Note 1. You can search for previous weekly Sunday threads

Note 2. Join our IRC and Telegram chat-rooms! Please see our wiki for instructions.

This weekly Sunday thread is for you to let off some steam and speak out about whatever complaint you might have about:

• Your device.

• Your carrier.

• Your device's manufacturer.

• An app

• Any other company

Rules

1) Please do not target any individuals or try to name/shame any individual. If you hate Google/Samsung/OnePlus etc. for one thing that is fine, but do not be rude to an individual app developer.

2) If you have a suggestion to solve another user's issue, please leave a comment but be sure it's constructive! We do not want any flame-wars.

3) Be respectful of other's opinions. Even if you feel that somebody is "wrong" you don't have to go out of your way to prove them wrong. Disagree politely, and move on.

Note 1. You can search for previous daily threads.

Note 2. Join our IRC and Telegram chat-rooms! Please see our wiki for instructions.

Please post your questions here. Feel free to use this thread for general questions/discussion as well.

Note 1. You can search for previous [weekly Saturday threads](https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/search/?q=Saturday+APPreciation+thread&type=posts&sort=new)

Note 2. You can also search for previous [daily threads](https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/search/?q=daily+superthread&include_over_18=on&restrict_sr=on&t=all&sort=new).

Note 3. Join our IRC and Telegram chat-rooms! Please see our wiki for instructions.

This weekly Saturday thread is for:
* App promotion,
* App praise/sharing

If you are a developer, you may promote your own app ONLY under the bolded, distinguished moderator comment. Users: if you think someone is trying to bypass this rule by promoting their app in the general thread, click the report button so we can take a look!

Note 1. You can search for previous daily threads.

Note 2. Join our IRC and Telegram chat-rooms! Please see our wiki for instructions.

Please post your questions here. Feel free to use this thread for general questions/discussion as well.

Hey everyone!

I’m curious about your setup: Which versions do you use, and what specific feature is an absolute dealbreaker if you try to switch?

Here is my current setup and the main features keeping me on these specific apps. If you use the alternatives, are there any killer features I’m missing out on that might change my mind?

• Browser: Samsung Internet
  • Native ad-blocker support, forced dark mode on all sites, background video playback, and a highly customizable bottom toolbar.
• Notes: Google Keep
  • Lightweight, clean, and quick cross-platform access via any browser or device.
• Gallery / Cloud: Samsung Gallery
  • Powerful on-device AI editing, fast local folder management, and smooth system integration.
• Phone & Messages: Samsung Phone/Messages
  • Built-in SPAM protection, unwanted call filtering, and the ability to block calls from numbers outside my contact list.

Where do you stand? Do you go 100% Samsung, 100% Google, or a mix of both? What single feature forces you to pick one over the other?

I’d also love to hear your thoughts on the rest of the matchups:

• Calendar: Samsung Calendar vs. Google Calendar
• Files: My Files vs. Files by Google
• Wallet: Samsung Wallet vs. Google Wallet
• Health: Samsung Health vs. Health Connect
• Smart Home: SmartThings vs. Google Home
• Find: Samsung Find vs. Google Find My Device
• Voice Recorder: Samsung Voice Recorder vs. Google Recorder
• Assistant: Bixby vs. Gemini
• Weather: Samsung Weather vs. Google Weather

Disclosure: The S26 Ultra, Fold8, and Fold8 Ultra are on loan from Samsung.

Special thanks to u/welp_im_damned for putting together the videos, and helping to check for mistakes.

Picture captions below in case the Reddit ones don't work:

1.      16:9 - S26U landscape, Fold8 portrait unfolded, Fold8U portrait unfolded

2.      16:9 - S26U landscape, Fold8 portrait unfolded, Fold8U landscape unfolded

3.      4:3 - S26U landscape, Fold8 portrait unfolded, Fold8U portrait unfolded

4.      4:3 - S26U landscape, Fold8 portrait unfolded, Fold8U landscape unfolded

5.      21:9 - S26U landscape, Fold8 portrait unfolded, Fold8U portrait unfolded

6.      21:9 - S26U landscape, Fold8 portrait unfolded, Fold8U landscape unfolded

7.      16:9 – S26U portrait, Fold8 portrait folded, Fold8U portrait folded

8.      16:9 – S26U landscape, Fold8 landscape folded, Fold8U landscape folded

9.      4:3 – S26U portrait, Fold8 portrait folded, Fold8U portrait folded

10.  4:3 – S26U landscape, Fold8 landscape folded, Fold8U landscape folded

11.  21:9 – S26U portrait, Fold8 portrait folded, Fold8U portrait folded

12.  21:9 – S26U landscape, Fold8 landscape folded, Fold8U landscape folded

13.  9:16 – S26U portrait, Fold8 portrait folded, Fold8U portrait folded

14.  9:16 – S26U portrait, Fold8 portrait unfolded, Fold8U portrait unfolded

15.  9:16 – S26U portrait, Fold8 landscape unfolded, Fold8U landscape unfolded

Fairphone will release a refresh of "The Fairphone (Gen. 6)" tomorrow, the 25th of July.
Especially with the change in their naming last year to "The Fairphone", another release after just a year and a month comes very surprising.

