I’m working on degoogling and moving away from major tech companies. I’m really curious what others here are using instead — especially for everyday tools and services.
What do you use for things like:
1.Email
2.Cloud storage / file sync
3.Maps & navigation
4.Search engine
5.Web browser
6.Calendar
7.Contacts management
8.Notes / to-do lists
9.Office suite (docs, spreadsheets, etc.)
10.Messaging / chat
11.Video calling
12.Social media / microblogging RSS reader / news
13.Music streaming / podcast app
14.Video streaming / YouTube alternative
15.Password manager
16.VPN / DNS / Firewall
17.Launcher / Android OS (if you use custom ROMs)
18.App store / APKs
19.Photo backup / gallery
20.Weather
21.Smart assistant (if any)
22.Anything else you’ve replaced?
Would love to hear about your setup — both what works well and any trade-offs you’ve had to make. Always looking for better FOSS or privacy-friendly alternatives
- Proton
- Proton (Sync leave a lot to be desired)
- Organic Maps
- Kagi
- Firefox (LibreWolf)
- Proton
- Contacts are kind of a mess. A combination of Proton & my phones Google Contacts library. Though I use the Fossify app
- Standard Notes / Tasks.org
- LibreOffice
- Had to go back to Google Messenger when my new phone wasn’t receiving work MMS and group messages.
I use Signal with my closest friends and family - Signal / Zoom
- Fediverse almost exclusively (~90% Lemmy)
- AntennaPod for podcasts
- I still use Youtube for videos and streaming since I’m still grandfathered into the $8 original Google Play Music All Access intro offer. They are contractually obligated to never increase the price on me.
- BitWarden (Not a fan of the updated interface, may switch to Proton)
- Proton
- Lawnchair
- Droid-ify with Play Store as fallback
- Proton
- Breezy Weather
- Too picky for an assistant, AI or otherwise
I find you can get close to the old Bitwarden extension functionality with changing the appearance settings. I agree though, the interface change was definitely a step backward.
Currently, Proton Pass’s sync has to be forced manually on Android. Proton told me a few weeks ago they are working on a fix.
I self-host my email using postfix, dovecot, rspamd and others. The only tradeoff I had to make here is that some of the entities I have to communicate with via email use an allow-list, so some of my outgoing mail is sent through a relay (SMTP2Go).
- Cloud storage / file sync
I self-host a minio for cloud storage. I don’t need file sync, so nothing there. If I would, I would likely use syncthing.
- Maps & navigation
OpenStreetMaps & CoMaps. Works much better than Google Maps did.
- Search engine
Currently a self-hosted YaCy. I have my own index. Not entirely happy with this setup, will switch to something else (still self-hosted, I have no need for a general purpose search engine that indexes the entire internet of slop).
- Web browser
LibreWolf
- Calendar
I’m using Emacs & Org for most calendaring. Wife’s using GNOME Calendar & a Calendar app I found for her on f-droid (unsure which one).
- Contacts management
Nothing on desktop, some random contacts app from f-droid on the phone. I do use EteSync to keep a backup, and potentially sync later. (EteSync syncs her calendar too)
- Notes / to-do lists
Emacs & Org.
- Office suite (docs, spreadsheets, etc.)
Most of my “office” needs are covered by a combination of Emacs, Typst and Zola one way or another. For the rare case where I need Office compatiblity: LibreOffice.
- Messaging / chat
XMPP. Dino on Linux, Conversations on Android. I use Matrix too, from time to time (Element), and have Signal too. Not a big fan of the latter two, because it isn’t practical to self-host those.
- Video calling
XMPP. Dino & Conversations. If I need to video call with someone else, I’ll use whatever they use, usually.
- Social media / microblogging RSS reader / news
For social media, the Fediverse is my only social media. I’m using Tuba on desktop, Tusky on the phone for it. For RSS, self-hosted Miniflux. For Lemmy, the web ui on desktop, Voyager on phone.
- Music streaming / podcast app
Lollypop & Shortwave.
- Video streaming / YouTube alternative
FreeTube or yt-dlp if I need to watch youtube, PeerTube otherwise.
- Password manager
Bitwarden (via a self-hosted Vaultwarden on the server side).
