Ask Android

So, I've had a s21 ultra that I bought second hand years ago and I love it. I don't use as primary because I don't trust google/samsung (I use graphene on a pixel5) but I keep it as stock for the amazing camera.

I made the mistake of making a google account to play games. I just used random letters as I have no interest on it and I'm just being forced for the game to run. Today the phone was stuck on "phone is starting". I tried reseting cache on recovery, but nothing. I figured only factory reset would work.

Now it forced me to login to my @#$@$#%ing google account that I never wanted. It won't let me use my @#$@#$ing phone if I don't know the @#@%@ing google garbage. Is my amazing phone now a piece of brick because google needs to sell my data for my "security"? Is it really gone?

It's recently updated. I don't remember if I unlocked the bootloader (I don't think there are custom roms for it so I didn't bother) but it seems to be locked. Is there really nothing to be done?

I bought it for 1/4 of the price, but it was still a lot of money for me. Totally worthy because the camera is amazing, but did google really destroy my phone for my "security"? I understand forcing to wipe out data, but bricking the phone? How on hell is that for my security?

Just complaining out loud. I know that the answer is the same as "protect from terrorism" or "protect the children" is just really "to give us more money". But anyway, is there something that can be done?

Apple is the same or even worse right? if not, as much as I hate them, I would move. But now... It looks to me that if I want a good camera, I buy a real bulky one. If I want a good processor, I buy a laptop. Nowadays phones need to be just cheap garbage that can be thrown away easily if you don't want to please google/apple....

Anyway, any help is appreciated, though with my knowledge of phones, I think there is none. It's a brick now, that I wish I could throw at some people on google...

Something turn-based, battery-light and enjoyable.

Lichess was my first guess, but I'm looking for some other options.

hey guys

which apps would you say are must have for you for a trip abroad also general apps recommendations are fine

preferably ipen source (foss)

hopefully here is fine i didnt see any rule against it if its not okay remove the post

I use Transit, but I'm always curious what else is out there, particularly for bike navigation on protected bike lanes.

Hello guys. I have island installed and have my "work profile" installed, which contains among others my browser in the island tab. The situation is that I have several PWAs that I dont want to receive notifications for while I am at work as they are distracting and unnecessarily annoying, but I want to receive them normally while not at work.

I have been trying to figure out how to get it set up so that I can both trigger the actions at scheduled times, or manually through the quick tile I created from macrodroid (my work hours are not really stable/fixed).

However, when testing with a push notification testing site, regardless what I do I still get the notifications.

Here is my setup so far:

Macros:
Enable Work Profile
--------------------------
Triggers:
    Day/Time: 08:00 Mon, Fri
    Quick Tile On/Press

Actions:
    Action 1:
        Target: Broadcast
        Send Intent: island.intent.action.FREEZE_APP
        Extra 1: package_name = com.brave.browser
    Action 2:
        Display Notification (with a message saying work mode enabled)

Constraints: None

Disable Work Profile
--------------------------
Triggers:
    Quick Tile Off

Actions:
    Action 1:
        Target: Broadcast
        Send Intent: island.intent.action.UNFREEZE_APP
        Extra 1: package_name = com.brave.browser
    Action 2:
        Display Notification (with a message saying work mode disabled)

Constraints:
    Day of the Week: Mon
    Time of Day: 19:00 - 19:01
------------------- OR --------------------------
    Day of the Week: Fri
    Time of Day: 22:00 - 22:01

Some things to note:

I am using /e/os version 3.0.1-t-20250606498724-official-FP5 Android is version 13

What am I doing wrong here? Ideally I would like to have as few apps installed as possible to achieve a single task, but as I understand it macrodroid doesnt have the necessary permissions to affect other apps notifications (hence why island is necessary).

If there is another way which is easier to achieve what I am trying to do I'm all ears, however I do not want to use do not disturb for this purpose because obviously I need to be able to use my phone normally while at work except for those 2-3 apps I dont want to receive notifications for, but there are also situations where I want a full DND experience where I will get nothing coming through, not even alarms (e.g. meetings/classes, etc). Also for those unfamiliar with /e/os, it doesn't currently have the Focus Mode feature so that is also out of the picture.

Many thanks in advance!

There was once a tremendous app on IzzyOnDroid called SuperImage, which allows me to upscale images.

However one day the developer decided he was moving to a closed source model and archived the repository: https://github.com/Lucchetto/SuperImage

I've been using the app the whole time but it's now two years since the last update. I guess I was hoping someone would fork it and keep it alive, but I've had no joy in that regard.