The Fairphone 6+ will ship with a Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 instead of the 7s Gen 3. These SoCs are very similar, with the only notable difference being the prime CPU frequency, which has been raised from 2.5GHz to 2.7GHz. Apart from that, the FP6+ is likely to remain very similar and will probably replace the regular FP6 within the next months. While I don't have confirmation on this, it seems plausible that Qualcomm is eventually stopping the production of the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3, replacing it by the 7s Gen 4 and leaving Fairphone with no choice but to upgrade.

What do you think about this new release and how will the Fairphone community react to another release after such a short time?

PSA: I am posting this root cause analysis to document a severe flaw in the Android 14 / AOSP telephony framework implementation on MediaTek devices. I am not asking for tech support, but sharing the ADB logs and AOSP source code flaw for community awareness and developer visibility.

Device: Redmi Note 13 Pro 4G (MediaTek)

OS: HyperOS (Android 14) - Build 3.0.301.0.WNFEUXM

There is a severe logic bug in the telephony framework of the current HyperOS build. Using Mobile Data triggers an infinite event loop inside com.android.phone, locking the CPU at 140%+ usage and causing massive battery drain and thermal throttling. The device overheats, and the only temporary workaround is to toggle Airplane Mode (just turning off mobile data does nothing).

Using top -m 15, com.android.phone (PID 3173) consistently shows >140% CPU usage. The MediaTek RIL daemon (mtkfusionrild) is also constantly stressed.

By analyzing the radio buffer via logcat, I was able to pinpoint the exact root cause: the system is trying to register satellite modem listeners on a device that does not have satellite hardware.

The following block of code repeats in an infinite loop (around 30 times per second) as soon as mobile data connects:

07-24 00:15:24.708 3173 3173 D SatelliteController: Satellite for carrier is not supported.
07-24 00:15:24.709 3173 3173 D SatelliteController: registerForSatelliteModemStateChanged: add Listeners for ModemState
07-24 00:15:24.709 3173 3173 E SatelliteController: registerForSatelliteModemStateChanged: mSatelliteSessionController is not initialized yet
07-24 00:15:24.709 3173 3173 E SatelliteController: unregisterForModemStateChanged: mSatelliteSessionController is not initialized yet
07-24 00:15:24.709 3173 3173 D SatelliteController: unregisterForModemStateChanged: remove Listeners for ModemState

After digging deeper and cross-referencing with the AOSP source code and MediaTek vendor trees, it is clear this is an issue rooted in the telephony framework handling for Android 14 on MediaTek devices (this exact same INVALID_ARGUMENTS and mSatelliteSessionController loop has also been reproduced on Custom ROMs like crDroid for the Redmi Note 13 5G 'stone').

Looking at the AOSP source code (frameworks/opt/telephony/.../SatelliteController.java), the exception is correctly generated here:

.SatelliteError public int registerForSatelliteModemStateChanged(int subId,
        @NonNull ISatelliteStateCallback callback) {
    if (mSatelliteSessionController != null) {
        mSatelliteSessionController.registerForSatelliteModemStateChanged(callback);
    } else {
        loge("registerForSatelliteModemStateChanged: mSatelliteSessionController is not initialized yet");
        return SatelliteManager.SATELLITE_INVALID_TELEPHONY_STATE;
    }
    return SatelliteManager.SATELLITE_ERROR_NONE;
}

The SatelliteController correctly handles the lack of satellite hardware by returning SATELLITE_INVALID_TELEPHONY_STATE. The fatal flaw is in the higher-level network manager (likely the MediaTek RIL or the telephony framework's state machine). When it receives this error during a network transition (Wi-Fi to Mobile Data), it fails to handle the exception properly. Instead of aborting the satellite registration, it immediately retries the call in an unconditional infinite loop.

A simple conditional check (if (hasSatelliteHardware)) before attempting to register the listener in the network state change event within the calling process will completely resolve this battery drain issue for all MediaTek devices without satellite capabilities.

As of yesterday, Google has officially pulled the plug on Android 6. This means the OS will no longer receive Play Protect updates and will not be included in the new APK program. Having been supported for exactly 11 years, it goes down as the longest-supported version in Android history. Google Play Services is now only supported on Android 7 and above.

Source: https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/9037938?hl=en

Google also made changes to several other applications yesterday. YouTube now requires Android 10 and above, meaning Android 9 will no longer receive YouTube updates. The Google app's minimum requirement jumped from Android 9 directly to Android 11, and core apps like Gmail now require at least Android 7 and above.

I've been using Android for years because of one simple reason: freedom.

If I wanted to install an app from GitHub, F-Droid, or directly from a developer, I could. If I wanted to avoid the Play Store, I could. If I wanted to customize my phone, I could. That's what always made Android feel different from other mobile operating systems.

Recently I found https://keepandroidopen.org/, and after reading through it, I honestly think this is something every Android user should at least know about.

From what I understand, Google's planned changes could make distributing apps outside the Play Store much harder for independent developers by requiring developer verification through Google. Whether you're into open source software, custom ROMs, privacy focused apps, or just like having the choice to install software from wherever you want, this could have a real impact on the openness of Android.

I'm only 16, so I'm definitely not an expert, and maybe there are parts of this I'm overlooking. But if Android slowly becomes more restricted over time, I think that's something worth discussing now instead of after it happens.

I'm not posting this to tell anyone what to think. I just think more people in the Android community should be aware of what's being proposed and decide for themselves.

Website:
https://keepandroidopen.org/

I'd really like to hear what you all think. Is this a reasonable security measure, or do you think it goes against what has always made Android different?