#HANDY PRO APP SOFTWARE#

Like I said, I had more grievances with the hardware rather than the software - the OnePlus 6 definitely shows its age.

#HANDY PRO APP ANDROID#

I don’t recommend the Google-free Android experience for everyone, but I nonetheless found the experiment to be rather interesting. If you’re more concerned with privacy, then you’ll need to find alternatives in some cases. That means you have to decide what’s more important to you. Of course, app availability is the weak point and can still throw a wrench into your plans. However, if you want a lot more privacy in your smartphone life, /e/OS is about as good as it gets. Plus, e/OS doesn’t run on the latest and greatest hardware out there, often meaning that you’re relegated to devices that are at least two years old on average. It has serious challenges such as the loss of many staple conveniences. Using /e/OS and de-Googled Android in general is definitely not for everyone. While flashing /e/OS isn’t hard, prepping your phone can be - I wasted several hours a few months ago when I tried the ROM on my Essential Phone because of firmware alignment issues.

#HANDY PRO APP INSTALL#

You can install /e/OS on several devices, or you can buy a phone straight from the e Foundation if you’d like. (OnePlus cameras have improved dramatically in the ensuing three years, as the OnePlus 9 proves.) That phone’s camera experience was just awful, especially outside of OxygenOS and OnePlus’ software tweaks. Going all the way back to the OnePlus 6 was more jarring than losing access to many of the Android conveniences I’m used to. Overall, I didn’t mind using /e/OS for the three weeks I had it as my daily driver. Having /e/OS work so well out of the box was awesome. I used to be hardcore into the rooting and custom ROM game, but nowadays I just don’t have the time. If you forego the iOS-y feel of the stock launcher, you can have yourself a far more functional Google-less experience than what you’d find on Lineage OS (which simply removes Google Apps unless you install them separately). e/OS is based on Android 10 currently - at least the OnePlus 6 build I’m running - so things aren’t quite as smooth and pretty as they are on Android 11 and certainly a far cry from the vision in the upcoming Android 12. I get that /e/OS is as far from Google as possible while still being Android, but I found this whole iOS copying a bit much.Īs soon as you pull down the notification shade or head into Settings, the core DNA of Android shines through. There is no app drawer for starters, but there’s also something uncannily like iOS’ Search function and Today screen. Once I got /e/OS up and running on my OnePlus 6, I immediately noticed that, by default, the entire home screen experience strongly resembles iOS. With the latter option, you can access several of the Play Store’s applications, and each one comes with a privacy rating so that you can see if the app is going to be a weak point in your privacy-conscious life.

#HANDY PRO APP APK#

There are several ways to do this, from sideloading the APK files, installing a third-party store like F-Droid, or using /e/OS’ own App Installer. Since /e/OS is still Android, you can install many apps. This ensures accountability and privacy, ensuring that you stay in control of your data, at least on the OS level. This is important because that means you can check the code for yourself to see what /e/OS is doing. It’s a lot to sift through, but the entirety of /e/OS remains open source.

Location is handled by Mozilla, microG replaces Google Services, and connectivity checks don’t rely on Google. The e Foundation went to great lengths to remove anything Google.

Handy pro app