Having looked at what the app has now become, it seems the developer hasn't slacked. I don't mind paying for the pro, but I'm also in my feelings about the fact it became closed source. Should I just switch to the new closed source version? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zhenxiang.superimage.pro

I recently installed Wallabag and the software does the job, but the apps to interact with it, that I've found, could all do with a lick of paint. I'm currently using Frigoligo but I'm hoping there's something better out there. Anyone know of one?

My phone still works perfectly fine despite its age and I'm too cheap to buy a new one.

I have a problem with noisy neighbours and want an app to measure and record the volume of their noise for possible legal action.

I prefer free-libre from F-Droid, but they don't have one.

Google Play has... hundreds of apps (one at US$100!). No idea which to choose, hopefully a free one without ads and data surveillance.

Web search results filled with sites I don't know/trust, and obvious SEO or AI slop.

So I'm asking folks here: anyone have any experience of a decibel meter app that's:

• preferably free-libre
• free-gratis (I might pay for a reasonably-priced pro version after I've tried out the free one)
• zero or tolerable ads
• zero or minial data surveillance

Thanks.

Hello folks,

I know that we can call using termux-api, ( termux-telephony-call command) but I want to also just sent out a voice message using termux. so basically I want to have termux just send me some pre recorded voices over call.

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a second hand phone (Budget around $400aud, ~ 1kMYR or ~$260usd)

My dream phone has:

• Dual Sim (preferably at least one esim)
• USB C with OTG (preferably at least usb3)
  • 2 usbC ports would be extra nice to have (allow me to dream)
• 3.5mm headphone jack (preferably 24-bit/192kHz)
• microSDXC slot (preferably dedicated)
  • if not dedicated then one where sticking the Sim chip to the SD card hack works
• decent custom rom and with it android 15 support!!
• at least 8GB RAM
• not a potato for a camera
• battery life to last bored geeks day
  • at least a work day of music and some comics and some brain rot on the socials and when I get home I got 20% left

Nice to have would be:

• ok Selfie camera
• fully charged in a hour
• 5G
• wifi 6
• a decent GPS chip

Phones I'm currently kinda looking at:

1. Sony Xperia 1 IV
   • insufficient custom Rom support, 2 guys are working on a linage port
2. Sony Xperia 1 iii / current favourite
   • ok custom rom support, bit old, unsure about camera quality
3. Poco x5 pro (5G)
4. Samsung A72

I'm a big fan of OnePlus, had the 1 and 7 but hate the trend towards no headphone jack and no SDcard support and then not even a second USB port

I used LinageOS a while back and quite liked it ... On my last phone I used YAAP and loved it

Cheers for reading ... PLS drop your 2 cents below

I quite like my launcher, but unfortunately it's closed sourced and employs some unsavoury features, despite being paid, it's limited in how many devices it can be installed on and it nags users for staying on old versions.

The issue I'm having is that recently bugs have been introduced. Widgets get randomly greyed out and I need to turn off and on the screen for them to become usable again. Also the launcher keeps appearing in Android's recent apps screen.

I find both of these things frustrating and have attempted to ask a couple times about the status of the launcher. The first time I was flat out ignored and the second time I was lambasted by a community member to not ask for ETAs. I'm not sure how asking if they're still working on things is asking for an ETA, but whatever.

I bought a lifetime license and so I can't even act like I'm paying for this, but I do feel that my purchase at least entitles me to know if development is ongoing or do I have unreasonable expectations? I'm not asking for a when, just whether or not something is happening. Especially considering these bugs were only introduced when the launcher started trying to do too much and add features that should be handled by the OS rather than the launcher, namely a "usage breaker".

So, recently I read an article stating that apps can still access installed apps on your phone as long as they list the apps in their manifest or use intent based hacks. Unfortunately, the app I use to restrict permissions (App OPS) does not have any measure against this.

Is there anything that can be done from adb, etc to restrict an app's ability to view other apps?

The article in question, it talks about indian apps but the info it shared should apply globally: https://peabee.substack.com/p/everyone-knows-what-apps-you-use

I recently installed graphene on a new to me phone. I am attempting to use a product called SMS Backup and Restore to more some things over from my old phone, but cannot do so because it needs to be set as a default app and my phone denies that. Warning photo attached.

I poked around in Matrix but didn't see any mention of this but am pretty unfamiliar with how to use Matrix.

