I’m currently looking to develop an open source app that can help somebody. I’m currently out of ideas, so I’d like to heard if from you guys.
Sorry if it seems to lazy to ask for ideas like that, I just thought that I could do it since the result will be a free app.
It would be a huge undertaking, but a Fitness and Health tracker / aggregator that could replace Google Fit and the likes.
I really can’t bear how Google, Apple, Samsung, and all these big companies are the primary holders of our most intimate information. I’ve put some measures in place to limit who gets what, but it would be a huge boon to be the sole maintainer of my own info.
The problem is that the various apps and devices which report data won’t immediately support syncing with a FOSS upstart…
The app I use for grabbing my weight and BMI can only sync with a few other apps. The app I use for calorie and diet tracking can likewise only sync with a few apps. They happen to have Google fit in common, so I use that as an intermediary to transfer weight to the calorie/diet app. All my steps, exercise, and sleep stay in Zepp, separate from them all.
It sure would be nice to have one service/application to rule them all and a secure method of storing one’s own personal information without having to give it to the tech companies. Sure, use one of the many cloud services but encrypt all the data so that they can’t steal it. Yadda yadda.
One can dream.
I develop a self-hosted service designed to do exactly this! It’s not quite finished yet, but it’s at the point where enough functionality works that it can be used for testing.
https://github.com/connervieira/HealthBox
The docs/USAGE.md file gives an overview of how HealthBox works. Feel free to poke around in the other docs/ files as well.
More than once I’ve wondered if I can make something look like google fit to other apps, obviously would have to be on a degoogled rom, which limits its utility for a wider audience.
the devices would have to be degoogled so that the app can gather the necessary information? I never used google fit, so I don’t know how it works nor how it gathers the user information.
My thinking runs: is it possible to implement the APIs that are called to use google fit, assuming they run through google play services or something
would probably never happen considering how hippa compliance and privacy
Fitness data is typically provided by services like Google Fit as non-diagnostic non-medical information. Therefore HIPPA compliance is not required.
https://developers.google.com/fit/terms#hipaa_use_limitations
oh sorry i thought the op was talking about an open source version of google fit itself.
Obsidian.
Markor is a great open source markdown editor for android, but I wish we had some decent WYSIWYG options, like obsidian, typora, etc.
Doesn’t have exactly the same features but I’ve simply been using Logseq syncing my notes with Syncthing
Joplin already does a great job for this, at least for notes.
I used Joplin extensively for ~2 years, but I was constantly put off by the desktop applications UI and how my notes was stored in SQLite. The move to obsidian felt natural and I felt more in ownership over my files in their existing structure. Granted, obsidian is closed source and could go rogue, but when that happens, I am prepared to jump ship without too much pain.
Exactly. Not a huge fan of notes apps storing the data in a db.otherwise there is a lot to like about joplin. With obsidian i open my notes in codium all the time to make mass edits or fill gaps that obsidians UI cant meet, which is not possible with joplin.
Fortunately with obsidian as long as you keep the plugins on the lighter side and keep any non-markdown content in seperate files via linking, im not too worried about having to jump ship if it ever goes bad. Worst case if a plugin dies or i have to migrate, the actual loss of data is that some plugin used json or whatever and it’d have to be converted or replaced.
I do have hope at least that if the company folds they’ll open source it, or turn a blind eye to a community reengineering effort. And what is unique about obsidian markdown and metadata will probably get community-built migration tools quickly if enough people jump ship en masse.
But for the time being Obsidian is the best option for me and i dont feel that bad about it.
I don’t see the hate for storing data in a sqlite database. It’s still your data, you get to do with it as you please, and I’ve yet to see the data encrypted (let’s not give anyone any silly ideas here). You want to see your data outside of the program, just download any sqlite viewer. If you don’t mind CLI, then the tools provided by sqlite are more than good enough and are only a few MB in size.
Generally speaking I’m not opposed to sqlite. The case of a notes app is the one exception.
If i need to make a big find and replace change, i dont need to rely on the app to have the capability or whip out a sql editor or cli tool. I just open my favorite text editor and do it. Or chain some cli tools built into the os.
Its not even about data portability or export. Its about working with the data.
I think it has more to do with preference than hate. For me particularly, I don’t care much about how things are stored. I just make sure to exporr/backup regularly, and if anything breaks, it’s an easy and mostly painless fix.
I tried Obsidian once, and while I did like it and the UI is light years ahead of Joplin, I guess I’m just used to the Joplin experience, so I saw no need to switch.
