glimpse at my phone
Also posted to glimpseatmyday.
I am currently on a bike tour in the US, so my phone has an American SIM in it. Here is the lock screen, read on the for the rest...
I use the Microsoft Launcher with rotating Bing wallpaper. So my lock screen has today's Bing wallpaper, and so does my home page. I don't allow any information other than the time and date on my lock screen, for privacy reasons.
The only apps i have on the home page are the ones i open at least once per day, everything else is away in the app drawer somewhere. Clockwise from the top left: OsmAnd~ (open source version of OsmAnd+ OpenStreetMap offline map viewer), time/date/weather widget from the Microsoft Launcher, camera, Outlook, Skype, text messages, Edge Beta (browser), AnkiDroid (language flashcards), OneNote (where i draft most of my LJ entries), Trail Sense (open source compass, GPS, star/moonchart etc), Forecastie (open source weather), Google Maps. I get most of my open source apps from F-Droid app store, where they are usually recompiled to remove ads and privacy-infringing anti-features from the Google app store version. I put everything on the sides so it's easy to reach with one hand.
I have no idea how you guys are finding out your top three used apps. I can only guess. Since i am traveling right now, i do know my two most important apps.
One is OsmAnd~, where i have downloaded all the road maps, contour lines and popular Wikipedia entries for the states that i am traveling through. I pair this with BRouter (not pictured), which is an app that can do offline route mapping, so i can figure out where i am and get routes even when my phone has no mobile signal. I check this multiple times a day to plan and confirm my route. I still use Google Maps to find businesses (in particular campsites), because OsmAnd doesn't have all of them listed.
The other very important app is Forecastie, which is just a simple weather app, but it also shows wind direction and wind speed, which is useful when you are cycling to see if going in one direction or the other is going to be more difficult. Also useful is if i go somewhere with no mobile signal, i still have the downloaded data from the last update, so i always have at least some idea of what the weather will be over the next few days in the general area i am traveling through.
Aside from that, i am not sure what my most used apps would be. Probably Outlook - i check my email every time i open my phone - and Edge, which is what i use to access pretty much everything else on the internet. I don't use any dedicated apps for particular websites, i just go to the website. This is partly to preserve battery and also for privacy. I think it's enough for Google and Microsoft to know everything about my personal life, i don't need all the other websites i visit to put their tendrils into my phone as well.
I should add that i really hate having these annoying back, home and recent buttons on the bottom of all my screenshots. Unfortunately my old phone died a few weeks ago so i had to buy a cheap emergency phone, and it is stuck on Android 10, which doesn't have proper gesture control. I feel like i am living in the stone age because i can't just swipe and go back, plus all that screen real estate is being used up for no reason. Hopefully it will upgrade itself to Android 11 at some point, or i will find a cheap Pixel and can go back to the current Android version (12). I also hate the gap in the top left where there is a front camera lens. I wish screens just went back to being square and not having gaps or soft keys in them.
I am currently on a bike tour in the US, so my phone has an American SIM in it. Here is the lock screen, read on the for the rest...
I use the Microsoft Launcher with rotating Bing wallpaper. So my lock screen has today's Bing wallpaper, and so does my home page. I don't allow any information other than the time and date on my lock screen, for privacy reasons.
The only apps i have on the home page are the ones i open at least once per day, everything else is away in the app drawer somewhere. Clockwise from the top left: OsmAnd~ (open source version of OsmAnd+ OpenStreetMap offline map viewer), time/date/weather widget from the Microsoft Launcher, camera, Outlook, Skype, text messages, Edge Beta (browser), AnkiDroid (language flashcards), OneNote (where i draft most of my LJ entries), Trail Sense (open source compass, GPS, star/moonchart etc), Forecastie (open source weather), Google Maps. I get most of my open source apps from F-Droid app store, where they are usually recompiled to remove ads and privacy-infringing anti-features from the Google app store version. I put everything on the sides so it's easy to reach with one hand.
I have no idea how you guys are finding out your top three used apps. I can only guess. Since i am traveling right now, i do know my two most important apps.
One is OsmAnd~, where i have downloaded all the road maps, contour lines and popular Wikipedia entries for the states that i am traveling through. I pair this with BRouter (not pictured), which is an app that can do offline route mapping, so i can figure out where i am and get routes even when my phone has no mobile signal. I check this multiple times a day to plan and confirm my route. I still use Google Maps to find businesses (in particular campsites), because OsmAnd doesn't have all of them listed.
The other very important app is Forecastie, which is just a simple weather app, but it also shows wind direction and wind speed, which is useful when you are cycling to see if going in one direction or the other is going to be more difficult. Also useful is if i go somewhere with no mobile signal, i still have the downloaded data from the last update, so i always have at least some idea of what the weather will be over the next few days in the general area i am traveling through.
Aside from that, i am not sure what my most used apps would be. Probably Outlook - i check my email every time i open my phone - and Edge, which is what i use to access pretty much everything else on the internet. I don't use any dedicated apps for particular websites, i just go to the website. This is partly to preserve battery and also for privacy. I think it's enough for Google and Microsoft to know everything about my personal life, i don't need all the other websites i visit to put their tendrils into my phone as well.
I should add that i really hate having these annoying back, home and recent buttons on the bottom of all my screenshots. Unfortunately my old phone died a few weeks ago so i had to buy a cheap emergency phone, and it is stuck on Android 10, which doesn't have proper gesture control. I feel like i am living in the stone age because i can't just swipe and go back, plus all that screen real estate is being used up for no reason. Hopefully it will upgrade itself to Android 11 at some point, or i will find a cheap Pixel and can go back to the current Android version (12). I also hate the gap in the top left where there is a front camera lens. I wish screens just went back to being square and not having gaps or soft keys in them.