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Preparing a megathread about android FOSS apps - Part Four (Keyboards, Notes, Maps and Music Players) (lemmy.ml)

submitted 5 months ago by dez@lemmy.ml to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

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This thread is ONLY to talk about Keyboards, Notes, Maps and Music Players. I add video Music Players because probably some people want to know about good FOSS alternatives.

Little context

spoiler

Why not build a megathread with the best and most reliable FOSS apps too help someone who want to join on the bright side of open source?

We (because this is not from me, this is from us) need to share thoughts, ideas and all things you want to say. Dont be shy. Upvote the comments you like and agree; disagree and tell why you disagree. This is will be different from others threads because this need a proper user opinion, and your opinions will be VERY important to build this. In short, your opinions and thoughts will be the fundamental source to build this.

I will read ALL comments to build this. Even if this has a million comments, I’m going to waste time reading it. Whatever it takes.

Your opinions about it are CRUCIAL and FUNDAMENTAL, because your opinions is the main-base to build the megathread.

Please, consider share your ideas and thoughts about apps on previous threads. Your opinions are really important to build final megathread. You can upvote or downvote posts so that comments gain strength and agreement between the community.

spoiler

Discussion about Contacts, SMS and Dialers app is here.

Discussion about Calculators, Cameras and Calendars apps is here.

Discussion about Manager files, Recorders, Galleries and Video editors apps is here.

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[-] Evkob@lemmy.ca 30 points 5 months ago

I yearn for the day a FOSS keyboard for Android will have functional multilingual autocorrect. Most of the typing I do on my phone is in Frenglish and every FOSS keyboard I've tried has made it impossible to have autocorrect turned on. They always default to autocorrecting in either only English or only French which is just very frustrating.

Compare that to SwiftKey, which not only has no issues with mixed languages, also learns my texting patterns, such as typing j'fais rather than je fais. I just don't give it any permissions, including network access. It's one of the only proprietary things on my phone but I couldn't use my phone without it.

[-] gogosempai@programming.dev 27 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Have you tried this active fork of OpenBoard? The dev added support for multilingual typing months ago. This has Material You theme as well as glide typing (needs to be turned on manually).

[-] fievel@lemm.ee 9 points 5 months ago

Really happy with this fork, using it for several months now. Also occasionally Unexpected Keyboard for termux / ssh / code ....

[-] lambchop@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Wow thanks, exactly what I've been looking for!

Edit: was using swype which was last updated in 2018 and is broken with android 14. Been looking for a replacement for ages. This open board fork is the best replacement I've tried so far. The word prediction works differently but I'll get used to it.

[-] noodlejetski@lemm.ee 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

~~I've just installed it and it appears that you still have to manually switch between languages, otherwise it won't correct your attempts to write in another language.~~

edit: looks like you need to press on your preferred dictionary and add multilingual typing for it to work. it's quite decent, especially when you set autocorrect to "very aggressive", otherwise it will have difficulties recognising when you're trying to type in the secondary language.

[-] Evkob@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I was honestly hoping for a reply like this when I commented. I'll give it a try, thanks! 😊 I'd love to ditch SwiftKey.

Edit: So far, it's the by far best FOSS option I've tried. There's even a couple of things it does much better than SwiftKey IMO (although I do wish there were an option to make the keyboard a bit smaller, it feels massive!) I'll stick with it for 2-3 weeks to try and train its auto-correct to my liking.

[-] gogosempai@programming.dev 4 points 5 months ago

Do open an issue on GitHub for whatever you feel needs work. This project is being actively worked upon, I've seen stuff get implemented within a day even!

[-] Evkob@lemmy.ca 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

After looking around the settings a bit more, I noticed the "keyboard height scale" and "bottom padding scale" options, I set both of these to 80% and it's perfect!

Thanks again the the great suggestion 😊

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[-] noodlejetski@lemm.ee 2 points 5 months ago

AnySoftKeyboard lets you merge dictionaries when you long press the Enter button. I've been using it for multilingual autocorrect for a few years now.

[-] Evkob@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 months ago

I've tried AnySoftKeyboard and that was not my experience. It worked fine if I only wrote out sentences that were fully in one language or the other, but as soon as I tried to switch mid-sentence it became completely borked.

I've been using the OpenBoard fork that was recommended in this thread for the past few days, and it's been lovely.

