OPEN SOURCE your Android Phone: open source Android ROMS and apps

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This video is distributed under the Creative Commons Share Alike license.
00:00 Intro
00:50 Sponsor: Get Onlyoffice, the open source office suite for Linux, Android, and everything else
01:53 Custom open source ROMS
04:24 F-DROID: your FOSS Play Store
05:44 Email Client: K9 Mail
07:05 Web Browsers: the usual suspects
07:45 Launchers: Lawnchair, and O Launcher
09:29 Camera: SimpleCamera, or OpenCamera
10:53 Image Viewer: SimpleGallery
12:06 Maps: OSMAnd, or Maps.me
13:22 Discover more (and give me your recommendations)
14:45 Sponsor: get a device that runs Linux perfectly
15:53 Support the channel
What you need to know is that it's possible to replace the Android version that ships on your phone, with something else, and there are a TON of options out there, that support different models.
One of the most well known is Lineage OS, which builds on top of the Android open source project, or AOSP, supports a LOT of devices, and is open source, of course.
Another interesting one if you want to fully escape Google's ecosystem is Graphene OS. The drawback of Graphene OS is that it only supports Google Pixels.
Techlore video about Graphene: • GrapheneOS Review: You...
And yet another one that I personally really love is /e/ OS, and despite its terrible name, it is even more de googled than Graphene OS.
Android allows alternative app stores, and if you're looking for FOSS apps, your best best is F Droid.
f-droid.org/
Let's start with mail clients. And the obvious one here is K9 Mail. It does basically everything you'd expect a mail client to do, with IMAP support, dark mode, unified inbox if you have multiple email accounts, per mail account notifications, email signatures, email encryption with openPGP, push notifications, and it also doesn't track anything you do, write, or send.
For web browsers, it's pretty easy. You don't even need F Droid to install open source browsers and replace the default one. Most Android ROMS that manufacturers ship use either Google Chrome, or their own web browser based on CHromium, but they're generally not open source.
For launchers, you have Lawnchair. It's basically a copy of the pixel launcher, but you'll have to install it from their website, as the version on F Droid is old, like the one in the play store.
lawnchair.app/
Another option is O Launcher, if you want a really super minimalistic launcher, with only a few links to most used apps, a daily wallpaper, and a list of apps that only appear by name. You can choose how many apps appear on the homescreen, which apps are opened by a swipe left or right, and that's about it!
For taking pictures, you basically have 2 really good options. If you just want to snap quick pictures and videos, and you don't care about the settings, the resolution, the framerate or any of that stuff, then SImpleCamera is for you.
If you like tweaking every single setting before taking a picture, though, you need OpenCamera.
And, to preview these images, your best option is probably Simple Gallery. It has albums, search, and a bunch of options to include or exclude folders, handle full screen previews, and it lets you star, share, delete, and edit pictures, with a lot of options to rotate, crop, invert, or apply filters, and you can save the modified image as a new one.
Also, you might have noticed that these "Simple Apps" look alike, and that's because they're all part of the same collection made by the same dev team:
www.simplemobiletools.com/
As per map applications, your 2 best open source bets are OSMAnd, for OpenStreetMap Automated Navigation Directions, and maps.me.
OSMAnd has travel maps, offline navigation for cars, cycling or walking, and relief maps. It obviously uses open street map.
Maps.me does virtually the exact same thing as OSMAnd, and also uses open street map, but adds travel guides to show you interesting places to see or visit, and I find its interface looks a bit nicer than OSMAnd.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Try OnlyOffice, the best open source office suite for Linux: bit.ly/3IQRWfY

[@Mexicomank2]

Just a correction micro g is incompatible with graphene os . Instead graphene can use sandboxed google play services which is google play services pretty much as a app vs system wide were the user controls its permissions on what google play can get like, treating it like any other app .

[@theogre8452]

Neo launcher

[@nullmod1]

Nethunter Os

[@aaronplays_]

Hey man, I really need a beginner friendly tutorial for installing /e/ OS in my phone. I'd also appreciate a link where I can request for a phone model if it's currently not supported. Also, I need to know how to backup the default Android version and how to revert back to it if /e/ OS is not working out for me.

[@Rony-kb5jv]

brave, open source!😂🤣🤣

[@ozerune]

please make this a recurring series there are so many good open source apps but sometimes they can be difficult to find

[@TheLinuxEXP]

If the video does well, sure!

[@PrograError]

@@TheLinuxEXP even if not, maybe do an annual version as an update at least ?

