Obviously the ideal thing to do would be to stop using them entirely, but if you’re like me and you still have that one subreddit you still need to check on, some of your friends are still there, or you can’t find alternatives to YouTube’s content, then maybe you’re also looking for alternative front-ends that would at least remove the ads and trackers while you look at those sites.

So I was wondering, what alternative apps do you use on Android for those services?

As for me, here’s my small list (all of these are FOSS apps, and with the exception of OldLander, it is better to install them from F-Droid to have the automatic updates):

  • Reddit:

    • Geddit: native Android client for Reddit that allows you only to browse it anonymously, ie no account is needed;

    • RedReader: another native Android client that I discovered recently, and it’s surprisingly good. Its UI is simple and sleek (though you might want to disable “link buttons” in the settings), and you can log in to post and comment;

    • OldLander: this one is not really a standalone app. Before RedReader, whenever I needed to comment, I used this userscript together with Tampermonkey on Firefox Android. It basically makes old.reddit.com mobile-friendly. There’s also a Firefox extension version of it which should be even better when Firefox Android supports desktop extensions;

  • Twitter X:

    • Squawker: very good app to look at tweets without needing an account. You basically manage your followings locally on your phone, and you can even group them however you want. Overall it gives you an experience that is very similar to that of an RSS reader. (EDIT 2023-08-17: looks like another Elon change took place and Squawker is no longer able to load tweets, hope the dev can find a way around this 🙁)

  • Youtube:

    • NewPipe: I probably don’t need to present this one. No account needed.

(enshittification pic from The Hustle)

  • alphacyberrangerEnglish
    27•2 years ago

    Google Playstore is also in the shittification phase. The amount of ads and sponsored apps is an eye sore. I use F-Droid as an alternative but most mainstream apps are not there.

    • KᑌᔕᕼIᗩEnglish
      3•2 years ago

      Not wrong. If I search for a particular app it gives me an advert based on that search at the top of my screen that looks mostly like the first search result. It’s begining to remind me of schetchy warez websites I use to not use as a teenager.

    • @lukzak@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2•2 years ago

      It’s really insane. The sponsored app even has a big fat “Install” button next to it! I’ve never actually clicked it, but I ALMOST click it every time.

    • godlessEnglish
      16•2 years ago

      You mean, only on Android TV. They don’t have a phone app, and explicitly stated they are not interested in developing one.

      • @Justice@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
        2•2 years ago

        Which is annoying tbh.

        Would be nice if the smart whatever (see I forgot their app name already while typing) team would… team up somehow with the revanced team and they agree on one name, one app. Having two apps for what is essentially the same OS with a different skin is… silly. Like an app for Apple TV and a different app that does essentially the same thing for iOS.

        • godlessEnglish
          4•2 years ago

          I’m pretty sure they do it to fly under the radar, since mobile clients are far more dominant than smart TV applications.

          And there’s also newpipe as an alternative to Vanced (or rather the other way around, I believe newpipe came earlier), and even a fork with sponsorblock integration. I personally vastly prefer them over vanced/revanced.

    • @glorious_albus@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2•2 years ago

      ReVanced Extended is the shit. Unfortunately the dev seems to have stopped work on it, so might have to switch back to ReVanced at some point.

      • @Justice@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
        5•2 years ago

        I see updates from as recent as last week on github?

        On that note, if anyone sees this comment or another and wants to try YouTube revanced (or extended) DO NOT JUST BLINDLY GOOGLE AND CLICK THE WEBSITE THAT COMES UP FIRST

        I have no idea if that site is owned by a legit dev or not. What I do know is the legit devs directly say on github, where the source code can be reviewed, to NOT download from any other place than github.

        Sorry for the PSA but I just don’t want people downloading possibly malicious code from random sites. It’s easy to fall into the blindly search, blindly install hole.