Hardware

Esperanza PC Studio Pro microphone ($7), good enough microphone for meetings and whatnot, with included holder
:hp: HP Compaq 8200 Elite SFF (i7-2600 vPro @3.40Ghz, 8GB RAM (2x4 DDR3 1333Mhz), MSI GeForce GTX 1650 LP 4GB GDDR5, Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDD, Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500 GB HDD)
:hp: HP Pavilion 300 mouse
:lexmark: Lexmark X1170 printer (used for scanning purposes, but theoretically could print as well, if I were to get ink for it)
Phillips 3000 Series LED TV 22" (22PFL3405H-12)
:razer: Razer Kiyo X webcam (720p60 / 1080p60), good enough for meetings and whatnot, I got it for quite cheap ($37), I think it was worth that much
Spacer SPKB-520 keyboard
:xbox: XBOX Series XS wireless controller
:rpi: Raspberry Pi 5 4GB + official case + M.2 Hat+ + Samsung M.2 NVMe 2242 256GB SSD (Pi 5 + case, charger, 16GB microSD card with PiOS part of a kit I bought on sale)

Devices

[Daily driver] Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 (4/64GB, Android 14 using PixysOS custom ROM / spes, NOT the 4G or China variant, this one uses Snapdragon 680 4G)
[Previous] Samsung Galaxy A10 (2/32GB, Android 11-14 using custom ROMs such as crDroid and LineageOS)

Software

Operating Systems

:android: Android 15 // Using crDroid custom ROM, using regular GAPPS, using Antennae KSU kernel, I have root using KernelSU. Unfortunately, the current ROM doesn't support spoofing, so banking apps still tell me that my device is rooted (because it has debug information in the build.prop file), in January or February I'll switch to a different A15 ROM that supports that, so I can use banking apps again. Of course, if you can, use :grapheneos: GrapheneOS // Donate - which is currently exclusive to Google Pixel devices, because, ironically enough, Google seems to be the most open and provide the most secure devices out of every other big phone company. I can't buy a Google Pixel phone at the moment, will buy one when I get a job.
:debian: Debian Trixie/Sid // Donate - Migrated in less than two days from Ubuntu 23.10, completely seamless and works just as well, if not actually better. I can access newer versions of software and whatnot in a 'semi-rolling' release, instead of having to to jump from one Ubuntu version to the next (yes, I like to live near the bleeding edge when it comes to stuff such as GNOME DE and app updates, among other software, something that isn't as easy to do on Ubuntu). Very stable, stuff just works. Initially I wanted to try Fedora, but I didn't want to familiarize myself with a different package manager, I think APT is just fine as it is, and I don't see why I should change from what works.
:rpi: Raspberry Pi OS - Debian-based, easy to use if you're familiar with Debian. It's super lightweight as well, my Pi5 4GB uses ~350MB of RAM at the moment running the OS, with Vaultwarden and Radicale WebDAV, and less than 1GB to run Vanta Social.
:ubuntu: Ubuntu - My previous Linux operating system, that I started using two years ago (20.04, was it?), up until 23.10, after which I moved to Debian 13 trixie/sid, because I didn't like the update cycle, nor did I like having to upgrade from time to time, so a 'semi-rolling' release would work better for me instead. I like it, but it comes with stuff such as Snap, and some Ubuntu stuff that I don't like. And now that I compare it with Debian, I think Debian might run smoother in some cases, not by much, but there is a slight performance difference.

Web-based

ADS-B Exchange - open-source flight tracker, with optional API for personal, non-profit or enterprise usage
Busify - web app / site for public transport in Cluj-Napoca, showing the estimated position of a bus on its route using the official API from the city's bus company. Quite laggy on a phone, which isn't great. But, it's better than installing some other shitty public transport app that tracks you with Google CrashLytics, AdMob, Firebase Analytics, Facebook Analytics, Login and Share. Thankfully, Busify is open-source: Website repo, Backend.
:cobalt: cobalt // Donate (Boosty) - open-source, no-frills, no-bullshit media downloader for a lot of sites
JustDeleteMe - Direct links to account deletion pages, where possible
JustGetMyData - Direct links to many websites to download or access the data collected
JustWhatsTheData - List of websites and what types of data they collect
selfh.st // Donate (buymeacoffee) - Wonderful, easy-to-peruse collection of self-hostable alternatives (both OSS and closed-source), blog and podcast

Services

Bought a Pi5 4GB kit from my savings as it was on sale, which means that I can now self-host Vaultwarden, Radicale, and will soon host my Mastodon Glitch instance, Vanta Interactive Social.