[@dan3817]

Small correction about Lawnchair 12.1 It doesn't require Android 12 to run, it can run on devices as low as Android 8.1 (tho atm 8.1 support is broken), only feature requiring Android 12.1 is the integration with the recents menu and gestures through the Quickswitch module

[@chinmayghule8272]

I used the launcher just now. It seems that it's still in alpha stage (12.4, which is the latest at the moment) and I found it kind of wonky. LIke it added a few apps on the home screen and there was no way to remove them. The app "Lawnchair 2" on the Google Play Store is more stable. If anybody wants to try, then I would recommend the play store one.

[@KnightRiderOfVoid]

@@chinmayghule8272 lawnchair2 is on f-droid, sure it's pretty much the same app, but it's nice that you can find it in an open source store instead of google's play store

[@dan3817]

@@KnightRiderOfVoid Actually Lawnchair V2 isn't on Fdroid, what's there is the much older V1 version Reason why v2 wasn't published on Fdroid was due to some issues with Fdroid rejecting the app due to it needing a prebuilt jar during compilation time to enable the recents/gestures integration There were plans to solve this but from my knowledge they haven't bothered with Fdroid in after v1

[@dan3817]

@@chinmayghule8272 As for the apps you can't remove, are you sure you didn't enable locking the homescreen in settings?

[@KnightRiderOfVoid]

@@dan3817 yeah my bad, as I use neo store and have other repos enabled. I sometimes forget an call fdroid to any fdroid alternative. Thanks for pointing that out. You can find lawnchair2 in the extra repos if you use neo storw or aurora droid, for those wanting to try it.

[@hlerp]

• Aurora Store - Play Store alternative • KeePassDX - Password manager F-Droid official client is pretty rough around the edges, luckily there are 3rd party clients that work better, I've tried many and I've found Droid-ify to work best for me but there's AuroraDroid (by the same dev as AuroraStore) G-Droid, FoxDroid and many others. • Material Files - File manager • Termux - Linux terminal for Android

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Nice recommendations, thanks!

[@ioneocla6577]

I use self hosted vault warden. A bitwarden compatible implementation with all bitwarden paid features

[@KnightRiderOfVoid]

Neo storw has worked perfectly for me, aurora droid has some features I'd like but fails a lot to sync my repos when using vpn. After ot fails it becomes pretry much useless until I forcefully stop the app. I will try droid-ify, but for a simple and reliable fdroid store with configurable repos, neo store has served me well.

[@MarkHobbes]

F-droid official app is slow, ugly and buggy as hell

[@Embassy_of_Jupiter]

Some points of a long time MircroG user: 1) Snapchat works with the Huawei version of the app 2) Google Maps works with version 10.49.3 3) You can blacklist them in the Aurora Store to make sure the version doesn't get switched 4) There are multiple different F-droid forks it you don't like the original, but as far as I know, all of them suck. 5) Protonmail can replace calendar email and contacts 6) Simple Gallery slows down a lot when you have thousands of pictures, LeafPic revived is much faster, but uglier. 7) SongTube and LibreTube are good FOSS KZbin apps, much better than NewPipe

[@therealb888]

Awesome points, what OS are you using?

[@MarkHobbes]

"Protonmail can replace calendar email and contacts" Even if you don't pay for it? I'm using Tutanota.

[@Embassy_of_Jupiter]

@@MarkHobbes It's also in the free plan, the paid just gives you more than one calendar and calendar sharing. Also Contact two way sync is not yet implemented, but on the way, only upload for now.

[@Embassy_of_Jupiter]

@@therealb888 OmniRom+MicroG integrated, but only because that was the only one available for my device when I flashed it.

[@Nandru85]

I confirm simple gallery shits itself on my 5000+ whatsapp pictures folders. Even if 80% of these are low-res memes

[@PakoSt]

Generally, custom ROMs are very good. The true problems come with portions that use proprietary sub-systems like the camera. The exposed Android Camera APIs are generally a fraction of the methods used with OEM cameras that take advantage of undocumented APIs targeting the firmware blobs (especially for post-processing and the like which could be coupled with OS level changes for whatever ungodly reason). This is doubly true for multi-camera setups. Microphones may use similar low-level processing but generally are less of a problem. Battery optimisations with always-on screens are a suspect if the used kernel isn't a derivative of the OEM one or if some part of the implementation is hiding within the OS layer like Samsung specific methods for example (because reasons...). Modem staying alive or the like, are within that group but less of a problem - usually the modem stays alive/ hibernated/ wakes up as expected. We have the usual BS with DRM or other "security" measures that immediately try to raise a red flag if they do (very questionable) checks to verify if the device is rooted. Banking apps or lower resolution with Netflix are the most common examples of problematic behaviour caused by those checks. On the other hand, there are historical examples of OnePlus, Xiaomi and so on not passing those security checks with their official ROMs so... Yeah 😁 The banking apps or wireless payment can be annoying - this depends entirely on whether the individual views such functionality as a desirable feature or not. If we go down the rabbit hole of VoLTE or WiFi Calling, counter intuitively the custom rom may enable this functionality in some cases (looking at LG's region implementations and crazy network provider systems...) There is one usual caveat with any custom ROM - depending on the family of the custom ROM, security updates can be a question mark. Just getting an update, doesn't mean it includes a security one. Sounds scary but given the OEM most likely has already nixed support for the device, _any_ update is an improvement. Overall, if camera quality isn't a must, custom ROMs are more than enough and can prolong the life of the device by a lot with minimal effort.

