Abstract

This is a quick post about some interesting and useful Android apps that I’ve found on F-Droid. Some of these apps may help people fix something they didn’t realize was broken, and some of them are just to kill some time.

Life and Productivity

1. More Days

More days is an app that helps track habits and goals. You categorize various activities, then quantify how much of each category of activity you need on a daily basis. More Days will then help keep track of how “full” your day was based around how many of those types of activities were done. When the day is finished, you can journal about your day tracking your mood and giving yourself an affirmation for the day. A graph for your mood will be generated over time to show data about how you believe you have been feeling recently. Finally you can also measure things like sleep quality with the ‘scale’ feature. This is a simple rating system for measuring things like sleep quality or productivity throughout the day.

2. Orgzly

Orgzly is the best way I have found to use Org-agenda on Android. The app can work with an existing .org file, or it can also generate one itself. It supports using Dropbox and also has git syncing as an available option, though is not technically supported.

3. Saber

Saber is a notes taking app for hand written notes. It is great if you have a stylus to write on your screen with, and it is also available on other platforms such as Linux. Much of the app is configurable including the background for the notes so the notes can look like they are on blank paper, ruled paper, or grid paper.

Honorable mention: LifeHQ

LifeHQ is a journaling app taken to the next level. By default, it will send you a notification at 9:00 and 21:00 for planning your day and reviewing your day. It will have you put down how you are feeling at that point, and choose an affirmation that fits the mode. It also has a proper journal built in. I stopped using it because I don’t like journaling on my phone, and I don’t feel like the app was helpful for me personally, however, I could definitely see someone getting use from it.

UI and Keyboards

1. Olauncher Clutter Free

Olauncher is a clean but minimal launcher. It is a bit more interesting than a black screen with some apps on the home page and an app drawer, however, it does not do much else. For example, it does not support widgets. The home screen has a clock and a configurable amount of apps. It also has an app drawer and will support actions from different gestures being input on the home screen. I personally like the clean and minimal look, however, some people may find it cumbersome to use or may just lack features.

2. 8-Vim

8-vim is a re-invention of phone keyboards. For 8-vim, you don’t press a key to get a letter, but rather you perform a gesture based around a circle. The letter that you type is dependent on which direction and how far around the circle you slid your finger. It is a bit cumbersome to use sometimes, but other times it makes typing feel very easy. It does have some configuration options like how big the circle should be, and will even support custom layouts now. If you like trying different methods of IO this is definitely one to try.

3. Thumb-key

Thumb key is another interesting keyboard design. The letters all reside on nine keys that give different letters based around how the button was used. For example, the letter ‘a’ is on the right and will appear if the button on the right is just pressed; however, if that button is pressed then swiped to the left the letter ‘l’ will appear. Thumb-key makes for a very good one handed keyboard and supports multiple languages.

Honorable Mention: Posidon launcher

Posidon launcher is a more standard and feature rich launcher than Olauncher. It supports pages of apps, and widgets as well as having gesture support. It also had a clean design, however, it did get to a point where it had some stability issues and would crash. It might be different now, but that is one of the reasons I switched to a different launcher.

Games and fun

1. Lichess

Lichess.org is one of the most popular chess websites online, and their app is available on F-Droid. Lichess offers a wide variety of puzzles and lessons to help you improve your chess skills as well as a variety of chess formats.

2. Drinkable

Drinkable is an app that has recipes for alcoholic beverages. You can search for drinks with different ingredients or search for a drink that you like and find what you need for it. You can even add your own recipes to the app for drinks that you like making yourself. It is a good resource to have on hand for a party, or for going to the store if you are wanting to make drinks at home.

3. 0m

0m is a simple meditation timer that has either guided or unguided meditation. The guided meditation is there to help people that are not familiar with meditation get a good foundation for meditating. The unguided meditation, however, is essentially just a timer that begins and ends with three loud chimes. There isn’t much to this app, but it was really nice to have an app that can help you meditate.

Honorable Mention: Drum On!

Drum On! is a fun app for creating drum beats. It has a configurable tempo with several sounds to choose from to add to the track. The beats can even be exported and sent to another device. I don’t use it a lot, but I do think it is fun to create a simple trap or drum beat from time-to-time.