- VPN / DNS / Firewall
The only VPN I use is WireGuard between my systems, but I don’t tunnel everything through it. For DNS, I’m using unbound on my VPS, which in turn dispatches to Quad9. Firewall? nftables.
- Launcher / Android OS (if you use custom ROMs)
I haven’t de-googled my phone, because my bank app refuses to work on rooted phones, and I unfortunately need that for the bank’s 2FA. No, I am not changing banks. I do use a custom launcher (Nova), though.
- App store / APKs
F-droid.
- Photo backup / gallery
I manually copy photos from the phone to my PC, and it gets backed up with the rest of the stuff. I do my backups with restic, and save a copy on my own server, and another at BorgBase. I’ll have a third copy at a third place later.
- Weather
wttr.in, mostly.
- Smart assistant (if any)
My wife. <3
- Anything else you’ve replaced?
Not strictly de-googling, but I’m using Codeberg & my own self-hosted Forgejo instead of GitHub. I replaced LibreWolf’s bookmark manager with Readeck. For push notifications on Android, I’m using a self-hosted nfty.sh.
Would love to hear about your setup — both what works well and any trade-offs you’ve had to make. Always looking for better FOSS or privacy-friendly alternatives
Oh dear. Strap in, for you’re in for a Journey! The entire configuration of both my desktop and the rest of my fleet (my VPS, my homelab server, and my Mom’s miniPC at the moment) are all free software. Based on NixOS, declarative configuration written in a literate programming manner using Org mode. There is a lot of documentation.
I heard about the Organic Maps fork but they were still looking for a name. I like that theyve gone with CoMaps. Short, easy to remember, and represents what the app stands for.
Google is the same, not really short, easy to remember name…
I haven’t de-googled my phone, because my bank app refuses to work on rooted phones, and I unfortunately need that for the bank’s 2FA. No, I am not changing banks. I do use a custom launcher (Nova), though.
Use HMS Core (Gallery Huawei) store…
Not sure how that’d help?
If I don’t use stock Android, the bank app doesn’t work, no matter what else I install on it, or what store I use.
Use HMS Core (Gallery Huawei) store…
I had a similar issue with my bank’s app and Netflix because I had an unlocked bootloader and custo ROM. I had to use Magisk with a module whose name I can’t remember.
Organic Maps is mentioned several times in here, but just a note, the project was forked due to the closed nature of some parts of the project and profit seeking of the major shareholders, contradictory to stated values.
The fork is called CoMaps. It doesn’t look like there’s an app release quite yet, but I’d watch for it coming soon.
deleted by creator
So far:
Email - Tuta
Cloud storage / file sync - pCloud
Maps & navigation OsmAnd (OpenStreetMaps)
Search engine - Kagi
Web browser - Librewolf
Calendar - Nextcloud (on theGoodCloud)
Notes - Joplin
to-do lists - Todoist (cause integrates with HomeAssistant)
Office suite - LibreOffice
Social media - Mastodon/Lemmy/GroundNews
podcast app - AntennaPod
Password manager - KeePassXC
VPN - Nord DNS - PiHole Firewall - Ubiquiti ERX
App store - FDroid (if at all possible)
Photo backup - pCloud here too
Weather - (personal weather station) and Wunderground
Smart assistant - HomeAssistant
Liking all my choices so far… No real trade-offs (that I miss/notice).
I’d recommend koofr for cloud storage aswell cuz it e2ee with 10GB storage for free and located in europe so GDPR laws too
Yep…
I’ve got my pCloud instance hosted in EU. As I’m a US’ian, obvious reasons…
Bought 2TB (one purchase lifetime) of which I’ve used ~500GB.
Honestly don’t care about e2ee for my cloud as I just don’t upload anything that might be dangerous to the cloud at all. That’s all hosted offline local only.
GDPR is also why I chose Tuta EMail… 😁
First post on Lemmy but not new to degoogling.
Phone is a Pixel 6a running GrapheneOS for about 2.5 years.
Laptop is a used Lenovo T470s with Linux, Fedora Workstation. Total noob.
1.Email - Proton Unlimited
2.Cloud storage / file sync - Proton Drive / Syncthing
3.Maps & navigation - OSMAnd
4.Search engine - varies but right now it’s Brave
- Web browser - On my phone I use Ironfox with UBlock Origins on expert mode (deletes all browsing data) and Brave for logins.
