input is recommended. Unfortunately, the word prediction isn’t too good.
- chebra ( @chebra@mstdn.io ) 1•4 months ago
@Kasupke are we recommending proprietary software here in the open-source lemmy community?
- enix ( @enix@reddthat.com ) English11•5 months ago
I’m not sure if this fits but here is mine:
I want to get away from Samsung but the “Sound Assistant” app let’s me control the volume of every app, kind of like a mixer. Sometimes an app doesn’t have a mute option, I can set the volume of that app to 0 without effecting the volume of whatever music I’m listening to.
I also like to listen to my local police scanner and music at the same time. I can set the volume of the scanner app low enough to not really bother the music but loud enough that if something happens I can still hear it and pause the music.
I can’t believe Samsung and their app is the only way, but I haven’t found an alternative.
- winkerjadams ( @winkerjadams@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English5•5 months ago
My Motorola has it built into the sound settings so you should be able to find other alternatives
- enix ( @enix@reddthat.com ) English2•5 months ago
Good to know, thank you for the heads up.
- ReversalHatchery ( @ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org ) English2•5 months ago
I’m using audio changing Magisk mods on my phone, and recently stumbled upon an issue (already fixed by a setting) that made me realize that audio mods work on an app-by-app basis.
The reason I wanted to tell this is if you are fine with tweaking your phone a little, an audio mod could do what you need.
A quick search has shown me these: - myersguy ( @myersguy@lemmy.simpl.website ) 1•5 months ago
I’m not super well versed in the world of app development, but I would assume due to the way apps are sandboxed, this isn’t something that could be done with a third party app.
- ReversalHatchery ( @ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org ) English1•5 months ago
system apps can do it. android has an API for audio mods that allows such things
- myersguy ( @myersguy@lemmy.simpl.website ) 1•5 months ago
Right, that’s what I meant when I said “third party app”. Samsung can write an app to do this, but your average app installed from the play store likely cannot.
- ReversalHatchery ( @ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org ) English1•4 months ago
you can have third party apps as system apps. you can even write your own, but the API docs are somewhat harder to find. nowadays you install them with magisk modules (not all of them contains an app), so that it is easier to revert and also to hide from those looking for it with a bad intent
- Dessalines ( @dessalines@lemmy.ml ) 9•5 months ago
Obsidian
- Mazesecle ( @Mazesecle@lemm.ee ) English9•5 months ago
Tasker: I haven’t used it, but I’ve seen useful automations over the years from people online and I would probably use a good FOSS alternative.
- 𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏 ( @lemann@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) 2•5 months ago
I use “Automation” (on fdroid) - the UX could do with some improving but it thoroughly covers the basics.
Newer versions of Android make it difficult to automate certain things though, I find root helps to get around that in some cases
- ReversalHatchery ( @ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org ) English9•5 months ago
Tasker, because there’s no alternative.
MiXplorer (file manager), because even if not counting the features that should be a different app, it’s much better than material files.
- Dymonika ( @Dymonika@beehaw.org ) 1•3 months ago
Tasker, because there’s no alternative.
There are several automation apps in F-Droid, but I haven’t tried any of them.
- ReversalHatchery ( @ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org ) English1•3 months ago
they’re pretty basic compared to it, both in regards to triggers and actions
- Darohan ( @Darohan@lemmy.zip ) 8•5 months ago
Symfonium. There are plenty of music apps, and I’ve used a lot of them, but none combine the UX and functionality that Symfonium offers to anywhere near the same quality :/
- WardPearce ( @Ward@lemmy.nz ) English6•5 months ago
- Darohan ( @Darohan@lemmy.zip ) 1•5 months ago
You know? Doesn’t look like it’s quite there, but it’s the closest I’ve seen by far, I’ll have a good look I think! Thanks for that!
Edit: Tempo has Podcasts, Symfonium does not. Time will tell, but that may be the feature that pushes me over the edge.
- WardPearce ( @Ward@lemmy.nz ) English2•5 months ago
yea considering its FOSS it was good enough compared to a lot of the other clients for me to move away from Symfonium
- Sir_Kevin ( @Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English3•5 months ago
I was so pissed the other day while pulling out of the driveway that my paid copy of Symfonium wouldn’t work at all. It needed permission from daddy google to start but didn’t have an internet connection at the moment. Fuck that shit I gave you my money!
- PlexSheep ( @PlexSheep@infosec.pub ) 2•5 months ago
Synfonium is the only thing that I could get to work with my selfs hosted jellyfin server and with downloading of music. I haven’t had any problems with it though.
- adr1an ( @anzo@programming.dev ) 7•5 months ago
OpenCamera is good, but could do better. But I’d say video editing is the biggest void.
Also, gesture typing keyboards are an empty niche of foss alternatives. HelioBoard requires loading some proprietary blob unfortunately.
