this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2026
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Setting up an Android phone with FOSS applications. (sopuli.xyz)
submitted 4 days ago by qyron@sopuli.xyz to c/android@lemmy.world
26 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

My intention is to buy the cheapest smartphone I can reasonably get as I need to use a phone for professional reasons; the company uses Whatsapp and other applications I do not want to have occupying space in a smartphone I use for my personal life.

I've been loading my phones with FOSS applications from F-Droid for years now but I am aware the loop is tightening and continuing to do so is becoming more and more difficult.

Ideally, I would like to keep this phone as much as possible exempt from connecting with Google. This means I don't intend to load an account on the phone and instead load F-Droid and Aurora to get the software I want to use.

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[–] LeighWeighTacoma@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)

My work provides me a phone. If yours doesn't and you need one, keeping 2 separate phones would be ideal. I'm not sure if your work requires any IT access on your phone but, I refuse to allow a company to have remote control of my personal phone.

My personal phone is a pixel 8 with Graphene OS. I use sandboxed Google play with an gmail specifically for my phone. In a private space I have my gmail that has my Google drive that I still need occasional access to. Otherwise almost everything else is FOSS.

[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Just the person I wanted to ask. Similar boat, pixel 10, but no graphene. Any issues with things like duo or bank apps or whatnot

[–] LeighWeighTacoma@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I have several bank accounts everywhere. 2 required you to go into settings and click a button to make them work, most work, PayPal does not work at all. If you're an android auto user, it's complicated to set up the first time but then you never have to do it again.

I think discover didn't work but, they just merged with capital one which does work.

[–] Kirk@startrek.website 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Tap to pay will not work

[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 days ago

Oh now that sucks

[–] imminent_nebula@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago

I have a 9 with Graphene, and use a second profile for banking apps. This profile has a burner google account, and aurora store for banking apps which works fine, just no tap. My main profile is all f-droid/obtanium, though I run sandboxed google services for notifications.

[–] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 8 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You can also have a look at the table of supported hardware of your favorite aftermarket ROM. And pick a cheap (current) phone from that list. At least WhatsApp runs just fine on my GrapheneOS phone and my other device with LineageOS. Some other proprietary apps break in weird ways, though. But I think replacing the operating system is kinda necessary to properly make it stop forwarding data to Google.

[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 3 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I'm looking at spending less than €100. Moving into a degoogled phone for my personal use is an objective but not now. Can't afford it. Hence my question for how to keep running FOSS applications on any android phone.

[–] Zak@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I don't understand your question. You write that you've been running FOSS applications from F-Droid for years, and you ask how to do that. It seems like you already know how to do that.

[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

To what I've read, Google will be locking access to users installing non App Store applications.

My current personal phone is already as much customized as I can manage but needing to buy a new one, although for work reasons, I want to keep using the same software I already use.

[–] Zak@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Google plans to introduce restrictions on installing applications by developers who have not proven their identity to Google, which is neither

  • "Locking" in the sense that you can't turn it off. The process they describe is obnoxious, an unreasonable imposition on your ability to use your device as you see fit, and likely to result in some open source developers abandoning the platform, but "locking" is too strong. The link answers what I think you're asking, which is how to allow installing whatever apps you see fit.
  • A requirement to use Google's store. Many FOSS apps for Android are from developers registered with Google. If it's in the Play Store as well as F-Droid or the developer's website, they're already registered.
[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 1 points 4 days ago

Thank you.

[–] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

I suppose you could try to buy some of those phones second hand, or refurbished?! Or maybe ask one of the friends who get a new phone every 2 years if they sell their old phone to you... I mean it's not easy to get a halfway decent phone for less than 100€. Something like a Samsung A52 should do, though? They're 75-100€ and LineageOS claims to support the device.

Other option is to not get a second phone and use Android's work profile to confine the work-related apps to a seperate "container".

[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

My next words are going to sound as obnoxious but what does define a phone as decent?

Used market in my country is simply ridiculous; people are asking for used phones as if they were new. The people I know all use their phone until end of life.