[@amine250]

There's always GCam

[@MarkHobbes]

Not only the camera, but in the stock rom if you have access to Radio app, if you switch to another rom, you'll lost this and only be able to use the radio with internet connection on.

[@MarkHobbes]

I know many people who make everything open source in their phone with exception to the camera. They still prefer Gcam or any of the inumerous versions made by devs all around the world. Loosing the hability to make excellent videos and photos nowadays is a real drawback to many people, especially if you've paid for a expensive phone.

[@MarkHobbes]

If you wanna use bank apps, just do not root and use a well-known rom like Lineage that it won't be a problem.

[@amine250]

@@MarkHobbes root is not yet a problem for most banking apps, Universal Safetynet fix magisk module still passes safety net. However, when most apps start implementing the new play integrity API, custom roms are gonna have a hard time

[@iamaj7]

I found Organic Maps to be more user friendly than OSMand Keyboard : Openboard is a good keyboard based on AOSP, but personaly I use Unexpected keyboard which is developed with developers in mind. If you are using command line applications or other compilers, this will come in handy with its unique swipe to input feature.

[@aciddev_]

florisboard is also a good option

[@MrGamelover23]

Grapheneos lets you have sandboxed Google services, they don't use microG because it's insecure. Security and privacy are two different things, and it turns out that Google stuff is really secure even if it isn't good for privacy.

[@motoryzen]

"security and privacy are two different things" Bullshit. Tell that to anyone who has been forced to live in crime infected areas of the world. The less someone knows about your and your property, the MORE secure you are in that the enemy doesn't know how to infiltrate your life as easily. It's not rocket science.

[@Embassy_of_Jupiter]

* *securely steals all your data* *

[@motoryzen]

@@Embassy_of_Jupiter yes..good luck with that. Lol

[@MrGamelover23]

@@Embassy_of_Jupiter it's sandboxed and runs as a standard app as opposed to a privileged app, it only takes the data from the app you're currently using.

[@LBP2Saperoth]

Neo Launcher is a great and open source, it is a great alternative to Nova Launcher. it has a google feed replacement that is just an RSS feed reader. they also have some other tools like a store for f-droid.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Nice, I didn't know about this one!

[@davidbronke5484]

I'd love to try Neo Launcher out, but I can't find it in either F-Droid or the Play Store. Do you have a link?

[@classicallemur1190]

Niagara launcher is really a hidden gem of a launch in my opinion. updates often and strikes a good balance between ergonomics, minimalism, and eye candy

[@njayman]

I use it and now I can't go back to the default launcher. It's so convenient.

[@prajhualak]

Niagara is awesome but proprietary :(

[@njayman]

@@prajhualak sadly yes 😔

[@RandomUserName92840]

Niagara is also wife/ old people friendly. The list of letters just makes sense. Not open source iirc

[@classicallemur1190]

@@prajhualak oops saw they had a GitHub pace and assumed

[@rolandssavdons7993]

Note that some important apps (banking, for example) require a locked bootloader and Google APIs to use. Unless you're using OnePlus or Pixel phones (AVB v2), you're running a risk of bricking your device when locking your device's bootloader. Something that I learned just this afternoon.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

My banking app worked on my Amsung phone using /e/, but yeah, some have issues

[@Embassy_of_Jupiter]

They should work with MicroG as long as you pass the SafetyNet check. At least mine does.

[@MarkHobbes]

Yes, and there is a problem for Samsung phones that even if you lock the bootloader, reinstall the stock rom and sell it. The person who will use it, won't have access to a lot of Samsung services due to the fact you once unlocked the bootloader, Knox is ruined as the security for the Samsung phone. In some phones, the stock camera won't work, neither will Samsung Pass, Samsung Pay, Secure Folder, Dual Messenger and so on...

