Technology

I do not recommend getting attached to Reddit Is Fun, although it is a great app.

A lot has been said, but I'll repeat a few.

• F-Droid (I use Droid-ify)
• Debloat it https://github.com/0x192/universal-android-debloater
• Change the launcher and icons (lots of choices, I use Lawnchair with Arcticons or Delta)
• Check out the different browsers
• Check out the different keyboards
• Get some key apps like Newpipe (or equivalent)
• If the phone isn't rooted, any changes can be reset by doing a factory reset, so you have nothing to lose but time.

I'm interested to hear what others say but I'll throw in my two cents

• Nova launcher is still king
• Fdroid store for open source apks
• Newpipe app -> disable YouTube

sideloading is a whole thing on android. don't like the options that the play store gives you ? fdroid has your back

Some of my favorites:

• Launcher: Niagara
• Rom: LineageOS
• Browser: Firefox (with DarkReader and uBlock Origin)
• Reddit: Relay (is this ending?)
• HackerNews: Harmonic
• ~~Lemmy: Jerboa (haven't tried alternatives)~~
• Podcasts: AntennaPod (haven't tried much else)
• Identify stuff: LeafSnap (plants), SoundHound, Merlin (birds!)
• Books: Moon+ Reader Pro
• Barcodes: Catima
• Computer stuff: KDE Connect
• File stuff: Material Files and ZArchiver
• TTS: @Voice Aloud Reader
• Passwords: Bitwarden
• Icons: Crayon or Viral
• Keyboards: MS SwiftKey, maybe someday FlorisBoard, sometimes Hacker's Keyboard
• Scrobbles: Simple Scrobbler
• Video: VLC and NewPipe
• Weather: Weawow

EDITS:

• Lemmy: Liftoff
• Chat: Telegram
• Email: Delta Chat?

Niagara Launcher is the coolest thing I've seen happen for mobile interfaces since the first touch interface. It is so clean and well-designed, it makes everything else in iOS and Android look like a cluttery mess - all while adapting to what you need and offering quick access to everything on the phone.

You can add a private DNS in the settings. It'll allow you to have a dns level ad blocking experience without having to use any of the dubious ad blocking apps. You also don't need root or a VPN.

I'm using my own dns server, but keep in mind that it needs to support DoT. You can't just enter any IP, because of the certificate check (the dns requests are encrypted using TLS).

dns.adguard.com works, but as is the case with all dns services, they will be able to see every domain you access. So keep that in mind.

Try out F-Droid! It's basically a more free and open version of the play store. Plenty of cool apps on there. Def worth checking out!

https://f-droid.org/en/

cant really say whats essential as thats on a per user basis, but stuff that has made my experience enjoyable include f-droid, aurora store, and youtube revanced.

Google's a much bigger part of the ecosystem by default. Used to be the Google app store was a selling feature, now Google is integrated into pretty much every device (and has contracts with manufacturers to force that).

It's also, like Shortwavefilter mentioned, much harder to root or flash a devices.

Though the AOSP has gotten better in ways too. It's gotten a lot better hardening, and still is fairly open (e.g custom app stores added one click).

Last, there's still plenty of bloat pre-installed on some brands, but I think that was the case a decade ago as well if my memory is correct.

Honestly I can't think of too many essential settings or apps that'd be a necessity for everyone. Usually I'd say change privacy settings and disabled as much bloat if you're not using a ROM; but that might not be applicable if you're on a work phone. Apps wise, I'd say stick to open source if you can for the basic offline utilities -F-Droid is great for that if you're allowed to install it.

For some privacy/security features: "Warden" allows you to block Trackers and Loggers on individual apps, if you have root. "TrackerControl" or "Rethink: DNS + Firewall" basically allow you to customize a Firewall and in the case of Rethink also offer a good DNS service. I basically see no ads anymore, even in other apps.

Edit: and definitely check out OSMAnd+. Theres a paid full version on the Playstore but the exact same version is for free on FDroid. I suggest the paid version to support them. Its by far the best Map+Navigation app i've used, although the public transport navigation doesnt work that well for me. In those cases i use Transportr.

Well, any samsung with a snapdragon chip is pretty useless for ROMS. To ROM these days you need a Google Pixel (best supported), OnePlus (most models), or Motorola (some models).

You need good lock, it changes the game for customization, it's the reason I no longer feel the need to do custom roms

You also need to use adb to remove all the bloat.

On the topic of Android, am I the only one who dislikes the google pixel version of android UI?

If you want to de Google then I recommend looking at grapheneos. I haven't yet tried it but I am deeply stuck in the Google ecosystem.