On my laptop, LibreWolf with UBlock Origins on expert mode (deletes browsing data) and Firefox for logins.
Ironfox and LibreWolf are sync through Mozilla.
6.Calendar - Fossify Calendar, phone.
7.Contacts management - whatever is stock on GOS
8.Notes / to-do lists - Fossify Notes for reusable checklists. Joplin on both laptop and phone for markdown notes. I used to use Quillpad when I used an android tablet and phone.
9.Office suite (docs, spreadsheets, etc.) LibreOffice on Linux. LibreOffice viewer on my phone.
10.Messaging / chat - Signal
11.Video calling - I don’t do video calling but if I did, Signal
12.Social media - Firefox on my Laptop, Brave on my phone. I’m planning on ditching Reddit. RedReader is the app I use on that site.
12b. microblogging - I can’t stand microblogging (Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky)
12c. RSS reader / news - Feeder on my phone
13.Music streaming - I play music stored on my phone with Vanilla.
13b. podcast app - Antenna Pod on my phone. I like CPod on my laptop but it’s no longer being updated. I’ve looked but can’t find one I like for Linux that is being updated.
14.Video streaming / YouTube alternative - Freetube on Linux and PipePipe on my phone
15.Password manager - Proton Pass.
16.VPN / DNS / Firewall - ProtonVPN but their Linux app is barebones. Doesn’t even have split tunneling.
17.Launcher / Android OS (if you use custom ROMs) - Stock launcher on phone. Extension Manager on my laptop to tweak the desktop for more usability.
18.App store / APKs - From most to least apps installed from that store - Obtainium (usually Github) 22, F-Droid 15, Aurora Store 3, and Accrescent 3.
19.Photo backup / gallery - Photos sync to my laptop with Syncthing, from there I upload to ProtonDrive.
20.Weather - I open Environment Canada local forecast with a browser
21.Smart assistant (if any) - Nope
22.Anything else you’ve replaced? - I use mostly cash in stores. My keyboard is Futo on my phone.
I plan on moving away from Proton if they don’t start supporting Linux more. Addy for email aliases, Tuta for mail, and Mullvad for VPN. Not sure about cloud, or if I need it, at the moment.
Tip: If you are stuck using Gmail you can still access it with a third party FOSS client like FairEMail. I used to use it when I was at school and it worked perfectly, although you may need specific versions approved by Google so you can use Gmail, but the app still remains open source!
email, calendar, contacts
Fastmail. Migration to some European provider is planned. K-9 for email on phone. For email/calendar/contacts Thunderbird on desktop. Contact and calendar sync Davx5 on phone. Fossify for contacts and etar for calendar on phone.
cloud storage
Filen. Zero knowledge e2ee service from Germany
maps & navigation
OSM-AND+
search
qwant (from France) and sometimes DDG or startpage
browser
LibreWolf + uBlock origin
notes
just a text editor (Pluma)
office
Latex & LibreOffice when needed
messaging
Signal, some contacts are still in TG
video calling
Don’t use
social media
Lemmy & Mastodon
music streaming
Don’t use. I get mine either on physical media if possible (cd) or in flac format (Bandcamp)
video streamming
Nebula, Odysee and FreeTube for youtube content
password manager
keepassXC. DB is synced via cloud to other devices
vpn & dns
Mullvad
firewall
Linux built-in (netfilter) configured thru Yast
android os
Graphene OS
app store
F-droid and some via Aurora store
photo gallery
Digikam locally on desktop. Fossify gallery on phone.
weather
Finnish meteorological institution
smart assistant
Don’t use
anything else
I ditched google mostly years ago. Graphene OS is the latest one and that was only this year. FreeTube is also fairly recent (sometime last year). Before that I used piped but that was nuked by google. More precisely they made it impossible to use. On software I’ve been FOSS first for over 10 years. Using OpenSuse Tumbleweed on my desktop and laptop (Thinkpad L580).
