Must Have Android Apps and Games? (Part II)

opus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118781760#Comment_118781760

Read that somethere this morning, I've been using it for a few years as well. Wonder will it keep working if you already have it installed?

Mr E

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118782588#Comment_118782588

Yes for a while anyway. YouTube will probably introduce a code change that will break it eventually, so it will stop working some day.

I did read some commentary that it's open source and has been forked several times, so it may live on in an unofficial capacity, albeit underground...

GBX

Shame. Brilliant app.

Testament1

Terrible news about Vanced. Been using it for years too and honestly could not go back to using regular YouTube. My wife uses regular YouTube on her iPhone and it's such an irritating experience with the amount of ads. Vanceds last update which auto skips in-video paid promotion is brilliant. It'll be a sad day when it finally stops working.

GBX

According to Reddit vanced one of the developers is working on a possible alternative.

S.M.B.

Is vanced no longer available from the app store or is it something that is about to be pulled down with an unknown shelf life? I've never used it but it sounds like I would have benefited greatly from it over the years.

Mr E

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118794099#Comment_118794099

It was never in the Play Store as far as I recall. It was an APK that had to be installed manually.

I've installed Brave in the meantime and set the homepage to https://m.youtube.com. I only use it for YouTube.

It's a bit clunkier than Vanced but it works - no ads.

El Gato De Negocios

Just on vanced, in the absence of similar apps, I subscribe to YouTube via Argentina. Set it up using a VPN on my credit card and it gets billed at €1 per month via my Google play account. There is a thread in the bargain alerts forum on how to set it up. I'm technically illiterate and was able to do it so it's really bloody easy.

Mr E

Found a new launcher over the weekend and I love it. It's called Niagara Launcher.

It's very minimalist but incredibly well polished. No app drawer, but there is an alphabet slider on the side of the screen to filter apps by that letter.

On the main screen are your 8 'favourite' apps. If you swipe right on these icons, you can see notifications and actions on a popup menu.

Notifications are supported - the latest alerts are shown beside the icon.

On the full version, there are extra integrated widgets for weather and calendar/agenda.

Free to try pro version for 7 days, then you can either buy outright for €15 or pay €5.99 subscription for a year.

After using it for a few hours, I subscribed (I was using Nova Prime).

Worth a look if you want to freshen up your phone.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=bitpit.launcher

Suckit

There are many alternatives to vanced. Using Firefox with uBlock Origin Plugin is great for PC, but can also be used the same way on an Android Device

I have been using Newpipe for a few years and the only issues I have come across are scripts running when it needs to be updated (if you don't auto update). It used to be for rooted devices, but now will run on all.

As mentioned, one of the developers of vanced is working on an alternative, but afaik it will be mostly identical. The main issue was the logo.

Some decent alternatives you Install from F-Droid or their Website.

NewPipe or https://newpipe.net/

SkyTube or https://skytube-app.com/

LibreTube or https://github.com/libre-tube/LibreTube

Kolido

What is the draw of vanced and these alternatives? Can they do more than a youtube premium sub can?

Suckit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118861077#Comment_118861077

For me, I only use youtube a few times a week maybe. Either when I get sent a link or if I am looking for something. I can't stand the adverts on youtube nor do I think what I watch is worth paying for. They are lightweight too, and can be installed without taking up battery or ram etc. Privacy is also a big plus. There are a lot more alternatives than the ones mentioned, and a lot of other sites too, but they need more content, but can often still lead to an hour of browsing.. 🙈

G1032

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118846456#Comment_118846456

Tried this on Mr E's recommendation and it's really slick. It's kind of exactly what I want from a launcher. Makes one handed use of the phone really simple also. But it's a mega battery hog so uninstalling for now. Huge battery drain over night from it. I would happily pay the 15 euro for it if the battery drain wasn't an issue

Mr E

@G1032 Just checked my battery log. 4% in the last 24 hours. Not an issue for me.

Their headline feature is low resource usage. Maybe contact them and ask if they have any feedback or suggestions?

https://help.niagaralauncher.app/

G1032

Not sure if it's been mentioned here before but came across an alternative to FotMob. SofaScore. What a fantastic app. Scores/results for every sport imaginable. Soccer, Basketball, Motor Sports, Cycling, Rugby and so on so forth. All it for doesn't seem to have is GAA! I switched phones recently and my legacy FotMob premium account no longer allowed ad free FotMob so went looking for an alternative, just to see what was out there. SofaScore is less than half the price of FotMob, not that either sub is expensive, but money aside it gives so much more than FotMob. Worth checking out.

http://www.sofascore.com/news/download-sofascore-app

frosty123

What's that game/app in which you fire axes at a tree stump??😶

marcbrophy

This it?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zplay.axechamp

I just googled your question 🙂

frosty123

No, this game has a circular stump that spins and you fire knives or axes at it

banie01

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118869438#Comment_118869438

Thanks for this recommendation. I have a lifetime Fotmob pro sub and it has and still does serve me well but, it only does footbal.

Sofa score offers so much more and tbh? The sub of €2.99 a year is great value IMO. It's a far "purer" interface than Futmob. It's the game and info about the game rather than the news and other stuff that Futmob does too.

Suckit

Newpipe x SponsorBlock is well worth a look at. A Newpipe fork with Sponsorblock included - SponsorBlock automatically skips unnecessary parts of the video like intros, self-promotion stuff (don't forget to like/sub), and of course the sponsor from the video, if it has one. They are marked on the videos by other users, and it is pretty good. Sposorblock is available as a browser addon too. The fork is available on F-Droid. SponsorBlock itself doesn't block any ads, so if using it in browser you will still need an adblocker.

https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/org.polymorphicshade.newpipe

While vanced still works, this is available now, so when vanced stops working (or now), most will probably jump to this.

https://github.com/ReVancedTeam

Cotts72

I think vanced as ceased to work ó. My device as of today! That revanced isn't an app as such yet, you're required to build it yourself is that right?

Suckit

This looks like it could be good. Currently free, normally €1.29

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pgstudio.survivalpro

Justin10

The Google search within the drawer now goes directly to Google search website instead of searching my apps. Anyway to fix that?

GBX

What's the go to current adblock app /VPN everyone is using?

opus

I've been using blokada (the free version) for quite a while - https://blokada.org/

Ben Done

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119616285#Comment_119616285

Cheers - just got a new phone - I've always previously rooted my phones, primarily just for adblocking, but it seems to be getting harder to avoid issues with banking apps these days on rooted phones..

Will give this a go, ads really wreck my head!

jeffk

https://techviral.net/block-ads-on-android-using-private-dns/

No need for apps, you can do the same in chrome (assuming you're using it)

Only thing with this type of adblocking is some sites/apps might not work and messy to turn on/off

I use nextDNS, it's like your own pihole in the cloud. You can add private DNS to Android in network settings

https://nextdns.io/

Ben Done

Thanks for the advice about adblocking.

Went with Next DNS in the end, seems to be perfect so far, so paid the 20 quid for the year's sub

misstearheus

So much ChitChat. I just want to see a literal List for good Apps & Games. :-/