Hidden Gems: Unveiling Apps That Could Have Enhanced Your Experience Sooner?

KDE Connect is an app to connect your phone and computer. It works on most OS (windows, Linux, etc.), and it works extremely well (better than the solution developed by Microsoft).

Isn't dynamic rotation built in to Android these days?

• NewPipe has made my YouTube watching experience way better; it's a standalone app with features like ad blocking, subscriptions, and downloading.
• F-Droid (particularly the Droid-ify client) is an open-source app store that generally provides quality apps.
• Obtanium has helped me stay up to date with some of my more obscure apps, which are released only on Github. Obtanium can auto-update apps from a GitHub link or similar, which makes the process way easier.
• Auxio is a pretty good music player, it's quite lightweight but it also looks good.

All of these are available on F-Droid, I find that many F-Droid apps provide a better or cleaner experience than Google Play apps.

Joplin. Organise your notes into notebooks and you can also write them in markdown. You can also save your notes encrypted and syhcronise them with the cloud to have them in all of your devices. Joplin is available in all Operating Systems. Also supposts Nextcloud so it can be self-hosted!

Syncthing, I setup synchronisation between my PC and phone in apps that have bad built-in synchronisation or don't have it at all, e.g. for PPSSPP: I am able to have my save files for games synchronised and keep playing a videogame on phone just where I left it off on my PC

For me

1. MiXplorer (Mix) : Clean and powerful file manager at the same time. It's easy to use for normal user and very powerful for power users.
2. Lookup Pro: Floating dictionary that can blend in to native Android context menu when highlighting words. It's similar to iOS lookup or Kindle lookup feature.
3. Maosure: Google virtual measure app that make use of ARCore library.
4. Moon+ Reader Pro: favorite ebook reader
5. Seal: Favorite youtube downloader. Unlike other YT downloader that is riddled with Ads, it FOSS app.
6. Toolwiz Photos: Best all in one photo editor for me. It's very underrated. The variety of feature it pack is u match by any photo editing apps for me. From color correction to healing and cloning tools, the fun feature that gets old very fast like face rater, face swap, pip, etc. I just noticed that it has AI painting feature too.
7. TTS Server : Azure/Ms Edge TTS ported to Android to use it as system wide TTS. It's the most natural free TTS I've ever used. It's originally Chinese only app, but I forgot where I got English version from.

• Spectroid: what's that sound? Do I hear that faint but annoying sound or just imagine it? With spectroid you can see the sound spectrum over time.

• Nova launcher: Lets you cutomize the home screen of your phone and make it just right. I like my apps a bit closer together in five columns instead of four. Nova launcher let's me do this.

• Business calendar: it's just so much better than the default calendar, especially if you have lots of meetings and need an information dense view.

A few of mine :

• AndOTP : A good app for OTP that actually let's you backup your keys and move them easily and securely to a new phone
• Blokada : A system wide adblocker for Android. 4000000 ads blocked so far on my phone
• YouTube Vanced: Not really a "hidden" gem but a cool app nonetheless. I wish people knew you could get an ad free YouTube experience on mobile. It also includes sponsor block so you really get straight to content. Also let's you get a YT popup player and shutdown the screen with the video still playing.
• F-Droid an Android open source app market. Often includes apps that are not allowed on Google market.

1. Copy: Allows you to copy text from apps where it usually isn't possible (eg. Instagram). While certain Pixel phones come with a similar feature in the form of OCR, it does not work with non-English text.
2. Island: Allows you to run two of the same app on a single device - for example if you have two phone numbers and want to use WhatsApp for both numbers on the same device. Some companies like Samsung and OnePlus have this functionality built-in, but they may restrict it to certain apps. Island works with all apps.
3. Unit Lab: Well designed unit converter that should honestly be a default app on all operating systems. It allows for simple unit conversion (weight, temperature, currency, length, etc.) while also allowing you mix units in calculations (eg. 5 miles + 10 km + 2650 ft).
4. RustDesk: An open source alternative to TeamViewer.

I just want to share my positive experience with Folder Sync.

I use Obsidian for journaling and note-taking, and unless you use the paid plan it doesn't have native sync across multiple devices. I have the root folder of my notes stored in Google Drive and use Folder Sync to sync my PC/laptop with my mobile. Very useful as I'm out in the field often and like to jot down quick notes on my phone.

10/10 it just works.

Auto Auto-Rotate - Allows you to pick specific apps to turn on auto-rotate for while turning it off for the others. Works great if you wish to keep it on for media and video apps but not other apps.

Mixplorer - aka MiX, the only file explorer I've ever needed. It's intuitive enough for basic file browsing, but it can do heavy lifting tasks. I exclusively move files on and off my phone by starting an FTP server.