Any graphene users have advice? It seems like it must be so simple and the graphene and other forums mention using this software. I have allowed all visible permissions for now, and all seeming relevant ones for the google support programs.

Device: Ulefone Armor 24 (cheap-ish Chinese brand)

The default audio quality is absolutely awful. It's like this everywhere, including the default camera app.
The issue shows up with external microphone as well.

Basically it sounds like over-compressed audio that gets easily beaten with 22.5kHz 64kbps MP3 (comparing to what I listened to recently).

I've found this audio recorder app that allows selecting audio source manually, including "unprocessed" audio: https://gitlab.com/axet/android-audio-recorder
The result is far better.

Audio recording samples

I just recorded music playing from my laptop, so yeah, the audio source isn't that great either, but you can hear the artifacts there.
Both were recorded lossless.

Default

https://files.catbox.moe/e33ufc.wav [2.7MiB]

https://files.catbox.moe/d2n7sg.flac [1.4MiB] - converted to FLAC for in-browser playback

Unprocessed

https://files.catbox.moe/xf9ab8.flac [2MiB]

---

Basically, it's just missing some noise-cancelling, but other than that, it's far better.

I don't care if disabling that potentially screws up phone calls, I don't like those anyway.

I am looking for a smartphone that is a music player at the same time, I want the device to have physical buttons for play/stop next/previous song. I can find android devices that are music players with physical buttons but are not smartphones.

I downloaded and successfully setup buzzkill. Then a day or two later found FilterBox. It was created at the same time as buzzkill but has AI spam filtering – I'm guessing a traditional algorithm for spam filtering used in emails and not an an actual LLM.

So, why is it not recommended more instead of buzzkill.

Tap for spoiler

On ~~reddit~~..

It also has a nice UI and supports analytics for your notifications history. Also has double the downloads of buzzkill. Although, buzzkill has a simple UI.

The algorithm spam filtering which is based on your recommendation is neat. Especially, since you do not need to manually create rules for each and every spam message/notification across messaging apps.

What are your thoughts?

Since I just paid for buzzkill and did a thorough setup I hesitate to jump ship. But, spam filtering is enticing. For those 10-20% of use cases which cannot be filtered by regular rules unless you keep on adding more.

It only shows Drive (for each account), Bug Reports (?) and System Traces (?). Of course, I just restarted my phone to see if it fixed it. It did, but as soon as I try a second time it's gone again.

I mention Discord but I'm pretty sure this file picker screen is not directly associated with Discord.

Update: This is affecting a friend of mine as well in the same way from the same time. Haven't determined if it's just Discord yet.

Update 2: Alright, if I scroll to the photos instead of selecting "files" then go to "all albums" I see Google Photos. Not sure what changed to make it like this but at least now I know.

The sync developer has been MIA for a long time (1 year or longer) and I fear it will stop working sooner or later when Lemmy instances start updating to v1.0 in future.

I use Sync because it has a nice Material you theme, is smooth, supports caching posts & media offline (also keeps the comments, posts loaded even if android reclaims memory from the app)

I can open posts, comments, and even communities in a seperate window if I choose to do so.

Anything with multi window support out there yet? I used voyager for posting. But, want sync like multi window capabilities.

My uncle just belled me to say that the define option has disappeared from his phone when selecting words and it's only happening since switching to his S25+. The option is always there on my Pixel, any idea how to restore it?

Title. The app is incredibly slow to respond to inputs and periodically freezes. Not sure why.

So, an ac​quain​tance of mine has a malware which shows an ad every once a while especially when you install apps.

It's hiding in settings with an icon and name called "Settings". It has no icon in the launcher. It cannot be uninstalled. It has acquired device admin settings and even that cannot be revoked. Google play protect warns of this malware but even play protect does not have enough permissions to actually remove it for good.

I tried to enable developer options to nuke it via adb. Unfortunately, developer options are blocked with a pop-up saying Device managed by your organization.

Outside of official service center visit. Or reflashing the stock firmware. Are there any ways the malware can be deleted?

I have advised to get it fixed from the place he bought.

Hello,

so I am using Android Studio to emulate a Pixel 9. I can manually set up a #location #mock after each power up. But I want to to it consistently.

I already added

geo fix geo fix -121.45356 46.51119 4392 to emu-launch-params.txt but it was just removed automatically.

I could write a script starting telnet... but I don't want to. How to use it out of the box?

Thank you