Kia ora!
I’ve been an ios user for 100 years at this point, but used to be deep in the android scene before then. I’ve just got an android for a work phone and am wondering what’s changed in the last 10 years - what are your essential apps, settings, customisations? I’ve had a hunt around xda but can’t seem to find much in the way of roms for my model (Samsung A04) - back in the day it seemed there was a thread for every device!
What do I need to know?
You can add a private DNS in the settings. It’ll allow you to have a dns level ad blocking experience without having to use any of the dubious ad blocking apps. You also don’t need root or a VPN.
I’m using my own dns server, but keep in mind that it needs to support DoT. You can’t just enter any IP, because of the certificate check (the dns requests are encrypted using TLS).
dns.adguard.com works, but as is the case with all dns services, they will be able to see every domain you access. So keep that in mind.
You need good lock, it changes the game for customization, it’s the reason I no longer feel the need to do custom roms
You also need to use adb to remove all the bloat.
Yeah, I see that launchers are way more common now! Got any you’d recommend?
neo launcher and lawnchair are the two open source options, I don’t think I could justify using a proprietary piece of software for something that should be so simple.