I guess the most heavy machine learning use cases are not filled in.
Also, gesture typing keyboards are an empty niche of foss alternatives. HelioBoard requires loading some proprietary blob unfortunately.
FlorisBoard is on the way to implement swype-typing. Unfortunately, it is unlikely to be very soon.
- ReversalHatchery ( @ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org ) English1•5 months ago
wasn’t the last update 2 years ago?
Latest release candidate was released a few days ago.
- ReversalHatchery ( @ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org ) English1•5 months ago
oh, that’s nice!
- exu ( @exu@feditown.com ) English1•5 months ago
The FUTO keyboard has swipe tying, but it’s not as fluid imo
- badcodecat ( @badcodecat@lemux.minnix.dev ) English2•5 months ago
isn’t this one proprietary?
- exu ( @exu@feditown.com ) English4•5 months ago
You’re right, it’s some FUTO license and has some limitations that make it not FOSS.
- JustEnoughDucks ( @JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl ) 7•5 months ago
People have hit on most of them here, but here is another big one:
Fitness apps. Mainly calorie tracking, workout tracking and heart rate tracking
Health app
Sleep as Android
(No, gadget bridge is not a replacement for 99% of cases and doesn’t even support the gold standard for heart rate tracking, polar H10)
For calorie tracking, the massive food databases required, barcode scanning, and crowd sourcing are generally not compatible with the open source community’s privacy ideals. OpenNutriTracker has promise though!
For workout tracking, none of them have any device support and most of them are dead and abandoned. Not to mention heart rate zones, stats and training trends, etc… FitoTrack and Opentracks are good starts though.
And then a google fit alternative. Something that can integrate sleeping, workouts, heart rates, sensors, etc… Data all in one aggregates place. It is a huge task and it makes sense that there is no open source alternative for it. Especially when the components aren’t individually there to aggregate.
- 𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏 ( @lemann@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) 2•5 months ago
I was looking for Sleep As Android too!! Separately to this I saw a comment on R a while ago asking for FOSS alternatives, and to say the dev’s response was out-of-touch would be an understatement. They just complained about not being able to make a living from a FOSS app…
Regarding Gadgetbridge though, those devs and contributors are running into more and more accessories using encrypted protocols which is a bit worrying. Right now I’ve settled on the BangleJS which has official support, just wish it had a more accurate heart rate sensor!
My dream FOSS health app would be some concoction of OpenScale and Gadgetbridge 😂
- plactagonic ( @plactagonic@sopuli.xyz ) 5•5 months ago
I would like to find alternative to Garmin app. It is bad if you don’t want to use the cloud features, also you can’t plan routes without internet connection like wtf that’s the only reason I bought it for.
- BearOfaTime ( @BearOfaTime@lemm.ee ) 5•5 months ago
you can’t plan routes without internet
Oh fuck I hate that
- plactagonic ( @plactagonic@sopuli.xyz ) 1•5 months ago
Yes for the basic thing most people buy it and it is this fucked up. Also it uses Google maps, they are bit useless for cycling.
I have more mapping apps and all of them have offline planning.
Have you tried Gadgetbridge?
- plactagonic ( @plactagonic@sopuli.xyz ) 3•5 months ago
Thanks I give it a try, problem for me is that I need to plan route and then put it in cyclocomputer. I don’t need any other bs.
- plactagonic ( @plactagonic@sopuli.xyz ) 2•5 months ago
It didn’t worked.
- BearOfaTime ( @BearOfaTime@lemm.ee ) 2•5 months ago
It didn’t work. (not being snarky, or a dick, honestly trying to help)
It hasn’t worked. It worked. It didn’t work.
For some reason getting tense correct on words like “work” is confusing for ESL. (or autoincorrect got you)
- plactagonic ( @plactagonic@sopuli.xyz ) 2•5 months ago
Sorry not native speaker, thanks for correction.
- Lemmchen ( @Lemmchen@feddit.org ) English5•4 months ago
Basically every app that is related to a proprietary service. Amazon, Battle.net and Steam authenticators, banking apps, Spotify, etc.
- vort3 ( @vort3@lemmy.ml ) 3•5 months ago
FYI, you can replace Steam Guard. There is a plugin for Keepass that can generate Steam OTP codes and it’s built in in KeepassXC (IIRC) and in KeepassDX on android.
- ReversalHatchery ( @ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org ) English2•5 months ago
for steam authenticator Aegis works too. For google’s and microsoft’s custom app too, and a bunch of others, even some non-standard ones
- Showroom7561 ( @Showroom7561@lemmy.ca ) 5•4 months ago
I’m actually pretty happy to be using mostly FOSS apps. The exception are banking or services apps, which I’d never expect to be available as open source.