Simple-Music-Player VS AuroraStore

Glad to see it got forked by a long time contributor [0].

Naveen, are you on HN?

[0] https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/Simple-Music-Player/com...

Simple Music Player (version 5.18.3): Clean music player with a customizable widget, sleep timer, battery saver

Try: https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/Simple-Music-Player

Better to get his apps from F-Droid though and then support the author(s) via their website IMO. I only linked to the Google Play store for reference. Because they better show the number of different apps he's created and has available. I use probably at least 5 of his apps.

Simple Mobile Tools

You may install a different launcher that supports custom icon pack or try replacing some of the default apps with their counterpart from Simple Mobile Tools since they all allow to change the icon color.

Basically, if the stock apps on GrapheneOS don't support some features, I found that Simple Mobile Tools have some really good apps that are customisable.

Take a look at the Simple Mobile Tools. They are open source and can be downloaded via F-Droid. The have a dialer and a contact app. The color of the app can be customised in the settings as well if you don't like the orange color theme.

Did you try Simple SMS from https://www.simplemobiletools.com/ ? How does QKSMS compare to that? I was delaying from switching to Signal to another app for SMS and just recently I started using Simple SMS but I'm willing to switch to QKSMS while it's early if you have have experience with both and still recommend it.

so, disable this bloat and replace it with, AuroraStore. or not.

Aurora Store (version 4.3.4): An unofficial FOSS client to Google Play with an elegant design and privacy

Aurora Store (version 4.2.5): An open-source alternative to Google Play Store with privacy and modern design

Good option, yes! Maybe something like Aurora Store could also be used to spoof a different (x86) device? https://gitlab.com/AuroraOSS/AuroraStore

AuroraStore

Android devices could push something like https://gitlab.com/AuroraOSS/AuroraStore or even F-Droid to get a preinstalled store that's not completely evil.

For Linux devices, if you have a powerful enough phone (Pine64, can we please have a really beefy PinePhone?), you could bundle Waydroid + Aurora/F-Droid.

Go to this link and download AuroraStore_4.2.3.apk, an open source client that fetches files directly from the Play Store servers. Here is an FAQ for the project if you're worried about safety or breaking Google ToS. This method is safe but you can choose to create a new Google account for the login if you're not comfortable using your main account.