:ente: ente - I stopped using ente, because I found FileRun and Immich that are almost virtually identical to Google's Drive and Photos products. ente isn't bad by any means, I just prefer the alternatives.
FileRun - Virtually identical to Google Drive, has incredibly similar UI and UX. I will definitely use this in the future, alongside Immich.
:forgejo: Forgejo // Donate (LiberaPay) - I'll self-host this someday.
:gitlab: GitLab - It's fine. I don't really like the UI with a sidebar for GitLab, it doesn't work on desktop and it especially doesn't work on mobile, it's very clunky and slow on Firefox Android.
Imginn - View (public) Instagram profiles, posts and stories without an account. Helps if someone sends me an IG link or I can't access IG, but still need to see a post. Wish there was something like this for Facebook as well.
:iceshrimp: Iceshrimp // Donate to the frontend dev - With some additions from the open PRs, issues, some themes, and my own Obsidian Design on top, which is complete and pretty much ready to be used, I can run it locally with zero issues. The problem is that it's Iceshrimp, and it unfortunately lags behind Mastodon. I don't fully like it, but it's quite intuitive and surprisingly, SO MUCH easier to self-host. I also tried Iceshrimp.NET, it takes about 300MB of RAM on my Raspberry Pi 5 with some configuration, but the frontend and backend don't seem complete, as of December 2024. Plus, I'm already using Mastodon Glitch Edition, I'd rather not switch again.
Immich - Virtually identical to Google Photos, has incredibly similar UI and UX, and features, including self-hosted, hardware-accelerated ML for face recognition and smart search. I will definitely use this in the future!
:mastodon: Mastodon // Sponsor - Strangely, I can't self-host it on my localhost, it just fails to load, as it automatically upgrades my HTTP connection to HTTPS. I've tried everything, no dice. Oh well, I stopped giving a fuck
:glitchsoc: Mastodon Glitch Edition - It has a couple big changes over Mastodon, mainly media improvements, post formatting, local-only posts, threaded mode, highlighting misleading links. I'm using this now instead of regular Mastodon, as seen in VantaInteractive/Social, where I'm making my own modifications, from both upstream Mastodon, glitch-soc, adding stuff like the changes I mentioned previously - Adding Nileane's Tangerine UI theme as an option, Roni Laukkarinen's Bird UI as an option, some upstream PRs that are still open such as Confirmation Modals - and will add my own Obsidian changes as well. This is what will be run on social.vantainteractive.com once I launch it someday
:radicale: Radicale - WebDAV that supports CalDAV and CardDAV. Runs perfectly fine on my Pi5 4GB, uses no more than 20MB of RAM, it's super lightweight and easy to set up.
Vaultwarden // Donate - Rust-based Bitwarden backend and web server that can be self-hosted. Uses no more than 70MB of RAM on my Pi5 4GB.

