With all the social media corps going full ham on advertising, I’m going to make the switch from Chrome to Firefox with ad-blocking add-ons. However, I’m at a crossroads since there are many variations ranging from the official Firefox app to Firefox Nightly and even Fennec or Fenix.
If you are trying to switch from Chrome, then just use regular Firefox with the ublock extension (and maybe some of the other privacy extension officially supported). If you are a “power user” and want modify/access about:config and other settings then you need Firefox Nightly. The Fennec and Fenix (iirc) are just stripped down Firefox that either only have private mode or additional settings for privacy (that are already present in regular version, but way not be enabled by default). Hope that helps.
I use Fennec it disables telemetry and updates pretty quickly from Firefox upstream releases. Also supports custom sync server and add-ons collection without having to run nightly builds.
I use Kiwi browser, which is a Chromium based browser with extension support! I currently have uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, Sponsorblock, Bypass Paywalls installed.
Before jumping ship from Chrome completely try Vivaldi, it’s built on the Chrome engine (so you can continue using your extensions and what nots) but it’s made by one of the guys that created Opera but jumped ship before it got sold off to big money.
So like old Opera there’s a huge emphasis on not only pushing what a browser can do (Opera pioneered speed dial for instance and tabs too iirc) but privacy and security as well.
I’ve been using it for a while now with Firefox really not being able to scratch the itch left by Opera and I’m really impressed with just how good it is for being built on Chrome.
Just get the regular Firefox with uBlock Origin if all you’re concerned about are advertisements. The default settings out of the box are fine for most users.
Get the Mull browser if you’re concerned about privacy as well, as this is a hardened Firefox similar to LibreWolf. Not sure if this is on the Play Store, but it’s definitely on F-Droid.
I liked IceRaven, but it’s not regularly updated anymore. I would go with Firefox Nightly, since that lets you install any extension you want (through an arduous process), where regular Firefox only lets you install add-ons on Mozilla’s approved whitelist.
Report functionality is definitely coming soon! Subscribe counts in searching is interesting I haven’t heard that suggested before but it totally makes sense.
Good to hear! Looking forward to both functionalities. There’s one particular user that I’m convinced is a troll making the rounds, every one of his posts have been just incendiary remarks, and it’s been frustrating having to switch to browser to report.
I’ve also noticed that posts which show as “deleted by mod” in browser still show up in Connect. Will that be patched as well at some point?
That’s odd… You’re clearly logged in or you wouldn’t be able to post. I guess it’s possible connect is losing your subscriptions? Is the app showing your account subscribed to a bunch of communities inside connect?
Yes. On the other apps i can choose to list posts in subscribed, local, or all. On connect i have buttons for frontpage, local, and all. I guess maybe front-page has my subscribed communities?
For self hosted music lovers, I would like to introduce you to Tempo, an open source and lightweight music client for Subsonic, designed and built natively for Android.
I’m waiting for more comprehensive offline support, but it does look promising. DSub and Ultrasonic are other good FOSS subsonic clients (although DSub isn’t being actively developed).
EDIT: Actually looks like there has been some recent activity with DSub, which is great to see.
Yeah sorry if I wasn’t clear, but I switched to Moshidon because it had Material You before the official app did, but now that the official app has Material You I went back to it because it’s just a bit more streamlined
All the apps I have tried so far have been great. Liftfof however is on a class of it’s own. A unique feature it has is the ability to combined feet from different accounts on different instances.
There are a lot of options for Lemmy, but beware they still need to mature a bit. The two apps I keep using the most are Thunder and Connect for Lemmy. Lots of users swear by Liftoff but I find the aesthetics a bit lacking for me. There’s also Lemming which is the most barebones but has a great UI for something that has only had a couple of alpha releases. Most if not all of these are available to download from Github.
Connect is working really well for me, but I prefer jerboa. Unfortunately that isn’t working right now with lemmy. World being on an older version. Once they go to 18.1, I should be able to use it again.
I have been using / testing 6 of them Liftoff, Connect, Thunder, Jerboa, Wefwef, Summit. All have strong points… But with it’s recent update I will give the edge to Liftoff. Accent theming added… And the Amoled (my favorite) theme is beautiful
Oh yeah, I was using Sync for Reddit exclusively and it was a kinda sad moment when I uninstalled it today… It’s so great to see so much development and choice with lemmy apps tho, and a lot of collaboration
Obtainium is one that I have been using for over a week now. It keeps all my FOSS apps up to date. I have 30 apps added now, and 80% of them are now updated directly from their github page!
I use Obtanium to keep Liftoff and Thunder up to date, since the updates come faster than they do from the Play Store :) Very easy to set up…even if you originally installed from the Play Store, you can still use Obtanium to update going forward.
