this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2026
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These alternatives to Google's default on Android are feature-rich and privacy-focused

  • Fossify
  • Material Files
  • Aegis
  • F-Droid
  • Next Player
top 47 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Beacon@fedia.io 61 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

It would be helpful if you would put in parentheses what each app is, like a word processor or whatever, because without that it's just a list of random words

[–] hitmyspot@aussie.zone 34 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Not unless you already use them. Then it's a confirmation bias list that is functionally useless to you!

[–] BurgerBaron@piefed.social 6 points 3 weeks ago

Hey, that's me!

[–] Blaze@piefed.zip 3 points 3 weeks ago

Descriptions and explanations are found in the article, the bullet list is mostly to avoid people whose already know them to click

[–] morto@piefed.social 34 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Newpipe also puts the default one to shame! No ads and works smooth even on very old phones. But I guess they couldn't write about it in the article, because it infringes a few terms of services lol

Edit: I followed a reply comment and saw a different icon and clicked it out of curiosity, so I ended reacting to myself and I can't find a way to undo this. Don't mind my self reaction >.<

[–] Lfrith@lemmy.ca 25 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The forks are great too like PipePipe. I find sponsorblock but most importantly the ability to block channels invaluable, since the algorithm always pushes certain big channels to the top of search results for certain topics. So you always have to scroll past them.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Are those features you mentioned here present in PipePipe but not in NewPipe?

[–] Lfrith@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Sponsorblock and Blocking channels is available for PipePipe, but not NewPipe.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

Okay, thanks!

It’s by far the app I miss the most from Android. I wish iOS had that app.

[–] db2@lemmy.world 33 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] fleem@piefed.zeromedia.vip 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] dumbass@piefed.social 11 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] AndrewZabar@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

It is a little better, I’ll agree with this. I usually end up just using Droidify. I’ve tried pretty much all the variations eg: Foxy, Neo, Izzy (good repo, bad app; can’t shut off checking for updates), etc.

[–] freddo@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 weeks ago

Fdroid (basic at least) is pretty decent these days.

[–] fodor@lemmy.zip 21 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I use F-Droid apps for almost everything be cause they are better for almost everything. It really is that simple. (Obviously your mileage may vary; we all use our devices in different ways.)

[–] Tabitha@hexbear.net 2 points 3 weeks ago

even if they're not better you know they're not going to suddenly have ads and beg for subs next week.

[–] limerod@reddthat.com 17 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

If you use a password manager like keepassDX. It can save authcodes

[–] digger@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 weeks ago

Holy cow! I've been using DX for years and never knew this.

[–] AndrewZabar@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Material files is alright, but if you’re going to accept some serious limitations of under-developed features, I’d stick with Total Commander.

[–] RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Ghost commander also good. It did transfers that made fossify file manager crash.

[–] AndrewZabar@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It's an interesting app. I kinda like it a don't at the same time. It has a lot to offer, but needs some polishing.

[–] RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The lack of polish is part of the charm for me. I always thought all the commander style programs looked kinda bad, in the good function over form kind of way.

[–] AndrewZabar@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

Well I don't mean aesthetics, its just buttons and layout are a bit awkward. And other aspects. I can check and see what exactly bothers me so I can follow up with specifics.

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] hamsterkill 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Is mozilla gonna inject ai into the birdie too?

[–] Turret3857@infosec.pub 6 points 3 weeks ago

From what I recall their Dev team is strongly against it, and they are community driven more than they are run by Mozilla corporate

[–] DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Is this better than Spark?

I went to spark after Google killed inbox and spark basically replicated the inbox UI 1 to 1

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

K9 is more of a mail client than a web interface. It'll do multiple accounts and present a unified inbox.

Spark is also a mail client

[–] TheLastOfHisName@piefed.social 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Love Fossify's music player and gallery apps. They're simple and do their job.

[–] AndrewZabar@lemmy.world 17 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I’ve tried all the galleries and Aves Libre is the one I have consistently found superior to all others.

I'll have to check that one out.

[–] ByteMe@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Wikireader and tomato really put google into shame. Way too good of apps and an example on how to design m3 expressive

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

What is Tomato? Some kind of Pomodoro app?

[–] MasterBlaster@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Interesting. What makes Aegis special? I got FreeOTP way back and never saw a reason to try anything else.

Might be personal preference. I like the UI better, the ability to easily transfer authcodes from one device to another, The micro vibrations when the timer is about to run out, and the ability to PIN lock the app directly from the app and using a separate PIN.

[–] Ephera@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 weeks ago

It's mainly just a nicely polished app with rather many optional features and settings.

But well, at the end of the day, it does still just show a list of 6-digit-numbers, so it's not revolutionarily different either...

How does material files differ from the GrapheneOS files application cos they look pretty much identical. Is gos's file explorer just a fork?

[–] manxu@piefed.social 2 points 3 weeks ago

I have a Poco phone and I pretty much use only open source apps for basic functionality at this point. I think I have about a dozen I use daily, from Fossify to dialer. Once the Xiaomi calculator wanted to have Internet access, it was over. Maybe I can't uninstall the default apps, but I definitely don't have to use them.

And what do you know the open source apps outperform Google and Xiaomi, all the time. The only thing I find lacking is some kind of curation that tells me if an app has been updated recently, how many downloads it's had in the past month or year, and how many deletions. It took a while to figure out what apps still work on modern Android versions.

[–] MrSoup@lemmy.zip -1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] n3ur0n@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Looks nice, but one should know that on the F-Droid page, the devs state:

Mauth uses latest Android technology (Jetpack Compose, CameraX, Biometrics, Room DB and more) to provide the best user experience with the least amount of bugs possible. It is in an active development but is nowhere near ready for daily usage. Use it at your own risk.

[–] MrSoup@lemmy.zip -1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I've been using it for years and never had issues.

Edit: downvoting for being an happy user?

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 0 points 3 weeks ago

Still gonna follow the recommendation from the actual devs. πŸ‘