Cross-platform

:bitwarden: Bitwarden - Encrypted password manager. "Waah waah, Bitwarden is not FOSS" I know, I don't care. The projects are still primarily open-source, except the portions where they use the non-FOSS Bitwarden SDK. I'm not bothered by that, as I'm not a F(L)OSSbro that may be blowing this out of proportion, it's not like the whole project was suddenly enshittified or something. A little bit embarrassing to see Fedi have a small meltdown for this...
:cromite: Cromite - Hardened Chromium browser based on the now-defunct Bromite browser, by uazo, one of the main contributors, with very frequent updates
:godot: Godot // Donate - Cross-platform game editor and game engine. Both the editor and packaged games can run on Android, Linux, macOS, Windows and even through a Web Editor (the web editor is not recommended, however, because it lacks some features).
:localsend: LocalSend // Donate (GitHub Sponsors) - Encrypted PC<->Mobile file transfer
KDE Connect // Donate (KDE.org) / GSConnect - Android notifications, file transfer to PC and vice-versa
:openttd: OpenTTD // Donate (OpenTTD.org), OpenTTD - Android - Fun open-source transportation game (unofficial fork for Android)
:scrcpy: scrcpy // Donate (GitHub Sponsors) - Android display capture and control from the PC
Sherlock - (cross-platform because you can run it on Termux) an OSINT terminal tool that allows you to search the web for accounts that match specific usernames
:stackwallet: Stack Wallet // Donate (StackWallet.com) - Open-source cryptocurrency wallet that supports many cryptocurrencies, and you control your private keys. Encrypted backups and an in-app exchange are available as well. Would recommend if you need to use or hoard cryptocurrency
:stremio: Stremio - Cross-platform torrent stream app. Install some plugins from the Stremio Add-Ons community list, and you can access whatever you want: porn, scraped torrent providers such as YTS, EZTV, RARBG, 1337x, TPB, KickassTorrents, Rutor, Rutracker, you can see the streaming catalogs from Netflix, Amazon Prime, you can get additional info such as IMDB ratings directly in the page for what you want to stream, etc. It's a hidden gold-mine

Desktop

:android: Android Studio 4.0.2 (UE 4.27.2 requirement), 2022.2.1 Patch 2 (UE 5.2.1 requirement) and Preview (non-Unreal use, mostly for GitHub projects) - I really like the new interface, it works quite well, if not almost flawless, in my experience. It's fast, intelligent and more than adequate to develop or decompile Android apps (decompiling using JADX).
:firefoxnightly: Firefox Nightly // Donate - Been using Firefox Nightly specifically since I switched to Linux full-time, and even before that, while I was on Windows 7, 8 and 10. I'm using Firefox and not Librewolf, Waterfox, or some other fork, because I'm still using the Arkenfox config, with my own flag changes and configuration, so I still get a comparable level of protection and anti-tracking, anti-fingerprinting, etc.
Kdenlive // Donate (kdenlive.org) - Powerful KDE/Qt-based video editor for Linux
MagicaVoxel // Donate (Patreon) - Build models with voxels. I use it extensively. If you want to see some spectacular creations using MagicaVoxel, MadMaraca does some outstanding work. Closed-source program!
:mcbedrock: Minecraft Bedrock Launcher (Linux) // Donate (PayPal) - Play Android versions of Minecraft on Linux. Has support for the latest versions, is continuously updated, and has architecture support for all architectures used by the app, which is why it works not only on regular x86, x86_64 Linux distros, but also on arm and arm64 Linux distros including mobile Linux distros such as postmarketOS, Droidian and Ubuntu Touch
Pitivi // Donate (pitivi.org) - GTK and Python-powered FOSS video editor for Linux. It's not as powerful as Kdenlive
Portmaster // Donate (GitHub Sponsors) - FOSS firewall for Linux and Windows. Compatible with my filterlist
ProtonUp // Donate (Ko-Fi) - Easily add or remove custom Proton versions on Steam and Lutris, such as Proton-GE
qBitTorrent // Donate (qBittorrent.org) - Don't use anything else if you want a FOSS torrent client. uTorrent is malware and adware, BitTorrent is malware and shady as fuck
:unreal: Unreal Engine - Epic Games-developed, source-available (NOT open-source, there are differences between the two, despite some overlap) multi-platform game engine. I have used 4.21, 4.24, 4.25, 4.26, 5.0EA1, 5.0 Preview, 5.0, 5.1, 5.2, 5.1.1, 5.3.1, 5.4 Preview, and I only used 4.27.2 and 5.2.1 up until I dropped Unreal entirely in late summer 2024, they were seemingly the most stable for me. 4.27.2 isn't really used anymore however, despite it being much lighter than 5.X, it can't be used for mobile development due to requirements from Google Play that keep updating their Play Billing library. Use 5.2.1+ for this. Despite my long-term experience and usage of Unreal, I really don't trust Epic Games and I'd rather switch, which is why I'm developing :sapphire: [Sapphire]({{ site.baseurl }}/post/roadmap/2024/01/14/Sapphire-thread).
Virtualbox - Multi-platform Virtual Machine manager that works on Windows, macOS and Linux hosts, and can run a lot of guest OSes. Can also be used by the Genymobile Android emulator, which is probably the most performant Android emulator on Linux, next to Waydroid.
:vscodium: VSCodium // Donate (BTC) - FOSS/Libre version of VSCode that doesn't enable Microsoft trackers by default. Some Microsoft-owned extensions are not available by default, but you can manually install/import them if you already have regular VSCode, you just copy the entire folder and it works with no hitches
:zen: Zen Browser // Donate (Patreon) - freshly installed on Debian, my first impressions are in their thread announcing their arrival on the Fediverse. Overall? If you're a fan of Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Vivaldi, Arc Browser, or of vertical tabs in general, do give this a try. I really like it, save for a few small bumps and hiccups for the first few moments. If you've already used Firefox, this is intuitive and just as easy to use as Firefox. Of course, it's open-source, and there might be plans to add it soon enough to PrivacyTests, so we'll see how it compares to Firefox, Librewolf, Mullvad and Tor.

