Which preinstalled app do you really use?

[urs_lesse]

From what I (vaguely) remember, another custom ROM (IodéOS? CalyxOS?) now provides some sort of plugin to make GCam work with another gallery embedded, but I haven’t tried it yet. For my part, I just do without the embedded gallery button and switch to my own gallery app (Simple Gallery) instead to view photos – without having it embedded in GCam.

[irrlicht]

Since I normally know what I take a picture of I don’t need a gallery integration. I would be glad if these GCam ports would allow another directory where the pictures are saved (I mean: on SD card). (But indeed I’m more on FreeDCam now.)

[Privacy-Phone-2022]

hi, I use the following

• Keyboard → OpenBoard

• Mail → ProtonMail, Tutanota

• Calendar → Proton Calendar

• Maps → OsmAnd

• Music →VLC

• Radio→ RadioDroid

• Web Browser→ Fennec, Firefox Focus, Brave

• Notes & ToDos → Notepad (it has offline mode and possibility to export the note to a txt file)

• /e/ Launcher is fine for me

[Fairphoner]

@Fairphoner

Does it works without GoogleGallery?

@irrlicht

Yes.

So the answer is no (for murena )

There is under “advanced” options the option “Use third party gallery” (translated from german). But it doesn’t work, it still requires “Google Photos”.

[irrlicht]

Your question was if it works without GoogleGallery and indeed it does very well. If you would have asked if it is able to use a 3rd party gallery app I would have answered no.

[Fairphoner]

@irrlicht

Your question was if it works without GoogleGallery and indeed it does very well

What is your operating system?

[irrlicht]

/e/ 1.5 ? What’s your problem? I use a GCam port since /e/ 0.11 or so.

[Fairphoner]

I have no problem, but how can the Nikita GCam run without Google Photos on your end?

(I have the F1 Mod 9.2. That is definitely possible without Google Photos.)

[Nicolas_Sas]

OK then we are a little of topic
@Fairphoner I suggest you to read the full FAQ here:
https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/troubleshooting/

Some GCam versions need the Google Photos app to display photos and videos inside GCam. If the app isn’t installed, GCam will return to the viewfinder.

[irrlicht]

There’s a GCam option called “use 3rd party gallery”. I have this on. Checked this right now. On my device it starts Simple Gallery since the stock gallery app has a lot of problems with fresh taken pictures.

So I must indeed correct myself: the answer is yes, it is able to use a 3rd party gallery app. (I do this almost never.)

(Probably you didn’t find the whole set of options until now, it’s rather hidden, the user should not bend too much out of shape.)

[petefoth]

@Privacy-Phone-2022

Notes & ToDos → Notepad (it has offline mode and possibility to export the note to a txt file)

Which Notepad? Searching F-droid shows three with the same name. This one seems to be the most recently updated (2021-01-21). The others haven’t been updated since 2012 or 2016.

[lEOS]

Clock → Omniclock(its open source variant hasn’t got gradle)
Camera → GrapheneOS Camera(secure camera)
Maps → Organic maps
PDF reader → GrapheneOS PDF viewer
Keyboard → openboard
Web browser → Firefox(and it’s forks like iodé browser)
I don’t use any notes, sound recorder, tasks app.

[Scytale]

I more or less stick to the default because of the ease of use, and I don’t have the feeling I’m missing a power feature.

But for the browser I would recommend any other browser (Bromite, Firefox (Fennec), or similar), which have a separate update cycles from eOS. The eOS Browser is really good, but it’s sometimes behind in security updates and it’s the app I’m using the most to interact with the dangerous internet. It’s not as far behind like browsers in unsupported Android versions, but you might have a vulnerable browser for around 1-2 months till the next eOS Update (although the built in adblocker makes it a bit less vulnerable)

[irrlicht]

I wonder why Fennec is often mentioned. As long as Fennec “Tracks or reports your activity” (see F-Droid) it’s not what I want to have on my device.

[Scytale]

Fennec is a more privacy-friendly fork of Firefox. It’s the best choice if you don’t want to use the technology of Google’s Chrome browser. Otherwise, Bromite is one or the best choice.

If you want to read details about Fennec, here is a review of a german IT blog.

[anon88181694]

@Scytale

but it’s sometimes behind in security updates

by 8 months

@irrlicht

As long as Fennec “Tracks or reports your activity"

I help maintain Fennec F-Droid, it doesn’t track you, but it still makes requests to Mozilla for other aspects: https://forum.f-droid.org/t/welcome-a-new-fennec-f-droid/11113/309

It is merely an overly cautious flag in this case.

[Jean-Philippe]

Hi, where did you download it please?

[irrlicht]

Here. But I don’t use the latest. I installed Nikita 7.4 v2.0.

[Jean-Philippe]

Thanks but doesn’t work on my murena one (7.4 or higher)

[centaurus]

@centaurus

Notes → I use colornote because it has an “offline” mode (the native /e/OS one can only be used with an online account)

Tasks, PDF reader and Sound Recorder - I have had no need to use any of these apps yet (these apps get used on my phone less than once a year) so haven’t figured out if I want/need a replacement or the default app is ok.

Some more updates:

• have given up on the default mail app because it has some bugs making it unusable with gmail and it forces you to use account manager (os-level), rather than contain the google account info in the app - replaced with K9 mail which has neither of these two issues
• have given up on the default calendar app because it dosn’t seem to allow the export of offline calendars (for backup reasons). Have replaced it with simple calendar pro
• I would like to replace the browser (don’t trust chromium-based browsers) but Mozilla for android has its own issues so I haven’t found a better browser yet.
• The default keyboard is good, but lacks some important features, like being able to write Japanese or other non-latin language scripts.