My wish list for /e/

/e/OS Foundation & Community /e/OS experience
204

For me this is the only feature that is currently missing.

205

Thank you for your work /e/ team! So great to have a degoogled ROM! So here’s my wish list:

  • Possibility to change style. In the settings > Screen > Style and Wallpapers, you can customize icons, fonts, but not the primary color used everywhere (the blue one). I would like to change that color.
  • Uninstall system apps. Like many, from what I read :smile:
  • More phone supported by easy installer. The simpler it is to install /e/, the better it is!
  • Sandboxed apps? Althrought I don’t know if it’s your work to do that?
  • The background should be black when I look a picture on the Gallery app. The white one is too distracting.
  • Possibility to clone apps. Natively, not with Shelter ('cause it’s a bit overkill when you only need to clone one app)
206

Hello.
I’d like the e-cloud synchronisation app (NextCloud currently) to works just as the desktop NextCloud clients : ALWAYS synchronise eveything in the user-defined folder tree (possibly with a black subfloder / file list and / or a white list to make things even more customisable).
Currently, it’s a real pain : you need to always click again and again on “synchronise” for every folder you want to sync … why ?
Thanks !

2 Likes
207

I agree that the file sync needs some improvements.

Include/Exclude lists for example and an easy way to see what is synced and when it was synced.
At the moment it seems that arbitrarily files are not snyced from the Documents or it takes ages to resync when a file has been modified remote.

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208
  1. Add faceunlock option (crdroid: GitHub - crdroidandroid/android_packages_apps_FaceUnlockService crDroid Android / android_external_faceunlock ¡ GitLab
    3.smart charging app (GitHub - sriharshaarangi/BatteryChargeLimit)
    Instead of 5. :
    In appstore integrated system app manager
    make systemapps updateable through app lounge
1 Like
209

Couldn’t agree more. Especially now when it has been seen that /e/ team doesn’t have resources to neither maintain forked apps nor fix bugs at their own (like Bliss launcher re-arranges icons all over home screen every now and then). Worst example is “extremely outdated” default browser & webview with ~175+ vulnerabilities, this itself gives bad PR and harms reputation.

Focusing to Core OS would release resources to that main thing. Just add option at first start to choose which browser(s) user wants to install and include bromite repo to App Lounge and use bromite webview by default, updates via App Lounge / f-droid using official repo, never cleanapk (which for example offers ~year old Mull browser) and basic users won’t find it too difficult when no browser etc at all.

I really hope /e/ team starts to focus on this now, get the basics right, including security updates and start to get more positive PR again.

Edit:

There’s new issue opened at gitlab regarding updating browser & webview, but main problem imho is that users shouldn’t ever need to “demand” security updates, like I commented there too…

https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/backlog/-/issues/5986

2 Likes
210

My wish - refine app permissions.

The storage permission is all or nothing currently. Can’t an apps access be restricted to selectable folders rather than everything?

1 Like
211

One thing i didn’t see yet:

Implemement app locking (prevent accidental closure). Described:

212

Here is my wish list/first impressions issue list based on installing the latest version of /e/ on a Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T. My apologies for the lengthy post, I hope that this kind of feedback the team was looking for with this thread. Points are numbered for easy referencing.

  1. The installation guide for the Redmi Note 8T should note that booting into the stock rom after installing the /e/ recovery wipes the recovery again and replaces it with the default Xiaomi recovery.
    Instead of following the guide, the user needs to make sure to reboot into recovery straight from fastboot after flashing the /e/ recovery by pressing Power + Volume Up instead of booting into recovery from a powered off device as stated. Powering off the device by pressing the power switch for 15 seconds while in fastboot will actually boot into MIUI.

  2. Please allow getting into the system without entering the SIM pin. iOS can do this, you can just cancel the SIM pin prompt.

  3. Proper firewall like Little Snitch that doesn’t block the VPN slot and allows the user to view a log of all connections made, with a few preset rule sets such as blocking all Facebook connections system wide, also with the ability to block connections that are made from C code, not just Java

  4. I’m usually using the VPN to connect my phone to my home or work network and access local resources like NAS, Home Assistant etc. and route my traffic through there while on public WiFis etc… This isn’t possible with Advanced Privacy blocking the VPN slot. If implementation as a real firewall isn’t possible or not planned for the foreseeable future, it would be great if we could at least locally pass traffic from the Advanced Privacy VPN to another VPN.

  5. Advanced privacy blocks only a fraction of the trackers Exodus lists for my test subject app (the “Drops” language learning app). Particularly tencent, facebook and google firebase are not listed in Advanced Privacy under blocked trackers.

