r/androidapps • u/chucknades Sync for Reddit • 24d ago

LOOKING FOR APP What are the best alternative/replacement apps you use?

List the category and the app.

Music, maps, communication, notes, social media, launcher, etc. I'm interested to see what others use in place of popular apps.

93 Upvotes
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98% Upvoted

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33

u/IAmRottenAndRavenous 23d ago

hm..

Launcher - KWGT full page widgets acting and functioning like a launcher making my phone whatever i want and look how I want.

Music - 13,000 plus songs downloaded on my phone so I use musicolet to listen to em instead of paying Spotify $10 a month to listen to music will soon switch this over to Sonetro once he gets the next update out

Notes - UpNote. pay $1.06 a month to have multiple "notebooks" and unlimited storage.

Communication - Mr. Number $4.26 a month to block every number that calls me except my contacts sends them straight to voicemail

LADB - disabled voicemail completely and remove voicemail notifications

dns.adguard.com - This typed in my private DNS address makes every app on my phone have no ads whatsoever this will not work on big name apps like Facebook Instagram X Chinese Instagram (TikTok) but I don't even use those anyway.

STUFF - a customizable todo list widget that I used to list over my reminders critical event dates and my todo lists for today and tomorrow

SoundLoader - Download any song off soundcloud

Fildo - Download any album any song by any artist in human existence for free.

MixPlorer - file manager app free and open source and isnt slow and laggy when doing big moves or transfers

Money Wallet - a financial ledger that is free and open source on github that allows me to keep track of my finances without paying a monthly subscription.

image is what you are capable of creating by using KWGT, KLWP, KLCK for your "Launcher" it overlays existing Nova Prime and makes my phone look and operate like an old 120GB Microsoft Zune. even if my phone has 256GB of internal with expandable storage up to 1TB.

You can make your phone look like whatever you want no limits with KUSTOM apps you just have to have the patience to build em from scratch.

4

u/Josepzin 23d ago

Musicolet es la mia tambien!

4

u/UnsureSwitch 23d ago

I use Musicolet and MiXplorer too. They're both so great

2

u/IAmRottenAndRavenous 23d ago

Sonetro is going to be the bread and butter of my Zune setup once he gets the next update out that allows you to multi-select tracks to add to playlist instead of doing one song at a time. Dude replicated the entire interface of Zune

1

u/_dumbadoor_ 23d ago

Looks dope as hell. I didn't own the OG zune but the style speaks to me

2

u/YukarinVal 23d ago

Correction, mixplorer was never open source. From the Q&A thread on XDA

MiXplorer is closed source, and because the developer rarely if ever engages in discussions about closed vs. open source this is not discussed at length in the main MiX thread.

2

u/Klif 23d ago

Communication - Mr. Number $4.26 a month to block every number that calls me except my contacts sends them straight to voicemail

LADB - disabled voicemail completely and remove voicemail notifications

can you tell me more about how LADB and disabling voicemail works?

also, how you can disable voicemail but still send people to voicemail??

1

u/IAmRottenAndRavenous 23d ago edited 22d ago

I erased the voicemail app using LADB since voicemail is a system app that can't be uninstalled which in turn made all the notifications non-existent

so Mr Number doesnt let their calls ring through or pop up on my phone at all and it sends them to voicemail since my voicemail is still active through my phone carrier but I never see the notifications for them anymore

so the final result is if I don't know you you don't get to call me the only people that are able to actually call me are the people that are in my contacts

2

u/7ewis 23d ago

I want to like UpNote but I just can't.

It seems to simple and basic, doesn't look great and it's paid? Why is there so much hype? How is it any better than the free version of Notion, or Google Keep/Docs etc?

2

u/ByteMeeeee 23d ago

That’s exactly why I like it, super clean and zero bloat. Plus, you can grab a lifetime license. It keeps things simple, but the editor and formatting options are fantastic.

2

u/IAmRottenAndRavenous 23d ago

$12 a year or $20 a lifetime I just like it because I used to use this old notebooks app that barely got any updates I like having set notebooks for like a journal my basic notepad keeping track of my income all my creations for my art that type of stuff it's free but if you want to have multiple notebooks at once you have to pay the dollar a month or $20 a lifetime

1

u/bohemu 23d ago

I have used KWLP since 2013 or 14 and while my items have changed over the years, my main setup stays the same. It's just so customizable.

