You will need the DuckDuckGo<\/a> browser app, which you can install from the Play Store or the F-Droid store. It\u2019s an open-source browser, designed to anonymize you on the internet as much as possible. It also has a mini app inside where you can talk to any of these chatbots:<\/p>\n OpenAI\u2019s GPT 4o Mini<\/p>\n GPT 5 Mini<\/p>\n GPT OSS<\/p>\n Llama 4 Scout<\/p>\n Mistral Small<\/p>\n Claude Haiku<\/p>\n When you have installed the app, tap the chat bubble icon next to the address bar to open the Duck AI interface. Here you can choose one of the AI models and start talking to it. By default, DuckDuckGo will also keep a chat history of the conversation threads. You can disable it in the settings if you like. In either case, the model thinks the prompt is coming from DuckDuckGo instead of you.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t need to open the browser and then tap the bubble icon to get to the Duck AI interface every time. Let\u2019s create a single tap shortcut on the home screen.<\/p>\n Long press on the home screen or pinch with two fingers and select Widgets. Scroll through the widget selection, find Duck.ai shortcut, and drag it to the main screen. Now you just have to tap this shortcut to launch the chatbot window.<\/p>\n Replace the Default YouTube App<\/p>\n The YouTube app connects with your Google accounts by default, and it tracks your activity to keep you hooked on the platform. If you want to watch YouTube without a Google account and without any algorithms pushing content on you, try NewPipe.<\/p>\n NewPipe is an alternative version of YouTube that has no ads, no recommendation engine, and no account sign-in. This YouTube app doesn\u2019t have a Shorts feed<\/a> either, so you\u2019ll never doom-scroll on NewPipe.<\/p>\n It does have every feature you would want in your YouTube app though. You can play videos in the background, in the mini player, queue them, download them, and add them to playlists. You can also subscribe to channels, browse comments, see related videos, and bookmark playlists.<\/p>\n Since NewPipe doesn\u2019t connect with a Google account, you won\u2019t find a list of subscribed channels here. However, there is a workaround for it. You can download that subscription data from YouTube and import it into NewPipe. NewPipe will automatically populate the subscriptions tab with new uploads from those channels.<\/p>\n You can install it from the F-Droid store.<\/p>\n Degoogle the Play Store<\/p>\n Aurora Store is an alternative to Google Play Store<\/a>. Let me show you why it\u2019s better. First, Aurora Store has every free app that the Play Store has, so you are not missing out on any free apps but abandoning the official Play Store and switching to Aurora. Second, it works without a Google account or reliance on Google Play Services<\/a>, so you can browse the store and install apps anonymously.<\/p>\n The screenshots, descriptions, rating and review cards featured in the Play Store are available here too, but the Aurora Store provides you even more useful information. It\u2019ll tell you if an app requires Google Play Services to work and if it has any trackers embedded in it.<\/p>\n On the Play Store, you can only download the latest version of an app, so if you don\u2019t like an update, you\u2019re just stuck with it. With Aurora Store, you can choose which version of the app you\u2019re installing with a single tap. Even if you have already installed a new version, you can roll it back to a preferred version with this manual control.<\/p>\n Make Your Keyboard Offline<\/p>\n I recently reviewed Heliboard and explained why it replaced Gboard as my default<\/a>. It has pretty much every feature that Gboard does and then some, but the best part is that it\u2019s 100% offline (as a keyboard should be) and never connects to the internet to send your sensitive typing data anywhere. That alone makes it more secure than any keyboard that connects to the internet.<\/p>\n You can customize it with themes, change layouts, and dimensions of the keyboard. There\u2019s a clipboard history feature where you can pin snippets. You can force incognito mode, so the keyboard doesn\u2019t learn phrases and words to suggest later (which it does by default).<\/p>\n HeliBoard also has autocorrect, a suggestion strip, and you can even enable gesture typing (but the gesture typing feature requires importing a closed-source library).<\/p>\n Keep Your Calendar Private<\/p>\n Your calendar dailies and agendas are sensitive data that you might want to keep private. You can quickly replace Google Calendar with Tuta Calendar<\/a>. It\u2019s open source and cross-platform, so it syncs across devices.<\/p>\n Install it from F-Droid and sign up for a free Tuta mail account. Once that\u2019s done, you can import your schedule and agenda into the Tuta calendar. First, export the schedule from your current app in a .ics format and tap the three dots in the Tuta Calendar sidebar. Choose import and select the .ics file, and the app will instantly update with your dailies.<\/p>\n Your Password Manager Should Stay Offline<\/p>\n Mainstream password managers\u2014like LastPass, 1Password, BitWarden\u2014that store your login credentials in the cloud aren\u2019t perfectly safe. Data breaches happen all the time, so just like keyboard apps, I believe password managers should stay offline too. That way, your data stays on your device, you have total control over it, and you can protect it with encryption.<\/p>\n I put together a list of some awesome offline password managers<\/a>, but if you want a simple password manager that works on Android, Linux, and Windows, try Passy. It works on multiple platforms, available on Windows, Linux, and as a browser extension. The best part is that it doesn\u2019t connect to the internet at all and your sensitive data never leaves your device\u2019s storage.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t have to rebuild the password database, if you already use a password manager. You can export it in CSV, Aegis, or KDBX formats and safely import it into Passy. Once you\u2019ve imported it into Passy, delete the original exported file.<\/p>\n Passy also supports autofill and auto-sync with homelab setups. Other than passwords and login info, you can also store ID, notes, payment cards, and files in the Passy vaults.<\/p>\n Curate a News Feed You’ll Want to Read<\/p>\n![\"Creating](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/screenshot_20251011-121203.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"NewPipe](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/screenshot_20251011-124714.jpg\")
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