I used Joplin for up to 8 hours daily for half a year (university) before switching to Obsidian, too. As far as I know, Joplin lets you store the notes as files, too, but you need to set it up that way from the start.
Still, I found Obsidian to be much more pleasant and - ironically - easier to modify (by writing plugins) than Joplin.
IMO Obsidian is already a little rogue, in the sense that it only supports their sync. I know you can glue something together by syncing the folder itself, but that’s not convenient or the point. For now I’ll stick with Joplin because it works with nextcloud nicely.
There is at least plugins that enables sync by alternative ways. They’re not as elegant, but work.
Since everything, including settings, is stored in the same root folder as the notes - you can sync your settings along your notes through other tools too.
Oh, I’ll take a look at those plugins.
Logseq is pretty close
I am not an excessive note-taking guy, but I am using Notesnook for some time now and it does everything I needed so far.
Seems okay, but doesn’t allow editing of local files / folders, it wants you to use their paid sync service. Also its javascript / electron, not native android.
Logseq has an Android version, right?
yeah, and the UI is absolutely atrocious.
One of those “smart” alarms that monitor and graph your sleep. E.g movement, sounds, snorings, sleep talking etc.
At a minimum one that wakes you up in the 30 minute window of your lightest sleep phase
I paid for AMdroid because I can set profiles, Geo fence, have math problems to turn off alarms, fade in music, turn on my flashlight… All the bells and whistles. I would love a FOSS version, but many try to be single feature. I like all the things.
My banking apps. They are the only reason I can’t fully de-google myself.
My philosophy is if I can use a web page for it, I won’t install an app (couple of exceptions, but a good rule). Less convenient, more secure.
As KMFDM have it, “Those who sacrifice liberty for security Deserve neither and will lose both”
Unfortunately in some countries web banking apps are not allowed afaik. Very good answer though
My bank uses the app to auth logins to website bank.
So, if you don’t have an Apple/Android device (and the app installed), you just can’t use web-banking? That’s pretty crazy!
yes, that is pretty much it. all actions, including logins need to be done with 2-factor authentication, which means Google Play Store.
God, you know what I really wish I could do?
Run an Android VM on my phone. Imagine being able to do whatever you want with your device and still having a “stock” device for those pesky apps without having to actually have two phones.It is seemingly possible, but the only app I’ve ever seen do it was “VMOS”: a proprietary app, impossible to trust.
I’m running Android apps on my laptop using Waydroid. Works really well
You usually want to use banking apps when you are away from home though.
Nova launcher - there isn’t a good one for one FOSS replacement. Every launcher I tried from fdroid has at least one shortcoming (if not more).
Agreed. Yet to find a true replacement
I’m making do with pear launcher. Only thing I’m sad about off the top of my head is you can’t change the padding on widgets to fit whole screen.
Neo launcher does that
It currently has a rating of 4.1. It looks like it has some bugs and some cause it to crash.
Everyone I’ve tried from the Play store feels too basic compared to Nova or their rating is too low because of bugs.
Edit: in hindsight it looks like I’m a paid shill for Nova. This isn’t the case at all. I’ve been looking at launchers for the past few weeks as I recently realised I’ve had the same set up style for over a decade. I don’t want to be the person stuck in the past doing stuff the slower and archaic ways when there are newer and better ways of doing things. I currently have over 20 launchers installed on my phone and I’ve been slowly trying some.
It’s a little strange, but I’m enjoying Pie Launcher
It currently has a rating of 3.6. It looks like it has issues and lacks customisation.
I don’t think you found the vorrect one. I guess the one they are reffering to is made by Markus Fisch. It is also available on Fdroid
Why do you believe I haven’t found the correct one?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.markusfisch.android.pielauncher
Edit: I’m looking at the Play store since F-Droid doesn’t have ratings or feedback. I look for apps on the Play store, find something interesting, and then look for the F-Droid version.
It doesn’t have any rating (or maybe it just doesn’t show them to me) and you said that it has a rating of 3.6. There is another app called the same that has rating of 3.7
The Play store link I provided doesn’t show a rating to you?
no, it might be because there aren’t any reviews in my language. But they could still show the star count, weird
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I feel like you should just download the apps and test them yourself instead of only going by ratings. These are free apps, and it takes a few minutes to see if something has the feature or feel you want. Once you uninstall a launcher, android goes back to the previous with all its configurations as it was, so you don’t need to risk your previous setup. Just a suggestion of what I do, because I find that for something as particular as a phone launcher, ratings are often incomplete information.
