because i use a “dumb phone” (non-touch android flip phone, Sonim XP3 Plus 5G (X320)) my apps reflect that need a bit more.

• TT9 invaluable app for T9 android phones, it works so so much better than the stock keyboard.
• SimpleEmail this was the only email client that i could find that could work without a touchscreen. So far I’ve been reeeaally happy with it–it’s so nice to have a solid email client again.
• DSub2000 subsonic/navidrome client that “mostly” works without a touchscreen. it’s not perfect, but for my use case it is usable when i don’t want to pull out my MP3 player.
• Localsend OS agnostic “air drop”, must have
• KDE connect Works really well on the Sonim for SMS, notifications etc (I had more issues previously when running older versions of Android on “dumb” devices)
• DAVx5 Contact and Calendar sync, works so well with fastmail (or self hosted options); this is a life saver for me so that i can use the built in contacts/calendar for my non-touch device.
• Delta Chat works surprisingly without touch. it’s hard to get people to switch off text or signal. But because my phone doesn’t support RCS, and signal is pretty mid (but still usable) without touch, delta chat has worked good for me.
• Privacy Friendly QR Scanner works perfectly without a touchscreen, and has been invaluable on devices that do not come with a touch screen.

These are a couple apps that are not on fdroid, but work really well on my device if anyone is curious:

• BIG Launcher Expensive AF, but I was able to purchase the launcher on my pixel (that runs grapheneOS), then send them an email saying it doesn’t work on my Sonim X320 because it doesn’t have google play services–they sent me an APK of the full version that does not need google play services. This is one of the few launchers that works on non-touch devices, and it’s actually really good. The default launcher on the Sonim bugs out and does not show apps that are not pre-installed.
• PodLP is a podcast app that is specifically made with non-touch/feature phones in mind. The developer did some AI assisted work to reverse engineer the API’s for the softkeys on phones like the sonim. While I don’t like AI, and try to use software that is free of slop–this is really cool work that I haven’t seen in any other applications. The developer just recently put out the apk on android it seems like maybe it will come to f-droid or something.
• MATVT Is the virtual mouse that I am using to get around not having a touch screen when needed. But TBH the scrolling is jank and only works on some apps… If anyone has another options or tips, I’d love to try anything else at this point.

HTTPS Shortcuts. Allows you to call a rest api through a shortcut.

Examples I use: share links via pushover to my other devices, share links to Readeck or linkding, disable my DNS adblocking service for 5 minutes.

I opened up Fdroid to check, and I found this one. I think it might be my new favourite calculator. I’ve always wanted something like speedcrunch on mobile.

https://f-droid.org/packages/com.vishaltelangre.nerdcalci

Tubular has been my favourite tube app, its newpipe with sponsorblock and a few other features baked in.

Droidify was my fave but fdroid might have a better UI at this stage. These app stores need better browsing and search for sure.

Opentune

• immich - photo gallery, sync, analysis, and sharing. A private server is a bit to install, but worth it.
• AntennaPod - Podcasts
• HeliBoard - keyboard. One feature is to move the cursor via the space key.

I use:

• Droid-ify for better F-Droid

• Aegis for 2FA

• Capy Reader for RSS

• Broccoli for recipes

• FluffyChat for Matrix

• Gadgetbridge for smart band

• Breezy Weather for weather

• Heliboard for keyboard

• IronFox as browser (you need to add its repo though)

• KeePassDX as KeePass vault

• Kitsune for Kitsu interaction

• Librera Reader for ebooks and PDFs

• LibreSudoku for occasional sudoku

• Standard Notes for personal notes

• Joplin for general notes

• Markdownr for downloading articles as markdown, then I pass them to Joplin

• Molly for Signal client

• mpv for videos

• NetGuard for firewall

• CoMaps for general map/GPS needs

• PipePipe for Youtube and PeerTube

• RustDesk for remote access

• SD Maid 2 for system cleaner

• SicMu Neo for music player

• SimpleLogin for email aliases

• Sky Map for stars

• Stocks Widget for stock market

• Sumire for Japanese keyboard

• Termux for terminal needs

• Track & Graph for habit tracker

• Trail Sense for outdoor activities

• Tuta Mail for email

• Voyager for Lemmy

• Yet Another Call Blocker for blocking calls (even though it doesn’t get updates for a long time still works for me)

• And core apps from Fossify

My favorite launcher Dragon Launcher, it’s as fun as a spinner and very minimal until you interact with it.

And a couple of games I’ve been hooked with lately: Vector pinball And Breakout 71

FlashDim

If your phone’s flash is dimmable, you can dim your flashlight. A life saver for middle of the night searching for something when I don’t need the power of the sun

Glad to see many apps I already use here! Just to add ones I haven’t seen mentioned:

• Lichess - the best chess
• Paseo - simple step counter
• Wikipedia - duh
• Gmaps WV - for when other maps fail
• Openreads - amazing and underloved books / reading tracker
• SherpaTTS - offline text to speech
• Whisper+ - offline speech to text
• FairEmail - email client
• Fcitx5 - Chinese keyboard
• AnkiDroid - Anki flashcards

• Droid-ify - much nicer F-Droid replacement front end that also works with Shizuku to automate installing updates in batches. Also supports many other repositories like izzy-On-Droid (which some of my items below may come from instead).

