The unsung heroes of Android: Remembering 8 legendary apps we’ve lost

https://www.androidauthority.com/legendary-android-apps-we-lost-3597775/

116 points · 72 comments · view on lemmy.world

72 Comments

MaggiWuerze@feddit.org · 151 pts · 314d (36 replies)

So you don't have to click

Quill7513@slrpnk.net · 59 pts · 314d (5 replies)

Google killing inbox was what radicalized me to that the entire business model of big tech is bullshit

infeeeee@lemmy.zip · 14 pts · 314d

My similar turning point was when they shut down Google Reader in 2013. Never forget.

aln@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 314d

Absolutely gutted at Inbox going away. Was such a great product, and they lied about implementing its features into Gmail.

lka1988@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 313d

I tried using Inbox but couldn't get past the whole idea of it. I'm old school when it comes to email - just gimme everything and I'll decide if its important or not.

That said, Google's decision to kill it did open my eyes to the fuckery.

Then they killed Google Play Music a few years later. I had most of my library uploaded, but didn't delete my local copy because I'm not insane. That one radicalized me.

DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 313d

After google killed inbox I found out Spark Mail has that exact same feature

aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 312d
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ICastFist@programming.dev · 22 pts · 314d (1 reply)

Huh, never used any of those, only SuperSU. Google Plus being there makes the rest of the list suspicious

0_o7@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 313d

Android Authority has always been Google simp along with other companies that sponsor their reviews and get them free devices, merch, trips and invitations. There's no low they won't sink to. One of their author regularly promotes Google store android merch on their social media.

ByteMe@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 314d (14 replies)

Yeah, let me do it Authority

  • Google podcasts
  • Hangouts
  • Google allo
  • Google reader (I think it's an app?)

Feel free to add your own

vateso5074@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 314d (6 replies)
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warmaster@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 313d

Google chat was XMPP compatible. The shit that ensued after it's decommission still stinks to this day.

Rusty@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 313d

I've never heard about any of the apps in the post, but killing hangouts and podcasts still hurts.

Auli@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 313d (1 reply)

Hangouts was the death of all Google messages for me. People I knew where using it and when they killed it no one would move over to another messaging app from Google.

AbidanYre@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 312d

We're on like the third generation of Google messaging apps since the death of hangouts. Giving up on Google seems like it was the smart decision.

ByteMe@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 314d (1 reply)

Google allo did die quickly but had some nice stuff, most messaging apps still don't. Like change text size, use google assistant inside the app eetc.It wasn't anything amazing but I had some fun with it

vateso5074@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 313d
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kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de · 8 pts · 314d (5 replies)

Podcasts was good. Lightweight, cross platform and basic. YTM is a sink hole as a podcast alternative.

Apple Podcasts lives on as a far superior alternative whilst Google has left it's users in the lurch. In an alternate world, Google would still be developing Podcasts not only on mobile but also on Wear OS

ByteMe@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 314d (4 replies)

Ytm still doesn't notify for new episodes. It's absurd

kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de · 5 pts · 313d (3 replies)

I didn't even try using YTM as a podcast client. Streaming music players doubling as podcast players always have a hindrance (but at Atleast Amazon Music has some ad free content from Wondery in some regions in case one is a Prime subscriber).

AntennePod is a good FOSS alternative whilst Pocketcasts is a decent cross platform one (but the latter basically is subscription based if one wants desktop and watch playback which is a downer).

ByteMe@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 313d (2 replies)

I would 100% agree with you but pocketcasts recently added ads on free + has a really dated UI and antennapod is a pain if you want it to sync with other devices

kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de · 2 pts · 313d (1 reply)

Pocketcasts really is trying folks towards it's subscription driven model though I have no qualms with the UI. AntennePod relies on gPodder service to sync but that is slow and clunky sometimes.

There is Podcast Republic as well I think, which is still a one time purchase.

