best android apps that are NOT on the playstore!

Everyone who owns an android phone downloads their apps off the playstore,it's a very common practise however there are still a ton of amazing  android apps that aren't on the playstore that you never knew about since a lot of them aren't that popular so today i'll be showing you that some of those apps are and if you want me to make a PART-2 comment down below.

Obviously there are some apps on the web that have malware so if you're ever looking to download an app that isn't on the playstore just be very careful the apps that i'm about to show off are completely safe and most of them can be found on F-Droid or XDA labs those are alternative android app stores that are well respected in the android community also i leave the download link to every app that i talked about in the article.

Note: Enable the Unknown sources from Settings >> Security to allow installation of the apps listed here.

1. HiShoot2i

The first non playstore app is a screenshot editor called HiShoot2i this lets you play screenshots into smartphone frames but it takes it a step further by allowing anyone to create template. Most of the templates can be found on a telegram channel called high shoot templates.You basically go on that channel until you find a screenshot template that you like then you download the apk that's right below it once installed, open the highshoot2i app and you can find the templates by tapping the gallery icon and then default from there you just select the template that you have downloaded go back and then you can add a screenshot within the device frame by tapping the plus icon and then for a screenshot and then you can find the screenshot within your files you can also edit the background shadow frame glare and badge, once you're done you can save the image and upload it to whatever you'd like there.

• HiShoot2i Download (v1.5):here
• HIShoot templates on telegram:here

2.Blokada

One of the most annoying things within free applications or websites are intrusive ads now look i have nothing against developers trying to make money off their apps,games or websites but there are a few that take it too far, i'm talking about free games that have non skippable video ads on every other level and they charge a lot just to remove the ads with no extra features. Articles that have auto playing video ads with full screen scroll over ads, popup ads and finally free applications that place large banner ads in the worst possible spots.

So, i set out to find a great ad blocker that not only blocks intrusive ads but also stops trackers and doesn't require root. I stumbled across blockada in my opinion is arguably one of the best ad blockers i have ever used and it's open sourced. Once you download it from F-Droid you just toggle it on and it'll create a VPN interface to block ads across all your apss and browser and you can choose from your list recommended hosts to block ads for those technical users all traffic will be filtered by the VPN connection and it will only allow queries for hosts that are not blacklisted on top of that blockada allows you to change the DNS service on your phone. They have some popular DNS servers to choose from or you can add your own and  lastly they have a feature called blockada tunnel which encrypts your data, hide your IP address and masks your location.

• download Blokada:here
  

3.Bromite

I wanted to show up a chromium based browser that is focused on enhancing your privacy as you surf the web and also includes an ad blockers, it's called Bromite and it has a few more features that google chrome doesn't have so for example you can play videos in the background for websites that google chrome doesn't support it has a native ad block engine with filters from easy lists you block origin etc and as i said before it has more privacy settings such as support DNS over HTTPS which should significantly increase your user privacy since your DNS query will have an encrypted connection and you'll also have higher security since it'll better protect you aginst man in the middle attacks.

Google chrome does have this feature but it's disabled by default on their flags page plus bromide lets you use other third-party hosts that aren't just google such as cloudflare, addguard, quad9 etc. On top of that bromite automatically removes click tracking, it has anti fingerprinting mitigations and it has a ton of privacy and security patches from other popular third-party browsers such as brave or iridium, that's just the tip of the iceberg there are so many under the hood changes or features that i didn't talk about that enhance your privacy and security in this browser.

• download Bromite:here
• Bromite F-Droid Repository:here

4.Viper4Android

Viper4Android has been around since the golden days of rooting and it's still going strong. For those who don't know what is Viper4Android is a tool that will enhance your smartphones audio, no matter if you're using headphones, the phone speakers, a usb connection or bluetooth device you can modify the sound to the extreme. For example if your wireless headphones don't provide that much bass you can increase the base frequency and you can also make the sound even louder if your headphones don't get that loud if you want to surround sound then you got it there's a compressor, an equalizer, amplifier etc.

Its a very feature packed sound app there are even some options that i have no idea what they do but for an audiophile this app is gold. I definitely recommend it the only catch is that it does require root to work because it does modify your sound drivers on your phone.

• download Viper4Android:here

4.AppScope

The next app that i wanted to discuss really isn't an apk but a progressive web app called AppScope and it's a market place filled with web-based apps that you can download for those of you who aren't aware web-based apps mimic the same functionality of regular native apps but they take up less storage space on your phone so since they're small in size they're pretty good alternatives for installing apps you barely use, for example instagram has an app size of 84MB but on the PWA version it's just using the google chrome app as the base and you can do most of the same things that you were able to do on the regular instagram app.

So, you can think of appscope as the app store for progressive web apps you just go to your browser look up apps go to appsco.pe in the search engine and then select add appscope to your homescreen then add again and you'll find the marketplace in your app drawer. Once you open it you can tap on an app or a game that you'd like to install select launch app tap the three menu, open in chrome and then tap the three dot menu again, select add to homescreen.

• AppScope:here

5.Lawchair 2 Pre-Alpha Version

So well the last app on this list is a launcher, now listen i know this app is already on the play store and it's a very popular however if you downloaded it off the play store then you don't have the latest features i mean the last time the beta version was updated on the play store was back in december of 2019. However, truth is that the developers are still uploading it on the apkmirror and they're calling these versions pre-alpha apps.

Obviously you may experience a few bugs if you're using the pre-alpha version, but if you do encounter a huge flaw then you acn just revert back to the previous versions. Anyways let's talk about the difference between the beta version of launcher and the pre-alpha version besides the fact that the pre-alpha version has a ton more under the hood changes and features. It also has preview pages in the settings for what you tap on the icon grid or you're trying to change the number of icons allowed on the doc. It makes it really easy to change the icon layout on your home screen within the desktop menu it shows you how your icons on the desktop will look so if you want to modify the text size, icon size, color etc those changes can be seen live immediately within the page. The pre-alpha version has removed the actions preferences in the app drawer unfortunately. There are few more feature flags in the pre-alpha version in the developer options.

• download lawchair 2 pre-alpha version:here

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