
Technically, Sailfish is what you're asking for, though it's a little bit niche, Europe-focused, and only supported on specific Sony devices: What does the new system make better? All it does is remove user choice.

> I have to say that this permission-style model is an improvement IMO. It is no longer possible to register a default handler by file type. In Android 12, it just takes you straight to the default browser. Prior to Android 12 this would give you a chooser, and you could select an installed video player. Firefox even has some special support for this, so if you're on a page with an embedded video, you can long press on the video and select "Open in external app". For example, MX Player registers itself with video file types. It used to be possible to register an app with a file type. Worse, every time my reddit app updates, these settings seem to get reset, and I have to go back and fix them.Ģ. In Android 12, I have to go to settings and preemptively check a checkbox for every kind of url my reddit app can handle. Worst case, I'd be prompted when I opened a reddit link, and I could choose the app I wanted, and say to use it every time or continue prompting. Previously, installing a reddit app meant that it would become the default handler of reddit links.

Two things the new system has broken for me:ġ. Freedom is just one click away: Are you sure you want to uninstall this app?. You can "subscribe" to Youtube channels without telling Google you did so, you can access those subscriptions from anywhere, etc.ĭitch that Youtube app and while you're at it ditch the rest of those Google apps as well. This way you get the benefits of accessing content from adversarial services like Twitter and Youtube without having to interface with them directly on any device you use, not just that phone you happened to install some alternative front end like Newpipe on. Some of these alternatives - Invidious for Youtube, Nitter for Twitter, libreddit for Reddit - can (but don't have to) be run on your own server, others use established services.

The same works for things like Twitter and Reddit (which can be redirected to front-ends offering the same content) or Google Maps, Google Search and Google Translate (which get redirected to alternative services). The solution to the Youtube-problem is to use a Youtube-frontend like Invidious in combination with an extension like Privacy Redirect of libredirect so you don't need to touch the Youtube site at all.