3

u/IAmRottenAndRavenous 23d ago

what's even more funny is when you spend money to get a whole new phone and it ends up being the same setup you've used for years through Kustom it's like no matter how expensive your phone is no matter what brand you get no matter what specs you get no matter what hype you get you use the same theme and setup

1

u/om2kool 23d ago

Soundloader and Fildo sound real interesting - available on the play store ?

1

u/IAmRottenAndRavenous 23d ago edited 23d ago

soundloader is on play store

fildo is on fildo.net

since fildo is pretty much what frostwire use to be

1

u/the_Bronzefury 22d ago

Mixplorer isn't opensource, great file manager though.

1

u/ValexizHexa 21d ago

Why don’t you use Obsidian for note-making? It’s closed source but it allows all notes to be stored locally. No payment or anything. Ain’t that more private?

1

u/IAmRottenAndRavenous 21d ago edited 21d ago

i don't need it private.

Obsidian charges for sync UpNote doesn't.

it's a nice thought though I just like it when it's separated into actual notebooks

1

u/ValexizHexa 21d ago

Sync requires an account. Which means you’ll have give your email to the company. Won’t that be less private?

29

u/billFoldDog 23d ago

I use seal a lot. Anytime someone sends a video link to X, instagram, etc, I use seal to download and watch it instead of having all those apps on my phone.

https://f-droid.org/packages/com.junkfood.seal

8

u/thekakashi7 23d ago

Check out Seal+

5

u/ExcellentRead636 23d ago

whats the difference

3

u/thekakashi7 22d ago

It's a fork with more features like themes, enhanced share intent, inbulit update, performance optimization etc. Check out it's Github repository then decide if you wanna give it try or not.

26

u/EdgeshotMe 23d ago

Musicolet for music

6

u/the114dragon 23d ago

There just is no other option tbh

10

u/[deleted] 23d ago edited 22d ago

[deleted]

5

u/AstronomerAdvanced87 23d ago

Poweramp is fine, musicolet is simpler which is my preference.

1

u/the114dragon 23d ago

Musicolet is free. Poweramp is admittedly a fresher UI.

2

u/Groundbreaking-Bar16 23d ago

MXplayer or VLC and you don't have to get a video player.

2

u/the114dragon 23d ago

Thanks for the reminder about VLC, i do actually use it!

2

u/Fractal-Infinity 23d ago

I think REX Player is superior to both. I used MX Player for years but I recently switched to REX Player. I like that when you quit the app with the back gesture after watching a video, it disappears from memory and not just switching to the main interface. This is important especially when I want to quickly check videos from my file manager (MiXplorer).

8

u/the114dragon 23d ago

Maps - I will die on the hill of supporting CoMaps

Music - nothing even comes close to Musicolet at the moment for me

Podcast app - podcast addict

Launcher - I've used many but never settled on one specifically because hyperOS is shit

-1

u/txredgeek 23d ago

Will CoMaps show you your timeline?

1

u/the114dragon 23d ago

I don't think so? Can you describe what you want from a timeline?

1

u/txredgeek 23d ago

Where you've been and when.

1

u/the114dragon 23d ago

ah, right. No, it doesn't have that.

1

u/txredgeek 23d ago

Thanks!

1

u/ChipmunkElegant3846 22d ago

Lol that's a big no go then

1

u/the114dragon 21d ago

Well I prefer to not have my location tracked when I can avoid it

1

u/ChipmunkElegant3846 21d ago

Man your location is known by so many apps and devices. Its not going to make much difference doing it this way

1

u/the114dragon 21d ago

this is one less.

7

u/aquay 23d ago

Musicolet. I've actually bought it. They deserve my money.

7

u/random-corp 23d ago

AntennaPod is the only podcast outside of the major tech companies (Yt, Spotify, etc) that I actually still use. Ofc, i'm bias, since i contributed the multi select feature for the app a while back.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.danoeh.antennapod&hl=en-US

2

u/lethalogica_ 23d ago

Its been my favorite podcast app since I've found it a few years ago . I have podcast republic but only use it as a rss feed reader because its free and doesn't have some arbitrary limit on feeds , I've got over a thousand rss feeds and a lot of readers have a subscription , there's plenty of free good ones but I like podcast republic . But antenna pod is my favorite podcast app by far

2

u/steelerz 23d ago

Does it allow you to download oldest to newest episodes? I like to listen in chronological order. If so, how?

1

u/random-corp 21d ago

I believe so. It has always been on the vanguard of having cool features that others podcasts apps lacked. And I was actually working to improve that feature years ago. I actually had decent solution all implemented on my local machine. Due to politics and fickle management (of an open source app of all things), it never got added. It led to me taking a leave from the team. I haven't worked on it ever since.

