These open-source Android apps are so polished, I stopped missing Google

I never planned to explore the open-source Android world. It started with a simple thought: what would my phone look like if I stopped reaching for Google’s apps for everything?

That question sent me down an unexpected rabbit hole. I started trying open-source apps, expecting the usual trade-off: great privacy, maybe, but clunky designs and interfaces that looked like they belonged to my grandparents.

Instead, I found apps that were polished, modern, and fun to use. After a while, I stopped comparing them to Google altogether. I found a few new favorites.

These four surprised me the most — and they made my Google-free experiment feel far less like a compromise.

Breezy Weather

The customization is what sold me

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