The easiest way is to look at your Installed apps through F-Droid as it will show both apps installed through F-Droid and apps from the Play Store that are available through F-Droid. You can copy-paste each source link into Obtainium.
I’m looking for a Mastodon app. The official app and website really sucks for viewing threads. I prefer the comments to be nested like on Lemmy, but the official one stacks them all. Are there any recommendations?
Edit: It still stacks all comments like the official one. Maybe I’m too used to the Reddit/Lemmy comment nesting style. That’s the gold bar for me, but at least something like what Twitter has would be better.
Antennapod is a Free Open Source Software (FOSS) podcast app. The app is well designed with great features. You can also use it for playing audio books locally as well.
I quite like it, my only complaint is that the Android auto support is not great. It seems to lose track of what podcast I’m playing s lot of the time. The customization and queueing features are great though.
Yes that definitely used to be an issue. But I haven’t quite experienced/noticed that lately (maybe since they revamped the new home tab?)… If it’s been a while, maybe give it another shot.
Moshidon is a fantastic Mastodon Client.
Kotatsu is my personal favorite Manga reader on Android.
Image Toolbox is a great choice for an open source mobile image editor with a good amount of features.
Fdroid -> StreetComplete very easy contributing to osmMaps. You know your neighbourhood? Answer questions if that trafic lights have sound indication for blind people or about the type of surface that bike line has.
I checked right now and I’m logged in and I think it’s necessary to contribute. But it’s a simple form to register and you should try. It’s pretty addictive to answer questions about your surroundings :)
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: [email protected]
5. Engage respectfully: Harassment, flamebaiting, bad faith engagement, or agenda posting will result in your posts being removed. Excessive violations will result in temporary or permanent ban, depending on severity.
6. Memes are not allowed to be posts, but are allowed in the comments.
7. Posts from clickbait sources are heavily discouraged. Please de-clickbait titles if it needs to be submitted.
8. Submission statements of any length composed of your own thoughts inside the post text field are mandatory for any microblog posts, and are optional but recommended for article/image/video posts.
With all the social media corps going full ham on advertising, I’m going to make the switch from Chrome to Firefox with ad-blocking add-ons. However, I’m at a crossroads since there are many variations ranging from the official Firefox app to Firefox Nightly and even Fennec or Fenix.
Any recommendations?
If you are trying to switch from Chrome, then just use regular Firefox with the ublock extension (and maybe some of the other privacy extension officially supported). If you are a “power user” and want modify/access
about:configand other settings then you need Firefox Nightly. The Fennec and Fenix (iirc) are just stripped down Firefox that either only have private mode or additional settings for privacy (that are already present in regular version, but way not be enabled by default). Hope that helps.I use Fennec it disables telemetry and updates pretty quickly from Firefox upstream releases. Also supports custom sync server and add-ons collection without having to run nightly builds.
I use Kiwi browser, which is a Chromium based browser with extension support! I currently have uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, Sponsorblock, Bypass Paywalls installed.
Before jumping ship from Chrome completely try Vivaldi, it’s built on the Chrome engine (so you can continue using your extensions and what nots) but it’s made by one of the guys that created Opera but jumped ship before it got sold off to big money.
So like old Opera there’s a huge emphasis on not only pushing what a browser can do (Opera pioneered speed dial for instance and tabs too iirc) but privacy and security as well.
I’ve been using it for a while now with Firefox really not being able to scratch the itch left by Opera and I’m really impressed with just how good it is for being built on Chrome.
Just get the regular Firefox with uBlock Origin if all you’re concerned about are advertisements. The default settings out of the box are fine for most users.
Get the Mull browser if you’re concerned about privacy as well, as this is a hardened Firefox similar to LibreWolf. Not sure if this is on the Play Store, but it’s definitely on F-Droid.
I personally use Mull
Using since few months Iceraven Browser with ublock origin and no-script addons
I liked IceRaven, but it’s not regularly updated anymore. I would go with Firefox Nightly, since that lets you install any extension you want (through an arduous process), where regular Firefox only lets you install add-ons on Mozilla’s approved whitelist.
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Connect for Lemmy has a sync for reddit feel and is working quite well for me as I make the switch from reddit
Same here, besides the pack of animations it’s really getting me used to using Lemmy. Till sync for Lemmy comes out, that is. I can’t wait
I think I like connect the best so far but the logo for it changed today and the change is horrible lol I miss the goofy mascot lol. 1/10
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I did not like the old one. Do not love the new one. Hoping third time is the charm!
Connect dev here. Third logo dropping soon, another Lemmy user that has design skills messaged me and was able to help out!
Awesome! I think the C is decent, but is plain
Will there be ways to report posts and view the number of subscribers in a community when searching?
Report functionality is definitely coming soon! Subscribe counts in searching is interesting I haven’t heard that suggested before but it totally makes sense.
