I’m sure there are countless apps out there that are incredibly cool, interesting, or useful, but just haven’t hit the mainstream yet. Maybe it’s a productivity tool that’s boosted your efficiency, a unique game that’s kept you entertained for hours, or a niche app that’s catered perfectly to one of your hobbies or interests.

What are some Android hidden gem apps that you’ve used a bunch or think it’s really cool/interesting/useful?

Please share your recommendations, and if possible, a brief description of what the app does and why you find it so valuable.

Looking forward to uncovering some hidden treasures in the Android app world. Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

  • Free Palestine 🇵🇸@sh.itjust.works
    6·
    11 months ago

    Droid-ify is a much nicer client for F-Droid.

    Obtanium for downloading apps from various other sources.

    Aurora Store for anonymously downloading apps from the Play Store without a Google account

    LibreTube or NewPipe for watching YouTube videos without ads or tracking.

    Seal for downloading YouTube videos.

    Retro Music Player - probably the best looking music app for Android.

    Pano Scrobbler - a FOSS app for Last.fm, Libre.fm and Listenbrainz. (I recommend Obtanium to download it from GitHub.)

    Murglar for downloading Music in full quality from Deezer.

    Molly - a better Signal client. (You can use Obtanium to download it from GitHub, you can add their F-Droid repo or download it using Accressent, a new experimental app store that seeks to replace F-Droid.)

    Gallery - a simple gallery app that looks good and respects your Material You theme.

    Element X is a much better Matrix client than the standard Element app. (I recommend downloading it from GitHub using Obtanium.)

    LinkSheet - a small app that restores the old Android URL link chooser. It has many great features like the ability to remove tracking parameters from URLs or using FastForward to annoying bypass URL shorteners.

    UntrackMe - a tool that can redirect YouTube, Twitter, Reddit, etc. links to privacy-friendly alternative frontends like Invidious or Piped for YouTube, Nitter for Twitter and LibReddit or Teddit for Reddit

    Thunder, the best Lemmy client I ever used.

    Most of the apps I mentioned are free and open source and many of them are available on F-Droid. They don’t collect or sell any of your data.

    The last one is not an app, but an entire OS that can replace the spyware-infested ROM that’s preinstalled by your phones’ manufacturer. I’m talking about GrapheneOS. No ads, no tracking, no proprietary Google services. Just free and open source software with maximum privacy and security. It’s so great!

    • Jvrava9@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      0·
      11 months ago

      Some alternatives and corrections to your list:

      • You can already download YT videos in LibreTube and NewPipe, speaking about NewPipe, I would suggest using NewPipeSponsosblock for blocking in video sponsors from creators. Aves Libre is a better advanced Gallery alternative with EXIF editing.
      • Aimp is a good alternative to Retro.
      • Spotiflyer is an alternative Murglar.
      • Schildi Chat is a better alternative to Element X, its based on Element but is a lot faster and has a lot more options.

      Ps: I’ve been seeing a lot of posts and comments by you in the communities that I follow, just want to tell you thx for contrubuting to them xD.

      • Free Palestine 🇵🇸@sh.itjust.works
        1·
        11 months ago

        Thanks for participating in the discussion. I have to disagree on some of your point though.

        You can already download YT videos in LibreTube and NewPipe, speaking about NewPipe, I would suggest using NewPipeSponsosblock for blocking in video sponsors from creators.

        I have found the download features in both LibreTube and NewPipe to be pretty unreliable. Seal always works. NewPipe x SponsorBlock is great, I use LibreTube which also has SponsorBlock built in, I just included NewPipe in the list because LibreTube breaks sometimes. But yes, NewPipe x SponsorBlock is better than standard NewPipe. BraveNewPipe is even better.

        Aves Libre is a better advanced Gallery alternative with EXIF editing

        Aves is a good option, it’s also available on Accrescent. Personally though, I dislike the design of the app and prefer Gallery in combination with Image Toolbox for image editing.

        Aimp is a good alternative to Retro.

        It’s not open-source and thus not available on F-Droid.

        Spotiflyer is an alternative Murglar.

        In my experience Spotiflyer has been pretty unreliable. It either pulls low quality shit from YouTube or it tries to download from Spotify and fails. So far, Murglar has worked like a dream. Just like deemix on desktop btw. You can use Deezer Premium ARLs from this guide to log in and download genuine 320kbps MP3s or even FLACs. Never had any issues.

        Schildi Chat is a better alternative to Element X, its based on Element but is a lot faster and has a lot more options.

        I tried it out, personally, I didn’t really like it. Element has been pretty slow for me, but I never had these issues with Element X.

  • polarpear11@lemmy.world
    1·
    11 months ago

    Minimalist Phone has changed my life. For anyone looking to either spend less time on social media or get rid of the digital clutter constantly bombarding you, this app is amazing.

    It Filters my notifications so I can check them on my own time, it sets time limits on all social media and game apps and kicks you out when time is up, and it has a simple black background with no app icons, only the names of the apps you choose in white letters. Perfect for my over-stimulated adhd brain.

  • rescue_toaster@lemm.ee
    1·
    11 months ago

    Fit Notes - simple lifting progress app that i’ve been using for years. On play store.

    Kvaesitso - launcher on fdroid. Has become my favorite launcher.

    • xyguy@startrek.websiteEnglish
      0·
      11 months ago

      Kiss is exactly what I want in a launcher. I use it but it seems to crash a lot and/or fail to run the search properly or render my icons.

      Have you noticed that at all? It’s happened across 2 phones for me but I may be unlucky or doing something wrong.

      • kurcatovium@lemm.eeEnglish
        0·
        11 months ago

        I’m using it for years on 2 phones and it works well. It crashed here and ther, but I’d say it’s about as stable as original one overall. I used to have problem with arcticons, butanual restart helped it. It’s sad you encounter problems.

        • xyguy@startrek.websiteEnglish
          0·
          11 months ago

          Funny you mentioned articons. I have actually had a lot fewer stability problems when I switched away from articons.

          • kurcatovium@lemm.eeEnglish
            0·
            11 months ago

            But they look good and are very minimalistic. Do you know something similar to replace them?

              • kurcatovium@lemm.eeEnglish
                1·
                11 months ago

                I’ll give it a try. Although I must admit I’m pretty used to my monochrome setup right now. Will se how it goes.

                //EDIT: I tried them and I quite like the pastel idea, but I don’t like how inconsistent the theme is as a whole. One icon is round, other one is square and third one is just symbol with no background whatsoever.