I have been using Sailfish as a secondary device for quite a while, but I am considering to use it as a primary device. I come all the way from the 770-N9 series. I am wondering how people use their devices given that some parts of the ecosystem are well developed, but others are lacking.
In particular, what applications do you use for these basic tasks? What works well and what doesn’t?
Web browsing
Chat
Voicecalls
Maps and navigation
Browser/Angelfish (fallback firefox(android))
Messages (sms/xmpp), (fallback for omemo/attachments Snikket(android))
Phone (videocalls Snikket)
Pure maps
My Xperia 10 III is my primary device.
For web browsing I use the Sailfish browser as much as possible. Unfortunately more and more sites refuse to work with so old browser, so I find myself using Android Firefox as a backup browser more often each day.
For chatting I mostly use WhatsApp. Voicecalls, the normal phone app.
For maps I have quite a few apps installed. For navigation I use HERE WeGo. If I’m navigating at the sea, I use 0100100 Merellä. If I’m lost in the wilderness, I use Karttaselain. If I’m searching for geocaches I use c:geo. These are all Android apps. I do have Pure Maps and OSM Scout installed as well, and I often use those when planning trips etc.
Web browsing with the Build-In-Browser, covers 95% of my needs, for the rest 5% i use Linux Desktop OS (ING Banking with Photo-TAN, but should also work with SFOS-Browser, not tested and needed).
Chat: Fernschreiber (Telegram), Sailtrix and SMS/MMS
Voicecalls: Over 2G-Network.
Maps and navigation: For Car navigation Puremaps and for Bicycle Kuri.
So I don’t need Android apps anymore, which makes me happy and should be a goal when using alternative operating systems like SFOS.
Hello,
Browser: i use the default one althought it’s engine it’s so old it’s becaming unusable. I do the rest with my pc but luckily the browser engine is gonna be updated (i hope in sailfish 5)
Chat: there are multiple telegram or matrix clients, i personally use fernschreiber (a telegram client). There is also a signal client, that from what i get should be really good
Calls: over the usual phone line. If you’re asking for internet things, only yottagram can do telegram calls, and that’s it. You have to resort to android apps
Navigation: pure maps is native and good enough, and by the way, it just works
For the rest, there is android support
And if you plan to make sailfish your daily driver then welcome aboard
I use Sailfish OS on Xperia 10 mkiii as secondary driver. Similar to you, I came all the way from Nokia N9 with interruptions in between. I love to use Sailfish as secondary device because my computers are running Linux, currently Debian. I love the easy Linux compatibility, the look and feel of the OS, the easy navigation with gestures. In my experience, Sailfish just makes more fun to use than Android.
But anyway, Android is my primary driver because I got a S22 Ultra for free and love the hardware: big screen, the possibility to use the pen. I rely on some android apps, such as WhatsApp, a family shopping cart app and Portuguese governmental apps.
In Sailfish OS I use:
What is really preventing me from using Sailfish as primary device, are the remaining bugs, e.g the loss of audio (including incoming call ringing) after using GPS for maps and navigation. This is the most serious bug for mr, aside from my many minor glitches in my use case.
I sometimes switch my main SIM card over a weekend or so into the Sailfish Xperia 10, to re-evaluate the usage of Sailfish on the Xperia 10 as daily driver. But until now, I constantly come back to my S22 Ultra as primary driver, let alone for hardware reasons.
Dreaming on ::: I wish there would be an easy way to install Sailfish to my S22 Ultra and get full functionality with it ::: dreaming off
This bug might not be on all devices. If it is a gstreamer bug then I invite you to try ngfd-watch which will restart the non-graphical feedback when it is deadlocked.
On my community device (NO Android Support!) which doesn’t seem to have that missing ringing bug (another one has it) I use:
I do have Waydroid to run Android apps and I use it for these two things: banking for the one bank that doesn’t have a website, and hiring Lime scooters. (m.uber.com for cars in sailfishos-browser otherwise)
I have hardware that is close to S21 so I don’t need a second device to constantly come back to 
Sony Xperia 10 III with SFOS and Android support by Jolla (incl. Exchange and predicted text input)
Web browsing:
Default browser / sailfish browser or “Firefox Klar” (APK).