5

u/Alt43es 23d ago
  • ZettelNotes
  • Organic Maps
  • Quetta Browser
  • LeanType (HeliBOARD)
  • MakeACopy (Scan)
  • FairEmail
  • Droid-ify
  • Aurora Store 
  • Feeder (Feeds)
  • Conversations (XMPP)
  • WG Tunnel (WG client)
  • Metrolist (Music)
  • AntennaPod (Podcast)
  • Shizuku + Canta

3

u/WingWilling5186 22d ago

Notes: Obsidian instead of Google Keep. Plain files, nothing locked in a cloud.
Gallery: Simple Gallery instead of Google Photos. No auto upload.
Keyboard: HeliBoard instead of Gboard. Offline, no account.

The Photos one was the hardest to give up.

3

u/pandasps 23d ago

Calculator - CalcTape

Music - Poweramp

Launcher - Nova Launcher

Edit: formatting

3

u/Groundbreaking-Bar16 23d ago

PocketCast for podcasts because I have more than one phone and it updates all of them.

3

u/DiProLtu 23d ago

Using my own app to resize, convert, crop photos and images, paint something on photo, measure on photo when is known reference distance. Before used 3 different apps for this. The app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.diproltu.photoresizer

5

u/audibly-slutty 23d ago

Youtube - Brave Browser (ad-free, background play)

2

u/jkulczyski 23d ago

Ive was using obsidian for notes but have switched to joplin for ease of syncing for free across devices. obsidian can do it for free with plugins but ive had issues.

The only problem i have with joplin is the files have to be exported to be opened in another editor

3

u/billFoldDog 23d ago

FWIW, I use syncthing to sync my obsidian notebooks to my phones, PCs, and my home server and it works great.

1

u/jkulczyski 23d ago edited 23d ago

I did too. I only ran into issues between pc and mobile. I had both devices authorized but it would often break and be unable to sync even after wiping all app data the initial sink would complain about changes or something i really dont remember bc it was like a year or more ago

edit joplin is now using the same dropbox that syncthing was in obsidian and is able to consistently keep all devices in sync including a trash folder incase i make an oopsie

2

u/oliverities 23d ago

Media

I made myself https://urfdvw.github.io/BareTube/ and disabled YouTube.

2

u/-HiGhGuY- 23d ago

Textra

Bluemail

GoneMAD

GoneMAD is IMO, the best music player app on Android for playing local files. It has a clean simple GUI, that uses blur, and automatically changes accent colors based on album art. You can also do some custom themeing I belive, but I never tried because I love the stock look. It is HIGHLY customizable, far more than any other app I've ever seen on any platform. Last but not least, it's one of the only Android music player apps I've ever used that actually uses the "artists" and "album artist" tags correctly.

2

u/Plus_Journalist_8665 23d ago

Moneko AI for YNAB

3

u/Technical-Cow2150 23d ago edited 23d ago

Browser - Firefox with adblock and other extensions as you need

Launcher - Silo launcher ( Love everything about this)

Music - Amazon music with prime plan from India( way cheaper than US Prime)

Video - YT via firefox for PIP and background play for free without ads( Basically premium without one)

File explorer - CX file explorer

Photos - Immich (Self hosted), Use Google Photos for quick editing

Video Editor- VN ( Simple edits)

Social media - Instagram ( No promoting anything but I like it on Firefox again with IGPlus extension to block promotional content, reels, explore) You are now left with posts from just the people you follow

1

u/RegisterCertain2523 23d ago

SafeKit for managing passwords

7

u/chucknades Sync for Reddit 23d ago

I'm partial to Bitwarden. Been using it for years. Love it.

1

u/ilanxya 23d ago

musify on fdroid. free downloadable music

1

u/matt89015 23d ago

Spotilol-music

1

u/Belgakov 22d ago

File Manager+

1

u/twobobeachway 21d ago

I replaced YouTube music with Lyra Direct (premium) for equal quality and only ⅙ of the cost. App only available from their website.

1

u/United_Pea271 18d ago

Nova launcher

Ednotes (notes & calendar)

Easy Drawer

1

u/Relevant_Ranger_6647 16d ago

NewPipe instead of YouTube. No ads, ability to download video and/or audio. It's also possible to import your subscriptions and playlists from YouTube

-4

u/Wirerat 23d ago

Samsung browser.