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[-] GravitySpoiled@lemmy.ml 12 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Hopefully I'm not too late. This is the first of your posts that I see.

It is always a great idea to list awesome opensource apps. And most importantly keep the list up to date.

This should not be a one person task and keeping a megathread up to date and readable isn't that great.

There are "awesome lists". Anyone can create an awesome list. It is a curated list of apps or services, often maintained on github for easier collaboration.

Following are two of those

https://github.com/binaryshrey/Awesome-Android-Open-Source-Projects

https://github.com/LinuxCafeFederation/awesome-android

Privacyguides should always get a mention when talking about recommendations since they curate their list and state why they choose this or that app and service. Its primary target is privacy but opensource is important for that as well https://www.privacyguides.org/

In short, if you are serious about it, create a repo somewhere and begin writing and listing. Or, contribute to other lists.

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[-] Father_Redbeard@lemmy.ml 10 points 5 months ago

I'm extremely picky about Notes apps. I've tested so many Open source as well as closed source apps. I'll be interested in what others are using, but the features I want are:

Cross platform (Android, Linux, and MacOS)
Universal format - markdown is a bonus
Good task handling with checklist support

So what I've settled with is Obsidian (not open source) due to its simplicity of reading and writing to a folder hierarchy of plain text files. But since it sucks at task and checklists, I've been using Quillpad. It only syncs with Nextcloud at the moment, but there is promise of plain text file and bring-your-own-sync-solution on the roadmap.

Notesnook is a nice app, but since it's all E2EE, there is no plain text without exporting your notes manually. Shame too because it handles tasks and checklists very nicely.

Honorable mention: Acreom it's not open source yet, but that is on the roadmap. It is local first and plain text files on desktop OSes...but not on Android, meaning of you want to sync between your desktop and mobile you have to use their cloud. And I don't want to do that.

Joplin gets mentioned constantly. But it adds weird metadata to every text file and changes the titles of the files to some garbled hexadecimal string, which makes it impossible to know what you're looking at at the file level. And the task management/checklists is awful. Android app is bad too. I'm sure I'll get hate for hating on the FOSS golden child, but that's ok. This is simply my opinion. Like I said I'm very picky.

[-] lambchop@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

I haven't used it, but I've heard logseq is pretty much FOSS obsidian.

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[-] joeldebruijn@lemmy.ml 9 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Notes: Joplin

Maps: OSMand, Organic Maps, StreetComplete, Vespucci, EveryDoor

Music: VLC

[-] MrFunnyMoustache@lemmy.ml 8 points 5 months ago

Orgzly is a great notes app. Zero complaints.

I love Retro Music Player, it's almost perfect.

[-] dez@lemmy.ml 8 points 5 months ago

Notally it's been my main one for writing things when I need. Imo, is really really good and simple.

As someone suggest me here on Lemmy, the keyboard im using is OpenBoard from Helium314 github page.

About Music Players, I used Auxio and Metro (a fork from Retro MusicPlayer) and liked it.

[-] ZeroHora@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 months ago

Auxio is excellent and use Material design.

[-] t0fr@lemmy.ca 8 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Notes:

Logseq

Music (Local Mp3 apps)

[-] SuperSpruce@lemmy.zip 8 points 5 months ago

Maps: Organic Maps

Notes: Note calendar. Type in notes for a specific day. A beautifully simple app.

[-] BlanK0@lemmy.ml 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Keyboard: OpenBoard

Notes: Quillpad

Music: Symphony

Maps: OsmAnd~

[-] therebedragons@lemmy.ml 6 points 5 months ago

I've enjoyed anysoft and floris keyboards but I want something open source with gif support. Might go back to swiftkey just because of it.

[-] aaronbieber@beehaw.org 2 points 5 months ago

I'm physically addicted to SwiftKey and it's still very good, but, it is owned by Microsoft now in case that influences anyone's decisions here.

[-] qwerty@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Openboard
Quillnote
Organic Maps
ViMusic - music streaming but after 1st listen songs are cached for offline play.

Edit: Now that I think about it, I use session for taking notes and "syncing" them with my PC. I guess any messaging app with a desktop client would work.

[-] Father_Redbeard@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 months ago

Quillnote has been abandoned. Quillpad is the fork that has a somewhat active development, if that matters to you.

