Whereas I just like the privateness options of /e/OS and have even taken to spoofing my geodata a lot of the time, the actual killer function to me is the /e/OS app retailer, which is called the App Lounge. Once I used LineageOS, I put in apps from a number of totally different app shops. There’s F-Droid, which hosts open supply apps, and Uptodown, which a number of apps I take advantage of assist (Vivaldi being the principle one), after which I had a number of I may solely get via the Google Play Retailer. As anybody utilizing LineageOS can inform you, it is lots to maintain observe of.
The /e/OS App Lounge combines apps from a wide range of sources, together with the Play Retailer and F-Droid, amongst others, making all of them obtainable in a single place. (You can even choose to solely present open supply apps.)
Additionally good is the choice to remain nameless when connecting to any of the app shops, though you will have to be logged in to get the apps you paid for, since these are tied to your consumer ID. I’ve additionally had the nameless login fail a number of occasions, giving me token errors. This is without doubt one of the few locations I’ve had points with /e/OS.
The App Lounge makes use of a well-known design that appears like Google Play however provides a number of options. The primary is that App Lounge gives privateness details about every app, grading it on a 1 to 10 scale, the place 1 is horrible for privateness and 10 usually means no trackers. The App Lounge additionally grades apps in keeping with which permissions they require. The less permissions (like entry to your photographs or geodata), the upper the score. It is a good method of offering advanced data in a method anybody can simply parse.
In a win for the bigger Android-alt group, /e/OS claims to be engaged on making the App Lounge obtainable as an app that may be put in anyplace. (Within the meantime, the Aurora Retailer is a detailed various.)
What Doesn’t Work
As a lot as I like /e/OS, it isn’t good. I’ve had some minor points with geodata. I dwell on the street, so my location adjustments each couple of weeks. Generally /e/OS is sluggish to choose up on this, and the Maps app will present me search outcomes based mostly on the place I used to be final week. The included Maps app itself continues to be tough across the edges (and makes use of some proprietary code). It is higher and extra correct than each different map app I’ve tried, but it surely is not nearly as good as Google Maps. I do not care what you consider Google; its Maps app is unmatched. I nonetheless use it as a backup when the default /e/OS app would not discover what I would like.
The opposite large lacking function for me is speech-to-text. Proper now, /e/OS ships with out speech-to-text in any respect. There is a good abstract of the choices obtainable within the /e/OS boards. None of them are ultimate, however I’ve managed to get by with a mix of Sayboard and the inventory /e/OS keyboard. The excellent news is {that a} built-in speech-to-text function is on the street map for /e/OS in 2024. This may also open the door to an /e/OS assistant, which isn’t at present obtainable. The challenge is unclear about what type this would possibly take, given the privateness implications of interacting with a server to reply queries, however one chance is a big language mannequin operating domestically.