After reading this thread, I feel like the luddite I know I am but don’t want to be. I want to maneuvre around outside, largely to see if I can manage to do it, but I also want to use Evernote and Instagram. I have installed F-Droid, without finding either there. Both are on APK Train. I’m more than just a bit sceptical, though, to a page with no information under “About us”. Does anyone have any experience with apktrain.com?
Hi, this is a very good topic. However, Google applications seem to be anchored deeply in the android system. Therefore, it is not that easy to get rid of Google. Since you appear to be a German speaker, you might like to read the “Android without Google” series by Mike Kuketz (http://www.kuketz-blog.de/your-phone-your-data-teil1/). It is a tutorial in six parts on how to ban Google from your Android device. This needs more than F-Droid and FOSS. You’ll need firewalls (AFWall+, etc), and some apps will not run, although they are FOSS (as already mentioned in this thread, TextSecure is yet among them - unfortunately!). I did not try Mike’s tutorial yet, but I’ll definitely do as soon as I have enough time. I’ll let you guys know, after I tried it.
I definitely recommend AFWall+ on the FF; if you install it before other apps it’ll automatically ask you which permissions you gove to each new app to access network in quite a detailed way (e. g. “OK but only when on wifi…”)
I come back to this thread because I have the curious feeling that many people think the only choice is, either free/open apps through the F-Droid “market”, or paying apps that would only come through the Google App market.
This indeed isn’t true, and for all I love about FOSS, there are areas where it remains possible to buy an app while staying fully outside Google. I for one am considering this for the windows-compatibility apps from the german Softmaker, which free trial I’m currently testing.
On their site it clearly looks like I can buy with two separate banking options, both entierely independent from Google, and then download and install the respective .apk files. (they even propose a backup CDROM)
I wonder if there are some other areas where one can find independent softwares that can be independently bought, if I dare say.
Maybe we can start a new (wiki)-thread which lists companies and software developers, who distribute their apps outside the Google ecosystem. It would be interesting to know more high-quality apps which stay out of Google Play and they surely can need more attention.
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Maybe we can start a new (wiki)-thread which lists companies and software developers, who distribute their apps outside the Google ecosystem. It would be interesting to know more high-quality apps which stay out of Google Play and they surely can need more attention.
Newluck that sounds a very good idea. But I’m not specialist here: what would you suggest (1)?
A simple new thread here (of which I suppose we should select the title very carefully)?
Or, as I see you are talking “wiki”, is there a more lasting way of doing, somewhere else?
Thanks again!
Hervé
(1) “Apps that you can buy without Appstores at all”?
On the Discourse platform it is possible to wiki posts, so they can be edited by any member of the forum (long explanation here).
I have in mind a thread where the very first post is wiki-ed and anyone can add companies and software developers, which then can be discussed below the original post. I think some categories would be nice, like Office, Games, etc.
I will start a new thread and flag it immidiately to ask one of the moderators if they could wiki it.
Greets!
@Stefan and all other german-speaking Fairphone users:
I have already written a wiki entry relating to this topic, but it´s a german article.
You probably know the Fairphone Freunde Community - http://www.fairphone-freunde.de/
You´ll find the Article under:
Fairphone Freunde Wiki > Android allgemein > Freies Android
Direct Link: http://wiki.fairphone-freunde.de/index.php?title=Freies_Android
The Article is relating to:
- Free Android (How to leave the FP “Google-Free”)
- Open Source (How to leave the FP nearly “Open Source-Only”)
The Article is similar to:
- Droid-Break: http://droid-break.info/
- PRISM-BREAK: https://prism-break.org/en/categories/android/
I´ve been writing this article for at about 2 month and now it´s finished.
I hope you´ll like it
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Wow, thank you for this link!
There is a nice Fairphone-Communiy growing fast. 
Best regards from Switzerland
Bobby
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I will start a new thread and flag it immidiately to ask one of the moderators if they could wiki it.
Thanks newluck! I’ve seen the thread and am patiently waiting for its “wikification” 
In the meanwhile I got a couple of other apps, like Airdroid.
The german site also looks interesting, but at work now I apparently can’t access it! I’ll have a look this evening.
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Has anybody got experience with www.androidpit.com? It looks quite reasonable to me, but I’m not sure if it’s worth creating an account. But I’m not that app-freak anyways…
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I’m in the same situation with Aptoide… But with these ones you can download free apps without an account…
Incidentally, for all ot these appstores what I found is absolutely all of them leave something running when you think you quit them: I’m now used to automatically launch Taskmanager to actually finish them once used.
This initially came from Mobogenie that is intrusive to the extent of posting enormous ads straight within the notification bar, which I find extraordinarily intrusive…
Here is my opionon about such pages like apptain.com:
Nobody is forced to to use the Play Store on the Fairphone (which is a good thing!), you may very well use alternative repositories like F-Droid or refer to the few developers distributing their Apps outside the Play Store. But you should not use such dubios resources, in my opinion, because they are a threat for your devices safety (malware), but also possibly hurting the developers.
Evernote does not distribute its app outside officials stores, and they are free to do so. We should use alternatives from F-droid or request distribution outside these walled gardens. If you think you really need Evernote, and the only recommendable way to get it is installing Play Store. We can make a choice, but every choice comes with some consequences.
There is no way to have all the comfort and security and app variety of Googles Play Store when avoiding it. On the other hand, the Fairphone is perfectly usable with only the preinstalled Apps and Stuff from F-Droid. I used it that way for more then half a year.
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On the one hand I can agree to your option!
On the other hand there are solutions to download apps from the Google-Source without installing the Google-Apps!
Download Solutions:
APK Downloader:
1) Webapp
http://apps.evozi.com/apk-downloader/
*Read more:
2) Browser Add-on
*Read more:
Download & Update Solutions:
1)Blank Store
*Read more:
2)minimal Play Store Version
Read more:
https://forum.fairphone.com/t/can-i-install-only-the-play-store-which-apps-does-install-gapps-install/1574/15?u=dreadrasta
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All this solutions are mentioned in my Wiki-Article (german):
You´ll find the Article under:
Fairphone Freunde Wiki > Android allgemein > Freies Android
Direct Link: Fairphone-Freunde
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Hi sim6, you understood well.
The Gapps widget could be ignored (but not deleted, I guess) and you can install the free apps you choosed.
At the 1st use of each app you elected, you’ll be able to turn each one as your default app.
Eg. : I choosed to use OperaMini as default broswer, the “native” one is sleeping and never run when I’m opening an hypertext link. And so on for each single app I’m using.
Anyway, I removed it from home page.
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You can find it here: Settings > Location access > GPS-Satellites > AGPS-Settings > Select Profile. Careful, if you activate location access, Google’s WiFi “service” activates on its own…
https://forum.fairphone.com/t/location-google-wifi-service-activates-itself/2653?source_topic_id=535
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