[INDEX FLOSS] List of Free / Libre and Open Source apps for Android

[Primokorn]

List of Free / Libre and Open Source apps for Android​

INTRODUCTION
I use Android phones for 5 years but I'm interested in FLOSS development for only 1 year. Conlusion? FLOSS apps are very important for the community (not only for Android OS) but they are often underestimated or not well known.
Many awesome FLOSS apps are available for Android and they well deserve to be better known! Yes, there's a world behind Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft,...

XDA Developers wants to promote open source softwares but I have never seen a good thread to share our experience about free/libre and open source apps, except this thread but it's no longer maintained.

If you want to discover new free/libre and open source apps, give a try to the below apps! I'll add new apps as soon as I try good ones.
If you want to suggest new apps, feel free to share your list! (please try to avoid discontinued apps)
If you want to keep using proprietary apps, go away!!!

Of course, we can't put all apps in a simple list so I'd like to highlight the best ones and help more Android users to discover them and spread the importance of FLOSS apps! :fingers-crossed:

Direct link

by Péhä (CC-By)
​

WHERE CAN I FIND FLOSS APPS? HOW CAN I UPDATE THEM?

Actually you can go to the Google Play Store. Most of the time, it's mentioned in the description but finding them is a brain-teaser so you can check these websites:
- F-Droid. The application is working well.
The client makes it easy to browse, install, and keep track of updates on your device.
- Fossdroid. Same database as F-Droid with a better UI for the desktop version.
F-droid only provides FLOSS apps. In other words, apps that are only open source are not accepted. (What's the difference? Read the references below)

If you don't want to use the official Play Store to update your apps that are not available on F-Droid then you may be interested by these tools:
- APKUpdater, ApkTrack and Yalp Store: tools that simplify the process of finding updates for your installed apps and installing new ones.
- Blankstore, part of NOGAPPS/microG project. Download free/gratis apps directly from the official Play Store. A new client is planned but no ETA.
- Raccoon, an apk downloader for Google Play.

Everything is available on GitLab now. The aim of this thread is only for sharing new apps together and discussing about free/libre or open source apps.

 

[Primokorn]

REFERENCES
- What is free software?
- Why 'Free Software' is better than 'Open Source'
- Various Licenses and Comments about Them
- F-Droid's Inclusion Policy
- alternativeto.net.
- Droid-Break
- FLOSS and FOSS
- Why Open Source misses the point of Free Software
- Liberate Your Device!
- Android without Google
- How to use Android without Google Play Services by @Shadow53

Open Source Is Not Enough but it's better than nothing/proprietary.

 

[Primokorn]

Reserved

 

[Primokorn]

New apps (tag *** NEW ***):

• Fingerprint2Sleep: Perform quick actions via tap fingerprint sensor
License: GPLv3

• Rashr: Flash or backup your device's recovery and kernel without rebooting or PC or other hardware. Fast, Simple and Effective!
License: GPLv3

• MaterialFBook: Minimalist facebook client
License: MIT

• Lucid Browser: Built to be fast and small yet customizable and beautiful.

• LibreTorrent: Torrent client for Android 4 and later, based on libtorrent. Download and share files directly on your device.
License: GPLv3

• Transdroid: Allows you to manage your torrents. All popular clients are supported: µTorrent, Transmission, rTorrent, Vuze, Deluge, BitTorrent 6, qBittorrent and many more.
License: GPLv3

• suhide-GUI: A simple GUI for adding and removing package UIDs using Chainfire's suhide.
License: Apache 2.0

 

[jisoo]

@Primokorn

Regarding Native Clip Board -- I'm not sure if this should be on the list anymore for a few reasons:

1. The source on Github looks to be incomplete, doesn't build, and is probably only the parts of the code shared between the xposed module and the stand-alone app (or maybe even less)
2. Although the dev has pushed updates to the play store, the source repo has not been updated for several months
3. As far as I can tell, even the source updates have been only for translations for well over a year

Yes, there is source code, and yes, it is licensed under the GPL, but I just don't see how this app can be considered FOSS at this point anymore.