Mobile

:aegis: Aegis Authenticator // Donate (buymeacoffee) - 2FA authenticator with encrypted backups, automatic backups after each modification
AFWall+ // Donate (PayPal) - (root required) firewall to restrict network access on a per-app basis
Applist Detector - (root required) helps to see if apps could detect Magisk, Magisk modules and other "suspicious" apps
Apps // Donate (GrapheneOS.org) - to update the GrapheneOS camera, GrapheneOS PDF apps
aShell You // Donate (buymeacoffee)- Run ADB commands from a Material You-styled ADB shell app
Aurora Store - Google Play front-end that does not require a Google account
:bdavf: BitDefender Antivirus Free - JUST the antivirus, it's free and does not require an account or subscription. It's not a trial either
:buckwheat: Buckwheat - Helps you spend money wisely, although I'm yet to use it
:catima: Catima // Donate (PayPal) - FOSS loyalty card wallet with some customization. Comes in handy if you don't want to carry all your loyalty cards around - but keep in mind that loyalty programs in stores might track you regardless
DankChat // Donate (StreamElements) - FOSS Twitch player
:databackup: DataBackup // Donate (buymeacoffee) - (root required) - Comprehensive data backup and restore app. Has been immensely useful to me in November and December 2024. Seriously, backing up and restoring apps (incl. data, media, OBB, cache) has been crazy seamless. It saved me twice because I borked my latest Android custom ROM and I had to re-flash it, but thank fuck for this app.
:davx5: DAVx⁵ - DAVx⁵ my beloved, it's compatible with Radicale, works with Etar, Google Calendar, Google Contacts and jtx Board, so I can self-host my calendars and contacts.
:droidify: Droid-ify - The best F-Droid client I have ever used, uses Material You
Etar - FOSS calendar that supports all kinds of accounts, including Google calendar and DAVx5
Exodus - See trackers and permissions in the installed apps
Feeder // Donate (Ko-Fi) - Simple RSS reader with Material You
Feeel - A simple home workout and exercise app
Food-e - Last updated in 2023, the app basically uses the OpenFoodFacts database to give you the same info + information about additives
Franco Kernel Manager - Can control everything about the device's kernel. Per-app performance profiles, GPU and CPU underclocking, Z-RAM, swap, SELinux, etc
:google-gboard: Gboard - Arguably the best keyboard on Android, if you like Material You. Blocked all network access via the system settings and AFWall+, Gboard cannot share or upload any personalization data
:github: GitHub - The best GitHub app on mobile, but it could do better, honestly
GMaps VW // Donate (Divested.dev) - A WebView app for Google Maps. Nothing more, nothing less
:google-photos: Google Photos - Excellent photo editing app for Android, can edit RAW images very well. Say what you will about Google, but the app itself is really good overall.
:google-recorder: Google Recorder - Use the provided version if you do not have a Google Pixel device. Newer versions of the app WILL NOT WORK properly otherwise! Requires Speech Recognition and Synthesis from Google if you want to recognize speech when recording audio
Gramophone - FOSS local music player with Material 3, will have more features in the future.
hKtweaks // Donate (PayPal) - Kernel manager specifically designed to support Exynos processors. Same functionality as FKM
Hypatia // Donate (Divested.dev) - An open-source malware scanner powered by ClamAV-like databases
InfoCons - Free (but seemingly not open-source) app like OpenFoodFacts, but by the InfoCons organization. It's primarily intended to be used in European countries, not in the US
:innertune: InnerTune fork by Malopieds // Donate to original project (LiberaPay) - Best YouTube / YouTube Music audio player. It's what I use now, after using the original project, and after using ViMusic a while back.
KeePassDX // Donate (LiberaPay) - Offline password manager
:kernelsu: KernelSU - Abbreviated as 'KSU', it's another superuser (root) manager for Android. What makes it different from Magisk, is that KSU is integrated in the kernel, so you need to recompile your phone's kernel, or use a precompiled kernel that supports KSU if you're using a custom ROM. KSU can be nearly undetectable if used correctly, and so far, the latest version of my bank app works just fine.
Lawnicons - Great icon pack that fits the default, Pixel-like icon pack
LogFox - Best logcat app, using Material You
:look4sat: Look4Sat - Open-source satellite tracker
:luckypatcher: Lucky Patcher - Kind of an obscure one, maybe not used as much these days, but you can patch in-app purchases. It can also patch out ads, trackers and app permissions, and works with root
