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Tips for a long-lost android user (beehaw.org)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Kia ora!

I've been an ios user for 100 years at this point, but used to be deep in the android scene before then. I've just got an android for a work phone and am wondering what's changed in the last 10 years - what are your essential apps, settings, customisations? I've had a hunt around xda but can't seem to find much in the way of roms for my model (Samsung A04) - back in the day it seemed there was a thread for every device!

What do I need to know?

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Google's a much bigger part of the ecosystem by default. Used to be the Google app store was a selling feature, now Google is integrated into pretty much every device (and has contracts with manufacturers to force that).

It's also, like Shortwavefilter mentioned, much harder to root or flash a devices.

Though the AOSP has gotten better in ways too. It's gotten a lot better hardening, and still is fairly open (e.g custom app stores added one click).

Last, there's still plenty of bloat pre-installed on some brands, but I think that was the case a decade ago as well if my memory is correct.

Honestly I can't think of too many essential settings or apps that'd be a necessity for everyone. Usually I'd say change privacy settings and disabled as much bloat if you're not using a ROM; but that might not be applicable if you're on a work phone. Apps wise, I'd say stick to open source if you can for the basic offline utilities -F-Droid is great for that if you're allowed to install it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Thank you, that's super helpful! I'll have a hunt to disable bloat and have a play with adb if need be. I'm the one in charge so I can basically do what I like 😅