 

[Primokorn]

@Primokorn

Regarding Native Clip Board -- I'm not sure if this should be on the list anymore for a few reasons:

1. The source on Github looks to be incomplete, doesn't build, and is probably only the parts of the code shared between the xposed module and the stand-alone app (or maybe even less)
2. Although the dev has pushed updates to the play store, the source repo has not been updated for several months
3. As far as I can tell, even the source updates have been only for translations for well over a year

Yes, there is source code, and yes, it is licensed under the GPL, but I just don't see how this app can be considered FOSS at this point anymore.

You are right. App removed!
An issue has been opened on Github in April: https://github.com/DHM47/Native-Clip-Board/issues/68

 

[Primokorn]

Two new apps: Open camera and DNS66
I added some information if it's known there are non-free components and the reasons why it hasn't been accepted by F-Droid team (open source only, not free/libre apps).

 

[v4444v]

I was using "Tinfoil for Facebook" but noticed it has not been updated for a while. Now I switched to "Face Slim". Both on Fdroid. Also "Bitwarden" new opensource project for storing passwords across multiple platforms. All open source.

 

[Primokorn]

I was using "Tinfoil for Facebook" but noticed it has not been updated for a while. Now I switched to "Face Slim". Both on Fdroid. Also "Bitwarden" new opensource project for storing passwords across multiple platforms. All open source.

Thanks for your input! I'll have a look for the next update.

 

[Gaukler_Faun]

Hi, if you want you can include my apps from f-droid:

https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=Baumann&fdpage=1&page_id=0

Regards
Gaukler Faun

 

[Primokorn]

UPDATE

• SlimSocial for Twitter / SlimSocial for Facebook
License: GPLv2
Dev "prefers have all users in the same platform to study the analytics data" (Github issue)

NEW APPS

• Bitwarden: Stores all of your logins and passwords while conveniently keeping them synced between all of your devices (multi platforms). 100% free.
License: GPLv3
Source code

• Face Slim: Unofficial app built around the mobile Facebook site.
License: GPLv2+
The last one for FB. I think there are enough FLOSS apps around this proprietary network.

• Notepad: Simple note taking app that let's you draw on notes.
License: GPLv3+

• PDF Creator: Create and edit PDF files.
License: GPLv3+

I had to start using a service. XDA asks to shorten posts to 30,000 characters long.

Hi, if you want you can include my apps from f-droid:

https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=Baumann&fdpage=1&page_id=0

Regards
Gaukler Faun

I added PDF Creator (also added to my todo list for my CM13 theme ). Sorry but others are specific (language or features) and I can't list every FLOSS apps.

 

[BootloopedMillennials]

Should add fork Kernel Adiutor-Mod (http://xdaforums.com/android/apps-games/kernel-adiutor-mod-singularity-kernel-t3333549) over the original Kernel Adiutor. Latter is not being built on F-Droid anymore for the following.

Bad news for Kernel Adiutor: author has introduced adview, adbanner and mobile ads. Not to mention crashlytics and Googleplay. All other branches on github have been removed.

https://f-droid.org/forums/topic/kernel-adiutor/

FYI I purchased original Kernel Adiutor to support developer anyway.

 

[Primokorn]

Should add fork Kernel Adiutor-Mod (http://xdaforums.com/android/apps-games/kernel-adiutor-mod-singularity-kernel-t3333549) over the original Kernel Adiutor. Latter is not being built on F-Droid anymore for the following.


https://f-droid.org/forums/topic/kernel-adiutor/

FYI I purchased original Kernel Adiutor to support developer anyway.

Actually I don't want to add this fork for now. Kernel Adiutor-Mod is released under Apache 2.0 while it's a fork of Kernel Adiutor, which is under GPLv3. The author of Kernel Adiutor-Mod must keep GPLv3.

EDIT: Grarak changed the license this summer so I'll add KA-Mod.