• Shizuku - gives elevated powers to apps written to take advantage of it. Not quite root, but definitely helps give abilities that make life easier.

• Kompact Image Compressor - I work with scanned documents a fair amount, and this new app has already saved me significant storage space.

• Key Mapper - I mainly use this for emulation, but there are plenty of other uses.

• URL Check - powerful sanitizer with the smallest footprint of those I’ve tried.

• DropCount - my latest game addiction

• Keyboard Switcher - sometimes I just gotta use a different input method, and this provides a consistent easy way to switch

• Hail - group apps to freeze all in one shot with Shizuku

• Insular - de-Googled Island app which makes working with the work profile feature easier

• FFUpdater - keeps my collection of browsers & Thunderbird up to date automatically with Shizuku

I prefer PipePipe to NewPipe, personally. It’s got more sources. Otherwise, in no particular order…

• Shattered Pixel Dungeon
• Fennec F-Droid
• Xed-Editor
• AntennaPod
• VLC
• Forkyz
• AnySoftKeyboard
• KDE Connect
• Linux Command Library

Does it have to be on F-Droid? I use Obtainium. (app configs)

LocalSend, https://github.com/localsend/localsend Obtainium, https://github.com/imranr98/obtainium Aegis, https://github.com/beemdevelopment/aegis CoMaps, https://codeberg.org/comaps/comaps Tasks, https://github.com/tasks/tasks ZipXtract, https://github.com/wirelessalien/zipxtract disky, https://github.com/newhinton/disky WallFlow Plus (Alpha), https://github.com/ammargitham/WallFlow Droid-ify, https://github.com/iamlooker/droid-ify Aves Libre, https://github.com/deckerst/aves Phone, https://github.com/FossifyOrg/Phone OpenTracks, https://f-droid.org/packages/de.dennisguse.opentracks Eden, https://git.eden-emu.dev/eden-emu/eden DAVx⁵, https://github.com/bitfireat/davx5-ose Open Camera, https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.sourceforge.opencamera Obsidian, https://github.com/obsidianmd/obsidian-releases kitshn, https://github.com/aimok04/kitshn Calculator, https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.sadellie.unitto Jellyfin, https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-android Nextcloud, https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.nextcloud.client WiFiAnalyzer, https://github.com/VREMSoftwareDevelopment/WifiAnalyzer Thunderbird, https://github.com/thunderbird/thunderbird-android Breezy Weather, https://github.com/breezy-weather/breezy-weather addy.io, https://github.com/anonaddy/addy-android mpv, https://f-droid.org/en/packages/is.xyz.mpv Paperize, https://github.com/Anthonyy232/Paperize M3U, https://github.com/oxyroid/M3UAndroid FairScan, https://github.com/pynicolas/FairScan Harmonic, https://github.com/simonhalvdansson/harmonic-hn SpamBlocker, https://f-droid.org/en/packages/spam.blocker Material Files, https://github.com/zhanghai/materialfiles FUTO Keyboard, https://github.com/futo-org/android-keyboard KeePassDX, https://github.com/Kunzisoft/KeePassDX Signal, https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android Bitwarden, https://github.com/bitwarden/android Audiobookshelf, https://github.com/advplyr/audiobookshelf-app KDE Connect, https://f-droid.org/packages/org.kde.kdeconnect_tp GameNative, https://github.com/utkarshdalal/GameNative MJ PDF, https://gitlab.com/mudlej_android/mj_pdf_reader Firefox Beta, https://download.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/fenix/releases/ Summit, https://github.com/idunnololz/summit-for-lemmy Catima, https://github.com/catimaloyalty/android ArrMatey, https://github.com/owenlejeune/ArrMatey OpenKeychain, https://f-droid.org/packages/org.sufficientlysecure.keychain NotallyX, https://github.com/Crustack/NotallyX WG Tunnel, https://github.com/wgtunnel/wgtunnel Bluesky, https://github.com/bluesky-social/social-app Mental Math, https://codeberg.org/Mental-Math/MentalMath Calendar, https://github.com/fossifyorg/calendar Moshidon, https://github.com/lucasggamerm/moshidon Memories, https://github.com/pulsejet/memories AntennaPod, https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.danoeh.antennapod Home Assistant, https://github.com/home-assistant/android Off Grid, https://github.com/alichherawalla/off-grid-mobile-ai Tubular, https://github.com/polymorphicshade/Tubular

fave tube app

revanced: https://revanced.app it’s a bit of a hassle to set up but then it’s the best imo

Since most of my daily drivers are covered, i’ll list the two that haven’t been:

pie-launcheris… different in how it operates…

And Thump-Key is my by now loved keyboard that lets you type fast with no autocorrect (after a period of learning). I use it with a two finger configuration and a German layout.

There are setups for one finger too: