Hello! I’ve been using /e/ for quite a few months, however I’ve read about some privacy concerns that I’d like to address with my suggestions, as well as other things based on my or my family’s experiences using this OS:
First of all, the Apps store. The app itself is fine, however there might be some concerns about the apps taken from Google Play. If /e/ were to hit the mainstream market, companies might have it taken down due to this Apps store reuploading their content without permission.
The solution would be to implement something similar to Huawei’s Petal Search, where in order to offer third party apps within their App Gallery, they redirect users to the apk download from the developer’s site, or serve a PWA if there’s the option for it. Here’s a link to an article (in Spanish) with screenshots on how this is done.
Second of all, the browser. The current browser forked from Bromite is pretty cool, and if I were a normal user I’d have no issues with it. However, it looks like the browser pings to Google for some reason? Again, this appears to be a Bromite issue, not an /e/ one. In any case, I’d recommend to move to a fork of Vanadium, the hardened Chromium/WebView fork made by the folks over at GrapheneOS. Here are the instructions on how to build it.
Third, and this one is probably just a silly nitpick, but from the experience I’ve got from family members that I switched to /e/, the OpenCamera app is a bit too complicated to use for normal users. I get that it’s the most complete FOSS camera app out there, but perhaps it would be interesting to retain that app’s functionality while revamping the interface to feel more like GCam or the iOS Camera.
I think that’s about it for now. Regardless of if these suggestions are kept in mind or not, I’d like to thank you all for your time reading through this! ^^