Kelson Reviews Mobile Apps

Aegis Authenticator ★★★★★ A well-designed 2FA app for Android that lets you organize accounts into groups, can use a password or fingerprint to add another layer of security to your codes, and can easily import from several apps including Google Authenticator.

Amazon Music ★★★☆☆ I want to use it to listen to music. Amazon wants to use it to sell me more subscriptions.

Arc Search ★★★★☆ Surprisingly, I like the mobile Arc browser better than its desktop counterpart. Simplified UI, stays mostly out of your way, and it’s satisfying to fling tabs offscreen to close them. Still leery of the AI summarizer, though.

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.

Bookshop.org ★★★★☆ A good place to shop online for books and still support indie bookstores. They’ve started selling eBooks too, in standard ePub form. The reader app is a bit rough around the edges, but works well enough on a regular phone or tablet…just not on an e-ink touchscreen (yet?)

Buran ★★★★☆ Simple, fast, intuitive Gemini Protocol client for Android with a clean interface. Supports bookmarks and client certs, but not subscriptions.

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.

ConnectBot ★★★★★ A no-nonsense SSH client for Android.

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.

Deedum ★★★☆☆ A full featured, if awkward, Gemini client for Android and iOS. Handles bookmarks, subscriptions and client identities.

DuckDuckGo ★★★★☆ A private-ish search engine that’s also serving less slop than Google. Disposable email aliases are convenient. The browser extension and standalone browser block known trackers, and the Android app can block trackers in other apps too.

eBooks.com ★★★★☆ An eBook seller with some actual business ethics. No hardware (which simplifies things), but they have an app for Android and iOS, and any DRM-free titles can be downloaded and read on just about anything.

Ecosia (Search) ★★★★☆ Non-profit search provider that uses renewable energy and partners with environmental organizations. AKA “the search engine that plants trees.”

Fedilab ★★★★☆ A full-featured app for connecting to Mastodon and other Fediverse servers. Includes specific capabilities for Akkoma, Pixelfed, PeerTube and more, without getting too cluttered.

Feedly ★★★☆☆ Cloud-based feed reader with all the bells and whistles, focusing too much on the bells and whistles.

Firefox ★★★★☆ I still have a soft spot for Firefox. At times it’s been the best web browser on Windows and Linux. It’s still good, has a solid extension ecosystem, and serves as an important bulwark against one company dominating browser tech.

Floccus Bookmarks Sync ★★★★★ Very flexible, syncs across many different desktop browsers and mobile devices, and for privacy it can run on your own server or encrypted on another cloud service.

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 Calculator ★★★★☆ Basic calculator, like the cheap 16-key models. No fancy scientific functions, but also no ads, no data mining, and no subscription. And it’s already in your pocket.

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 Camera ★★★☆☆ Basic camera app with support for flash, timer and video, optional EXIF. Lacks advanced processing like night sight. Images are slightly noisier than Google’s camera.

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.

Fossify Messages ★★★☆☆ Minimalist SMS/MMS app with custom alerts, archives and actions on the pull-down notifications. No RCS support or swipe actions, but does the job without sending a copy of all your messages to Google.

Fossify Voice Recorder ★★★★☆ A simple mono recording app where the audio stays on your phone. No ads, no subscriptions, no remotely-generated transcripts, just basic recording.

FreeOTP (Authenticator) ★★★☆☆ Extremely bare-bones 2FA app for iOS and Android, sponsored by Red Hat. It’s secure, works offline, and doesn’t depend on Google. A decent choice if you start with it, but a lack of import features means switching from another app is tedious.

Gmail (Android App) ★★★☆☆ Works well with multiple accounts and display modes, but tracks you more than it should.

Husky (Social Media App) ★★★☆☆ A fork based on an older version of Tusky, with added support for Pleroma and Akkoma extensions.

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.