[-] jackpot@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 months ago

quillpad has no way of exporting notes as of yet, be warned.

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[-] Lemongrab@lemmy.one 3 points 5 months ago

RiMusic is a fork with updates

[-] root@aussie.zone 4 points 5 months ago

I'm using "Unexpected Keyboard" right now. I like that it's different in that I dont have to long press a key in order to input punctuation. It's a swipe from the center of a key to a corner and I think it's that little bit faster. :)

Also doesn't have auto-correct like other FOSS keyboards.

[-] sleep_walker@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Keyboard: OpenBoard (works great, support anonymous mode, my layout, emojis, paste, move cursor using finger over space button, longer deletes using finger over backspace)
Music Player: Odyssey (I don't rely on ID3 tags but directory structure instead - there is too little of those players who use it)
Music Player: ViMusic (FOSS interface to Youtube Music)
Music Player: RadioDroid (for online radio stations)

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[-] ZeroHora@lemmy.ml 4 points 5 months ago

For notes I really like Quillnotes.

[-] Jonnsy@slrpnk.net 4 points 5 months ago

Quillnotes is dead But Quillpad is a fork of it

[-] jackpot@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 months ago

get quillpad, and then use obtainium

[-] fievel@lemm.ee 4 points 5 months ago

For notes I'm using Joplin with sync with desktop client through a nextcloud instance. Really a very nice app if you want sync with multiple devices anc user friendly interface.

For maps OsmAnd, I even pay a subscription to support the project (and have hourly updated maps which is pretty cool when I fix wood paths in openstreetmap).

[-] ace_garp@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

OINotepad lost the ability to export notes to a file.

What is another notes app that is single press to start a new note, after app opening. Has no-nag auto-save if app is closed halfway through writing a note. Can auto title the note with the first line of the note. Can export all notes to a clear-readable file. Has search within a single note. And can sort by most recently modified.

Prefer on fdroid, but open to any FLOSS solution(on obtanium etc.)

OINotepad covered all this. Standard notes comes close but I can't search within an individual note.

Please help. (c:

[-] Father_Redbeard@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 months ago

Notesnook?

It has a premium tier with some features locked behind that, so try the freebie first to see if it's what you want. But I think if covers all those bases. It's other selling point is encryption, security, and privacy. So by default it'll prompt for biometrics or password to open the app. You can turn off a bunch of that if it ends up being too much friction for the quick note taking you're insinuating.

[-] ace_garp@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

Hey! Thanks for the suggestion. That one is not in the 15 I have tried, I'll check it out.

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[-] Asudox@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Keyboard: FlorisBoard

Music Player: InnerTune

[-] ikidd@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

Is there a way to get autocorrect on Florisboard?

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[-] Gooey0210@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 months ago

##Keyboards

Florisboard is back!

Openboard is sadly outdated, but there was some steady updated fork

Simple keyboard (NOT the simple tools), but it doesn't have many fucntions, but works just great and looks on a million $

##Notes

Many good options, but i would like to see an gpg encrypted notes with local storage

Honorable mentions: logseq, simple notes

Maps

Gmaps WV (donate to divest, plz), organic maps

##Music

Everything that works with jellyfin, bauh was good, but not updated in a while

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[-] sag@lemm.ee 3 points 5 months ago

I use Simple Keyboard and sometime Fboard.

And to play music I use RiMusic and also used Retro Music in past.

And NotiNotes for notes. A notes app which lives in notification.

[-] jackpot@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 months ago

why retro and not metro?

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[-] jackpot@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

music player: auxio or symphony

auxio is more simple but has less features. symphony is the inverse. pick your poison

[-] jerrythegenius@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

I quite like unexpected keyboard and I don't do much note-taking but when I do I just type it in acode and a save it as a .md.

[-] JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 3 points 5 months ago

Muaic: InnerTune (F-Droid), Deezloader to get mp3s (apk)

[-] Icaria@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

Does anyone know of an alternative to Hacker's Keyboard? It hasn't been updated for about 5 years and I'm worried it will stop working on newer versions of Android.

[-] Disonantezko@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 5 months ago

Maybe: unexpected keyboard

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[-] Kushia@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 months ago

Joplin

I sync it with onedrive basically for free between my phone, laptop and computer. It's wysiwyg editor means it was basically a drop in replacement for EverNote for me, but open source and without the costs.