I really like Kvaesitso though I’ll admit I keep going back to Nova
Yeah, Hyperion is the closest I’ve found. Also what I’m currently using
Doesn’t look like Hyperion is open source :(
Until there’s a FOSS version of Nova, I guess I’ll keep using Nova and have my firewall block its outgoing traffic.
It currently has a rating of 3.7. It looks like it has a lot of bugs.
Discord. I hate that premium costs so much and all the ads they put in place to sell useless junk features.
Google maps. So open street maps but with reviews like maps has. A few days ago people suggested apps, but they lack reviews. I disagree that they are useless.
Discord needs to die in a fire, so much knowledge lost… But their momentum is something awful.
Discord has an alternative called Revolt that is open source. It has all the premium features in discord for free, but is still in early stages I’d say.
even if alternatives existed it would still be a hassle to convert friends to it unless it is better in every way.
Yeah this is the biggest issue.
I use Mumble + XMPP with an IRC gateway to cover everything voice & chat related …but there are plenty of options to replace Discord, you just need to let folks know you don’t want an ad-filled proprietary experience & that you wish to be contacted in a manner where your privacy is a priority.
Google’s reviews have a lot of junk in them except the ones stating business closed/moved (OSM you can literally delete or move the POI, but less users). The integrated crowd-sourced images of establishments however is missing which makes it hard to understand POI in comparison—a picture is worth a thousand words.
I would just love it if I had the bus routes for my city readily available in open street maps, like how goog|e maps does it. I think goog|e maps might be my answer to the question if I can’t find anything worse.
Speaking of reviews, aren’t there special review websites in most of the countries?
It’s about a quick glance on a location and reading some reviews quickly. There is a workaround with open street maps integrating google reviews but it’s again relying on google at this point.
Well if openstreetmaps implemented the same thing it would be useless because there are not many people using it
It would grow. Just to have the ability would be nice. A lot of people also would start to write reviews to be the first etc. We got to start somewhere, same as with the Fediverse. We could even combine it.
Yea having the ability would be nice. I’m not sure it’s possible to implement without sacrificing privacy though
Matrix?
Alternative messenger exist, I should’ve been more precise. At this point an alternative would require at least the same features than discord, to get people away from it. I don’t see that happen.
complete feature parity isn’t a good goal, or the alternatives will always be behind. Partial parity, with some features Discord doesn’t have (e.g. E2EE) is an achievable goal which does successfully encourage migration
Not an alternative, but to make Discord on suck less I recommend Bunny.
I can’t really think of anything now because Android FOSS apps ecosystem is really good. What I want to suggest is contributing to already existing projects sometimes. It’s faster and just another thing you can do to help open-source ecosystems
Yes, I don’t think I have another app but more features on some apps I use (Smartdock, Joplin, Librera, Rimusic) would be slightly life-changing.
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You could give KOReader a try :)
Is there a way to get colour there? B&W bums me out… I’m on GrapheneOS so have MoonReader (install google services, install, disable network on it, uninstall google services, and you’re good) but ebooks is one of my major use cases on mobile and everything FOSS sucks in comparison…
Can’t answer that question as I am only using KOR on my ereader, which only displays black an white :D What would be your usecase for color in ebooks?
I like green on black on my phone, nice screen, good for the eyes. I’d love to sync between that and my kobo, but not happening at the moment. Currenly read new things on the kobo and old faves on the phone, it’s fine, but could be better…
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If you don’t need anything special, Book Reader on fdroid might work for you.
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try koreader I’ve tried a few e-book readers this is the best one I found so far I think it’s available in fdroid
- Librera Reader
- KOReader
- Myne
More FOSS apps: https://github.com/Psyhackological/AAA
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Check out logseq for journaling. You could easily make a #mood page/tag and it auto organizes it for you
I used pixy for a while and it’s pretty good and open source https://github.com/mrzmyr/pixy-mood-tracker-app
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Right now im looking for an alternative to the Google Maps Timeline. I know there is OwnTracks but I dont think that everything has to be hosted on a server somewhere (especially when all its saving is a timestamp and a coordinate, its not like that takes up alot of space)
Basically just your own location tracker and then the option to see your own history displayed in a map e.g. where you have been on the 02.july.2019 at 11:50.