[@Rod_SCL]

I disabled the KZbin app on my phone and watch all vids on brave browser, no ads and I enabled the option to keep playing videos with the screen off (great for music and poscasts).

[@raj18x]

Did the same with kiwi browser

[@editoron]

Your SOC is very important if you want custom android roms. Is easier to optimaze for Qualcomm Snapdragon than for Samsung Exynos. I had Redmi Note 7 with SD 660. And compatibility with other roms was very good (with Lineage OS is still running very well).

[@mat_max]

What are those other roms?

[@editoron]

@@mat_max for example: Pixel Experience, Havoc OS...

[@prathammdupare]

@@mat_max For Redmi Note 7 - pixel experience, arrow OS, PIxelPlus UI, Project Elixir , these are not open source. There is an old ported build of Calyx OS for RMN7.

[@editoron]

@@terrydaktyllus1320 I personally install custom roms if android updates are slow or software support is short. I bought A33 because of software support (4 android updates and 5 years of security updates)

[@editoron]

@@terrydaktyllus1320 My Redmi Note 7 is still Android 11. But that's my older phone. Also I have noticed more bugs than with MIUI (android version from Xiaomi) Which is probably normal. But system was way smoother. Probably better optimalization. It's worth mentioning that I was also using Lineage os with opengapps (Google mobile services) + Sometimes I like to change the Android version.

[@TheWilldrick]

There are some really good FOSS apps around that I think you overlooked. Starting with here KZbin, NewPipe (especially Legacy) is really good, is lighter on the battery and on older devices that would struggle to play a 360p video if the ad video started loading in the background of the actual video. There's Signal for messanging, but also SMS. It has some neat features like detecting 2FA codes in some cases and showing a "copy code" right on the notification popup, along with SMS blocking or custom ringtones/rules per contact. Infinity for Reddit is another one that is really useful, lightweight and simple.

[@Lampe2020]

5:34 Termus's PlayStore version is no longer supported and they switched to F-Droid. So they were available on both a long time now but the PlayStore one will receive no further updates and tells you to switch to the F-Droid version.

[@youtube.user.1234]

Perfect timing, I was just researching about android and it’s custom ROMs and you posted this :)

[@BloodAsp]

100% Reccomend Graphine OS for many reasons. They are they real deal in terms of security.

[@youtube.user.1234]

@@BloodAsp yeah but they only run on google pixel phones I guess, and pixel phones are over my budget. I’m looking to get a phone under 20,000 INR (Indian Rupees) which can run Cherish OS or Calyx OS. Till now I’ve kept the Poco F1 and the Poco X3 Pro phones in my list

[@NinjaSpotted]

Regarding open-source apps that I use from F-Droid: mvp - Video Player Organic Maps - Offline maps support, even public transportation (google maps doesn't) Fritter - Checking Twitter (no account) Frost - Facebook client (with account) Open Note Scanner - Camera Digitalizer to pdf document/image NewPipe - KZbin Player Tachiyomi - Manga Reader

[@MarkHobbes]

Organic Maps aren't perfect if you live in Brazil

[@gamersworld4176]

any alternative office suite? like libreoffice ?

[@dongino9592]

I was about to comment on your last video about phones and this appeared, nice video as always

[@shrobbyy]

Bromite is pretty much the best browser you can have on Android. It's only available in F-Droid via adding their repo but definitely worth trying out.

[@nxlxrbrim]

NeoStore is better, moden app store bit better then Fdroid.

[@rfdiego777]

I find FairEmail a good alternative to K9, it has a lot of useful settings (both great apps anyway). Also, apart from all the privacy concern, changing the ROM to an open one can really boost the performance of your device ( I still use a 2017 Samsung which with his original ROM was unusable)

[@Brun239]

Totally agree with you about FairEmail. About changing ROM, I put my motorola on lineage and now, it's really buggy, I think, it's depend on the device.

[@rfdiego777]

@@Brun239 sometimes the builds of lineage take time to work properly (on my samsung a5 2017 the first release of lineage 18.1 had some issues, they resolved them in a few months with the following builds). Also I think the Motorola Rom is pretty lightweight, the Samsung one is full of stupid bloat (so for me was a great improvement, but maybe it's not the case for everyone)

[@orkhepaj]

k9 is crap

[@didaktikerocford4370]

I would put Midori next genration into the browser category too. Very customizable, privacy respecting and (afaik) open source too + it uses the webkit engine. It works really good for me (as an daily driver). Sadly the desktop version is now chromium too. Everything else is as always very well put together. Nice video.

