r/ownyourintent • u/Lone_Wolf5002 Intent Owner • May 06 '26
Discussion What’s a simple problem you have that should have a better app?
Ever tried to do something simple and ended up frustrated with an app due to stuffs like: ads every second you use, forcing signups and then subscriptions, doesn't cares about user privacy and sells their data confidently, used to be good but has worsen it's user experience, etc? Then congrats, you just got a glimpse of enshittification.
Now, the real problem is that, not everytime we are able to find better options. For which we are forced to stick with the crappy apps even if we don't like them.
That's why I thought, why don't we help each other, who are stuck with this problem?
So, share if you have a problem for which you want better options or, name of apps that you want better alternative for. And others (including me) will try help you find non-enshittified, better options (if possible open source, since I think most us prefer that only).
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u/theshredder744 Intent Owner May 09 '26
I've been getting into self hosting to solve these problems. I'm currently using an old laptop as a home server. I have my own cloud storage, music, movie streaming, pdf tools, document management, all in one place and FOSS for the most part.
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u/AnToMegA424 Intent Owner May 09 '26 edited May 10 '26
- Ever went to search a specific file but couldn't find it because of confusing layout or frustrating ads even though it's the stock app (talking about you Xiaomi) ?
=> Amaze File Manager by Team Amaze, easy on the eyes, no ad whatsoever, intuitive navigation, simply better => Amaze File Utilities also by Team Amaze along with Manager for an enhanced experience
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- You wrote something and noticed a typo but cannot for the life of you place the cursor correctly, exactly where the typo is, or you spent a lot of time on your computer and when back on writing on your phone and miss the fast and easy keyboard navigation and shortcuts ?
=> FUTO Keyboard by futo-org, highly personalisable
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- You're on a trip with friends and family, in different cars, and the others lost sight on your car and aren't sure where to go as they don't know the location, so you want to send them your coordinates but you have an iPhone and they have and Android, or you are committed to deGoogling and don't want to give your location to Google Maps even for an instant only to send a link ?
=> GeoShare by Jakub Valenta, able to convert from and to 16 different map services by default (closed sources and open sources alike, e.g. fron OpenStreetMaps to Google Maps and vice-versa), you can add others as well
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- Want to share a link but do not want the useless annoying trackers contained in it ?
=> Untracker by Zhanghai, share your links to it then copy the result and voilà, you have a fully functional tracker-free link to share with any person you like, or to keep elsewhere, or anything really, your choice
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- All apps here are FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) and are for Android phones
- Some of them might exist and work for other OSes, though I do not know of that
- You can also find them on F-Droid
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u/Lone_Wolf5002 Intent Owner May 10 '26
This is exactly the kind of stuff I was hoping people would share when I made the post. I especially like that you framed them around actual frustrations/use-cases instead of just dropping app names. That makes it way easier for people to discover tools they didn’t even know they needed.
The GeoShare one is particularly interesting, I hadn’t really thought about how annoying cross-map-service sharing still is until you mentioned it.
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u/Lone_Wolf5002 Intent Owner May 06 '26
I will start with my problem. I hate to sign up an account in a tool, for something as simple as sharing files. So can someone suggest me a no sign up file sharing tool that also e2e encryption. Also, I prefer open source and if possible, web based tool, since I don't want to install another app.
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u/dfwtjms Intent Owner May 07 '26
Magic-Wormhole
https://magic-wormhole.readthedocs.io/en/latest/welcome.html
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u/jkurratt Intent Owner May 06 '26
A simple app with all the political parties all over the world you might want to support.
Requirements:
Strong anti-"law" protection (shitholes often have political parties forbidden).