Basically, what the title says. Do you use any app, that is proprietary, but either has no OSS alternatives or they’re all not good enough? If there is an alternative, what keeps you from switching?

    • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
      10·
      14 days ago

      The issue is that the digital tap-to-pay cards are actually reissued cards with their own unique numbers. They also require significant security measures to protect from cloning attacks.

      So banks need a party that they can safely issue a digital card to, knowing that the card data will be stored safely.

      Even a FOSS app that covers all the user’s needs is going to have a lot of trouble actually getting a card loaded into it under current standards.

      I hate to say it, but crypto wallets are likely the closest thing we’re ever going to get to a FOSS tap-to-pay system. Banks are inherently corporate and capitalist, so it’s not really in their nature to make things open source.

      Perhaps if there were an industry standard for issuing digital cards, instead of banks partnering with centralized wallet apps, we could procure our own digital cards to load onto our phones and watches, or integrate into other devices. But that’s a whole other battle that nobody is fighting right now.

      • logging_strict@lemmy.ml
        1·
        13 days ago

        A FOSS app for digital payments, must have a company front to sign deals with country retail store chains. Although customer kyc can be avoided, the payments from the front company to retail chains would be thru a corporate structure.

        … maybe convenience is the wrong path

        The advantages of PoW crypto, over digital (and PoS), it’s possible to force between seller and buyer:

        • communication with end-to-end encryption
        • privacy oriented marketplaces

        With the goal of fostering our own private communities. Over time, might spawn a sub-culture, identity, and ultimately people hood.

  • lemmy_eat_world@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    15 days ago

    Bitwarden. Most people think that their application is open source, but more and more of their code has shifted from the GPL/AGPL licensed code to code in their SDK, which is under a proprietary license. This led to their new Android app being disqualified from being hosted in F-Droid repos.

    Keyguard was supposed to be an open source Bitwarden client, but the dev chose to use a custom proprietary license, so that is source available as well.

  • superkret@feddit.org
    10·
    14 days ago

    A keyboard with swipe typing, multilingual autocorrect and speech to text support that actually works.

    Other than that, my only proprietary apps are from commercial services I use and pay for (banking, Spotify, Carsharing and public transport). I’d love for them to become open source, but it’s probably not ever gonna happen, cause they rely on verifying my identity.

      • selokichtli@lemmy.ml
        1·
        14 days ago

        X2. I don’t like it, but I still use that libswype Google blob to get swipe-writing. I wish they could produce their own in the future.

    • FuryMaker@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      14 days ago

      I went with FUTO Keyboard. It’s the only keyboard that ticks all my boxes to replace GBoard so far.

      I wish the swiping predictions were a bit better though.

      • lemmyingly@lemm.ee
        0·
        14 days ago

        Does the futo keyboard allow you to paste content yet?

        I briefly used it but found the lack of content pasting too much of a hindrabce.

        • FuryMaker@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          14 days ago

          Has options for pasting, and even a clipboard history feature? Although have not enabled that or tested it.

        • Treeniks@lemmy.ml
          32·
          14 days ago

          It is not. FUTO calls it “source first” which just means “open source but with rules against bad actors”. Certainly far from proprietary.

          • JustMarkov@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
            31·
            14 days ago

            If the license doesn’t meet the OSD and does not protect four freedoms, then it is not open-source.

              • JustMarkov@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
                32·
                14 days ago

                Jokes aside, I find that attitude not very healthy.

                Calling a source-available license “not proprietary”, this is what not very healthy.

                “Source-first” or “fair code” are just a fancy ways to say “proprietary”.

          • compcube@lemy.lol
            21·
            14 days ago

            It is not open source, because it does not meet the definition of open source.

  • DarkCloud@lemmy.world
    9·
    15 days ago

    Dating apps.

    We need an open source completely free dating app.

    No paying for matches, no limits …just they’re in your town, you look at their photos, you can talk, anyone can block anyone.

      • noughtnaut@lemmy.world
        4·
        14 days ago

        I’m honestly pleasantly surprised to see that this project seems to be rather actively developed.

        Which is completely separate from having a meaningful user base (near you), so 🤷

        • fossphi@lemm.eeEnglish
          2·
          14 days ago

          Which is completely separate from having a meaningful user base (near you), so 🤷

          Yep, this unfortunately seems to be a much hard problem

    • noughtnaut@lemmy.world
      4·
      14 days ago

      I’m with you, but see a million obstacles (aka. reasons for why things require payments).

      You would need some form of moderation, to weed out illegal content as well as simply bots, spam, and dead profiles. Also for message content. I’ve given it some thought and suspect it can be crowd sourced to some degree, but also needs counter balances. Instead of limiting a profile to be live/banned, you could have a percentage score of peer-reported subjective legitimacy (ditto for message responses, heck you could even have a section of outright reviews of the person’s behaviour - although that, again would be subject to abuse and moderation).

