Just use the phone as it is, and only look for options if there's something specific that you want it to do.
That's what I'm doing now, and I appreciate the second on it
After using iOS for around 3 years and going back to Android, Android has more simple, pragmatic and free apps.
I like droidify as a store for FOSS apps (comes with several repos enabled by default, including F-Droid and Izzy).
For the basics: Breezy Weather for weather, CoMaps for navigation, Markor or Fossify Notes for notes, Aegis for 2FA, Gadgetbridge for smartwatch.
As for launchers, people like Niagara, but it's subscription for the pro version. Lawnchair is a classic-style customizable launcher. Other mainsteam apps are pretty much the same as iOS.
I appreciate it! Especially the store recommendation, because wow trying to use the stock store is crazy for me right now. If you switched recently do you mind me asking how you migrated all the saved passwords and such?
I use Sync in Firefox to sync favorites and site passwords, but outside of that, I usually start clean. Sometimes I need to manually copy notes, 2FA keys or such, but mostly I set things up as I need them.
DO NOT TRUST APPS.
iOS is more strict about "reining in" apps that burn battery tracking/spamming you in the background, but (last time I used it) Android is more unruly. Restrict permissions and backgrounding for everything unless it's absolutely essential.
Biggest recommendation is to install the F-droid app store. Not just because foss ideology, but like, it's just a great first place to look for any type of app first. Especially simple things like podcast players. The apps may not be as fully featured, but they're free, ad free, and typically no bs.
I'm currently a fan of YAM Launcher. I seem to change my launcher every few years, just to mix things up a little. I've been using YAML for over a year now and I don't really think about it. Minimalist, nothing flashy going on, just works.
Nova launcher is still fine. I've used most of the others and keep coming back.
Problem of Nova is that even if it works, you can't be sure it is/isn't a Trojan Horse.
If you want to go for privacy, specifically through using a "vanilla" system (as close to the base Android as possible, at most with some FOSS apps), you'll lose some stuff, like most banking apps, since those usually require Google Services.
Also though the main app source for Android is Google's Play Store, you can find some useful stuff on places like F-Droid (for utilities from my experience) and Itchio (for games in my experience). There's some more places but they're usually much smaller or not as easy to sort by Android.
I have a bias that favours tinkering systems, so if you'd be curious about something different or if I use some jargon you don't know, please do point out.
Ah yeah, I do need the banking apps unfortunately. I used to love tinkering, and love this fresh start, but it is a learning curve as I get older. Do you have a preferred method of sideloading? Appreciate you responding BTW
For "sideloading", I don't have much of a preferred method, going mainly by what I can find that works.
But aside from the aforementioned Itchio and F-Droid, I also use git-based services like Github, game stores and Patreon-like sites if/when they have Android contents, through Aurora Store if the program is on Google Play only and either I paid for ir already or it's free, and some times I even download the apps directly from the Play Store from another device, generating an APK from it with an appropriate tool and moving to my main phone, which uses a vanilla system.
Also I back up everything I can, and test them in both my main phone while in airplane mode, and in a virtual machine running BlissOS 15 (Android ported to the x86 architecture).
Minimalism is better.
Most important software choices:
Browser: Firefox or it's forks (install uBlock Origin for blocking ads, trackers, annoyances...)
F-Droid Client: F-Droid Basic or Droid-ify
Then if you need something just search on F-Droid it's repository is really good.
When you search on F-Droid maybe you'll find 10 alternative you can eliminate the unactive apps and you can look their source code repository to see how active they are and you will find ~3 application just choose one and if you don't like you can change easily just don't overthink.
If you have some other question/help Lemmy is a good place for that.
Also for other recommendations you can check out https://fmhy.net/mobile
I'd disagree on Firefox. It's just so much slower than Chromium on Android, and burns more power.
Of course don't use Google Chrome, but look into forks like Cromite.
I don't know performance issues is gone for me (147.0.3)
btw Fennec and Ironfox is much slower than Firefox for Android
maybe you can give a second chance :)
Stock launcher is fine. Everyone feels the need to be "special" from the general population... Gimme a break ๐
For YouTube with no ads, download revanced manager and use it to patch a YouTube apk. I believe the current recommended version is v20.14.43. Use microG to log in to your account.
https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/youtube/youtube-20-14-43-release/
Welcome to the Android community on Lemmy. Here you can participate in amazing discussions and events relating to all things Android.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
1. All posts must be relevant to Android devices/operating system.
2. Posts cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
3. No spam, self promotion, or upvote farming. Sources engaging in these behavior will be added to the Blacklist.
4. Non-whitelisted bots will be banned.
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.
Community Resources: