Disclaimer: These are a few suggestions from me and it comes without a warranty. I take NO responsibility for any consequences caused by use of any of the above application. Each of these applications are subject to their own licensing terms. NOT FOR THE FAINTHEARTED.
This is very common question that almost every privacy and FOSS enthusiasts ask about. It’s mostly achieved by installing a custom ROM and recovery. But custom ROMs suggest you to install gapps (Google Apps) via OpenGApps, which just uses free software to download non-free gapps. Another alternative is to use microG.
Let’s keep that for another day. Here, I will not be installing either.
The device
I have Motorola One Power and that’s what I’ll be using as reference throughout.
ROM and Recovery
I chose LineageOS 17.1 for ROM and TWRP as the recovery for the device. Feel free to use any ROM that supports your device or build your own (don’t ask me how, I have no fucking idea). Follow the instructions wherever you choose those.
The Setup
Where do you download apps from without google?
The apps are from:
- F-Droid
- Aurora Store (downloaded from F-Driod)
F-Driod is catalogue of FOSS apps. You can directly download the apks from the website or use the F-Driod application.
Aurora store is uses google apis to get application directly from Playstore either anonymously or using your own google account. PS: This is against google’s terms of use. I don’t take any resposibility if google blocks your account or denies any service.
How do you backup the contacts, notes and files?
This can be done manually.
Lol, we have got Nextcloud. This can be called a FOSS alternative to Google suite. You can either signup on with some provider (like disroot.org) or host your own (it need a good amount of resource). Another alternative would be to host your own carddav/calDav servers (I might setup one sometime soon, so that’s for another article) for just calendar and contacts backup.
- DAVx⁵ is a client for synchronising calendar and address book with your carddav/caldav server.
- Nextcloud let you synchronise your files (and more).
- Carnet is a note taking app which can sync with Nextcloud.
- Etar is calendar application. Supports sync with many calendar services.
How to run big brother apps without giving out all your data?
Shelter helps you with that. This uses the work profile feature of Android to isolate big brother apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram (no, it’s not free as long as the server code is no release under FOSS license). And RTFD before use.
How do you use social media apps?
As you might know, offical apps from social media giants is not always trustworthy. If you can, please avoid them completely.
But why?
That’s just a few.
If you’re interested in alternative social media, look at Matrix.org, Diaspora, Pixelfed, and Mastodon to say a few. There are quite a lot more. Checkout poddery.com, diasp.in.
If you still want to use the big brothers, the following client apps might be use full.
- Frost for Facebook is a wrapper around the facebook mobile webapp. It supports multiple account.
- Silence is an SMS/MMS app. Supports encryption (if the receiving end use this app as well).
- QKSMS is another messaging app.
- Twidere is a client for Twitter.
- Newpipe is a frontend for YouTube which doesn’t use any Google apis. No google services or account required.
- Slide is a feature rich Reddit browser.
- Telegram FOSS is FOSS version of the Telegram client with binary blobs removed.
Email!!!
Providers
- Disroot - “Disroot is a platform providing online services based on principles of freedom, privacy, federation and decentralization. No tracking, no ads, no profiling, no data mining!”
- Riseup - “Riseup provides online communication tools for people and groups working on liberatory social change. We are a project to create democratic alternatives and practice self-determination by controlling our own secure means of communications.” Signup works on a invite basis, somebody already holding an account should give you an invite.
- Host your own.
Clients
- K-9 Mail - This is what I use personally. Supports gpg encryption via OpenKeychain.
- Fairmail
Utility apps
File managers
- Ghost Commander - Like Midnight Commander
- Simple File Manager - One of the apps from Simple Mobile Tools
- Amaze - A good file manager with all the necessary features. NOTE: New versions are not on f-droid, as they didn’t remove certain proprietary libaries which is against the f-droid’s policy.
- Material Files
Browser and Anonymity
- Firefox - This is not yet available on f-droid, but can be downloaded via Auroro Store.
- Firefox Klar - Better privacy. No cookies, no history, no trackers.
- Tor browser - Often read with the darker side of internet, this is an awesome tool for anonymity. Read more here
- Riseup VPN - A free VPN service offered by Riseup. Also available on GNU/Linux, Windows and macOS.
- Indic Keyboard - A keyboard supporting 23 Indian languages, is part of Indic Project and Swathanthra Malayalam Computing. NOTE: Newere version is released but not available on f-droid yet. It can be downloaded directly from the website or from Aurora Store.
- BiglyBT - a torrent client.
- Librera Reader - An application for reading ebooks with support for many formats.
- NetGuard - An application to block internet access on per-app basis. NO ROOT needed. “Why would a torchlight app need access to internet?”
- OpenKeychain - An OpenPGP compatible key store and management application.
- Scrambled Exif - An application to remove exif data from images before sharing them.
- OpenTracks - A sports tracker application.
- Gadgetbridge - An application to communicate with your fitness trackers/bands.
- Vanilla Music - A music player that does it’s job. A few extensions are available for downloading lyrics, cover, metadata, etc.
- VLC - You know what it is.