A client for F-Droid, which is a catalog of free and open source apps. You can install many of the following apps using this one. I recommend you to activate the following repositories to have a more complete catalog :

• F-Droid
• IzzyOnDroid (Apps may contains proprietary blobs)
• Guardian Project Official Releases (if you care about privacy)
• The Calyx Institue
• Every repo of app you might want to use such as BitWarden, NewPipe, ThreemaLibre, Collabora, Cryptomator, PeterCxy (Shelter), etc..

Worth mentioning : Neo-Store F-Droid

I like AuroraStore because it grabs apk (Android installation files) directly from the PlayStore without the need to connect to a Google account by using their Anonymous login method

Worth mentioning : APKMirror Proprietary alternative appstore with untouched APKs

A few apps only worked install from the autoritarian source of truth.

I put this one in the beggining because you might want to install it early. It let you create a Work Profile to let you easily separate data on your phone. Might not work on some devices such as Huawei. Here are some usecase :

Personnal / Work
Personnal / Banking
Offline / Online
Spyware free / Big brother (Instagram, Reddit, TikTok, Snapchat, etc...)
Open source / Proprietary

To debloat your device if you don't have a computer or don't feel confortable using adb or Universal Android Debloater NG but it need Shizuku in order to work...

To manage contacts

Worth mentioning : Connect You also a SMS client

Another app to manage contact, inspired by Apple Contacts

A phone dialer app.

Worth mentioning : RivoPhone

Another phone dialer app, inspired from iOS dialer.

A SMS app because it is somewhat (and somhow) still used as a communication protocole

Worth mentioning : Fossify Messages

Another SMS app, inspired by Apple iMessage design

A keyboard that respects your privacy. Based on OpenBoard and support swipetyping (through Google's library)

Activate emoji in the settings !

Worth mentioning : Simple Keyboard

Another keyboard worth trying but this comes with local AI-based speech-to-text feature.

A lightweight and elegant FOSS local note taking app.

If you want a more complete option check the eXtended fork : NotallyX

An interesting foss local notes app

A great FOSS local handwritten notes app

If you're into journaling on your Android device this open source app is well made.

A cloud synched note taking app with e2ee.

Another foss privacy respecting cloud sync note app

Worth mentioning : Standard Notes

A foss photo editing app

A feature rich gallery app.

Another feature rich gallery app, inspired from iOS Gallery app.

You can use it offline(no Cloud) without any account from now on! A cloud-based end-to-end encryption privacy-friendly replacement for Google Photos with local AI text based search.

A promising gallery app. Currently lacking advanced features but already good and gorgeous.

Worth mentioning :
Gallery (Googol Apps) Lightweight
Focus Go Proprietary, minimalist and lightweight

A free and open source camera app

Worth mentioning :
PhotonCamera
Libre Camera
Open Camera \

The best camera app. If you don't have a Pixel device you can look on this website for a compatible mod : https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/dev-suggested/

An advanced Camera app for videography on compatible devices

Advanced mobile video editor (proprietary)

Worth mentioning : Vaux Simpler and quicker video editor with useful features for simple edits

To have super basic video editing features (free & open source).

A simple foss video player for Android

Worth mentioning :
mpvKt elegant foss media player
VLC Media Player more feature-rich
Next Player early-dev

To watch youtube videos or listening to music without ads.

Worth mentioning : LibreTube Private YouTube front-end streaming from Piped instances

Independant fork of NewPipe with more feature such as SponsorBlock, ReturnDislikeButton and more

Worth mentioning : LastPipeBender NewPipe fork with most PipePipe features.

An app to follow video makers no matter their plateforms. Watch YouTube, PeerTube, Odysee, Rumble, Nebula and more...

App modding like YouTube without the ads, more active development than the popular ReVanced .

A great foss barcode & QR code scanner with history, OpenFoodFacts, OpenPetFoodFacts, OpenBeautyFacts and MusicBrainz integration. It also let you generate QR code or other barcode.

A feature packed barcode & QR code scanner

An open source file app.

Worth mentioning :
Fossify File Manager
Prism File Explorer

Another open source file app, inspired by iOS Files

An advanced proprietary and freemium file explorer app

Worth mentioning : Solid Explorer freemium

A fully open source app to extract rar, zip, tar, bz2, gz, 7z, xz, jar and z etc (encrypted .zip & .7z supported)

A proprietary app to extract archives

A beautiful Material 3 Expressive FOSS Clock app inspired by Google Clock