      Hosting, traffic, etc. would be an unavoidable cost, but can be mitigated with low resolution photos (VGA should be “good enough” for an initial impression, no?)

      For sure, an open source solution would offer way more fine grained filtering.

    • filister@lemmy.world
      0·
      15 days ago

      Great, but creating such an app would require someone to foot the bill for hosting user data, the web app and this can easily amount to quite a substantial sum. Not to mention that supporting this app would also be quite time consuming.

    • chebra@mstdn.io
      11·
      14 days ago

      @DarkCloud create a Mastodon instance, write your instance rules, moderate. That’s it. Plus you’ll be connected to the whole fediverse, existing client apps will work.

  • unknowing8343@discuss.tchncs.de
    6·
    15 days ago

    Pedantic, but Google Messages’ RCS. And it’s all Google’s fault because they are holding the API hostage, probably because they want to create familiarity with the app so that people don’t switch once they finally open up.

    • lemmy_eat_world@lemmy.world
      4·
      15 days ago

      Not pedantic at all. Google lied about RCS being an open standard.

      The pedantic point would be saying that RCS, the protocol, is technically open, but the specific implementation that Google is pushing and being adopted is proprietary 🤓

      So yeah. Totally fair point and fuck Google for their RCS bait-and-switch.

    • tetris11@lemmy.ml
      3·
      15 days ago

      For anyone wondering:

      RCS

      Rich Communication Services. It is a protocol designed to enhance traditional SMS. RCS allows users to send messages that can include high-resolution images, videos, audio messages, and group chats, as well as features like read receipts, typing indicators, and location sharing.

    • TonyOstrich@lemmy.world
      1·
      14 days ago

      Not just that, but they are actively hostile and hypocritical about it. Every 1-3 months they prevent RCS from working on rooted phones or phones running alternate ROMs. The fact that they spent so much time complaining that Apple wouldn’t comply with the “open” standard while limiting users’ options on their own platform is very frustrating.

    • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
      0·
      15 days ago

      I’m glad Google is exposing how crappy RCS is.

      It’s been fifteen years, and all they have is a “protocol” that’s still completely dependant on a phone number.

      What good is that? Why would I want that?

      There are numerous systems that don’t rely on a phone number, e.g. XMPP did everything RCS is trying to do, in 2010 (I ran it on my phone then, with a desktop client that kept in sync).

      Teleguard works on every platform, no phone number required, as does MATRIX, Simplex, Wire, Threema, etc, etc.

      Not to mention the issues people have with it. It’s unreliable.

      • unknowing8343@discuss.tchncs.de
        4·
        15 days ago

        RCS is not another chat app.

        It’s the NEW SMS. That is why it is so important, and that is why it works ONLY IF YOU HAVE A PHONE. Because that’s literally the point.

        Having your mom, grandpa, and everyone automatically use encrypted, modern comnunication just because they have a phone is extremely important.

        Realise that in places where SMS has been historically free, SMS is the standard.

        XMPP, Matrix or whatever will obviously still have its place for more “incognito” conversations. But having a phone number should also give you access to a better alternative than SMS.

  • ronflex@lemmy.world
    5·
    14 days ago

    Honestly, Google Keep notes. Trilium server runs as a UWA on Android but it’s pretty ass. And things like Obsidian are way too much for something me and my (non-technical) SO use to share notes

  • irotsoma@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    13 days ago

    Termius

    Not just Android, I want a cross-platform ssh client that shares keys. Termius is probably overkill for that, but I haven’t found anything else that works on Linux and Android. The real issue that made me stop paying for it is that for rpm based Linux I have to use the snap version and snap is buggy as heck with multitasking.

  • GraniteM@lemmy.world
    4·
    13 days ago

    Picsart. I’d like something that can do a bit of photo editing, adjust brightness/contrast/curves, work with layers, and conveniently slap together collages, but that doesn’t interrupt me in between every other operation with an ad or a request to sign up for a subscription to the app.

  • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.orgEnglish
    3·
    14 days ago

    Tasker, because there’s no alternative.

    MiXplorer (file manager), because even if not counting the features that should be a different app, it’s much better than material files.

    • infeeeee@lemm.ee
      1·
      15 days ago

      MicroG works really well

      A free-as-in-freedom re-implementation of Google’s proprietary Android user space apps and libraries.

      • ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org
        2·
        15 days ago

        MicroG works well if you let it leak some data to Google.

        I would like a free-as-in-free-from-Google Google Play Services reimplementation that lets me use any app that depends on it without hitting any Google server.

          • ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org
            1·
            15 days ago

            Free software (not open-source, it’s really free software that’s important) that depends on a single for-profit vendor is not free.

            MicroG is open-source but it’s not free. It fails to address two problems:

            • What do I care looking at the source code of a Google Play Services replacement when Google still holds my cellphone by the balls for certain critical functions?
            • Why do I need permission from Google for apps to function properly on my cellphone?