I know there is OwnTracks but I dont think that everything has to be hosted on a server somewhere
Google Maps Timeline is also hosted on a server somewhere.
OsmAnd has a track recording feature.
Yeah obviously Google hosts this as a Services because it want your location data. But if I’m the only one who sees that data, I think it’d fine if it stays on my phone.
And I am especially not looking for a tracker like you showed (usually because I dont care “exactly exactly” how I went to places but rather at which time I have been at which place)
I would also be interested in this!
Are you thinking of a mobile app or something else, like fully separate hardware you’d carry around? Sounds interesting
No I am just thinking of an App. The Apps which exist (as far as I have found them, if there are better apps I would be glad for recommendations) are either:
- “fitness/running” trackers
- unmaintained
- still use the Google location service
- use a self hosted server to store your data
- don’t have a built in map viewer to see your history
A modern replacement for OpenScan. It’s workable, but some features don’t work on Modern Android, and a good Scanner app is probably something most people could use. Could look at Adobe Scan and Office Lens for feature inspiration.
Neat, thanks.
Yeah office lens is pretty much unbeatable. Open source would be amazing, but I at one point had about 6 document scanners on my phone and none of them held a candle to lens…
Microsoft is shit, but they have 2 apps that are not exploitative and are very great to use
Authenticator and Lens. They don’t ask for any permissions that they don’t need. They don’t even require Microsoft account log in to work. They also have no ads, subscription, or premium prompts. Lens just requests files and camera. No location, no tracking, no cloud needed. It can simply be all local document scanning with great filtering,
Authenticator can be used with only camera permissions and it also it able to to push auth with key pairs, a step above general TOTP (though I still use everything with Aegis outside of work).
Not enshittified. Yet…
Obsidian.
Is the obsidian Android App not open source? I thought all their stuff was. Kinda embarrassed I never checked.
Nah they use “an open standard” being just markdown files or something, but the apps are still proprietary as far as I’m aware
I really hate how I sometimes, though rarely, see Obsidian talked about as if it were open source just because it uses an open standard
Like Photoshop isn’t open source because it can use PNG kinda thing
There is already an opensource alternative to Obsidian, its name is #Logseq, you have mobile and desktop app
Logseq uses a bit of a different paradigm though. It is cool, but I wouldn’t say it’s a drop in replacement.
Support for all the hardware so we can quit using garbage Google-provided Android on every single phone instead of just the half-dozen or so phones some of these Free Android builds support. Amazing that I can install Linux on every single freaking configuration of PC that’s ever existed with a very tiny amount of systems not having support for all of its hardware even if said hardware has never been freed or even officially documented, but not with phones.
The damn things will still be a privacy nightmare because your cell signal tracks you everywhere you go, but at least we’d have a Free OS for everyone’s phone.
I’m sorry, I don’t have any specific suggestions for you, but I am wondering: is there no open source app you yourself wish existed because you would need it?
Working on an open source app because some else (and not you) needs it, is not a good way of staying engaged and caring about the solution. Being the user and target of a project yourself is usually a much netter way of caring and proposing something tailored to at least one individual, maybe more.
Of course, if you are looking for a programming exercise, go for it, but then you don’t need ideas, you can reimplement something which already exists, perhaps which you like, but in your own way. But if you want to have an impact in the open source, it starts by needing something which you don’t really find anywhere and taking matter in your own hands to fix it :) this is not meant to disincentivize you, quite the opposite! I hope you stay attentive to your digital ecosystem to see which holes can be plugged :)
I maintain a private list of ideas I just think of as I go about my day, of things I would like to write/create for myself and while I won’t be going through with all of them, I hope to be able to pick up one or several of them whenever I have time. I can through some ideas here, not as a hint that you should do it (I’ll probably do them myself regardless), but just to inspire you, maybe:
- I am subscribed to a teachable program which has no app and the program is just static information. I want to pull it all and represent it to me offline, not requiring internet to manage my progress. It is also intended to help me archive what I paid for and not depend on the goodwill of teachables to allow me to continue access the resource.
- an RSS feed manager which uses embeddings to automatically organise the content by topic rather than by source.
- an anki plugin to highlight content in the browser based on words from anki that I have and have not learned, to improve my language learning and reading ability.
I have a few more, but this should give you some hints, I hope! Good luck!
Nice question, you’ve got a lot of answers, most being major projects outside the scope of an individual, still, interesting pain points.
May I suggest you edit your OP with a list of viable options for individual devs or small teams to try ?