IronFox ★★★★☆ A privacy-hardened Firefox variation for Android, comparable to LibreWolf on desktops. Removes Mozilla tracking and services like Pocket. Locks down features that can leak data, but those changes can break some sites.

Jellyfin ★★★★★ Great for playing music across my local network, doesn’t phone home to a cloud or try to upsell subscriptions.

K-9 Email ★★★★☆ Classic email app for Android: No frills, no ads, no tracking. Supports multiple accounts, phone-to-tablet layouts, and dark mode.

KeePass Password Managers ★★★★★ KeePassXC, its browser extension, and KeePass2Android are a nice, clean set of apps to manage your passwords on your OWN desktop and mobile devices, auto-fill websites and apps, and sync over your own server or cloud provider.

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.

Kobo (eBook store and readers) ★★★★☆ A solid alternative to Kindle, from the eBook selection through apps and hardware. The app works well on my eink tablet without too much tweaking, though it still wants to sell me more books before I can open the one I want to read.

Lagrange ★★★★★ Lagrange quickly became my favorite Gemini client on the desktop with its clean and convenient UI, stability and speed across platforms. And the mobile version works well too.

Manyverse ★★★★☆ Takes the pain out of setting up and running SSB. Unfortunately it doesn’t overcome SSB’s inherent challenges of discovery, data size or multiple devices. (So far?)

Mastodon (Mobile App) ★★★☆☆ Good for someone new to Mastodon, but lacks advanced features found in other apps like Tusky.

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.

Nextcloud News ★★★★★ Simple web-based news reader for Nextcloud, easy to install and syncs with multiple desktop and mobile clients.

Nextcloud Notes ★★★★★ Simpler than Google Keep, more private, with human-readable data that syncs quickly and cleanly with your devices.

OpenTasks ★★★★★ Simple to-do list that works great with a Nextcloud server or local storage on your phone.

Opera (Web Browser) ★★★☆☆ Opera used to be one of my favorite browsers back in the day, but its current incarnation just doesn’t appeal to me. I much prefer Vivaldi, which is a spiritual successor to the original.

Pachli (Mastodon App) ★★★★☆ A Mastodon app forked from (and still similar to) Tusky. Capable without being cluttered. Faster, smaller updates, some minor differences, and some cool anti-harassment features I’d like to see adopted more widely.

PixelDroid ★★★★★ Optimized for photo sharing and viewing, works smoothly and integrates well with the system. FOSS, won’t vacuum up your personal data.

Pocket (discontinued) ★★★☆☆ I used Pocket for ages to better manage my time reading articles. Eventually I soured on the way it’s turned into a recommendation engine. And now Mozilla’s discontinuing it. Wallabag is a decent alternative for the read-it-later aspect.

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.

Subway Tooter ★★★☆☆ Extremely customizable, capable, cluttered and complex. Also extremely frustrating to use, especially on a phone. Better on a tablet where there’s room for more columns at a time.

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.

Tor Browser ★★★★☆ When you really want (or need) to stay private while using the web, Tor is the way to go. Just keep the drawbacks in mind when you do.

Tusky for Mastodon ★★★★★ I’ve checked out some alternatives after several years using Tusky, and it’s still my preferred Mastodon/Fediverse app. It really runs smoothly, even 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.

Vivaldi (Web Browser) ★★★★★ Spiritual successor to the original Opera browser, this ultra-customizable web browser can open into a full suite for email, calendar, feeds and more – but only if you want it to.

Wallabag ★★★★☆ A read-it-later type service built on open-source software that you can run yourself if you want (but don’t have to). Not as polished as Pocket, but it’s sticking around, and you know it’s not using your saved bookmarks to train a recommendation engine.

Watch Duty ★★★★★ More useful than official alerts or the LA Times fire maps for knowing which parts of a wildfire you need to worry about and how soon.

Waterfox ★★★★☆ A Firefox fork aimed at improved performance and privacy, without sacrificing usability. Also available on Android.