[@LimBrian]

Found a launcher called kvaesitso recently. I believe its still somewhat beta but has a great search functionality nearing that of gnome's/kde's search function, things like calculations, auto wikipedia searching, etc on top of the standard "search for apps I have".

[@All_things_fun]

Yes it's very awesome

[@aprilmauricio9975]

this and niagara launcher are my favorites

[@thalleshenrique9752]

Nick, just a small correction: Lawchair doesn't demands Android 12 (maybe just for some Monet/Material You related features, but it still runs on older devices). I used the recent version just fine on an old Android 9 device.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Weird, that's what their website seems to indicate? Still, that's cool!

[@oalfodr]

I pick my phones based on whether they have good support for lineageOS. My favorite apps are aegis for 2FA, simple gallery, YT vanced, and termux

[@oalfodr]

@@terrydaktyllus1320 Agree. I am using Poco F3 now. It performs better than some expensive phones and I could buy several such phones for price of one Samsung flagship.

[@samik10]

A happy LineageOS user here. It's amazing to have Anroid 12 and up-to-date security updates to my phone even years after manufacturer's end of support.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Lineage is great to extend the life of a device!

[@shab-re5334]

correction, lineage can only provide software updates, not firmware updates as your manufacturer has stopped them this is still better as you get newer android releases and software security updates, but that's it

[@sudosyyu]

Would love to hear all your configuration (apps and stuff), I want to install lineage os but im so inexpert

[@Akselmoi]

I recently got Fairphone 3+ with /e/os preinstalled from Murena. It's solid phone and the os works just as well as regular android (with banking apps too!) and highly recommend it.

[@v00017]

It's generally recommended to use a different F-droid client like Droid-ify, as the official F-droid client is very outdated. Also 'Secure Camera' by GrapheneOS is another camera app option that works really well.

[@IngwiePhoenix]

Any good way to install it on plain LOS?

[@therealb888]

@@IngwiePhoenix ya just install their apps.

[@vienyish]

@@therealb888 from where?

[@lastnamefirstname2390]

This is an amazing resource. Thank you! Now that I have a second phone I'll be experimenting with a lot of these services.

[@IamTheHolypumpkin]

I'm very glad that my current Phone Manufacturer and the previous Manufacturer where both very open on rooting and custom ROMs. Until the end of August I still used a OnePlus 3 with Arrow OS but the last 6 months with it where a pain to use because I had constantly repair things. Now I switched to a Fairphone 4 so I can easily repair it for hopefully the next 10 years I plan to use it. I mostly degoogle by using nextcloud but the migration takes time (especially Google photos to 'Les Pas'). Calendar, Notes, Tasks, Cookbook and all my files are all already on Nextcloud. But I still fighting with nextcloud because my particular setup is very complex. Because I currently worth on other development and sys-admin stuff I had not time to finish my migration yet.

[@abhijay_]

Hey Nick, thanks for the video, quite insightful. 😀👍🏻

[@Semmelstulle]

Very great video, most of these apps I've chosen myself in the past. For pictures I've used LeafPic, but iirc it's not open source. And for FDroid there's Aurora apps. Aurora Store is a Play Store front end and Aurora Droid does the exact same for FDroid but with additional repos to add on first run. And there are core services for the rom that let's update Aurora apps automatically! You just need to place the files into the rom with either root access or using TWRP's file manager. Or you make the package flashable yourself, that's what I did.

[@tanujnotes]

Thank you for featuring Olauncher! 8:45

[@AnzanHoshinRoshi]

Thank you, Nick. F-Droid is all right.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Yeah, it's pretty good!

[@hotsauwz]

Pretty hard to browse tho

[@SabinTV-NP]

@@hotsauwz agreed

[@user8921]

For maps, I use organic maps it's more user friendly.

[@nico1337]

I prefer FairEmail instead of K9 and for Navigation definitely Organic Maps!

[@Tachi107]

9:29 Secure Camera, from the GrapheneOS project, is also pretty nice (but doesn't generally work well on cheap devices). On some devices, it even has access to the same post processing pipeline as the stock camera app

[@barrelbombfactory1394]

It's working fine on my P20 lite

[@luis_vm]

Some others open source apps that you can find on f-droid: Seal (downloader), Music (listen and download music), ning (see devices in your network), feeel (workout app), blokada (system-wide ad blocker), Stealth (reddit app), neo store (f-droid alternative app), NewPipe (youtube app without google api), joplin (take notes and sync with cloud), material files (file manager)...

[@nescius2]

correction for 10:46 - even with the customization and settings your pictures might look more real than the ones spanned from the default app. ..you can fake (apply -photoshop- gimp cream) your picture on the adult computer whenever.