 

[Primokorn]

Weekly update

NEW APPS

• MuPDF: Lightweight document viewer. MuPDF supports PDF 1.7 with transparency, encryption, hyperlinks, annotations, searching, form editing and more. It also reads OpenXPS and CBZ (comic book) documents. *** NEW ***
License: AGPLv3+
Material Design version here (Android 5.0+)

• Good Weather: Show current weather information from OpenWeatherMap. *** NEW ***
License: GPLv3+

• ViPER4Android: Popular audio mod. *** NEW ***
Universal Fix SELinux Enforcing 6.0+)

• Kernel Adiutor-Mod: Fork of Kernel Adiutor. *** NEW ***
License: Apache 2.0

• SoundWaves: Manage, fetch and listen to podcasts. *** NEW ***
License: GPLv3

UPDATES

• SlimSocial for Twitter / SlimSocial for Facebook: Wrapper around Facebook's and Twitter's mobile website and APIs.
License: GPLv2+
Non-Free Network Services

SlimSocial for Twitter and Facebook have been added into F-Droid repo. Use F-Droid builds if you don't want to be tracked.

 

[Primokorn]

Here we go for a new update:

• Camera: A front/rear camera with flash and zoom. *** NEW ***
License: Apache2

• File Manager: A simple file manager for browsing and editing files and directories. *** NEW ***
License: Apache2

• Obsqr: Fast and simple QR code scanner that uses the zbar library. Minimalistic design allows you to access QR content with a single tap. *** NEW ***
License: MIT

• OTP Authenticator: OTP Authenticator is a two-factor authentication App for Android 4.0+. *** NEW ***
License: MIT

• SkyTube: A simple and feature-rich YouTube player. *** NEW ***
License: GPLv3
Non-Free Network Services

• Syncthing: File synchronization. Syncthing replaces proprietary sync and cloud services with something open, trustworthy and decentralized. *** NEW ***
License: MPL2

• Taskbar: Puts a start menu and recent apps tray on top of your screen accessible at any time. *** NEW ***
License: Apache2

• Tasks: Fork of Astrid Tasks & To-Do List. *** NEW ***
License: GPLv3

• Wallabag: A self hosted read-it-later app which is made for you to comfortably read and archive your articles. The server software is MIT-licensed. *** NEW ***
License: GPLv3

• Turbo Editor: Simple, yet powerful editor for text files.. *** NEW ***
License: GPLv3+

• Wikipedia: Official Wikipedia application. *** NEW ***
License: Apache2
Tracks You

• Transistor: Transistor is a bare bones app for listening to radio programs over the internet. *** NEW ***
License: MIT

 

[Arykit]

This thread should be a STICKY. Thank you for such a wonderful thread.

 

[andyrtr]

While I very much honor the work you provide here I would prefer a "recommended" app list for certain tasks. F-Droid is still poor offering you alternatives or showing any rating/downloads and such stuff.
Maybe you can rework it to something like

Browser: IceCat, OrFox(with Orbot) - alternatives Firefox, ... (just my choice here)
eMail...
Messenger...

Application names could be links to the FDroid store or upstream website.

This would be much more useful when setting up a Google free phone for the first time. Right now your list is not much different than to browse the FDroid search function and its package infromation page. Right now there's no hintful information
what I might try first or is well tested not leaking data or observing you (e.g. even some opensource browsers do so).

Here is some list about apps and recommended service providers from a german project to setup your phone fully google free:
https://www.kuketz-blog.de/datenschutzfreundliche-apps-und-dienste-android-ohne-google-teil7/ (topic 4.) - I guess you get the idea.

You might also get some input from there: https://forum.fairphone.com/c/software/fp-open

Another idea would be to ask for a total FLOSS forum section at XDA where such stuff could be collected with discussion about security, pure AOSP Google free phone setups and so on.

FLOSS ftw :good:

 

[Primokorn]

While I very much honor the work you provide here I would prefer a "recommended" app list for certain tasks. F-Droid is still poor offering you alternatives or showing any rating/downloads and such stuff.