Pulsar - One of the only apps I've ever paid for, it's a music player that does everything I want and nothing I don't. I'm one of those nuts who still maintains a personal library of thousands of songs rather than using spotify or whatever.

MS Swiftkey Keyboard - I went looking for this when Swype was finally discontinued. Gesture typing wasn't common yet and I still find google's stock keyboard absolutely insufferable. Swiftkey lets me adjust the size and layout of the keyboard with far less restriction.

Any "Simple Mobile Tools" application. They are simple (obviously) and do their job well.

I'd add Tasker to that list, even if some of the functionality requires root. It's actually insane how powerful Tasker is.

I'd nominate AccuBattery, it does a good job determining my phone's battery health. The pro version is cheap and has a lot of capabilities as well

Bitwarden - Allows me to have unique, strong passwords for each of my profiles without worrying about forgetting it.

Aegis - Great open source 2FA app.

Standard Notes - Great note-taking app. I have it installed in all my devices which allows me to seamlessly switch between devices.

TrackerControl - Block all the trackers in the various apps installed in my phone.

Plees Tracker - As someone who has been trying to correct their sleep cycle, this app has been invaluable for me. It is an open source app that allows you track the duration of your sleep daily and then makes charts from it.

aCalendar+ in combination with nextcloud. Sorted my life completly. Imo the best calender app for Android.

Image Toolbox the name explains all. Adfree ☝🏻

Paperless mobile adding documents has never been easier. Scanapp inclusive ☺️

Keepass2Android Tasker Joplin DropSync, OneSync, DriveSync Evanova EDS Total Commander Aegis Instander Stocard Waze

Launcher KISS the simplest, cleanest and fastest launcher I have ever used. After few days I got so much used to it that when I get my hands on phone with another launcher I feel lost. My father and my son are also using KISS and they like it.

Is Macrodroid better than Tasker in your opinion?

My Motorola phone does that dynamic rotation thing already :)

RadarScope. I work a very weather-dependent job.

Quick Cursor: Makes it easier to use large smartphones with one hand.

+1 for Musicolet, it's fantastic.

I don't use a lot of apps I'm overly impressed with but FamilyAlbum is great if you have kids, want to share photos with family, and don't want to plaster them all over social media. You put you photos on there and give family access. No more Grandma begging for more pictures. Its not perfect. They try to get you to buy prints a lot, but otherwise a very good idea executed simply enough that the elderly can access it.

FairEmail: I hated reading email on my phone, till I found it. I was so happy that I already paid for it 3 times (optional!) just to give something back to the dev.

Waze: it belongs to Google now, but I like it much better because it's like a social network for navigation and maps. You can also edit the maps by yourself. Another advantage is that it shows speed limits and warns you about police while driving.

What phone do you use? I recall my call recording app stopped working a couple years ago due to some Google permission thing.

• CPU-Z summarizes literally everything about your mobile phone. What model you have, what SoC you have, what your clock speeds and thermals are, which update you're on, etc. Super useful and you never have to wonder anything about your specs.
• Notebloc is the best camscanner app. The ads are a lot but you can get an ad-free version for pretty cheap. The black and white scan has great clarity that makes it look legit like it's scanned.
• PlainApp is a new open-source Airdroid alternative. Easily transfer files and images from your mobile to PC over wi-fi. It's super useful.

Any FOSS alternative to Macrodroid?

KDE Connect! https://kdeconnect.kde.org/

Ok, saved lul

Shameless plug but I am promoting my app here on lemmy. Check out my profile if y'all want 🥲

Thanks a bunch, saving this right now 😊

Musicolet is indeed very nice, simple, works well, no ads. Been using it for a few years now!

Dropsync for syncing files to my phone. Tasks.org for an open source to-do list.

IgeBlock for watching youtube. No videos during playback, but you need to watch one ad every four days to keep most of the features available. Or you can pay.

Aegis: 2fa. Free, open source.

Auto Auto-rotate: per app rotation settings. Free, open source.

Missed notifications reminder: adds a repeating sound or vibration if a watched app has an active notification. Ie, you got an email when you were away from your phone so every few minutes your phone makes a beep or whatever so you don't need to check the screen constantly. Free, open source.

MJ PDF: simple, fast PDF reader. Free, open source.

Snap drop: web based instant file transfer between devices. Free, open source.

X-Plore: the only file manager that ever clicked for me. Dual pane that's really intuitive. Absolutely packed with features (connects with local network, cloud providers, ftp, ssh, dlna, has file sync)

• Niagara Launcher - literally changed the way I use my phone. Every single app is at most two taps away. And I really like the simple aesthetic.
• Taskito - just a tasks / todo app but for some reason I like it much more than most of the popular apps.