My favorite open-source apps (no ads or subscriptions)
Every app these days has either ads, subscriptions, or microtransactions (read micro-annoyances). The entire app ecosystem has slowly shifted from making a good product to optimizing the user into a revenue stream. And then there’s the gross and shady data tracking that makes me feel spiritually molested.
So here’s a list of free and open-source (FOSS) apps. These are my favorites and the ones I actually use. I’ll be adding more to this list as I find more good ones.
Pomodoro Timer - Does exactly what it says. No frills. No ads. Just one single function.
Soothing Noise Player - This is an Android port of Blanket, which is an open-source noise-generating app for Linux. I sometimes use it when I can’t sleep.
Medito - An app for meditation. It’s also free and open source. It shows in-app purchases on the Google Play Store, but that’s just for donations.
AntennaPod - A free and open source podcast app for Android.
Podverse - Another open source podcast app for Android. This one is also available on iOS, and it also has a web client podverse.fm. I like this one better than AntennaPod.
Feeder - My favorite RSS reader. I use it to read articles from different magazines like Aeon, Psyche, and NOEMA.
Kotatsu - A manga reader that can source manga and scanlations from many different sources. *(This is technically illegal, but what the corporations are doing is just straight up criminal).
Book’s Story - A really good eBook reading app for Android. It also has a really nice Material design.