this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2025
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Android

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[–] fodor@lemmy.zip 2 points 6 hours ago

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

[–] MaggiWuerze@feddit.org 148 points 1 day ago (11 children)
[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 55 points 1 day ago (5 children)

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

[–] aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 hours ago

Google killed an app? Shocking, i say!

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

[–] lka1988@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago

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.

[–] aln@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

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

[–] infeeeee@lemmy.zip 12 points 1 day ago

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

[–] Naz@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

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

FX File Explorer == > Solid Explorer

[–] Onurtag@lemmy.world 2 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

MX Player

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

ES File

Mixplorer (unless it breaks functionality without getting an update)

[–] grahamja@reddthat.com 4 points 1 day ago

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.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 22 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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 points 1 day ago

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.

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

[–] ByteMe@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago (3 children)

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

[–] zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 21 hours ago

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).

[–] vateso5074@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago (5 children)

I have no idea how they could omit Hangouts.

Allo, on the other hand, which was supposed to replace Hangouts, did not live as long as Hangouts and should probably remain forgotten.

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 3 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

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 points 10 hours ago

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

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

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

[–] Rusty@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago

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

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[–] kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 1 day ago (5 children)

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

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[–] Longmactoppedup@aussie.zone 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

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

[–] infeeeee@lemmy.zip 31 points 1 day ago (13 children)

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 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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 points 1 day ago

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

[–] SteakSneak@retrolemmy.com 3 points 1 day ago

Joining in on the love for material files. I've been using it a long time. The more I've got into FOSS apps I've come to realise that they are feature rich, lightweight and ad free. Its the difference between using something designed to be a good product vs something that is designed to squeeze as much out of you as possible

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[–] ook@discuss.tchncs.de 42 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Google Plus... legendary... what?

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 10 points 1 day ago

Legendary dumpster fire and generator of memes

[–] glimse@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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 points 1 day ago

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.

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[–] xcjs@programming.dev 6 points 1 day ago

I still miss QuickPic. :-(

[–] FlexibleToast@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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

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[–] Tetsuo@jlai.lu 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

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

[–] original_reader@lemmy.zip 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Titanium Backup is the exception for me. All the others... πŸ€·β€β™‚οΈπŸ™‹β€β™‚οΈ

[–] DrDystopia@lemy.lol 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I enjoyed Swype before it sold out to Microsoft.

[–] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It was a really excellent keyboard.

[–] SecretSauces@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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

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