ByteMe@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 313d

This is where I ended up. Republic

zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 313d

Reader was a site/service, but it was THE rss reader for most people. Fuck Google for killing it (and a lot of other things).

RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com · 14 pts · 314d

Google deprecating gmail to replace it with inbox just to depecate inbox in favor of returning gmail was so fucking stupid.

Naz@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 313d (4 replies)

Replacements:

Titanium Backup -> SystemPanel2

MX Player -> Poweramp

Google Play Music -> YouTube Music

ES File Explorer -> FX File Explorer

Swype Keyboard -> Gboard

Google Plus -> Google One

Inbox -> Gmail

SuperSU -> Magicsk

You're welcome :3

grahamja@reddthat.com · 5 pts · 313d

I bought music off of google play, and I downloaded the MP3s. YouTube Music has an atrocious downloaded music section, and I don't enjoy it. I happily have returned to "finding" music and playing it in foobar2000.

DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 313d

FX File Explorer == > Solid Explorer

Onurtag@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 313d

MX Player

For this I'd suggest mpvKt as its a video player

ES File

Mixplorer (unless it breaks functionality without getting an update)

jerebear39@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 311d

I replaced Play Music with ibroadcast but truthfully I could just self host a music player.

bdonvr@thelemmy.club · 4 pts · 314d

I agree with all but G+

Flax_vert@feddit.uk · 1 pts · 314d (4 replies)

I miss ES File Explorer to this day....

ByteMe@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 313d (3 replies)

Have you tried fx

MaggiWuerze@feddit.org · 2 pts · 313d (2 replies)

Its a shame there are no updates anymore, but it works pretty flawlessly. Especially love the sftp integration

ByteMe@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 313d (1 reply)

Oh I didn't notice it was abandoned:( it was my go to for root file explorer

MaggiWuerze@feddit.org · 2 pts · 313d

Yeah, there are some things I'd like added, but it works so well that I don't mind. Also theres not a really any good alternative

JackbyDev@programming.dev · 1 pts · 312d

I still use ES File Explorer on my old phone because I'm too lazy to download anything else and I only use my old phone like once a year if even.

ook@discuss.tchncs.de · 43 pts · 314d (5 replies)
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ICastFist@programming.dev · 10 pts · 314d

Legendary dumpster fire and generator of memes

glimse@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 314d (1 reply)

Even if it was good, the fact that they wrote Google Plus and not Google+ tells me how much thought they put into this article

I was an early user of it and, unlike a lot of Google projects, there's a reason they scrapped it: it sucked.

vk6flab@lemmy.radio · 6 pts · 314d

And we're still stuck with its aftermath in that search engines require quotes rather than a + for requiring words, which they now ignore whenever the mood strikes.

Why?

Because some fuckwit at Google decided that the + was reserved for Google+ search results.

RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com · 4 pts · 314d

I had a lot of fun on it...

arcterus@piefed.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 314d

Legendar(il)y shit

infeeeee@lemmy.zip · 31 pts · 314d (14 replies)

ES File Explorer was very good at the beginning, but it enshittified quickly. Nowadays MaterialFiles is the best file explorer for Android, and it has more features than ES had ever. And it's open source so it can't have a similar fate. Google Play link, F-droid link

xcjs@programming.dev · 8 pts · 313d (1 reply)

I would counter that I still feel Solid Explorer is the best, but I'm aware that's just my opinion.

Taleya@aussie.zone · 3 pts · 313d

Solid is for people who want what es used to be. Not sledging it, but it's unshittified ES.