[@koenkoppens]

Aves Gallery is a great Gallery app as well. Great features for album management (including tags etc).

[@FarLine99]

Awesome video. I use approximately the same set of applications that you listed.

[@gregandcin]

GrapheneOS users shouldn't use microG. They should use the Sandboxed Google Play Services package for GrapheneOS. Also, Neo Launcher is a great launcher that is still being developed!

[@burhanbudak6041]

Does Gpay work with the sandbox?

[@gregandcin]

@@burhanbudak6041 No, that still relies on Safety Net being good, which most ROMs have issues with

[@burhanbudak6041]

@@gregandcin oh, Graphene doesn't signature spoof or allow Magisk.

[@mrcvry]

You do not want to use Google Pay. It includes the worst of all sides.

[@Kog_media]

I started using e foundations installer on a Samsung galaxy S9+ a year ago and Wow, it’s awesome! Completely de googled the phone, protects from all kinds of surveillance crap ware. Highly recommend this solution, supports many types of phones.

Hey, I managed to install e/os to a Galaxy S10 yesterday! :-) Coming from IOS this is an interesting and quite pleasing experience. I really enjoy lawnchair, had neo launcher before (which was not bad either). Thanks for your tipps - and it's great to read all the recommandations in the comments.

[@anselmschueler]

For public transport navigation, you should use Offi! It works best in Germany but I think it supports other countries as well.

[@davidbronke5484]

I'll second this; I find that Offi is actually way better than Google when it comes to public transportation in our area. (south of Heidelberg) Google doesn't think we can get anywhere by public transportation, even though we can walk to the bus stop in under 5 minutes.

[@wclifton968gameplaystutorials]

I've found that KTrip is pretty good here in the UK which yes, runs on Android, luckily I prefer using the "TfL Go" app which includes a network map (and because I live in London). I have also tried "Transportr" which is also pretty good...

[@jedanderson8172]

I really wish Fairphone was sold in North America, then I would be more tempted to go down the FOSS route with a smartphone.

[@branislavavramovic2601]

When it comes to private and secure alternatives, I would recommend Divest OS and Calyx OS. Those are pretty good. I'm using /e/ OS atm, but I hate their launcher and even though I switched to Lawnchair, it doesn't integrate well with the system.

[@oliver5082]

maps me was sold and isn't open source anymore. But its former devs forked it and continue developing it open-source and tracker free. Its called Organic Maps. It's great, you should try it.

[@konstantink07]

As for galleries, there's also Quickpic Mod and Aves. That one even includes a map feature

[@vanodon2257]

I been using Postmarket os for padt 3 years and loving it.

[@maxarendorff6521]

I use iodeOS on my Fairphone 4, it's great! My favourite maps app is Organic Maps. It's the best maps app on the F-droid store and much nicer looking than OSMAnd.

[@schatteneis1188]

for public transportation there is Öffi, i don't know how much it works in other countries but it's great if you live in Germany and want to replace the proprietary DB Navigator app

[@igorminaev7017]

It's very useful, thank you! Btw, my favorite launchers are Kiss and TinyBit (Kiss based with more settings) from F-droid.

[@ADITYA-zc1bd]

Why no mention of Bromite? If using fdroid, it's the best chromium option.

[@estellebright2579]

Someone watching this from iPad Pro using KZbin app while not using Linux of any sort is probably the furthest away from FOSS as possible >_

[@maxreuv]

Great summary, thank you!

[@gab9281]

A great ROM for pixels devices ( used it 2 years on my pixel2) is protonaosp -> keeps a similar launcher to the original one, is faster and is compatible with safetynet out of the box

[@duyinhhoang5472]

About Lawmchair 12, it Doesn't requires Android 12. The number 12 just said about the version os the Launcher (Lawnchair 9, 10, 11 and 12). I'm running Lawnchair 12 on my Android 11 phone

[@shinyoda1987]

Sometime ago, I searched a smartphone compatible with a Rom Android privacy focused and an OS for smartphone based on Linux (Yes, dual boot on smartphone is possible). I know, Android is based on Linux but I searched for one that is more open source. The most interesting result that I found is the FairPhone 4 with /e /os and Ubuntu Touch. I don't know if that work well (I don't want to change my smartphone just to test that) but, because the FairPhone 4 was release not so long ago (October 2021), the support development of /e /os and Ubuntu touch for it is quite active. I discovered later on that it is possible to "install" a Linux distro on Android with the app UserLand but I don't know the differences between the use of this app and Ubuntu Touch

[@QuimChaos]

i was looking for a music player for android for a long time, specially one that respected my library, and i think i found it in Simple Mobile Tools!