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Protonmail
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None
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Organic maps/gnome maps
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Searxng
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Librewolf/Fennec
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Fossify calendar/gnome calendar
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Fossify contacts
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Fossify notes
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Libreoffice/overleaf
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Whatsapp (everyone uses it, so yeah :/)
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Sometimes discord
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Lemmy
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Spotify on the browser
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Only YouTube :/
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KeepassXC/KepassDX
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Yearly plan of nextdns (really recommend)
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Wanting to use lineageos
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Droid-ify/Aurora store/pacman
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Fossify gallery
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KDE weather/gnome weather
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None
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I think it didn’t use almost anything from google, so idk
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- Protonmail (would like to find a better alternstive)
- Syncthing/SMB over Tailscale
- OpenStreetMap (Organic Maps)
- Searxng (still pulling results from Google among others)
- Firefox
- Self-hosted through nextcloud
- Baikal
- Obsidian
- LaTeX, markdown and LibreOffice
- Signal
- Signal
- FreshRSS through Capy Reader over Tailscale
- Finamp/Audiobookshelf/Antennapod
- Still youtube through Tubular (looking for a better service)
- Bitwarden
- Tailscale and Mullvad / PiHole and Quad9 / OPNsense
- GrapheneOS
- Obtainium
- Restic to backup NAS and periodical cold storage/Immich
- Pirate Weather and local weather station reporting over Meshtastic through Home Assistant
- Home Assistant with local LLM
- Media streaming - Jellyfin, push notification system - ntfy
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Tuta
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Self-hosted Nextcloud
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Organic Maps for lookups, Magic Earth for navigation
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Self-hosted SearXNG
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LibreWolf on desktop, Fennec on mobile
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Tuta or Nextcloud, haven’t really settled yet and I barely use a calendar as-is
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Android built-in with Nextcloud sync
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Nextcloud
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Nextcloud (Collabora) and LibreOffice
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Trying to get my family on Signal, but due to some holdouts and RCS not being available on anything but Google’s messenger, I still keep their SMS app around. Mostly use Discord though realistically, likely soon to be Matrix.
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N/A
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Bluesky mostly. Not ideal but keeping up with active blocklists to shut out anyone right of center makes it much more usable.
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Navidrome with Feishin (desktop, also have a self-hosted web player just because) and Symfonium (mobile). Beets for metadata management
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Jellyfin for streaming, still use the “official” youtube app but Revanced really helps with it
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Self-hosted Vaultwarden + Bitwarden
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PiHole for DNS (need to set up Unbound still, maybe a weekend project). Mullvad VPN on everything. My Wireguard connection to my homelab actually routes out through Mullvad, so one VPN connection lets me access my LAN while protecting my outbound traffic.
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GrapheneOS, Nova launcher
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Split between F-droid, Aurora, and the Play Store for when the other two don’t work. I try to use it as little as possible
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Self-hosted Immich. Aves Libre for local image management.
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I swear everything I use just has its own weather integration with a random site I’ve never heard of LMAO. GrapheneOS recommends BreezyWeather for widgets which works pretty well.
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None, never, fuck that shit.
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Aegis for 2FA, Heliboard for a mobile keyboard. Set up a whole bunch of self-hosted tools which don’t replace anything for me but help me manage things I’ve been slacking on: ActualBudget, Paperless (digital file cabinet), Mealie (cookbook app), just to name a few.
I’m about 80% of the way there. I’ve been slacking on migrating things over to my Tuta email since I set up forwarding from my old Gmail accounts.
My last major holdouts are Fi (nothing else remotely compares price-wise in this area), Google’s phone and messenger, and the pixel camera. The very second third party apps start using RCS, messenger is out (or if I can get the rest of my family on to Signal). The screening features of the phone app are too good to give up just yet, and the same goes for the quality of the Pixel camera - nothing comes close to those just yet.
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1.Email
FastMail, IceDove (GNU debranded ThunderBird), FairEmail
2.Cloud storage / file sync
Syncthing, Nextcloud for sharing and browsing files, I store my files using TrueNAS and a RAID Z2 configuration with Backblaze B2 for backup
3.Maps & navigation
OsmAnd with Brouter (FastBike-VeryLowTraffic profile) for ebike, my local transit app for public transit, Magic Earth the rare occasion I use a car, Uber rarely, I still use Google Maps for searching because everything else sucks
4.Search engine
Kagi, nowadays I usually use Deepseek R1 model with either Kagi Assistant or OpenRouter but might self-host LibreChat
5.Web browser
LibreWolf for searches, FireFox and FireFox PWAs for sites I regularly visit but planning to switch to Floorp. On Android, Cromite for random sites, Vanadium for sides I stay logged in to, IronFox with extensions for searches.