            I don’t think OP cares about getting the source of the apps they run so much as the apps being free-as-in-libre in his original question. Many people mistake open-source for free software and MicroG is not truly free.

            • infeeeee@lemm.ee
              1·
              15 days ago

              (I reread ops question and I can only see the term open source 2 times, but whatever, I understand what you say, and I don’t want to debate about semantics.)

              The point with microG is it’s still the best way if you want to use android. The other options are:

              • Play services (GMS), or Huawei has some similar solution because of US trade embragoes.
              • You can use android without play services but notifications won’t work for most apps, even if you can open them. (UnifiedPush tries to solve notification part) Wifi and cell based location won’t work
              • I see microG as an acceptable middle ground. I still have to give up something to goog, but it’s not much compared to GMS, and I can use all available apps
              • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.orgEnglish
                0·
                14 days ago

                The point with microG is it’s still the best way if you want to use android.

                btw I’m perfectly fine without even MicroG. When I was installing my phone it asked whether I want that too, said no, and didn’t fell the need to then it on yet

                • infeeeee@lemm.ee
                  0·
                  14 days ago

                  Huh? Which rom asks this? Usually you have to go through hoops to get microg, and only a handful of roms have it builtin. It can only ask if you want to enable microg not installing it or not, microg to correctly work it should be installed in /system/priv-app, to do that after boot on device, you have to be root.

                  Do you use any app from aurora or outside fdroid? If your answer is no, than you can use android without a GMS package.

                  Also as I wrote, location won’t work for you underground or inside concrete buildings. If you are fine with these kind of limitations than you can obviously.

                  Marwin (the main developer of microg) said in some interview that he doesn’t want microg to exist, and in a perfect world we shouldn’t need such workaround. I would be also happy if android wouldn’t depend this muhc on google

  • helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world
    2·
    15 days ago

    Nova launcher.

    I Haven’t found one that works so well with KLWP or has good app drawer organization. I like having folders and tabs to split everything up. Having one big list of apps (70% I dont use often and another 10% bloat) isn’t useful.

    • selokichtli@lemmy.ml
      3·
      14 days ago

      I’ve used several launchers but there seems to be a halt developing them. For the most time, I used to use recently Neo Launcher, but it feels dated now, they are working on a rewrite and it’s still beta (if not still alpha). Kvaesitso is a good launcher, but I’m too accustomed to the swipe up gesture to show apps and Kvaesitso just decided to make it upside down for me, and it feels odd even if you can change this to your preference. Finally, KISS launcher, which had halted development a bit but I find light and customizable enough. Not gonna lie here, as soon as Neo launcher gets to a stable state, I’m coming back.

      Edit:

      I wanted to mention a couple of killer features of KISS that you might probably like:

      • Its dock can pin a couple of apps and have some spaces changing depending on the frequency of use.
      • You can have a list of frequently used apps associated to a gesture (I use swipe-up and single-touch).
      • If you are gonna use a not too frequently used app, you can have a gesture for this too (I use long-touch).
      • Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is searchable. Well, not everything, but they surely allow you to search a lot of things.
      • helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world
        1·
        13 days ago

        Thank you for your suggestion.

        Having just tried it, it is not for me. The categories is there, but having the search/app drawrr on the top won’t work me, especially with these stupid large phone everyone makes. (I’m guessing theres a way to change it, but I didnt get that far)

        The ultimate reason its not for me is how widgets are a scrolling thing. It’s a different idea, but I like the widgets on my home screen where I can passively see them.

        If there’s a way to change that, I didnt see it. I didn’t even find a way to get rid of the big clock at the bottom.

    • lemmyingly@lemm.ee
      1·
      14 days ago

      We need a NOVA replacement with how they’ve recently restructured the company. It looks like NOVA is getting squeezed for the last few cents they’ve got to offer by whom ever bought the company 1-2 years ago.

      I’ve tried every other launcher I could find. In my opinion they all seemed to be minimalistic by design or they just lacked features.

  • lucullus@discuss.tchncs.de
    2·
    15 days ago

    I really need a libreoffice calc on my android phone. Not just opening (where currently only Microsoft Excel on Android works for me) but also editing and saving to my connected nextcloud (where I have also problems with Excel)

  • sga@lemmy.world
    2·
    15 days ago

    Whatsapp. I know signal, simplex, matrix, (a billion other things), etc exist that are much better, but where I live, no one uses them, for context, basically everyone, like if you have a phone, you use whatsapp, some government things even happen through whatsapp bots, when people say the word message here, they mean whatsapp. There are about 20-30% (among younger folks) who use telegram, but that is mostly for easier piracy, and larger file sharing (before whatsapp allowed 2 GiB, now they do it habitually). My mom has about a 1000 contacts, and less than 10 of them actually use signal (there are many more who signed up(there was another thing, basically when elon said “just use signal”))

    At this point it is not worth getting everyone to switch, the best i have done, is just reducing the number people i communicate with (on whatsapp), and try to just meet in person