Deconceptualist@leminal.space · 3 pts · 314d (5 replies)

Looks nice! I use the Fossify File Manager; they seem very similar.

infeeeee@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 314d (4 replies)

Fossify looks similar, but it misses some crucial features I use frequently. I downloaded it now to check it, Material can do these things, while Fossify can't:

  • Open multiple windows for commander like usage
  • Connect to remote shares with SFTP, FTP, SMB or Webdav
  • Connect to app storage with Storage Access Framework
Deconceptualist@leminal.space · 2 pts · 314d

Thanks for that! I don't need those features for now, but great to know there's a solid option if I do later.

kalpol@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 314d (2 replies)

What happened to Total Commander

infeeeee@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 314d (1 reply)

Total commander was never open source, even though it's freeware.

kalpol@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 313d

Yeah just realized. I am disappoint

SteakSneak@retrolemmy.com · 3 pts · 314d
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Flax_vert@feddit.uk · 1 pts · 314d (4 replies)

Material files doesn't have anywhere near enough. ES File Explorer could open a bunch of files, a text editor, sftp, ftp, audio, image viewer, etc. ES File Explorer was intolerable on the free version, but if you paid a few quid, you got a perfect product.

rbn@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 314d

Total Commander is pretty solid although unfortunately not FOSS. Even allows you to share files via WiFi etc.

infeeeee@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 314d (2 replies)

MaterialFiles can connect to ftp, sftp, webdav and smb. It has a text editor. There is built in image viewer and music player in most roms nowadays, and MaterialFiles has an "open with" option where you can select what you want to do with a file.

Flax_vert@feddit.uk · 1 pts · 314d (1 reply)

I can't find an open with option

infeeeee@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 313d

Tap on the triple dot next to a file, first option

FlexibleToast@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 314d (1 reply)

The list is missing Google Now. A feature so useful Google cut it because it was reducing searches.

ByteMe@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 314d

It wasn't an app tho

Longmactoppedup@aussie.zone · 13 pts · 313d (2 replies)

I still miss Swype.

To this day it is still better than every other keyboard I've tried at recognising traces.

Lemminary@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 313d (1 reply)

Microsoft has taken Swift and run it to the ground. Then it asks how it's doing as if they've improved it. The fucking gall.

pycorax@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 313d

They really should've just ported the WP keyboard over to android, it's still hands down the best smartphone keyboard ever.

Tetsuo@jlai.lu · 6 pts · 314d (6 replies)

This list of apps is ridiculous and none of them were even noteworthy.

original_reader@lemmy.zip · 17 pts · 314d (4 replies)

Titanium Backup is the exception for me. All the others... 🤷‍♂️🙋‍♂️

DrDystopia@lemy.lol · 15 pts · 314d (3 replies)

I enjoyed Swype before it sold out to Microsoft.

gedaliyah@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 314d (2 replies)

It was a really excellent keyboard.

SecretSauces@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 314d (1 reply)

Best keyboard I've ever used. I even used a deprecated version for a long time before it just stopped working on my phone.

Deconceptualist@leminal.space · 2 pts · 314d

RIP Swype for sure. It was so much more accurate than anything else, short of physical keyboard buttons.

mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 313d

Google Play music was pretty good. simple and effective. easy to use.

Google podcasts was trash

YouTube music is ... well it's just kinda bad

wait, do I have that backwards? is it Google Podcasts that was good, and Google Play music that was trash? one of them was basically impossible to use for podcasts, like if you just wanted to find what you had downloaded, that was literally not an option you had to go to the podcast and then filter by downloads

xcjs@programming.dev · 6 pts · 313d

I still miss QuickPic. :-(

BootLoop@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 314d

Inbox was fantastic. I used an older version well after the shutdown date.

darkkite@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 314d

titanium backup has been made obsolete by swift backup

thegreekgeek@midwest.social · 2 pts · 314d

Y'all remember bump?

jerebear39@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 311d

This list is kinda of nostalgic to me. When I was younger, I was obessed with andriod mods and rooting videos on YouTube, and I remeber all those apps getting recommened in videos!

blackbarn@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 313d

Loved minuum keyboard

fodor@lemmy.zip · 0 pts · 312d

I used none of those and have only heard of a couple, despite using Android from the beginning. Sigh.