Long story short: I don’t like iOS but have been using an iPhone for a couple years due to lack of personally viable hardware options on the Android side of things. I’ve gotten tired of waiting and found a good deal on an open box Pixel 8 Pro which arrives in a few days, I’ll be installing GrapheneOS on it.
I’ve used GrapheneOS before on a Pixel 3a. I’m familiar with some must-haves like F-Droid+Aurora Store and AntennaPod, but are there any other apps I should check out once the phone gets here that I’ve been missing out on during my time on iOS? Or just any recommendations at all for cool/useful apps that most people wouldn’t think to search for?
Bonus question for *sonic/Navidrome users, what’s your favorite Android client? I used Substacks last time I daily drove GrapheneOS, but it looks like it might not be actively maintained anymore.
I’s suggest Droid-ify as the F-Droid client, it properly supports background installs.
Nope, works on non-rooted phones too. There’a a new installation framework in recent Android versions that allows background installs by apps other than the Play Store!
Mihon is a great comic reader that connects to my Komga server - it’s the reason I got into android. Launch box is a pretty cool front end for roms, but I tend to not use it now that I have a dedicated retro handheld.
Oh and Revanced, of course. I can’t see myself going back to ios.
Speaking of stores, there’s also Obtainium if you like living on the edge. It can pull directly from GitHub releases, which may or may not be desirable for different people.
Another obvious one is Firefox or its siblings Mull & Fennec, with their add-on support for a better browsing experience.
There’s also system-wide ad/tracker blocking solutions. I don’t actually have a recommendation on this as most of them share each other’s blocklist anyway.
Aurora Store isnt needed because of Graphene’s Sandboxed Google Play Services.
Obtainium app is best for installing APKs from github, fdroid, etc because of the auto updates.
My favorite feature of GOS is the scopes for contacts, storage, and MTE support on Pixel 8
F-Droid: use F-Droid Basic instead. You may want to use obtainium but tbh its a total pain.
Also note the list of external f-droid repos
Aurorastore: use only session installer, dont grant access to all storage (only needed for /obb access)
Antennapod: podcini may become a better fork, more efficient and modern.