  6. A USB-C Ethernet adapter that didn’t work under MIUI now magically works under /e/ – thank you, that’s awesome!

  7. Files App: Unfortunately there is no support for connecting to SMB shares or sFTP servers, so I still need something like Cx File Explorer

  8. Notes: Application requires an account, no way to create local notes, which is not ideal

  9. Launcher: Widgets screen cannot be dismissed with the usual “home” gesture (dragging up from the bottom edge of the screen), only with a swipe to the right, which was unintuitive at first and required some getting used to, at least for me

  10. Browser: Built-in equivalent to the Firefox add-ons LocalCDN/Decentraleyes and ClearURLs would be nice since the browser does not seem to support add-ons. Besides the privacy benefits, the former could potentially save a lot of unnecessary mobile data consumption.

  11. Browser/Advanced Privacy: I don’t see a way to view what the ad blocker blocked and what not in a way that uBlock Origin displays it. This could also be integrated with Advanced Privacy.

  12. Mail: IMAP folders should be displayed as folder hierarchy that can be navigated, not one humunguously ginormous mega-list

  13. Settings UI: When setting a custom DNS, the value of the setting is not displayed anywhere after ok’ing the prompt. It’s also not clear that the menu command for custom DNS settings is disabled until “Use Network DNS” is disabled, it just appears to do nothing. One solution would be to have both commands enabled and the “Custom DNS” could just automatically disable the “use network DNS” setting when changed.

  14. DNS: Option to use network DNS for a list of certain trusted WiFis would be useful so local resources can be addressed by name and not just IP

  15. Why does microG need (and get) access to contacts and SMS messages by default?

  16. Contacts: The CardDav sync service fork still warns about Xiaomi firmware potentially preventing synchronization, even though that’s likely not an issue under /e/ (so far, it has worked fine)

  17. Contacts: The UI offers to add a WebDav account, not CardDav, which initially confused me thinking maybe only .vcard files in a WebDav file share directory might be supported or something

  18. Contacts/System Settings Account Preflet: When adding my Synology Contacts from my NAS, I get multiple of weirdly named accounts in System Settings account management (like the account name followed by two seemingly random characters), one for each address book on the Synology.

  19. Camera: The active camera cannot be changed via a list, but only via a cumbersome toggle that advances to the next one. The depth camera is listed as a separate camera that fails to activate. Cameras don’t have names, resolution info or focal length displayed, so it can be difficult or time consuming to choose the right one.

  20. The default wallpaper could be a bit less extreme. The colors also evoke connotations with the logo of Instagram, which is not from a company that’s known for being privacy friendly.

  21. Time zone setup in the first launch wizard doesn’t have a database with cities and can be confusing for a user who doesn’t know their offset from GMT is. A good initial guess for a time zone could also be made from the language setting, as a user who chooses Dutch is likely to be in a certain time zone etc.

  22. Settings UI: A lot of settings being hidden behind an “Advanced” toggle even though the bottom half of the screen is empty. That’s not really quick and not very intuitive either.

  23. Settings UI: Managing Keyboards just shows a list with no indication for the user how to get other ones than the default one, or how installing keyboards differs from installing input languages. Novices won’t know what to do here.

  24. Keyboard: Adding any CJK languages under “languages” doesn’t add them to the language menu on the keyboard, whereas adding latin character-based languages does. Cursory research reveals that this seems to be a mess under Android and a dedicated keyboard app may be needed to get proper IME. Adding a CJK language should just work or at the very least show a popup that tells the user what to do and include a recommendation for a privacy friendly solution. Better would be of course for the user to add the language and it would work. This is actually my biggest issue so far.

  25. Keyboard: Unfortunately, the preinstalled keyboard does not seem to support dragging over the space bar to move the text input cursor, nor dragging across the keys to type, both of which are common features that would be handy to have without installing additional software

  26. I couldn’t find a way to change the system UI language after the initial setup wizard. Maybe I’m blind or stupid or both.

  27. AppLounge: There is no list with installed apps where one could view their information (such as developer info, privacy scores etc.) and uninstall them. Not all novice users will be familiar with the press-and-hold technique in the launcher. A way to pull in user reviews and ratings from Google Play Store might also be useful.

  28. Browser: Privacy Issue: Auto complete for URLs and searches seems to be on by default

  29. Browser: Privacy Issue: No way to use separate fields for search and URLs so mistyped URLs could accidentally end up being sent to search provider

  30. Browser: Scrolling web pages is quite jumpy compared to Fennec/Firefox on the same device

  31. A system-wide dictionary feature that can be invoked as a popup from text selections as well as a standalone app would be handy. This is one of the best features on iOS. The imiwa? app on iOS is a great example of what a super useful dictionary app with multiple supported languages, clipboard analysis, example phrases and pronunciation examples can be. A translation feature with multiple service backends (deepl, Google Translate etc.) could also be built in.

