This website helps you quickly find and install FOSS alternatives to Google apps

If you’ve flashed a new ROM on your device, I’m sure you follow it up by flashing Google apps or a GApps package. That’s mainly because a Custom ROM can be barebones without your usual set of apps that are required to use your phone. However, what if you don’t like Google’s set of apps? Or you just don’t want to be stuck into the Google app ecosystem and want to break out of it? That’s where FOSS apps come into the picture.

FOSS stands for Free and Open Source and is essentially a set of apps that are free to use as well as open-source. These can be used as replacements to your usual set of apps like Google dialer, Google messages, YouTube, etc. If this sounds interesting to you, there’s a new website that lets you find and install FOSS alternatives to Google apps in a quick and easy manner.

Un.pixel-fy (also known as Fossapps) is a website created by XDA user wacko1805 that lets you pick and choose what FOSS apps you want to install on your phone and creates a flashable ZIP file that you can install via Magisk. It works on Android 8 and higher and requires you to be running Magisk 20 or higher. If these requirements are satisfied, all you have to do is head over to the website and go through the list of apps under each category. Select the apps you want to install in each category and once done, you just have to click on the Create and Download button. Download the file, copy it to your smartphone, and install it to enjoy using all the FOSS apps you selected!

There are various categories on the website and multiple options under each category to choose from. You can pick from Koler, Emerald Dialer, and Simple Dialer for the phone app, Fenix, Styx, and DuckDuckGo for the browser, F-Droid and Aurora for the app store, NewPipe and Vanced for YouTube, etc. It’s basically a great tool to find free and open source alternatives to Google apps in the fastest way possible!

If you want to break out of the Google ecosystem or your phone doesn’t have support for Google’s GMS core, you can try Fossapps and let us know your experience in the comments below!