117
The unsung heroes of Android: Remembering 8 legendary apps weβve lost
(www.androidauthority.com)
So you don't have to click
this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2025
117 points (91.5% liked)
Android
20482 readers
92 users here now
The new home of /r/Android on Lemmy and the Fediverse!
Android news, reviews, tips, and discussions about rooting, tutorials, and apps.
πUniversal Link: !android@lemdro.id
π‘Content Philosophy:
Content which benefits the community (news, rumours, and discussions) is generally allowed and is valued over content which benefits only the individual (technical questions, help buying/selling, rants, self-promotion, etc.) which will be removed if it's in violation of the rules.
Support, technical, or app related questions belong in: !askandroid@lemdro.id
For fresh communities, lemmy apps, and instance updates: !lemdroid@lemdro.id
π¬Matrix Chat
π°Our communities below
Rules
-
Stay on topic: All posts should be related to the Android OS or ecosystem.
-
No support questions, recommendation requests, rants, or bug reports: Posts must benefit the community rather than the individual. Please post to !askandroid@lemdro.id.
-
Describe images/videos, no memes: Please include a text description when sharing images or videos. Post memes to !androidmemes@lemdro.id.
-
No self-promotion spam: Active community members can post their apps if they answer any questions in the comments. Please do not post links to your own website, YouTube, blog content, or communities.
-
No reposts or rehosted content: Share only the original source of an article, unless it's not available in English or requires logging in (like Twitter). Avoid reposting the same topic from other sources.
-
No editorializing titles: You can add the author or website's name if helpful, but keep article titles unchanged.
-
No piracy or unverified APKs: Do not share links or direct people to pirated content or unverified APKs, which may contain malicious code.
-
No unauthorized polls, bots, or giveaways: Do not create polls, use bots, or organize giveaways without first contacting mods for approval.
-
No offensive or low-effort content: Don't post offensive or unhelpful content. Keep it civil and friendly!
-
No affiliate links: Posting affiliate links is not allowed.
Quick Links
Our Communities
- !askandroid@lemdro.id
- !androidmemes@lemdro.id
- !techkit@lemdro.id
- !google@lemdro.id
- !nothing@lemdro.id
- !googlepixel@lemdro.id
- !xiaomi@lemdro.id
- !sony@lemdro.id
- !samsung@lemdro.id
- !galaxywatch@lemdro.id
- !oneplus@lemdro.id
- !motorola@lemdro.id
- !meta@lemdro.id
- !apple@lemdro.id
- !microsoft@lemdro.id
- !chatgpt@lemdro.id
- !bing@lemdro.id
- !reddit@lemdro.id
Lemmy App List
Chat and More
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Google killing inbox was what radicalized me to that the entire business model of big tech is bullshit
My similar turning point was when they shut down Google Reader in 2013. Never forget.
Absolutely gutted at Inbox going away. Was such a great product, and they lied about implementing its features into Gmail.
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.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Huh, never used any of those, only SuperSU. Google Plus being there makes the rest of the list suspicious
load more comments
(1 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
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.
Google chat was XMPP compatible. The shit that ensued after it's decommission still stinks to this day.
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
And if Google had any sense, those were all improvements they should have just brought to Hangouts, haha.
But why improve a service when we can just create a competitor that does 2 things better, 5 things worse, and 1 crucial thing not at all?
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.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I've never heard about any of the apps in the post, but killing hangouts and podcasts still hurts.
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
Ytm still doesn't notify for new episodes. It's absurd
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).
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
Google deprecating gmail to replace it with inbox just to depecate inbox in favor of returning gmail was so fucking stupid.
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
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.
FX File Explorer == > Solid Explorer
load more comments
(2 replies)
I agree with all but G+
load more comments
(6 replies)
Google Plus... legendary... what?
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.
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.
I had a lot of fun on it...
load more comments
(1 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
I would counter that I still feel Solid Explorer is the best, but I'm aware that's just my opinion.
Solid is for people who want what es used to be. Not sledging it, but it's unshittified ES.
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
Looks nice! I use the Fossify File Manager; they seem very similar.
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
Thanks for that! I don't need those features for now, but great to know there's a solid option if I do later.
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(5 replies)
The list is missing Google Now. A feature so useful Google cut it because it was reducing searches.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I still miss Swype.
To this day it is still better than every other keyboard I've tried at recognising traces.
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.
load more comments
(1 replies)
This list of apps is ridiculous and none of them were even noteworthy.
Titanium Backup is the exception for me. All the others... π€·ββοΈπββοΈ
I enjoyed Swype before it sold out to Microsoft.
It was a really excellent keyboard.
Best keyboard I've ever used. I even used a deprecated version for a long time before it just stopped working on my phone.
RIP Swype for sure. It was so much more accurate than anything else, short of physical keyboard buttons.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I still miss QuickPic. :-(
Inbox was fantastic. I used an older version well after the shutdown date.
titanium backup has been made obsolete by swift backup
Y'all remember bump?
view more: next βΊ