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

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Published on October 3, 2022 4:55:47 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Llrrzh6hxcA

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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: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrDUOtWXGv8

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.

https://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.

https://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:
https://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.

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