Good to hear! Looking forward to both functionalities. There’s one particular user that I’m convinced is a troll making the rounds, every one of his posts have been just incendiary remarks, and it’s been frustrating having to switch to browser to report.
I’ve also noticed that posts which show as “deleted by mod” in browser still show up in Connect. Will that be patched as well at some point?
On connect i can only choose all or local for scrolling. I can’t get subscribed.
That’s odd… You’re clearly logged in or you wouldn’t be able to post. I guess it’s possible connect is losing your subscriptions? Is the app showing your account subscribed to a bunch of communities inside connect?
Yes. On the other apps i can choose to list posts in subscribed, local, or all. On connect i have buttons for frontpage, local, and all. I guess maybe front-page has my subscribed communities?
Hi, front-page is the equivalent view to subscriptions!
Thanks!
Connect has been my favorite Lemmy app as of late. Jerboa is my old reliable one though 😅
I just switched from Jerboa to Connect and have
nofew regrets so far. Still feels like the wild west out here.Can’t wait for Sync though!
EDIT: I do have at least one regret, no easy way to report comments on Connect, AFAICT. Guess I need to keep exploring my options.
To be fair, most apps other than Jerboa didn’t exist a few weeks ago 😅
Seconding this, Connect for Lemmy also feels a lot like RIF.
Medito is a free meditation app that’s developed and run by a dutch non-profit.
I had no idea that it was a Dutch app! It’s really great, I’ve been using it on and off for a year now to great success.
Does anyone have recommendations for an app that does heart/step/etc health tracking but is FOSS supporting WearOS watches.
I think your best bet is this: http://gadgetbridge.org/
I have no idea if it works but you could try your luck with Gadgetbridge
Thanks I’ll take a look. Didn’t expect it to pretty much take control of the whole device haha
For self hosted music lovers, I would like to introduce you to Tempo, an open source and lightweight music client for Subsonic, designed and built natively for Android.
I’m waiting for more comprehensive offline support, but it does look promising. DSub and Ultrasonic are other good FOSS subsonic clients
(although DSub isn’t being actively developed).EDIT: Actually looks like there has been some recent activity with DSub, which is great to see.
I’ve been using Trunks as my go-to Mastodon client for a couple of weeks now and I’m really liking it.
Have you used Tusky? How do you compare the two?
Trunks is great! I use Moshidon nightly.
I was using Moshidon, but the official Mastodon app just got Material You so I switched back to it
Moshidon has material you as well
Yeah sorry if I wasn’t clear, but I switched to Moshidon because it had Material You before the official app did, but now that the official app has Material You I went back to it because it’s just a bit more streamlined
ah that makes sense, personally I like the icons and animation flair of Moshidon so I’m gonna stay 😁
That, and you still can’t follow hashtags in the official app. Kinda insane really.
Any app with mark as read or mark as read on scroll?
Looking for a good Lemmy and/or KBin app.
wefwef is the smoothest right now and it’s just a webapp
I’m personally waiting for Sync for Lemmy to come out, but in the meantime, Liftoff for Lemmy and Thunder have been pretty good for me
All the apps I have tried so far have been great. Liftfof however is on a class of it’s own. A unique feature it has is the ability to combined feet from different accounts on different instances.
Wefwef, truly amazing and polished experience!
Jerboa is decent, still in its early stages though.
There are a lot of options for Lemmy, but beware they still need to mature a bit. The two apps I keep using the most are Thunder and Connect for Lemmy. Lots of users swear by Liftoff but I find the aesthetics a bit lacking for me. There’s also Lemming which is the most barebones but has a great UI for something that has only had a couple of alpha releases. Most if not all of these are available to download from Github.
Connect is working really well for me, but I prefer jerboa. Unfortunately that isn’t working right now with lemmy. World being on an older version. Once they go to 18.1, I should be able to use it again.
I have been using / testing 6 of them Liftoff, Connect, Thunder, Jerboa, Wefwef, Summit. All have strong points… But with it’s recent update I will give the edge to Liftoff. Accent theming added… And the Amoled (my favorite) theme is beautiful
Agreed. Liftoff seems to hit all the right buttons so far. Allows multiple instances/accounts, beautiful theming, animations, smooth performance.
That being said, Sync has its work cut out for it, but i have no doubt it’s going to be amazing when ready
Trying Liftoff after coming from mainly Jerboa and Thunder, this is the most refined experience yet.
Agreed. Liftoff seems to hit all the right buttons so far. Allows multiple instances/accounts, beautiful theming, smooth performance.
Sync has it’s work cut out for it, but i have no doubt it’s going to be amazing when ready
Agreed. Liftoff seems to hit all the right buttons so far. Allows multiple instances/accounts, beautiful theming, animations, smooth performance.