6.Calendar
Etar synced with Nextcloud using DAVx5
7.Contacts management
GrapheneOS contacts app synced with Nextcloud, the Fossify app has given me problems
8.Notes / to-do lists
Tasks.org synced with Nextcloud, Logseq for random notes, Markdown or comments in Typst documents in certain contexts
9.Office suite (docs, spreadsheets, etc.)
Typst or LaTeX for documents I make myself. LibreOffice or Collabora app for MS office documents.
10.Messaging / chat
Signal (Molly) and Discord (Vesktop, Revenge) most of the time
11.Video calling
Signal or Discord for personal, Teams for business stuff
12.Social media / microblogging RSS reader / news
Lemmy, Reddit, Instagram
13.Music streaming / podcast app
Tidal for my own playlists, Spotify for playlists from other people, YouTube when I want to randomly listen to something, ListenBrainz and Last.fm for scribbling. I want to set up Navidrome again but last time I did it was a disaster.
15.Password manager
Bitwarden/Vaultwarden
16.VPN / DNS / Firewall
InviZible Pro and Privoxy (uses Tor and I2P). I should probably get Mullvad or AirVPN.
17.Launcher / Android OS (if you use custom ROMs)
Kvaesitso
18.App store / APKs
Obtainium for FOSS, Google Play for proprietary
19.Photo backup / gallery
Syncthing-Fork, Aves Libre
20.Weather
Weather.gov, Windy which tends to be more accurate for more specific locations
- Protonmail though thinking of going to tuta
- None, does a flash drive count?
- OsmAnd+
- Kagi
- Fennec f-droid (firefox)
- Fossify calendar
- Aosp contacts
- Fossify notes
- None
- Molly (signal), matrix, SimpleX. SimpleX and Molly most though
- None
- Lemmy (daily), Nostr (mostly daily), Mastodon (sometimes), ReadYou RSS (DAILY)
- ANTENNApod and VLC
- Peertube and Odyssee (NewPipe for YT content)
- Keepassdx
- ControlD.com DNS blocks ads, tracking, and malware (via private dns setting in system settings. DoT)
- Launcher3 i think its called on LineageOS 22
- F-droid (frequently) and obtainium (rarely)
- See #2 / fossify gallery
- Wx and Quickweather (fdroid for both)
- None
- Cant think of anything right off the bat
- Email: Migadu via Thunderbird
- Cloud Storage/File Sync: I have Syncthing-Fork synchronising my wallpapers on my mobile devices. In a pinch I use a self hosted MicroBin or NextCloud.
- Maps & Navigation: N/A
- Search Engine: SearXNG
- Web Browser: Firefox
- Calendar: NextCloud via DavX5
- Contacts Management: NextCloud via DavX5
- Notes/To-Do Lists: BundledNotes
- Office Suite (Docs, Spreadsheets, etc.): LibreOffice
- Messaging/Chat: Telegram, Signal and RCS
- Video Calling: Telegram via MercuryGram
- Social Media/Microblogging: Mastodon via Moshidon
- RSS Reader/News: Miniflux via CapyReader or ReadYou
- Music Streaming/Podcast App: Navidrome via Symfonium
- Video Streaming/Youtube Alternative: Jellyfin
- Password Manager: Bitwarden
- VPN/DNS/Firewall: Pi-Hole
- Launcher/Android OS (if you use custom ROMs): N/A
- App Store/APKs: F-Droid
- Photo Backup/Gallery: Immich
- Weather: N/A
- Smart Assistant (if any): N/A
- Anything Else You’ve Replaced? Home Assistant for Google Home and Kavita via Legado for Kindle
- Tuta
- Nothing
- Organic maps
- Duck duck go
- Firefox
- Nothing
- Nothing
- Nothing
- Nothing
- Nothing
- Nothing
- Newpipe / AntennaPod
- Newpipe
- Nothing/Quad9/Nothing
- Nothing
- LineageOS
- FDroid
- Nothing
- Nothing
- Nothing
Here’s what i use that u might like aswell
- Koofr and sync
- Fossify calender
- Fossify contacts
- Onlyoffice
- Musify
- Proton
- Ente
I mean those that I wrote nothing it is because I have no need for that, like cloud storage, notes/to do lists. Or I use whatever came as default with lineageOS, like the contacts manager.