Actually several apps listed here are not available on F-Droid. F-Droid is a FLOSS app store so they decline any open source app that doesn't respect their Inclusion Policy. By the way, some FLOSS apps aren't available on F-Droid (lack of time or big apps to maintain).
I also tested more than 90% of the apps I posted in this thread so this is more or less my recommended app list.
Finally F-Droid has already built MANY apps and a lot of them are discontinued. As for me, I'll try to only keep apps that have an active development. (I'd say commits not older than 1 year)

Maybe you can rework it to something like

Browser: IceCat, OrFox(with Orbot) - alternatives Firefox, ... (just my choice here)
eMail...
Messenger...

Application names could be links to the FDroid store or upstream website.

I think suggesting 'alternatives' isn't a good idea because it can encourage visitors of this thread to use proprietary apps if I didn't list the FLOSS apps that suits their needs. Moreover, almost anyone knows which proprietary apps to use for each category so only suggesting FLOSS apps for each category seems to me enough.

This would be much more useful when setting up a Google free phone for the first time. Right now your list is not much different than to browse the FDroid search function and its package infromation page. Right now there's no hintful information
what I might try first or is well tested not leaking data or observing you (e.g. even some opensource browsers do so).

Here is some list about apps and recommended service providers from a german project to setup your phone fully google free:
https://www.kuketz-blog.de/datenschutzfreundliche-apps-und-dienste-android-ohne-google-teil7/ (topic 4.) - I guess you get the idea.

You might also get some input from there: https://forum.fairphone.com/c/software/fp-open

It's a good idea but this is already explained in microG thread, or just flash a custom ROM without Gapps and without Play Services - so you have to avoid CM, Dirty Unicorns and many others. AFAIK OmniROM is one of the few custom ROMs that don't rely on Play Services.
Once this is done, come here and choose new apps to use

BTW FP forum uses Google Analytics...

Another idea would be to ask for a total FLOSS forum section at XDA where such stuff could be collected with discussion about security, pure AOSP Google free phone setups and so on.

FLOSS ftw :good:

Good point. I'll suggest the idea to XDA Mods/Admins very soon

EDIT: done => http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=69442362&postcount=2601

Thanks for your feedback!

 

[Primokorn]

A new week, a new update:

• Busybox: Install a recent and un-crippled version of BusyBox. *** NEW ***
License: GPLv3+

• Calendar: A simple calendar with events and a customizable widget. *** NEW ***
License: Apache2

• Gallery: A gallery for viewing photos and videos. *** NEW ***
License: Apache2

• Music Player: A clean music player with a customizable widget. *** NEW ***
License: Apache2

• Keepass2Android: Fork of KeePassDroid. Password manager. It reads and writes .kdbx-files, the database format used by the popular KeePass 2.x Password Safe. *** NEW ***
License: GPLv2
Source

• PowerToggles: An advanced power control widget. *** NEW ***
License: MIT

• Weather: Get weather information and forecast from Open Weather Map. *** NEW ***
License: GPLv3

• Shopping List: Create shopping lists and manage them by adding, editing and deleting of lists and items. *** NEW ***
License: Apache2

• Pedometer: Count your steps in background to provide you an overview about your walked steps, distance and about the calories you have burned while walking. *** NEW ***
License: GPLv3+

• Goblim: Let's you share your photos on the Lut.im server of your choice (working with Framapic). Use your own server to regain control of your privacy!. *** NEW ***
License: GPLv3

• FileManager: Root file manager. The app has a built-in terminal, a simple text editor, supports the creation of zip archives and is able to encrypt files. *** NEW ***
License: ???

• ScreenCam Screen Recorder: (no root) User friendly minimal screen recorder for all devices with lollipop 5.0 and Up. It is opensourced and is completely free and ad free.. *** NEW ***
License: GPLv3
(available on F-Droid very soon)

• Fast Access: A tiny launcher or as Samsung likes to call it Floating Toolbox. *** NEW ***
License: GPLv3

• FreeOTP+: Fork of FreeOTP. Google Authenticator replacement with import/export support. *** NEW ***
License: Apache2

 

[kspearrin]

Thanks for including bitwarden!