That being said, Sync has its work cut out for it, but i have no doubt it’s going to be amazing when ready
Oh yeah, I was using Sync for Reddit exclusively and it was a kinda sad moment when I uninstalled it today… It’s so great to see so much development and choice with lemmy apps tho, and a lot of collaboration
Keeping Sync on my phone so I can sell it in 10 years for $40k like phones with Flappy Bird
Hahaha
I read your comment, jumped over to the play store and the dev already removed all Sync versions from the store.
Keep your copy safe and sound.
All other Reddit 3rd party client are still there.
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Connect, liftoff, thunder, jerboa are the best ones at the moment
Obtainium is one that I have been using for over a week now. It keeps all my FOSS apps up to date. I have 30 apps added now, and 80% of them are now updated directly from their github page!
I would love to know what apps you have added to it!
I use Obtanium to keep Liftoff and Thunder up to date, since the updates come faster than they do from the Play Store :) Very easy to set up…even if you originally installed from the Play Store, you can still use Obtanium to update going forward.
The easiest way is to look at your Installed apps through F-Droid as it will show both apps installed through F-Droid and apps from the Play Store that are available through F-Droid. You can copy-paste each source link into Obtainium.
No I know, I was asking what apps they’re updating through Obtanium.
Heres the list
And I just added AntennaPod, Vinyl Music Player, Lawnchair, and Liftoff to the list as well!
Bitwardens auto sync uses push notifications through Google services, so I’d recommend play store for that one if you use multiple devices.
I don’t use bitwarden for much besides copying/pasting my passwords on my phone. I figure its better than memorizing a single password like I used to!
How did you manage to add breezy-weather? It complains that it can’t find a suitable release for me if I try to add the repo url directly
You have to use the include pre-releases option with Breezy.
Worked like a charm, thanks!
I’m looking for a Mastodon app. The official app and website really sucks for viewing threads. I prefer the comments to be nested like on Lemmy, but the official one stacks them all. Are there any recommendations?
I personally recommend Moshidon. It’s served me well in my short time on Mastodon. Very clean UI and fairly feature-rich.
Not 100% sure it’s on an android, but toot I like more than ivory.
Have you tried megalodon? Does more than the official app, but with a similar layout so the learning curve is a non issue.
I’ll take a look. Thanks!
Edit: It still stacks all comments like the official one. Maybe I’m too used to the Reddit/Lemmy comment nesting style. That’s the gold bar for me, but at least something like what Twitter has would be better.
Use fedilab.
I use Fedilab, since I prefer a native app to a PWA
I don’t think I have seen the UI you want on mastodon clients, but another good app is Tusky
Yup! One guy in this comment section recommended Tusky, and it does nest comments! So I think I’m going to use that for now Thanks!
Pocket paint
Antennapod is a Free Open Source Software (FOSS) podcast app. The app is well designed with great features. You can also use it for playing audio books locally as well.
I quite like it, my only complaint is that the Android auto support is not great. It seems to lose track of what podcast I’m playing s lot of the time. The customization and queueing features are great though.
Yes that definitely used to be an issue. But I haven’t quite experienced/noticed that lately (maybe since they revamped the new home tab?)… If it’s been a while, maybe give it another shot.
Neat! Gonna have to give it a shot, looks polished.
Just downloaded it. I really like that it highlights and lets me skip the podcast using timestamp in the description!
I really like it, solid app.
+1 for capability to sync to gpoddersync on Nextcloud
💯
Also, I recently learned about this standalone server but haven’t had a chance to try it out: https://github.com/bohwaz/micro-gpodder-server
I like that. I did have an issue with the NC addon but managed to get it working, but I’ll keep this in mind if it becomes an issue.
Moshidon is a fantastic Mastodon Client. Kotatsu is my personal favorite Manga reader on Android. Image Toolbox is a great choice for an open source mobile image editor with a good amount of features.
Just a few of my personal favorites right now.
Any reasons why you chose Kotatsu over Tachyomi?
I like that the extensions on Kotatsu aren’t seperate APK files. No other reason in particular :)
I think Birday is a great app because it’s so simple, just reads birthdays from your contacts and notifies you a preset time before.
Komoot - great bike route planner and gpx recorder.
Mapy.cz - great hiking navigation with trails colors/indications. Mosty Europe I guess.
Fdroid ->Catima - simple loyalty cards / barcodes instead of supermarket apps
Fdroid -> StreetComplete very easy contributing to osmMaps. You know your neighbourhood? Answer questions if that trafic lights have sound indication for blind people or about the type of surface that bike line has.
I’ve never heard of StreetComplete before but I’m always up for another crowdsourcing app. It looks like it’s this one on GitHub and I think this is their website?
Really dumb question, but do they have an anonymous/unregistered mode or do you also need an OSM account?
I checked right now and I’m logged in and I think it’s necessary to contribute. But it’s a simple form to register and you should try. It’s pretty addictive to answer questions about your surroundings :)