Overall, I have to say love the system and I have a huge amount of respect for what the team has achieved so far. Thanks everyone for the amazing work on the project!

6 Likes
213

My main wishes for /e/:slight_smile:

  • VoLTE support
  • Migration support between two /e/ devices. Currently it is a very tedious and manual process.
  • Support for more banking apps.
1 Like
214

if you don’t want to bury your lengthy review/feedback in a 200 reply count thread, copy it to a separate one to allow some follow up on the numbered items

1 Like
215

It’s good here. But I’m not sure what happens with all these interesting suggestions.

RIM (Blackberry) had once (ten years ago) an own website called “I can make it better”. In principle it was a community blog. People could post their suggestions and some did it very detailed and well founded, including self-drawn pictures with colored markings and arrows on them. Comments were given below, sometimes in very interesting threads. – This may be a valuable tool while developing: discuss with other people who have own thoughts and habits. And even if such suggestions are never implemented developers could get a smell of what people want and need. – Not sure, I think this did almost never bring up any practical results. Depends a lot on company culture. RIM used it just as a “look how user friendly we are” alibi which by the way also let some pressure out of the boiler which increased more and more due to missing features.

But … I would suggest such a thing, perhaps an own space here in the forum, a central place for suggestions. This is a wish of mine :sunglasses:

3 Likes
216

Done, new thread is here. Thank you for the suggestion!

1 Like
217

I also strongly second the idea of a firewall that doesn’t take up the VPN slot. I have several apps that I prefer to keep offline, as well as some apps that I need to be able to access my IP address/LAN, as well as most apps that I would rather not access my IP adress/LAN. I use CalyxOS on my Pixel 3a, which has (I believe it’s called the datura firewall?), but a) my main phone is still a OnePlus 6 running /e/, and 2) Calyx is most likely going to have to drop the 3a soon.

3 Likes
218

Fast charging off setting, remaining off when set, currently after reboot/ on/off cycle, currently after power cycling this setting changes back to on.

2 Likes
219

hello,
i would like to select what is sync with /e/ no pictures for exemple that was possible before. And also, view storage usage by folder for clean it.
i hope for better sync with multiple contact account to update multiple at once and more selectivity by tags or group to share it in team
Regards

3 Likes
220
  1. Omniclock instead of deskclock(https://github.com/HolyDragonProject/android_packages_apps_OmniClock)
  2. add a theme engine (maybe based on:GitHub - LineageOS/android_packages_apps_ThemeChooser, GitHub - LineageOS/android_packages_providers_ThemesProvider, GitHub - LineageOS/android_packages_services_ThemeManagerService)
    edit:
  3. update system apps through app lounge (add system app repo to app lounge, the apps have to be signed with the key from the installation)
  4. ability to add fdroid repos to app lounge.
2 Likes
221

Being a mobile phone, 2 requirements come to mind as “most important”:

  1. Stability is paramount. I’m happy to tinker with my laptop or my desktop, but I expect the phone to always work. As a phone, not only it is very important for daily tasks, but sometimes it is a safety device (while doing sports, being out and about, I want to have the guarantee I will always be able to make a call to emergency services, in case of any accident).
  2. Support for newer hardware: for testing and playing, old hardware is perfectly adequate, but if I am to use it as my main phone, it needs to support recently released hardware - I’m not worried about performance but I’m worried about reliability, battery life (most importantly) and available service/parts for old hardware, when it comes to my “day to day” phone (not just as a toy or test device).
222

Hello folks,
I would definitely like to have Miracast available, and it is available (again) in Lineage:
MiraCast available in Lineage OS 19.

The (totally deceptive) situation right now is that the “Screen Cast” button is available, imitates to be searching for devices (Cast screen to device), but never finds anything. This is the worst possible state of affairs, as it makes the user to believe that something is wrong with the device or settings and plunges him/her into wasting time on and getting frustrated by several hours of useless research.

3 Likes
223

So, a wish list. Very well then.

  • PDF reader needs a search function.

  • Cloud syncing problems should be solved asap and every folder that is in the sync list to be able to toggle separately.

  • Photo/Video sync needs a resize feature for saving space. This should be behind a toggle in the OS or a feature in the cloud.

  • Easy installers and bootloader lock support for devices, this is for new/casual users.

  • Stability is the key for day to day user. Most users will find the apps they like on their own, but a recommendation list for proprietary/foss apps could be nice.

2 Likes