I am not a nerd(respectful), but I would like to know how you’d set up your phone. I’d like to start leaning into more opensource/privacy minded apps and such to avoid having as much of my data harvested. I’m still going to use apps like Instagram which are obviously horrible but I figure trying to do better in other areas is better than nothing.

  • what to delete
  • what apps are a must (calendar, maps, app store etc)
  • vpns?
  • keyboards?
  • email besides proton? Is there a way to have my emails from Google forward to this address?
  • everything needs to connect to Google accounts is there a way around this?

And yes any other advice on making your phone functional/fast/anonymous/aesthetically pleasing is welcomed thankkkkks

  • NewOldGuard [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    15·
    9 days ago

    App Management: Work outside of the play store where possible. Use F-Droid, either the official client or a third party one like Droidify. If something is not available there but has its own repo, go for Obtainium. If all else fails fall back to play store or aurora store. Aurora store is more anonymous but sacrifices signature checking so it’s technically less secure than play store, be aware.

    Core Apps: check out the Fossify apps on f droid (might also be on Google play store idk). They have really solid apps for your calendar, file manager, dialer, sms, gallery, music player, clock, etc which also look nice, I think. I also love DavX5 for my contact and calendar sync but that might not apply to your workflow.

    Keyboard: Try Futo, it’s source available and feature rich with respect for your privacy. For fully open source, I recommend HeliBoard. You could also try FlorisBoard but I don’t have experience with it.

    Navigation: Either OsmAnd+ or Organic Maps are great, both are open source.

    VPN: Mullvad is the only well vetted option IMO. Others trust proton for this but Mullvad has an unbeatable track record.

    E-mail: Proton is good and yes you can forward all your Gmail messages to a proton account, they have a whole guide for it. Tuta is another good provider. For accessing other email accounts I like K9 Mail and FairEmail.

    Weather: I like Breezy weather from f droid.

    Others: Using a FOSS launcher like LawnChair, Fossify Launcher, or Kvaesitso gives you an open source base to build on and removes another route for tracking and analytics. You can get fully FOSS browsers on F Droid, but if you’re looking for Firefox it’s not there; look for Fennec instead, it’s the FOSS build. Apps that don’t use Google play services might not have full push notification support, but a growing open source standard is UnifiedPush; look into their compatible apps and download ntfy to use them if you’re interested. Look into alternate front ends for media consumption types of services, e.g. using NewPipe or GrayJay for YouTube to avoid signing in or breaking anonymity.