:magisk: Magisk - Popular superuser (root) manager. I used this before using KernelSU. However, I don't use it anymore, specifically because the latest updates to my banking app seem to detect it.
Markdown Editor // Donate (GitHub Sponsors) - Very simple, minimalist, Markdown editor app. I didn't really use it, however, since I don't generally edit or write code, posts on mobile. That might change in the future, who knows
:megaio: MEGA - Encrypted storage from a privacy-friendly company
:megalodon: Megalodon - A Mastodon for Android app fork with an uncertain future. I have moved to Moshidon which is somewhat newer, but still lags behind compared to the upstream.
:microg: microG // Donate (GitHub Sponsors) - Open-source implementation of some of the functionality from Google Mobile Services
:mintcalc: Mint Calculator - A great alternative to the Material You calculator from Google, and it has extra features such as converters
:molly: Molly - Independent fork of Signal with additional security features, including a few that were removed from Signal. I do NOT use Molly or Signal anymore, simply because they're centralized and require a phone number. Signal is the best when it comes to encryption, but unless they make it federated, or another project comes along to use the Signal protocol in a federated manner, where anyone can have their own Signal server (already possible, but it's a chore), I won't use it. I'll use Matrix for the time being, there's nothing else that I use for 'encrypted' messaging.
monocles Chat // Donate (Monocles.de) - XMPP chat client. Gave it a shot, deleted my account a few days later. XMPP isn't bad, per se, I just don't want to fragment myself further, that's all. Plus, the app could use a Material 3 facelift.
:moshidon: Moshidon - The current Mastodon app I use on Android. Based on Megalodon and the upstream Mastodon for Android app. Seems to lag behind the upstream, and for some reason doesn't implement the QR code sharing feature from upstream, it's just commented out in the code.
MRepo - Magisk repo and module browser / manager app
:mull: Mull // Donate (Divested.dev) - DivestOS has shut down after 10 years of activity. This includes Mull development. Deblobbed, privacy-oriented Firefox browser for Android. Keep in mind that Firefox is NOT as secure as Chromium-based browsers. Use Mulch, Vanadium or Cromite if you want security!
Mulch System WebView // Donate (Divested.dev) - DivestOS' hardened Chromium system webview, using some of the patches used by GrapheneOS' Vanadium browser
NFSee - Read/dump NFC tag and card data
:nothing-recorder: Nothing Recorder - Simple, minimalist sound recorder app from Nothing. Microphone options won't do anything unless you have a Nothing device
OONI Probe // Donate (OONI.org) - Run some tests on your network to see if any supported services are blocked or censored by your government
OpenFoodFacts // Donate (OpenFoodFacts.org) - Open-source, community-run food information app. You can scan bar codes for known products and get nutritional information, nutritional score, ingredients, eco score (environmental rating), nutritional quality, additive information, ingredient analysis, food processing level, packaging, transportation and more. This is a must-have!
:ovpnpdnsf: OpenVPN for pDNSf // Donate (PayPal) - Allows you to run OpenVPN while using personalDNSfilter as an actual DNS filter, if you have root. This is a must-have, in my opinion.
OSS Document Scanner // Donate (GitHub Sponsors) - As the name suggests, it's an open-source document scanner with OCR support
:pdnsf: personalDNSfilter // Donate (PayPal) - DNS filter proxy app. Allows you to import filterlists (such as my own) in order to block certain websites. If you have root, it will run as an actual DNS filter. If you don't, it will use Android's VPN functionality to route everything through the app. This is a must-have!
:prognoza: Prognoza // Donate (LiberaPay) - Simple, yet insightful FOSS weather app for Android
:proshot: ProShot - Excellent photo camera app for Android, has some professional features that aren't really implemented by other cameras such as your stock camera app or GrapheneOS Camera. Can shoot RAW, RAW+JPEG, RAW+HEIC, you can change the ISO, SHR (exposure time), autofocus (manual + auto), WB, can change the JPEG compression quality level, has audio meters, you can customize the startup mode, can choose the resolution and FPS, the microphone used, its kHz and kbps, EIS and OIS, has slow-motion mode, timelapse, and more. Been using this thing on both the Redmi Note 11 and the Galaxy A10 - both can shoot in RAW, even if the stock camera doesn't allow that, which does improve the image resolution and quality significantly. I mean, I took quite a few photos with the Galaxy A10 that were really high-quality, which is crazy, because the phone is really low-end.