I need something that can take a visible picture from less than a metre away, has a flashlight function, can handle WhatsApp and a screen large enough I can use to read documents on it and look at aerial photos. Nothing special. And I need it cheap. It is going to be outside, going in and out of pockets, handled with dirty hands, etc.

I have a Fairphone in my eye for personal use, hopefully sooner than later, but that is a purchase I want to make to last me for as much as possible. This is not the case.

[–] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Sure. You define what is decent enough for you. I mostly wrote that because there's very old phones in those lists and some don't support recent Android versions, which might be a problem if an app requires a somewhat recent Android version. Also something like a very old Motorola will be shuggish, not support 5G, have a potato camera by today's standards... It's a bit tricky to hit the sweet spot and then also get something with good support by some custom rom.

And new phones below 100€ tend to be very basic, have the cheapest display available etc...

[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I'm used to bottom shelf phones.

Again, risking sounding as obnoxious, it gets me a bit miffed with the near obcession, when discussing smartphones in Lemmy, regardless of the community, with recommending flagship models or otherwise at least quite expensive ones, stating that anything else is garbage. I'm not shooting full lenght movies or taking the next prize winning wildlife photo with my phone.

My current personal phone is a Blackview BV5300+. It cost me less than 150€ and it gets the job done. Before that, I had an Oukitel WP8 Pro, another excelent phone, for less than 175€. Loaded with FOSS applications, they go the extra lenght, something I fear I won't be able to do as easily with Google twisting the screws on Android. It is said you spend a little more to save a little more but this isn't the case. I only need a basic phone and the hability to keep loading the applications I want and use on it.

[–] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Idk. All I got is two people who said they own a Pixel 8/9. But I don't think that's Lemmy's obsession with expensive phones... It's more due to the amount of computer nerds here. A Google Pixel combined with GrapheneOS used to be popular amongst that kind of people. Because it was one of the select few options to get rid of a good amount of all the spying and tracking by Google. In the future we'll get the cooperation with Motorola. Maybe that's going to provide us with more options. But they said "high-end smartphones" so it probably means just more expensive phones.

You do you. Just pick whatever phone satisfies your requirements and you'll be fine. I usually pay something like 250-330€ for my phones and they last me about 5 years. I think that's an acceptable price. But I wouldn't pay that much for an additional phone, either.

(And by the way, a flagship phone is like 1000 bucks these days. Crazy pile of money for something like a phone, if you ask me.)

[–] artyom@piefed.social 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

If you need your phone to do your work, the company needs to supply it to you.

[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Oh, the stories I could tell you.

[–] artyom@piefed.social -1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I can tell you one as well.

[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Go on, then. Now you got me curious.

[–] artyom@piefed.social 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Not really very interesting. Got new job. On 1st day of job they tell me I have to download a bunch of apps. I said my phone is Degoogled and their apps won't run on my phone so they'll have to get me another one. And they did.

[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Where I currently work they aren't the worst but they don't give phones easily to employees.

I've had one but the thing - and I nearly coddled it - simply malfunctioned and it took nearly three months to be replaced. Then we all had our phones recalled in order to have the service provider renew the fleet; the brass got theirs quickly enough but not the grunts.

I regularly have to check aerial photos and read documents and maps when I'm working. My coworker gladly uses his phone for work but I refuse. I will not mix private life and work. Hence my option to get a cheap phone. The company can give me the SIM and pay the bill but I control what phone I use.

[–] lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

The company can give me the SIM and pay the bill but I control what phone I use.

Is it a monthly stipend? If so, and it's enough to pay for a decent plan, then IMO that is a fair alternative.

I wholly agree with you about not using personal devices for work. I've had a work-issued phone for almost 15 years in varying forms. I set up an automation to turn on DND mode 5 minutes after my shift ends.

What I would do is find an older iPhone, like a 15 or something, and use that for your work device. My current work device is an iPhone 17e, and I just got it like a month ago from our IT dept to replace my aging-but-still-perfectly-functional iPhone 12.

[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The company has a standing contract with am operator and they pay in bulk several numbers; we don't get an added value to our paychecks.

[–] lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 days ago

Even better. You supply the phone, they pay for the plan. No more thought involved.