Everytime I setup a phone for a friend or myself I usually remove stock apps using adb or UniversalAndroidDebloaterNextGeneration and replace them with theses apps listed here. I added also a couple of nice to have apps that people might wants on their device.
Almost all of them are free as in free beer and many are open source (around 80%)
I tried to feature more applications and less services but there are several services still in this list, however I find them great and/or accessible (freemium most of the time).
FOSS = Free(as in freedom) and Open Source Software
Monitors battery levels for AirPods, Beats, and compatible models on Android with pop-up notifications, widget support, and premium features unlock via F-Droid.
If you use Apple AirPods with an Android device this is a must have !
Enables exclusive features like noise control, adaptive transparency, ear detection, gesture answering, conversational awareness, battery status, and custom controls on non-Apple devices.
If you have ColorOS/OxygenOS 16, Android 16 QPR3, Android 17 Beta 3 or higher you don't need root for most features. This companion app is better than CAPod, but CAPod offer better support for older non-rooted Android devices.
Noice is an application made for relaxation purposes, it creates customized ambience using clips from environmental sounds.
Relaxing sound mixer
100% Free Meditation App that will improve your Mental wellbeing with the help of Guided Meditations, Breathing Exercises, Mindfulness Practices, Relaxing Sounds, and more.
Meditation app
Mindful is a free and open-source app designed to help you regain control over your digital habits, improve your focus, and boost productivity. Whether you're battling social media addiction, struggling to stay focused, or simply looking for a way to better manage your...
An open source app for phone addiction detox
Snaptick is a user-friendly app designed to boost your productivity by helping you organize and achieve your daily plans effortlessly. With a clean and easy-to-use interface, this app offers essential features like task creation and editing, task prioritization, a built-in...
To-Do app
Loop Habit Tracker (AKA uhabits) helps to create and maintain good habits in order to achieve their long term goals. Detailed graphs help you to better track the progress of your habits.
A simple yet powerful habit tracker
Habit Builder is a simple, beautiful app that provides you with the right tools to keep track of your habits and understand your progress. The app is free, open source, and respects your privacy by storing everything on-device.
Another simple habit tarcker
Tack is a modern metronome app for Android with a beautifully designed interface that has all the features you need for practicing a music piece accurate to the beat.
A minimalist and elegant open source metronome app
A 100% Open Source app that tries to make personal finances easier. Fast, simple, without ads, without the need for an Internet connection and with a groundbreaking design, that's Monekin.
An open source app to track your expenses and budgets
Worth mentioning :
Buckwheat Simpler foss budgeting app
GreenStash Make saving goals with this foss app
A fully functional app for tracking personal expenses built using Jetpack Compose with a simple UI for easy understanding and ease of use.
Another open source app to track your expenses
Introducing "Casherwise," the cutting-edge expense application designed to revolutionize your financial management. With this innovative app, you can effortlessly handle your expenses and incomes, gaining full control over your personal finances.
A proprietary offline app to track your expenses and budgets without being tracked
Worth mentioning :
Am I Good? Free
Meow Money Manager If you love cats, privacy respecting offline app
eXpend Freemium offline proprietary app that respects your data
Tracks expenses, budgets, and subscriptions with offline access, privacy focus, CSV import, visual analytics, multi-currency features, and no ads.
Another open source expense tracker and budgeting app with cloud sync option but can be used locally without online connection.
A loyalety card manager and qr code manager (flights, train, etc...)
Lemuroid is an open-source emulation project based on Libretro. It's completely free, without ads and focused on ease of use and good user experience.
If you are into emulation this app is really great as it has an intuitive UI and supports many systems such as :
Atari 2600 (A26) NES SNES Game Boy (GB) Game Boy Color (GBC) Game Boy Advance (GBA) Sega Master System (SMS) Sega Genesis (aka Megadrive) Sega Game Gear (GG) Nintendo 64 (N64) Nintendo DS (DS) PlayStation (PSX) PlayStation Portable (PSP)
LibreTorrent is a Free as in Freedom torrent client for Android 4 and later, based on libtorrent. Download and share files directly on your device.
To leech and seed BitTorrent files on your Android device
A native Android digital painting app powered by the Krita image engine and Jetpack Compose.
Comments
Very nice list, though I still manage to find some suggestions lol
Id add Handy News Reader, an open source RSS reader with certain features that many RSS readers lack, big one for example is labeled saved articles and can even create pseudo feeds from websites.
If you make a category for social messaging, id add Element (matrix)
Hi, thank you. I try to keep this list more app based and not focusing too much on services that's why except for SMS Messengers there is no social messaging apps like Signal or Matrix. Thanks for recommanding me Handy News Reader but I don't think it's really better than the RSS agregator listed on here. Feel free to "fork" this list and personnalize it to your opinions !
I suggest adding Image Toolbox, it's a great addition to Gallery by Ionut Iacob with its lacking features. Also if you don't have a PC for Universal Android Debloater there's Canta, however it requires Shizuku to work.
Forgot to mention MJ PDF, far more versatile than its alternatives.
MJ PDF is now listed and so is Image Toolbox (And Canta) and a bunch more apps, thanks for your recommandations !
I would include Magic Earth for Maps
and FUTO GrayJay for youtube/video streaming alternative
Hey I have rework this list and added theses with a bunch of other apps, it is way more complete now !