Using Sailfish OS for a year now as a Belgian user

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I want to share my experience using Sailfish OS now for one year.

A year ago I had an Android phone which became very slow and which was not updated anymore. I started looking for a European alternative and arrived at Sailfish/jolla website. I thought let’s try it out, and bought myself a second hand Sony Xperia 10 III, which was also ecologically better then buying a new one. Installation of Sailfish succeeded but was not so easy, so I would recommend if you are not tech-savvy (rooting a phone, installing an OS on it), buy a jolla phone.

Now getting to the experience:

  • overall: the look and feel is nice, you need to get used to the specific gestures, but after a while they become logic and you forget the Android / iOS gestures you were used to have
  • native apps: I try to use as much as possible native apps, as they use the look and feel of Sailfish and you don’t need to start/use Android support for it. Following I use regular and are working fine:
    • Clock (Timer, Alarms, Stopwatch)
    • Email, connecting to Gmail works fine
    • Camera: two flavors: standard one and Advanced Camera with more options. Camera reads QR codes properly
    • Phone: yes, you can phone with it :slight_smile: . In car I use bluetooth, when getting in the car I restart bluetooth and audio settings via Sailfish utilities, otherwise sound is usually not working in the car
    • Phone book
    • SMS
    • Notes
    • Browser, although I need to use Firefox under Android if I need to do payments
    • Calendar
    • Documents (like viewing PDF)
    • Gallery (photos/video)
    • AllRadio2: listening to internet radio
    • MeeCast: weather forecast
    • SailOTP: two factor authenticator instead of Microsoft Authenticator or others
    • OSM Scout: GPS. Here I need to say that I need to be outside ánd it takes a time (1 minute) until GPS starts working when turning GPS on. Traffic information is not available, therefore you need to use an Android app
  • Android apps:
    • most of the Android apps I install from Aurora Store, which is a copy of the Google Store
    • next to that I also use F-droid for some of the apps
    • you need to start Android Appsupport which is standard available in Sailfish OS, to get Android apps working properly, you can opt for getting it started automatically. If it is started up, battery consumption is higher
    • Next to Android Appsupport, I installed Microg and logged in with my Google account, which is needed for some of the Android apps to work properly
    • following apps I use regularly and work fine:

      • Synology apps: DS audio, Photos, Drive

      • Firefox: browser if you need to do payments or if the native browser is not working fine with the site you visit (apx 15% of the cases)

      • Sonos

      • myAudi

      • Tuta mail

      • Whatsapp

      • Element classic

      • Strava

      • LinkedIn

      • 2dehands

      • KeepassDX

      • MobilePass+

      • Itsme: this works fine, but for first time authentication you need a banking account at a bank for which the app is working on Sailfish, in my case I got it working via Keytrade Bank. KBC Mobile is not working (you get it installed, but you are not getting through the first time initialisation as it checks if the app is installed via the genuine Google store). So for KBC I still use my iPad or via the website

      • Garmin Connect → app works fine but I can’t connect to my Garmin Watch with it, so also here I use the iPad

      • Komoot

      • 50five

      • Bolero

      • Bitvavo

      • Keytrade bank

      • Monizze

      • Doccle

      • Bancontact pay → you get it working if you were able to install itsme. This app is used to do payments on websites

      • Xtra

      • Wago WebVisu

      • ShinePhone

      • Social deal

      • Aldi België

      • Ikea

      • Vivino

      • Shell

      • Flitsmeister: using this as GPS in my car, although regularly I have issues I am not able to search for a location

Although the specifications are comparable with my old Android phone, the performance of the mobile phone is much better and is fine. On the other hand, battery consumption is worse, certainly if 4G, Wifi, GPS, Bluetooth, Android app support are running, in that case you need to recharge daily. At night I switch to flight mode to prevent that battery is fully drained.

So all in all, if you are willing to take the effort of trying out and go Europe, changing your habits and taking some hurdles, it’s possible to move to Sailfish and use it as your mobile phone OS. I guess some of my hurdles are not present on a native Jolla phone, but that I can’t witness yet.

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Nice report for daily using. How would you guess your behavior of native use compared to Android App Support?

In my case 70% sfos and 30% AAS. (AAS 90% because off Firefox). No microG at all.

How about others?

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I don’t agree with you about the camera—I use the Xperia 10 III, and it’s not that great; it really falls short when it comes to detail. But as for the rest of what you mentioned—especially that interface and the overall feel—I think it’s really won me over, probably because I used to be a huge MeeGo fan :smiley:

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I believe it’s probably the same 70% native vs 30% Android App Support, Whats’app is the main app to use Android app support in my case.

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It might interest you there is a keepass app in chum, OwnKeepass. That is one native app more …

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Can Noson replace the Sonos app?

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I use SFOS native OwnKeepass

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I did it back in the day through my eID via the computer. I’m not sure whether that’s supported anymore now, because they’re pushing for NFC read-out (and haven’t tested that yet). Probably still until 2027, because some prev-gen eIDs (including mine) are still valid until at least then.

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On a tangential note: I know there are at least five of us Belgian Sailfish OS users. Should we start a Meetup group of some sort?

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I’m in Belgium since 2005, so at least 6 :wink: and Sailfish daily driver since 2013 :wink:

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Tx for advice, I tried it out, it finds my Sonos speaker, but can’t play any music

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You could replace Strava with Kuri which supports recording exercises and uploading them to Strava (although I haven’t tested that)

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kuri works well with Strava, but not the best at tracking GPS.

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Can confirm that it works well with Strava.

It used to work without that glitch. Two remarks: (1) if you upload such a recording to Strava, Strava corrects it. (2) the trick seems to be to acquire a GPS lock before starting the actual recording; then it doesn’t glitch out at (0, 0)

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Export and import, it will be fixed automagically.

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At least seven Belgian users. I’m from the German speaking region in the east of the country…

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I have also used Jupii (from Jolla store) to play music on my Sonos devices with great success.

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Tx, imported my password file, works fine and removed KeepassDX => one native app extra

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Feel free to start, certainly willing to join!

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If you have a bit of time, feel free to add the Android apps that are working for you to this site:

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