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Cool Android Apps

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Table of Contents

intro

I like to fool around with my electronic do-dads to learn about them and my Android powered smartphones are always victims of my curiosity. Upon entering the smartphone world, i soon found myself installing custom ROMs, tweaking various things and looking for apps to replace the functionality of all of the Google junk which i remove. My days of ROM hoping however are now over. It's GrapheneOS for me and nothing else, ever (at least until something else better comes along). If you want to understand why i recommend GrapheneOS and no other AOSP-based operating system, read Finally, the 100% hack-proof super-private smartphone!.

app stores

I avoid the Google Play Malware Store, one reason being because so many apps are littered with obtrusive ads, which i personally consider to be malware, and another being that there is a lot of genuine malware in the Play Store which is expected given it's such an attractive target for malicious hackers.

That said, malware can hide anywhere, be it in an app store or not, so one need be careful about what they install and where it's installed from. There are many Android app repositories, the vast majority of which should be avoided.

GrapheneOS ships with its own app store which it calls ... App Store, but the selection of apps is very small and will presumably remain so since its primary purpose seems to be to deliver apps designed by the GrapheneOS development team, although it does house a few others.

Accrescent is another app store which is available in the GrapheneOS App Store and it has a lot of promise, but again, the number of available apps is currently very small, at least until the developers get their platform hammered out. To understand why Accrescent is different than F-Droid and Google's malware store, read their Features and FAQ pages.

Since neither the Google Play Store, nor Google anything exists on my phone, i needed another way to install apps that can't be found in Graphene's App Store or Accrescent. I currently use F-Droid and the F-Droid Basic client which makes it really easy to find, install and update apps, however F-Droid is not without its issues. The YouTube channel, 'Side Of Burritos', explains some of the problems with the F-Droid platform in his video, You should uninstall F-Droid - Part 1 and offers two alternative methods for installing apps, one being Obtainium.

Obtainium is not an app store at all, rather it's purpose is to install apps directly from sources you provide, such as developers on Codeberg, GitLab, GitHub, etc., and then keep them updated. By using Obtainium you're bypassing the middleman--the app store--and downloading directly from individual developers. Of course this too has its pitfalls, one being the risk of installing malware from a malicious developer and another being that Obtainium, by itself, isn't a great way to find apps. A potential solution to both problems might be to install something like Droid-ify and configure it for use as an app browser, only, while using Obtainium to install and update apps. Along with Obtainium, one should also install AppVerifier. If you're not comfortable with Obtainium then i might recommend using Droid-ify or F-Droid Basic by itself.

apps

So, after all that, we finally get to a few of my favorite Android apps, but keep in mind that my choices are based on GrapheneOS which already provides a lot of built-in functionality that might otherwise require an app, such as call recording, blocking ads with its Vanadium web browser, a decent camera app, PDF reader and more.

If you're using multiple app stores, such as GrapheneOS's App Store, Accrescent and F-Droid, i would recommend searching for apps in those repositories in the order i listed them.

Accrescent // The Accrescent app store which focuses on security, privacy and usability.

App Store // The default app store that ships with GrapheneOS.

AppVerifier // An app signing certificate verification utility used to ensure that an app is genuine. Note that, at this time, the AppVerifier database is quite small.

BLE Radar // A utility that provides comprehensive information about detected Bluetooth Low Energy devices in your surroundings, including the ability to detect devices that might follow you, such as the various Bluetooth tags.

Calendar // Fossify Calendar is a simple off-line calendar app that can sync with various services.

Cape // Available in the Accrescent app store, this app is only required if you use Cape's mobile network which i highly recommend (read: Finally, the 100% hack-proof super-private smartphone!).

Cirrus // A nice weather app that includes an animated radar.

Clinometer // A very cool app that can measure angles, kind of like a bubble level, but on steroids. It can also overlay information on top of what your camera is viewing.

CoMaps (source code) // Organic Maps seems to be very popular, but apparently there's been some controversy in the project, thus CoMaps was forked from it. CoMaps is an off-line map/navigation app that uses data from the OpenStreetMap project and offers routing and voice directions once a text-to-speech engine is installed, such as SherpaTTS. CoMaps is also suitable for hikers and bikers.

Convertly // A simple, graphical unit conversion app. If you want something more powerful, check out Units.

Easy Notes // A simple, elegant, secure and permission-less note taking app with markdown support.

F-Droid Basic // A capable client for browsing the F-Droid app repository without all of the unnecessary features of the full F-Droid client.

IVPN // A VPN client app. Before choosing a VPN client, i strongly suggest reading my article, Navigating the VPN Hellscape.

KeePassDX // A very nice password safe for securely storing passwords and other bits of sensitive data.

Network Survey (source code) // A comprehensive network information, logging and streaming app that provides detailed information about cellular and WiFi networks, Bluetooth devices and GNSS constellations.

Obtainium (source code) // As described above, Obtainium offers an alternative method for searching, installing and updating apps.

SherpaTTS // A Text-To-Speech (TTS) engine, useful for various reasons, such as getting turn-by-turn voice prompts in your navigation app.

Thunderbird / K-9 Mail // A very capable email client.

Voice Recorder // A simple app to record audio, such as voice notes.

Whisper+ // The opposite of a TTS engine, Whisper+, which is an optimized fork of Whisper, is an STT (speech-to-text) engine and IME (input method editor). An STT is useful anytime you want to transcribe your voice or other audio source, such as when texting. Whisper+ can also translate any supported foreign language into your native language.

Google threatens app ecosystem

Keep Android Open

In August 2025, Google announced that as of September 2026, it will no longer be possible to develop apps for the Android platform without first registering centrally with Google. This registration will involve:

  • Paying a fee to Google
  • Agreeing to Google's Terms and Conditions
  • Providing government identification
  • Uploading evidence of the developer's private signing key
  • Listing all current and future application identifiers