Kelson Reviews Mobile Apps
- Amazon Music ★★★☆☆ I want to use it to listen to music. Amazon wants to use it to sell me more subscriptions.
- Assistant for No Man’s Sky ★★★★★ Very useful for looking up crafting recipes and other reference while playing the game on my PC. Updated quickly when the game adds new features.
- Clusterduck ★★★★☆ Fun and weird, good for killing time while you’re waiting in line. Eventually it gets monotonous, but it takes a while to get there.
- CSCPay Mobile ★★☆☆☆ Now my laundry doesn’t just depend on the washer and dryer, but on a controller box, its internet connection, my internet connection, my phone charge, and an online service.
- DAVx⁵ ★★★★★ Background app that syncs your non-Google cloud accounts with your Android system calendars and contacts.
- Fossify Apps: Replacing Simple Mobile Tools Simple Mobile Tools was purchased and now does everything it used to refuse to. Fossify is a privacy-respecting fork.
- Fossify Calendar ★★★★☆ Basic calendar app that works with your phone’s local calendars. You can do all the usual things you want to use a calendar for on your phone. Doesn’t clutter up your schedule with ads or vacuum up your personal data.
- Fossify Contacts ★★★★☆ Basic, privacy-respecting contacts app for Android that works with all contacts accounts on your phone.
- Fossify Gallery ★★★★☆ Basic on-device gallery that lets you manage your photos without sending them to a cloud service just to deal with what’s on your phone.
- Fossify Keyboard ★★★☆☆ I wanted to like this keyboard, but I can’t seem to type reliably with it just by tapping on my phone, and there’s no swipe gesture or autosuggest support. It works better at tablet size.
- Fossify Launcher ★★★☆☆ Works fine for launching apps. Widget support needs more work. Does not auto-rotate.
- Gmail (Android App) ★★★☆☆ Works well with multiple accounts and display modes, but tracks you more than it should.
- iNaturalist (App) ★★★★★ Streamlines the basic use case of posting an observation from your phone and narrowing down the plant or animal you’re looking at.
- Instagram ★★☆☆☆ Like checking out your friends’ vacation photos, but every other photo is an ad, and half of your friends’ pics are full of product placement.
- K-9 Email ★★★★☆ Classic email app for Android: No frills, no ads, no tracking. Supports multiple accounts, phone-to-tablet layouts, and dark mode.
- KeePass2Android ★★★★★ Nice, clean interface to a KeePass2 database with auto-fill support for both websites and apps and seamless syncing over your own server or the cloud of your choice.
- Microsoft Outlook (Android) ★★★★☆ It works. More stable than the desktop version. Handles mail, calendar and contacts, offers the focused/other inbox view. Tries to keep you in Microsoft’s apps. OK for work, wouldn’t use it for personal mail.
- OpenTasks ★★★★★ Simple to-do list that works great with a Nextcloud server or local storage on your phone.
- PixelDroid ★★★★★ Optimized for photo sharing and viewing, works smoothly and integrates well with the system. FOSS, won’t vacuum up your personal data.
- QuickEdit ★★★★★ Full-featured text editor for Android. Good in a pinch on a phone, better on a tablet.
- StreetComplete ★★★★★ StreetComplete is an easy way to contribute to OpenStreetMap on the go, as a beginner, or both from your Android phone.
- Target (app) ★★★★★ Well-designed, runs smoothly, great for ordering items to pick up in-store or for shipping.
- Tinyview Comics ★★★★☆ Good comics formatted for small screens.
- Tusky for Mastodon ★★★★★ Impressed at how smoothly the app works, especially with multiple accounts.
- Vespucci (App) ★★★★★ Vespucci is a powerful editor for OpenStreetMap on Android that can handle just about anything, though the learning curve is steep.