[@RealGigaMind]

My Redmi K20 pro is running basically on open source app. I use open source contact, messages, gallery, file manager, calendar, clock, music player, video player, text writer, scanner and Firefox browser.

[@Egirl_Emily]

CrDroid (a fork of lineageos) is also good for more customization and more supported phones (even newer). The rom also comes without gapps by default and only lineageos pre-installed apps

[@MarkHobbes]

I haven't found A31

[@Egirl_Emily]

@@MarkHobbes Cherish OS 4.0 is with Android 13

[@Tachi107]

3:17 microG is not recommended on GrapheneOS, they use the standard Google services installed as regular user applications (that is, they have limited access to your device). It's literally written in the webpage shown in your video :)

[@handlethis405]

Thanks for the ideas. I currently use my previous phone, a LG V20 as a solid microphone & a webcam via USB. I try not to let that thing online because it hasn't had any android security updates since Nov 1st, 2018. I use fdroid already on my phone though. My current phone ONLY came with Google photos for an album viewing and picture snapping. It also didn't come with a native file manager which made me pretty angry. 💢 FOSS comes through again, shout outs to simple gallery, simple file manager, notealy... I was going to list all of them but I got about 12 apps installed total from fdroid. Gotta pump those numbers up though.

[@xperience-evolution]

Question about launchers: Will the default still run under the "skin"? So will a laucher use more Ram or could that minimalistic laucher actually make my phone faster and using less battery?

[@hotrodjones74]

The OpenBoard keyboard is quite nice. Unfortunately it doesn't support spell check for all of the languages I use and speak. If they only added Norwegian support I'd use it. They have support for most all languages or have a keyboard without spell check.

[@guesswho2778]

yeah the public transport stuff flat out didnt work at all where i live and i live in adelaide, south australia with a relatively large amount of people in it. thats the main issue preventing me from using a different maps app, though i did find some that i will be using once im no longer so reliant on public transport.

[@byteseb]

Great video, as always!

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Thanks!

[@graemewiebe2815]

I'm a big fan of iodeOS, similar to graphene and /e/OS. System level ad and tracker blocker and all that fun stuff.

[@burning_KFC]

As always writing a comment to support the channel

[@mywall123]

Openboard is a good keyboard replacement, i actually found it better than the keyboards i found on the playstore. It also has a black mode which is good for OLED screens. Its funny that people dont think of using an open source keyboard even though everything they do is through it.

[@jylobo1112]

Thanks for the video ,Olauncher is very beautiful. I love it.

[@Apollon8rylos1954]

Kvaesitso Launcher is on Fdroid. It is a new launcher, with a minimalist take.

[@drPeidos]

I already use a lot of the "Simple" apps, they are great.

[@burakdede2001]

VLC is on Apple App Store despite it being licenced under GPLv2 (bi-licenced with MPLv2)

[@PrograError]

well... apple is infamous walled garden... there's no choice if you want to use it on stock...

[@iagocity]

I have lineage os on an old phone, it doesn't only come without any Google app but it's also very optimized. Sadly, the manufacturer of my new phone doesn't allow rooting or installing custom ROMs.

[@ReDesignEverything]

For me, my phone is actually my least-used computer since I work from home and am always at my computer desk with a nice large multi-monitor setup. So much better for usability than a phone! Even so, I'm still going to switch my phone to LineageOS when I get the time. For this exact reason reason I specifically bought a used Galaxy Note 10+ since it's the most recent phone with stylus support and an official LineageOS build, and since I barely use my phone I don't need it to be a recent model.

[@snowmean1]

My biggest concern regarding third-party ROMs is how good they are at onboarding latest AOSP security patches, and if there any OTA updates? The idea of running Android without latest security patches, or re-flash entire ROM with each monthly security patch scares me more than Google spying on me in the shower...

[@StarcrossTV]

Nick, what's your suggestion for Dialer apps? I've used ACR Phone (which isn't open source) but went back to the original Google Dialer because I can't see my voicemails otherwise. If it has support for voicemail, that's great, but I'm just looking for a good dialer app that fits with the Material Design aesthetic and is comparable to the Google Dialer

[@KnightRiderOfVoid]

Try simple dialer, in some ocasions/scenarios it can behave unexpectedly with a permanent notification, but give it a try and if that doesn't happen to you, it can replace Google's dialer very well.

[@jalo4242]

You could have included Mull in the browser section. It’s a firefox spin with security turned to 11.

[@BtZealot]

I deleted several of my Samsung Apps including the calculator. I downloaded Simple Calculator and the thing is awesome! It even has a customizable widget.

