I’m currently looking to develop an open source app that can help somebody. I’m currently out of ideas, so I’d like to heard if from you guys.
Sorry if it seems to lazy to ask for ideas like that, I just thought that I could do it since the result will be a free app.
I don’t use it much since I’ve already got it active on the apps I wanted it for, but on Samsung’s Galaxy Store there is an app I’ve never found an alternative to anywhere from my limited searching: Sound Assistant.
On desktop/laptop, turning off individual app/program sounds is super easy, but this is literally the only app I’ve ever seen that allows you to turn off the sound for individual apps on android. Don’t know if other versions of android from other brands or android 14 has that feature natively, but it’s a feature I wish was native to all versions of android regardless of which large brand has made their own alterations to android.
A minor problem, though, as I assume most people probably don’t give a rats ass about this.
There are a few Magisk modules for this. This isn’t something that is possible without root or owning a Samsung phone
Uber? What do you use for rides?
I can’t find an equivalent replacement for Musicolet. There are plenty of open source music players out there for Android that just don’t have the little features that Musicolet does. Such as multiple queues, lyric editing, metadata editing, format conversions, stop after the track finishes, easily reorder songs and clear queues, etc.
SMS Backup & Restore? Unless there is an alternative that I’m missing? Play store link
I saw this but its missing a key feature: daily backups. SMS Backup & Restore can make a backup every day then I can sync the file out to Nextcloud or similar. It also supports Dropbox if that’s your thing.
Yeah, that’s fair. It’s the only open-source SMS Backup app I could find.
I think an open-source general device benchmark would be cool. Including CPU / GPU / Battery life metrics. As far as I know, everything that does this is proprietary.
Allowing manufacturers to know how a benchmark is performed also allows them to more easily artificially cheat when they know the benchmark is running.
That’s a good point, but I don’t figure this theoretical application would be big enough for any manufacturer to care about. I just wanted something for the people :-)
AnyType , AppFlowy, Affine - alternatives to notion LibreSpeed - alternative to Speedtest.net And Penpot - alternative to Figma
The Transit app, used for bus/train route info and buying tickets. I imagine the ticket buying part would be difficult to OS, but I just want the live transit routing info. A few apps exist for other cities, but not mine. Worst part is Transit relies on Google Maps.
I believe google maps pulls its data from municipalities setting up and streaming realtime data using this: https://developers.google.com/transit/gtfs-realtime
For my city, I was able to pull this GTFS data into my home automation system to show next arrival times for a couple of convenient stops near my home.
Yea, I’ve looked into how it works to see if I could add it to an existing app, but ran into a wall I can’t recall right now.
The local stops would be good, but what I really need is the ability to figure out new routes, like visiting a friend.
Oh yeah, then you definitely need something else to take the transit schedule and realtime updates to plan routes for you.
I’d be happy if Voiply would just work without GMS and could be downloaded from F-droid.
This is not an answer to your question, but I would love if somebody would make InputStick software for platforms other than android if possible
My banking apps. They are the only reason I can’t fully de-google myself.
My philosophy is if I can use a web page for it, I won’t install an app (couple of exceptions, but a good rule). Less convenient, more secure.
As KMFDM have it, “Those who sacrifice liberty for security Deserve neither and will lose both”
Unfortunately in some countries web banking apps are not allowed afaik. Very good answer though
My bank uses the app to auth logins to website bank.
So, if you don’t have an Apple/Android device (and the app installed), you just can’t use web-banking? That’s pretty crazy!
yes, that is pretty much it. all actions, including logins need to be done with 2-factor authentication, which means Google Play Store.
God, you know what I really wish I could do?
Run an Android VM on my phone. Imagine being able to do whatever you want with your device and still having a “stock” device for those pesky apps without having to actually have two phones.It is seemingly possible, but the only app I’ve ever seen do it was “VMOS”: a proprietary app, impossible to trust.
I’m running Android apps on my laptop using Waydroid. Works really well
You usually want to use banking apps when you are away from home though.
I don’t have any suggestions. I can’t think of any proprietary app good enough that I’d give up control of my computing for. However, consider objective requirements rather than subjective terms like good. What do you use the proprietary app for, why are existing free alternatives not sufficient, and can a free app be made that satisfies those requirements?
Nice question, you’ve got a lot of answers, most being major projects outside the scope of an individual, still, interesting pain points.
May I suggest you edit your OP with a list of viable options for individual devs or small teams to try ?
A lightweight office suit
Does this use Google libraries?
Can this be considered lightweight? not complaining, just curious
A modern replacement for OpenScan. It’s workable, but sie feature don’t work on Modern Android, and a good Scanner app is probably something most people could use. Could look at Adobe Scan and Office Lens for feature inspiration.
I don’t have any idea of how conplicated it would be, but a phone app would be a nice option. The stock dialer that comes with FOSS ROMs is OK functionally, but visually looks like it was from 2010. Plus it’s not available through F-droid or other open source app store. Koler is the only serious dialer alternative I’ve seen, and while it looks nice it has always been super buggy.
I’m thinking of this too. I heard there’s only one good alternative dialer app (don’t remember if it was Koler or not). We have a lot of FOSS SMS apps but no dialer ones for some reason
I’ve been using Emerald Dialer for a good six months now and I love it.
Have you tried the fossify dialer?
Their whole set of apps is nice.
I tried it back when it was under the simple tools developer. I couldn’t get in to his apps (aside from the calendar) for some reason. They all felt half-baked. It’s nice to see that the fossify forks are getting some love, I’ll check it out again.
I like the fossify forks much better than the simple tools, I used to only use the gallery (and even for that I switched to Aves) now I have many of them as default. Dialer is nice, though the integration could flow better.