QUIK // Donate (Patreon) - Feature-packed FOSS messaging app, fork of the abandoned QKSMS
Read You // Donate (buymeacoffee) - Simple FOSS RSS reader with Material You support
RootlessJamesDSP // Donate (GitHub Sponsors) - System-wide audio processing engine, that doesn't require root!
:saber: Saber // Donate (GitHub Sponsors) - FOSS note-taking app that supports cloud backups and handwriting, I highly recommend it!
:samsung-food: Samsung Food - Has so many cooking recipes, it's insane. It shows nutritional information as well, which is very useful
:samsung-health: Samsung Health - Works natively now, it seems, at least on my Android 15 crDroid custom ROM. So, I don't need to use an old, patched version anymore.
:samsung-notes: Samsung Notes - One of the better note-taking apps on Android, with handwriting support
:shelter: Shelter // Donate (Patreon) - Takes advantage of the built-in support for work profiles on Android in order to create a new user where you can install separate apps. Helpful if say, you want to run WhatsApp or Instagram on the device, but you want it to be sandboxed and not be able to check your contacts, files, app list from your main profile.
:shizuku: Shizuku - Helps apps access highly-privileged APIs without root access. Needed for apps such as aShell You to work without root.
:signal: Signal - Arguably the best, end-to-end encrypted messaging app that exists right now. I used Signal/Molly for a while, but I stopped exclusively due to two reasons: Signal is centralized and can be self-hosted with great difficutly (and can't federate, like Mastodon or Matrix), and requires a phone number to use. And then one must wonder why Signal takes about $50 million a year to operate? Surely, there's nothing to cut down costs? The $6 million they give to Twilio every year for SMS, the $1.4 million in executive compensation? No? That's too bad. I get why they can't just switch away from it, Signal is/was, after all, based on TextSecure which was a SMS app, so I'm guessing their infrastructure is now very limited and can't be expanded without some major changes that would probably be a pain in the ass for everyone, but I haven't seen other projects even attempt or talk about the possibility of using the Signal Protocol, modifying it to fit a federated model, and creating (or re-purposing the existing Signal/Molly app with minor modifications) to make it work? I'm not a specialist in this, I'm way out of my league when it comes to security because I can't even understand stuff like double-ratchet protocol besides the surface-level stuff. But nobody has attempted something like this? Nobody?
:snapseed: Snapseed - Google-developed photo editing app. Succeeded by Google Photos.
SnoopSnitch - Open-source app that analyzes your mobile network to check for vulnerabilities, security, and to warn you about potentially fake base stations such as IMSI catchers. Does not work on Android 14, unfortunately, and the latest release's source code is not available - which has led to some believing the app is compromised, do NOT update to the latest (2.0.13) update, just to be sure. Requires a Qualcomm-based, rooted Android device to work!
Survival Manual - Helpful offline survival manual, provides great tips in case you get stranded somewhere, or the apocalypse happens
:termux: Termux // Donate (termux.dev) - VERY useful, however you need to know what you're doing, especially if you grant it root access, otherwise you might brick your device
:trailsense: Trail Sense // Donate (GitHub Sponsors) - Spectacular app if you want to travel through the wilderness. It has many useful features, such as beacons, backtrack (step retracing), weather prediction, compass
Twine // Donate (GitHub Sponsors) - RSS reader with Material You, and a bottom bar. I would pick this above Read You, however it does not have an in-app browser, and it has/had lag issues on my Galaxy A10. I don't like that I can't completely stop it from updating the RSS feed altogether, which is either after a certain interval, or when you open the app. personalDNSfilter doesn't like this one bit and hits me with an IO error related to a Socket Timeout exception.
ViMusic - FOSS YouTube Music frontend with no account support. ABANDONED as of October 10, 2024. Use something else, like ViTune, RiMusic instead.
Warden // Donate (GitLab) - Get local statistics on what trackers and loggers the apps installed on your device use, similar to Exodus
WebApps - Turn any site into a sandboxed PWA. I use this heavily, as I have multiple PWAs for documentation related to CMake, DirectX, MDN, Meson, OpenGL and Vulkan, PWAs like ADS-B Exchange, Coinranking and Periodex. WebApps is deprecated and cannot guarantee security or privacy, use it at your own risk
xtra - FOSS Twitch player