[@orestisfraSPDR]

Simple Music Player (the one with red note with white background) is an amazing FOSS music player. It's a perfect replacement for any crappy music player you might find preinstalled

[@navdeepsharma4032]

florisBoard beta(best OSS keyboard) & OpenBoard, keepassDX, Librera Reader, Molly fork of signal, MJ PDF Reader, Nitter a twitter client, QR Scanner, Tracker Control, wifiAnalyzer, Hex launcher & Lunar Launcher, OrganicStreetMap & StreetComplete this app is for improving OSM, Standard Notes for end to end encrypted note taking app(also the best note taking secur), Scrambled Exif & ExifEraser(for erasing meta data only images), bromite a chromium based OSS browser, Forkgram(fork of telegram) & Moonlight Game Streaming(for local game streaming) these are few list of OSS apps.

[@MysticMylesZ]

A big issuse with open street maps me so far is that the text matches the language of the area you're looking at...

[@dexterman6361]

I personally would NOT recommend fdroid, because of how they crypto-sign the apps. ALL the apps on fdroid are signed with fdroid's key, NOT the developer's key (one of the reasons why signal isn't on fdroid). There are very valid criticisms for why this is bad. Aurora store seems to be the next best option. I wish that this also be covered Good video as usual!

[@Neuer_Alias_erstellen]

there is the CalyxOS ROM - an open source android project

[@theshadowofmoon2762]

This is i use open source software on android phone Keyboard : open board Browser : kiwi browser Pasword manager : bitwarden

[@Kiloristy]

One of the bes maps if used so far actually is Organic Maps. It is way quicker and nicer than osmand and it is also based on the osm data base

[@WadieGamer]

K9 Mail was the one I needed in my life, Gmail lately has become an ad billboard instead of a mail client.

[@Alexandros_Alpha]

My favourite Rom is CrDroid. It's highly customizable. You should check about it.

[@cesasol]

As for launchers go, I must say that you might have overlooked Kiss Launcher, maybe if you can in the future you could make a video about it

[@rpst39]

i have a note 4 and i tried lineage os. it was pretty good aside from camera and spen. i needed to use a modified google camera app to be able to properly record videos. also the spen didn't had much functionality. so i reverted to stock android 6. and i also realized i can't do 4k or 1080p60 recording with opencamera even on stock which really sucks. and also adding that VoLTE becomes unavailable on non Samsung based roms so using a Samsung phone isn't good if you want to use open software as much as you can.

[@duckrutt]

Man I haven't been involved i the ROM scene since the Galaxy S days. Samsung not releasing the full kernel source. The international version getting Froyo while the US variants got stuck on Eclair. Finally getting our code merged into CyanogenMod. Good times. Note: I was part of Hacksung but Atinman did the heavy coding work. I mostly poked around looking for differences in the various kernel releases. We got the Captivate working so I couldn't have hurt the team too much...

[@anibalism]

Personally I prefer FairEmail to K9. However, some features are paid only and you can only get them through the Play Store it seems.

[@ChiconDent]

I was able to download from FDroid and then upgrade the paid options without the Play Store. There is a link in the app, but it is a bit hard to find.

[@opensourceis9996]

I use Kvæsitso as my default launcher. It's by far the best launcher I have ever tried. Available on Izzyondroid. The developer also has their own repo. Another good option is starlight launcher. Not quite production ready in my opinion, but an interesting project nonetheless. It's also available on Izzyondroid.

[@opensourceis9996]

In my opinion, Organic Maps is much better than OSMAnd. It's available in the default F-Droid repo.

[@TLM860]

Does uninstalling Google play services and other apps with adb achieve the same result as a custom ROM?

[@nemonada3501]

Looking forward to the dedicated video on phone ROMs I have a Samsung A70 and I'm not sure it's even possible but really want to find out.

[@DerrickBest]

Project Elixir ROM is a really smooth custom ROM for Xiaomi devices. I've been using it on my Redmi Note 9S for 6 months now. I have OrangeFox recovery. And it's the best ROM I've used. I've had zero issues. I'm using Android 13. When I would have been stuck on Android 11. I get many updates. If you know what you're doing it's a great alternative.

[@igorgiuseppe1862]

loved this open camera, its a shame it cant record with the screenoff or minimized. still, its more lightweight than the default app and better.

[@maacpiash]

7:06 I see you're a fellow fan of Pitch Meetings!

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Yeah yeah yeah

[@exploringtheworld6490]

Any thoughts on arrowOS? I've been using it on poco phones for some time and it is so far way better than the default poco version. There're images including Google services and other without any of the play store /Google components