I tried Waydroid on Arch and its amazing. It runs Android apps flawlessly. And with a touchscreen device, I feel like I have an Android tablet running inside my Linux machine.
But I still don’t know what to use it for…
What apps do you use with Waydroid? What use cases do you have for it?
Don’t search tasks for a tool. Search a tool for your tasks.
Well yes, but also no.
Whenever you search for a solution to your problem, it stems from the realization that something is a problem. But sometimes, you have a thing which has been done for a long time, it was a problem with no solution and you’ve had to accept that. How would you determine one day that things can be done differently and better without constantly reevaluating everything? It’s not realistic.
In my view, it is a perfectly reasonable question to ask “what problem does waydroid solve?” To figure out if you have that issue and you didn’t know of this solution.
Sorry, just my 2 cents.
Also, Learning is Fun, so here I have a new toy, let’s have fun seeing what I can learn to do with it, then - as you say - that might solve a problem or improve a thing I hadn’t thought of before.
But… I have all these tools, and no imagination!
bank app
Playing Slay the Spire.
It does have a native Linux version but it doesn’t sync cross-platform. So since I like playing on the go it is nice to also be able to play at home on a bigger screen.
If it’s the Steam version, why not play through proton?
Did it work out of the box for you? Doesn’t load for me on either of my machines that have waydroid
Do you have an ARM emulator installed? I don’t think the game ships an x86 build. Other than that it just worked.
Is that what libhoudini is? I heard of it, but don’t recall if I installed it
Minecraft Bedrock.
This is the way 😉 although the Minecraft launcher is pretty good these days running under Waydroid is considerably less hacky as it’s not having to thunk between android and Linux userspace.
I’ve found the official launcher to be terrible, laggy, unstable, and poorly designed even on windows. I don’t think it can even launch bedrock anyway, I need to use the unofficial *nix launcher and the android APK to play on a realm.
Sorry I was referring to: https://mcpelauncher.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
Android does have lots of games, and some apps that aren’t as easy to use, or as good as in native linux. For example, some painting apps (krita is powerful, but can also overwhelm someone), video editors like capcut or lumafusion, audio apps. For most of everything else, there is a web browser on linux that can do the job better probably, and native apps. But overall, I’d say that Android apps aren’t really that useful on linux, because they’re mostly geared towards apps that you use on the go, while you usually sitting on a chair at home or work when you’re using linux. To be honest, most native apps now have been replaced by a web browser, so either native linux or native android apps are only useful for high end professional usages (e.g. blender, video editing, etc) rather than everyday use.
aren’t a lot of games aarch64 only? do they even support x86? I’ve attempted in the past to use waydroid for a game, but no way to install it on an x86 machine. Does waydroid support some kind of box64 layer?
There is an unofficial script that ads arm emulation. Note before anyone asks, it will not become officially supported by waydroid.
I use it to play visual novel type android games.
Lotta people in here saying what they use it for, but the only ppl I know irl running waydroid are playing softcore gatcha games on it.
I miss Dragalia Lost
I should see what the community servers are up to
Ive thought about using it for bank apps so I dont have hassle if I lose the phone or it gets robbed. Has anyone tried this ?
I imagine it would fail CTS and SafetyNet. Kind of curious if shizuku works on it
Reminds me that my daughter wanted to play Toca Life World on her PC. So I guess I would use it for that. As soon as I have the energy to do it.
Wayland is a display protocol and server. It is does not “run Android apps”.
Are you maybe talking about Waydroid?
You misread that. They did type “Waydroid”.
If you just woke up, good morning.
No, it was edited.
Just own it mate. You said something silly. So what? No biggie.
That would show the edit icon.
…They said waydroid
Using the Apple Music client
2FA app, in my case aegis, and a few games
There aren’t any 2FA apps for desktop?
Yes there are for example by gnome authenticate
*Gnome Authenticator
Yeah. You’d have to pry keepassxc from my cold dead hands st this point. Passwords + TOTP, cross platform, just a datafile.
Yes there are for example by gnome authenticate
Side point, is it possible to install the google play store on waydroid? Aurora keeps crashing.
Yep,
waydroid init -s GAPPS. But it will complain when first trying to sign in with Google so you’ll have to authorize the device.
Was straight up asking myself this the other day and still couldn’t come up with a good answer. I keep reading for 2fa or my passwords but that’s not really a reason IMO. Why not just have a copy of your totp seeds (any good android totp manager should let you export) and then use a desktop manager like keepassxc, the same with your passwords. The only reason i can personally think of are games but even then which games are worth keeping on your desktop that don’t already have a port? Another application that might be worth emulating could be like Shazam but not sure how good the desktop alternatives are
I keep reading for 2fa or my passwords but that’s not really a reason IMO. Why not just have a copy of your totp seeds (any good android totp manager should let you export) and then use a desktop manager like keepassxc, the same with your passwords.
Well, you know, some people use more than one computer. Having WayDroid + 2FA codes on one laptop, and filling in the codes on a browser on the other laptop does not defeat the idea of strictly using two different devices for 2FA.
No i get people use more than one computer but I don’t understand your point though about using wayDroid specifically vs a desktop totp manager? You can achieve the same by just having your totp seeds on one computer and manually filling the generated code on the other. Only difference is no android application needed just a standalone desktop totp manager
No i get people use more than one computer but I don’t understand your point though about using wayDroid specifically vs a desktop totp manager? You can achieve the same by just having your totp seeds on one computer and manually filling it in on the other. Only difference is no android application needed just a standalone desktop totp manager
Right, I see your point. Now, I don’t see myself clicking on a touchscreen laptop with KeePassXC to get TOTP codes. Seems easier to use Aegis app in WayDroid.
Ahh didn’t think about laptops with touchscreens just assumed touchpads or mice. That’s fair honestly never knew that was a popular way to navigate would assume people just get tablets for that but you make a solid point.
You already answered this in your question description :) With a touchscreen laptop and Linux and WayDroid you can have a Linux tablet. (Unfortunately (?) the choice of a DeGoogle ROM for Android tablets is minimal and you never know when the ROM developer will buy a new phone, change their life priorities and drop the ROM development) Compared to an Android phone you’d have a much larger screen. What do I use WayDroid for personally ? Just to test some programs, to see what’s new in F-Droid, and sometimes use LibreTube.
Why should one use libretube over freetube? What special features does it provide?
If you like LibreTube check out Grayjay. It similarly lets you privately browse and watch YT content, while also being able to subscribe and make playlists, but it’s killer feature is pooling all your subscriptions across different platforms into one feed. Ie having your Patreon, YouTube, Twitch, etc all in one app.
