4 FOSS Android Apps

It’s easy to forget that free and open source (FOSS) doesn’t only live on the desktop or on a server. You can also find (or, at least, install) it on a smartphone. Well, if you know where to look and what to look for.

In a bit of a departure from what I’ve posted over the last few months, here’s a look at a quartet of FOSS apps for Android that I regularly use.

While you can probably install most, if not all, of these apps from a certain tech giant’s app store, I’ll be pointing you to F-Droid instead.

Auxio

I’ve used a lot of music players on the various phones I’ve owned over the years. Some were good, others just didn’t work out. Of that bunch, my favourite is one that I stumbled upon a few years ago: Auxio.

Auxio supports several audio formats, including MP3, ogg, and WAV. You can view your music in lists of individual tracks, albums, and artists. You can also create playlists and add songs to them.

Here’s Auxio in action:

My only complaints about Auxio are 1) it doesn’t always retain the shuffle settings (especially after an update), and 2) I can’t edit playlists. Other than that, Auxio is the perfect music player for me.

Catima

Most of us have at least one loyalty or discount card. Probably more than one. It’s easy to forget or lose a card or, if you’re like me and use a minimal wallet, don’t have space for it.

Catima helps with that. It’s a simple digital wallet for your cards. Just tap a tile (like one of the ones below) and your card displays.

If your screen locks, the card’s barcode is visible on your home screen when you power the screen back on.

There are several ways to add a card: scan its barcode, type the barcode manually, or point Catima to an image or PDF. Here’s a look:

You can also back up your collection of cards and move it to another phone (or just to have a copy that you can restore should anything bad happen).

Unlauncher

Until recently, I thought that the minimalist launchers that so many people tout were a bit of a silly indulgence. But then I started using Unlauncher and my tune quickly changed.

Unlauncher replaces the icons on your phone with the names of those apps. Here’s what that looks like:

You can choose what appears on the home screen and change the name that displays. In the image above, for example, Podcasts is Escapepod (which I look at below). Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to see an alphabetical list of all of the apps on your phone. Here’s an example:

Escapepod

Like much of the software I use, my needs when it comes to a podcast player are quite simple. That’s why I use Escapepod.

There are a couple of ways to get going with it. You can import your podcast subscriptions from another device or app in a file format called OPML. Or you can tap Add podcast and type the name of the podcast to which you want to subscribe. Then, select the podcast from the list that displays and tap Add. Rinse and repeat for each podcast on you must-listen list.

In case you’re wondering, here’s a look at the ones to which I subscribe:

From there, pull down from the top of the app to download the latest episodes. Or, you can tap All Episodes beside the name of a podcast and download older episodes one by one. From there, you tap the play icon. Here’s Escapepod playing an edition of my favourite podcasts:

Since I’ve been using it, Escapepod has only choked on two podcasts — while I could subscribe to those podcasts, for some reason it wouldn’t download the episodes.

— Scott Nesbitt