(Anglefish is using Chromium and I am not using Google based software if I can avoid it)
Chat:
Depends on what you mean by that. Fernschreiber (Telegram client), Skype (APK), WhatsApp (APK), Discord (APK)
Voicecalls:
Of cause SIM based telephone and Skype (APK) or Yottagram (Telegram client)
Maps and navigation:
PureMaps with OSM Scout Server and MLS Manager.
standard browser
fernschreiber and whisperfish
standard phone app
puremaps
while my waydroid container did work i did use magic earth
for music i use standard music app and native tidal app
I’m running Sailfish as daily driver since 5 years and I have an xperia 10 III with AppSupport now. I don’t use MicroG and avoid apps using Google services.
Web browsing: Firefox
Chat: Whatsapp
Voicecalls: Phone/Whatsapp
Maps and navigation: Pure Maps/TomTom Amigo
Running a Sony Xperia 10 III for a couple of months now, previously used SFOS on a Fairphone 2, and an N900 with Maemo before that.
Web browsing
The stock browser is not only too old, but also lacking in too many features I wouldn’t want to be without with the current state of the internet; especially addons; I’ll give a brief description of what I’m using.
Started out using Firefox years ago, when that got removed from F-Droid for having too many proprietary blobs I switched to Fennec, and lately I’ve been using Mull instead.
I’m using Mull in conjunction with the most strict settings in the browser itself, together with:
Consent-O-Matic for, opposed to “I don’t care about cookies”; it does care about cookies and kindly declines them all.
Decentraleyes; nice description of what it does with screenshots when you follow the link.
And last but certainly not least uBlock Origin
Chat
I use a FOSS and de-blobbed version of Signal called Molly FOSS which has a neat F-Droid repository.
I’m running it along side of Whisperfish, but that is lacking a few features and sometimes has issues for me, plus I cannot run it standalone (couldn’t get passed the setup process), so it’s only a linked device now.
Voicecalls
I use the Phone application, the only beef with that is that sometimes the recording doesn’t work, it corrupts the audio file, that happens about 1/3th of the times that I try to record a call.
Maps and navigation
Pure Maps in conjunction with OSM Scout Server, awesome FOSS and offline navigation.
Only beefs there is performance when looking up addresses which can take a minute or two, but I got entire Europe installed so that may be the culprit. Also I’m missing features like real time traffic information and speed cams / traps, though currently I make do without them.
Since July, I’ve been using a Xperia 10 plus dual sim with Sailfish Sauna as daily driver, with AppSupport and microG.
Browsing: i use stock browser and i have Mull installed for backup
Chat: i use the stock message app for SMS, Hydrogen (Matrix), Fernschreiber (Telegram) and Whatsapp. I also use Teams and Company Portal for work. I’m really surprised that it works flawlessly. Meetings and calls are perfectly working.
Voicecall: i use the stock phone app
Maps and Navigation: Pure Maps and OSM Scout Server. It works very well. The only thing missing is the real time traffic not important for me
Others Sailfish apps: Amazfish works very well with mi Mi band 4, meeCast for weather, Advanced Camera for taking pics and some patches from the patchManager.
Others Android Apps: local app for contactless payments, using the camera; some government apps and some banking apps.
browsing: Android Firefox for sync, ad blocking and NoScript
chat: Fernschreiber (native Telegram), Signal (Android), WhatsApp (Android, unfortunately very embedded in Dutch society)
voice calls: native
maps: secondary phone with Google Maps, although native Pure Maps works as well
photos: secondary phone or DSLR camera
This sounds like a lot of Android but that is actually mostly it, I also use a lot of native apps
Xperia 10 III, 4.6.0.13
Fennec (ublock origin, privacy badger)
Signal, Threema, Telegram
Phone
OSM-Scout, Here Wego