I have just found this pwa. It looks nice. Could be a good workaroud for instagram
https://appsco.pe/app/instagram
That was the license of Pasta for Spotify. But I think it’s open source.
Do you think it’s better than using the official app under shelter ?
No, in.the meantime i have tried it sometimes. But the original app.is better under shelter
I have tried and used the PWA for a week.
It is quite slow, everything is not accessible… It can be alright if you’re not posting stories that often…
After testing Pasta for Spotify for a few days, it works but it’s not as good as the official app.
I can’t do play/pause with my bluetooth headset, I can’t send music to my amplifier at home and it crashes sometimes. It’s totally usable but I prefer the official app because I use these functions.
So I installed Shelter and Whatsapp, Instagram and Spotify into it. It works but there is only one problem : I can’t have the /e/ cloud contacts in the shelter for whatsapp (it’s very inconvenient to have only the phone numbers). Any ideas, solutions ?
Thanks
There’s a whole thread by our good friend @harvey186 here explaining using whatsapp under shelter
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Whatsapp is copying your whole adressbook to his own server. So for your pivacy it’s a goid choise to have only the phone numbers in your adressbook in shelter.
But as b3pio has written, check my howto for more information
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I used this howto to install and setup shelter. For the contacts, it is explained how to import a contact file in shelter, but not how to synchronize the /e/ cloud contacts in shelter. If I try to connect my /e/ account in shelter (is it a bad idea ?), it goes in the settings outside shelter…
I know 
…
You have to install e.drive in shelter or the nextcloud client and setup to access your e.drive.
I hope you are using a special whatsapp adress book which you want sync.
Thanks, it worked.
No that’s not a special address book but I use the contacts at like 90% for WhatApp, 5% for Threema and 5% for others app. And (almost) all of my contacts only have WhatsApp to communicate. I know it’s not ideal but it’s very usefull to me to have contacts in WA. I think, the danger is more the messages you send because the contacts aren’t secret. they can be found in a telephone directory.
So thank you very much for your answers, even in I didn’t find any good clients for those apps, I have now a Shelter installed and it’s better than nothing.
Hello @quadcopterman
Your post caught my eye as I’d also like to install open source apps on my phone.
Please could you share a list of the open source apps you have installed, so I can use the list as a bit of inspiration please?
Thank you
For spotify you can make an icon to the web app and use it like it was a dowloaded app when online, but not offline (so you cant download musics and podcasts).
For whatsapp I think the most promising alternative is the matrix/riot whatsapp bridge.
Instagram is the worst. The solution I found is to use it in linux desktop, try “Instagraph” (you can install it using snap). Its buged to me, but this way you can even use the “direct”, the messenger of instagram.
If you want the best experience with this services and dosnt want to download proprietary apps in your main device, the altenative maybe is to have an old device just to proprietary apps. 
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For instagram there’s a webapp (pwa) as well.
- Using firefox on your smarphone just go to instagram.com and click on the little house symbol in the right side of the brwosers’s address bar.
- Using the /e/ browser go to instagram.com then go to three dots in the upper right corner of the browser and the "add to home screen).
Use this url https://www.instagram.com/?force=pwa&source=mlpwa and use build in browser or other chromium browser
(You can add “?force=pwa&source=mlpwa" behind the normal url. When add to homescreen it will open like an app. I’m using it for a lot of web sites, inkl. this site of twitter)
Thx, but I’m now on XMPP/Jabber server.
and how about you @quadcopterman …? check it out as a replacement for whatsapp! With the whatsapp bridge you should be able to be in touch with your friends who use it
Hello,
Here is a list of the open source apps that I use on my phone :
- Simple Agenda (for the agenda widget)
- AnySoft Keyboard
- CPU info
- F-Droid (an open source app store)
- Firefox and Firefox Preview
- Frost (for Facebook)
- Simple Galerie
- K9 mail
- LibreOffice Viewer
- NewPipe (for YouTube)
- Open Camera
- OsmAnd (for the GPS)
- Shelter (to put apps like whatsapp, instagram and spotify into)
- VLC (music and videos)
- Lawnchair (a launcher)
- And the apps that are included by default in /e/
If you have others apps or better apps, let me know.
@Rik I donẗ really understand how the matrix Whatsapp bridge works. Is it a Whatsapp client ? Or is it more ?
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Matrix is a open source social media server which you can host by your own. It could used as messenger or for chat rooms. The whatsapp bridge you can use the chat with Whatapp users without whatsapp installed
i wrote a blog recently about the open source software and apps that i use. See here: https://rikviergever.home.blog/2019/10/12/blog-2-about-open-source-examples-of-open-source-software/
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