hello! this is a thread for asking about & recommending ways to get your phone less clogged up with ads and trackers and other junk! tutorials, resources, and recommendations for alternatives to various default settings/apps are all great.
some thread-starting recommendations for you - android specific as that is the kind of phone i have!
f-droid is a sort of “app store” for free open-source apps; lots of them are privacy-oriented and quite simple!
i downloaded f-droid just for weather, because my phone’s default weather app had a giant ad in the middle of it!! i use breezyweather from f-droid now and it works great.
newpipe is a sort of youtube proxy that 1: blocks ads and 2: lets you play videos in the background with your phone screen turned off or the app minimized.
firefox works on mobile and you can install extensions like ublock origin!
For those of us stuck with iOS, like yours truly: there’s an open-source script-runner for Safari on the App Store called Userscripts. Additionally, you can install AdGuard, which is a free and open-source adblocker, and general content-blocker, for Safari.
trying duckduckgo browser on my phone (less so as a browser and more for its feature of setting up a “vpn” within your phone that removes tracking in all applications). so far, more lag than it’s worth, but it does allow me to figure out which applications track me and replace them with unofficial versions that don’t.
Lera, have you tried Orion Browser by Kagi? iOS app store says that this is the only browser that collects NO data (DGG collects data with no personal info). It’s still very unstable (beta-testing or something) but you can install ublock origin and other Mozilla or Chrome extensions
I’m a kagi user, it’s a great project overall and I only have praise for them. I only have one device running iOS on it, and Orion is really helpful for me - the only way I’ve found to run ublock origin.
For other things - as an alternative to newpipe, on Android, I’m a happy Revanced user. In the end, you basically get a modded Youtube app that you can customize more to your tastes (as well as serving as an adblocker). It uses MicroG to allow you to sign into your accounts.
I also really, really love the free public adguard dns! I’m on Android 13 and for me, all I did was navigate to Settings → Network and Internet → Private DNS → Then manually add the hostname: “dns.adguard-dns.com”. Blocks most of the ads in most of the apps from the play store!
Not really ads/bloat related, but for years now I’ve been using the Niagara launcher, and it’s been really good for me. Something about only having the apps I need most on the home screen and accessing everything else alphabetically really does it for me. It helps me with wasting less time on the phone, and having it feel less “bloated”, I suppose? I tend to open apps because I intentionally look out for them, not because the icon is just there under my nose and I’m wasting time. Absolutely a personal preference thing, though.
I don’t even have WiFi right now, so I use my phone’s data to create an hotspot for my other devices - I don’t have specific needs for high speed, but have no issues in day to day stuff! No difference for me wheter I turn it on or off. However, once in a blue moon it will have trouble connecting to it, and won’t let me access the internet altogether. This only lasts a few hours at a time though.
I want to also add another Newpipe fork to the mix with Pipepipe on F-Droid. It has the same ui as Newpipe, but with added features like Sponsor Block and Sleep Timer. You can import your NewPipe backup directly to it. I’m posting this in case the original doesn’t work due to Google being dedicated to being the worst company possible.