Hey everyone, I’m going insane due to a lack of creative project. I’ve written an app already but I haven’t gotten around to publishing it yet. I’d like to know what kind of apps you’d like to see created for mobile Linux. I prefer easier, bite-sized projects over particularly large ones, but I’d love to hear your ideas nevertheless.

    • sh_itjust_broken@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2·
      17 days ago

      IMHO we are a long way off from that being a good idea even if the app existed. I may make jokes about it but I would be terrified if my brother switched to a linux phone with his diabetes. There are just to many other issues ATM.

      • smiletolerantly@awful.systems
        1·
        17 days ago

        I am a bit confused, why do you think it’s a bad idea? My assumption, of course, was that “the app exists” == “the app works”. At least for me, xdrip is the only diabetes related app/tool I use at all. (It’s also not that I am unable to manage my diabetes WITHOUT xdrip, it’s just sooooo much more convenient than managing it through the sensor manufacturers’ apps.)

  • wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works
    171·
    24 days ago

    Flare, the gtk Signal app, needs to get to near feature parity with the mobile app. When it does, I’m all in!

  • Mandy@sh.itjust.works
    8·
    24 days ago

    What phones or such are y’all using for such a positive experience?
    Had pinephone at the start of last year and it was most miserable time I had with a phone in years.

    • erebion@lemmy.sdf.org
      43·
      24 days ago

      Yeah, because it’s a Pinephone. It’s an underpowered set top box SoC from around a decade ago. Definitely try something else. :)

        • erebion@lemmy.sdf.org
          4·
          23 days ago

          I’ve been recently porting Mobian to the Pixel 3a and posting about it here*. Now, Mobian is close to being ready, but is not yet. I’ve been using it as a daily driver for a few months now, but it is not what most people looking for a well-working phone would want, currently. If you want to try a well supported device now, I suggest trying postmarketOS on the Pixel 3a perhaps, they’re a bit quicker than I am, mostly because more people are working on it.

          The Pixel 3a has recently been called one of the best supported Linux phones with a mainline kernel. Only issue right now is the camera not producing sharp photos, but they’re people working on the drivers in the kernel to improve on that.

          Other than that, I don’t really know what’s well supported, as I focus on what I have available here.

          * https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/19600671 Please note that this post is somewhat outdated and some of the issue are solved already.

  • Vittelius@feddit.orgEnglish
    7·
    24 days ago

    A couple of months ago I created some mockups for Linux mobile apps. Maybe you find them inspiring: https://feddit.org/post/271755

    A couple of notes on the my old post:

    Unfortunately murena suffered an outage recently and some of their services are not yet online again, including the recepie one. So should you choose to take up that project, you would have to find (or host) a different instance.

  • Felix Urbasik@ma.fellr.net
    6·
    23 days ago

    Here’s a very niche problem: On Android, I use an alarm clock that you can only turn off by scanning a QR code. Such an app doesn’t exist on mobile linux.

    • tetris11@lemmy.ml
      1·
      22 days ago

      that is indeed niche… what time do you need to be up to resort to this, and what time do you go to sleep?

      • Felix Urbasik@ma.fellr.net
        3·
        22 days ago

        @tetris11 I usually go to bed at 11-12 and get up around 8-9. It’s just that my subconscious mind has learnt how to turn off the alarm before I even know I’m awake.

        I used to oversleep without ever remembering that I turned off the alarm.

        • tetris11@lemmy.ml
          2·
          22 days ago

          Oh wow. Are you in your early 20s? I think it’s something you might just grow out of if that helps.

        • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nzEnglish
          1·
          22 days ago

          I fixed this issue, but being an arsehole for a month.

          Get a loud stereo with an alarm clock function; have it go off 1 minute after your alarm, and be really really loud.

          Trust me, shocking yourself awake with a huge noise just after the little beep-beep works a treat. After a week or two, you will bolt out of bed to catch the stereo before it wakes everybody else up and pisses them off.

  • pak0st@fosstodon.org
    5·
    24 days ago

    @Lofenyy not so much apps but infrastructure pieces.
    - Better video camera support would be great (Dino would be awesome on Linux phone!).
    - A bit more integration with UnifiedPush. I’m looking at Firefox, Thunderbird and chat apps.
    - More streamlined solution for map navigation - it’s janky atm.
    - OSKs (on-screen keyboard) can be temperamental. Lets see when we will get text-input protocol v4 for Wayland 😄

  • sh_itjust_broken@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    3·
    17 days ago

    A good mobile friendly GTK nextcloud talk app. I love nextcloud and I love my pinephone but having to use the browser is a massive pain.

  • Imnebuddy@lemmy.mlEnglish
    52·
    23 days ago
    Tangent

    I find Android not having almost any option for various apps. I just want a touchscreen keyboard friendly text editor which saves txt files in my phone’s home directory, for example. The only thing that really exists is emacs or using Termux, and using a modal text editor on a mobile keyboard is a massive pain.

    To clarify, I prefer installing open source applications on F-Droid on Android, and yes, I could get some stunning 8K resolution text editor SUPER FAST NO ADS on the Play Store which requires GSF and is developed by some random dude, but I want a well-established text editor that Android doesn’t have, like VSCode or Kate. This is why Linux phones appeal to me, but they still have various issues and limitations.

    Maybe it’s because I use my phone like a computer, but I do not like using single purpose, clunky apps that obfuscate the filesystem. Linux, even on arm alone, has so many different apps that Android has no equivalent for. Not denying there’s still much work to do for mobile Linux.

    I believe the Linux infrastructure for mobile devices needs priority.

    Tangent

    I had difficulty getting images from various operating systems to work (or not crash from updating) on my PinePhone. I need to eventually get Gentoo crossdev setup so I can compile packages for the PinePhone. Curious how well existing Android devices with Linux support fare currently.

    Not sure if debugging and fixing issues would satisfy your itch, but I guess one idea to consider is porting some Linux applications only available on the x86_64 architecture to arm/arm64/etc., and develop mobile friendly guis for current applications that are still primarily suited for desktop.

    • erebion@lemmy.sdf.org
      2·
      23 days ago

      Curious how well existing Android devices with Linux support fare currently.

      Better than the Pinephone. See my other post on this thread where I talk about my Mobian port to the Pixel 3a and click the link for some more detailed info on how well it works.

      Oh and the Pinephone is just way too slow and the thermal design is not really good and it also does have issues in other parts of the hardware. It’s not a good phone, it’s a passable development device that easily allows to turn off things such as Bluetooth.

      And… an old Android phone such as the Pixel 3a is just a lot cheaper and runs way faster with a far better battery life.