A freshly reset phone has no accounts, no history, no clutter — and no Google sign-in if you don't want one. Here's what's actually worth putting on it, and how, without ever touching the Play Store.
Every tool in the FeelFamous ecosystem runs straight from a web browser. No store, no account, no download. Open Chris's Everyday Carry toolkit, tap the share/menu button, then Add to Home Screen — it sits on your phone and opens like an app from now on.
🎒 Doc's Everyday Carry — the toolkit Chris actually uses himself. SpicyLister, offline meeting-point cards, Motor-Oid, Travel-Oid and more, all free, all real.
Android (Chrome): tap the ⋮ menu, top right → Add to Home screen.
iPhone (must be Safari, not Chrome): tap the Share icon → Add to Home Screen.
Android will happily install apps from outside the Play Store, if you know where to get them safely. These three are the ones actually worth having. All open their download straight from the app's own official website — none of them ever ask for a Google account.
An entire app store that isn't Google's. Open source, no ads, no account, no tracking. Once it's on, everything else below installs through it.
Open your browser, go to f-droid.org, download the APK, open it. Your phone will ask to allow installs from your browser — say yes, that's normal, it's just letting you install anything at all.
Get F-DroidProper private messaging — texts, calls, groups — without a Google account behind it. Downloads straight from Signal themselves.
Get SignalOffline maps that don't need signal or sign-in once downloaded. Genuinely useful on a festival field or anywhere the network drops.
Get Organic MapsStraight answer: Apple doesn't let you install real apps without an Apple ID and the App Store — there's no safe way round that, and anything claiming otherwise is worth not trusting.
What you can do with zero account, zero App Store: Safari's Add to Home Screen (above) covers most of what a bare phone actually needs — Basecamp, the whole Everyday Carry toolkit, every -oid tool in the ecosystem. That's a real starting kit before you ever touch Apple's login screen.