What I don't recommend using

:element: Element // Donate (Matrix.org Foundation) - The best Matrix client for web, desktop and mobile (@alextecplayz:matrix.org)
Matrix - despite being a promising, up-and-coming project that started a decade ago, they lag behind updates, still don't have some necessary functionality, and now, after an addendum to Soatok's blog, the Matrix developers knew about vulnerabilities in their libolm implementation, and did not fix them. Just, don't use Matrix. Don't use XMPP. Strive to use Signal as little as you can. Guess there isn't one project that can just magically do it all, while being secure, private, open-source, not vulnerable, has basic and hopefully advanced features, and is self-hostable, decentralized. What a shit show.
Proton Mail - Swiss-based privacy e-mail, calendar and cloud provider. CEO and company on Fediverse are in support of Republicans and Donald Trump, because allegedly they are against 'Big Tech' abuse, something that couldn't be further from the truth. I won't explain in detail, as I've already explained on Mastodon. Disappointing to see. Don't use it anymore, cancel your subscription(s) and move on. I'll still use ProtonVPN for the time being, but I'm moving away everything off of Proton by the end of January 2025.
Samourai Wallet - Was a pretty minimalist Bitcoin wallet for Android. I used it because the UI was minimalist, and had a wallet for some time. It is open-source, so it's possible this might continue on as a fork or something. However, Samourai is no more as the website was seized by the FBI back in April 2024, and the founders were arrested for operating a money mixer that handled $2 billion in "unlawful transactions", and the founders received $4.5 million in fees for this. Yeah, not a good look. Unsurprisingly, cryptocurrency is usually handled by people that are up to no good, not your average Joe. They already advertised Samourai as a service where gray/dark money can be used, so this was to be expected. Move to Stack Wallet instead.
:telegram: Telegram FOSS // Donate (LiberaPay) - FOSS version of the Telegram app. You can't receive your login/sign up verification code as a notification with this app, so make sure you already have Telegram installed (on whatever device) in order to receive your code. Note that Telegram is insecure (unencrypted) unless you use the Secret Chats feature, which is only available in 1 to 1 DMs. I suggest you don't share any personal or sensitive info through Telegram at all, if possible. The same applies to any other closed-source app such as WhatsApp.
Threema / Threema Libre - Aside from the app having some security issues, they tried to gaslight Soatok with their 'responsible disclosure' bullshit on social media. At the same time, several grad students found 7 more issues - issues so severe Threema had to change their underlying protocol in order to address their research. Then, in January 2023, Threema punched down dismissively at their research on Twitter. Plus, y'know, having to pay to use their platform - fewer people use Threema in turn.
:whatsappbusiness: WhatsApp Business - Obviously, try not to use apps made by for-profit companies, apps that are closed-source or that are based on open-source code but they don't share the modifications. WhatsApp uses Signal's encryption protocol, but also the XMPP protocol, to enable interoperability with third-party messaging services.

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