What’s on your phone, Patrícia?

Editor's note: Every week, I publish the phone's home screen from a blog reader. Want to participate? Fill out this form. Want more? Check out the archive. All app links go to the App Store, Play Store, or F-Droid.

What’s your name and what do you do?

My name is Patrícia, and I’ve been following the Manual for a looooong time.

Which phone and operating system do you use?

It’s a café-au-lait Motorola: the Moto Edge 50 Neo in Latte, running Android 16.

When Motorola launched this phone, I got kind of giddy because of the color and because it’s “small” (6.4″) and super light, but it was way too expensive. I eyed it for months, and when it dropped to R$ 1,500 (about US$ 280), I bought it.

Tell us a bit about your wallpaper.

Both are from right here in grimy downtown São Paulo. On the lock screen it’s the Minhocão, an elevated highway, because I really love this graffiti of a girl trying to catch books in a sky that looks like the sea :) And the (real) sky was gorgeous that day. That photo was taken by the owner of the secondhand bookstore @desculpeapoeira. The background is my street, and I think the little lights are lovely (I took that one).

Why does your home screen look the way it does?

I only keep the stuff I use most, so there’s the Firefox widget for searches (it opens a private tab on DuckDuckGo, so no junk piles up on my phone/history), the classic little clock and this weather widget (Ventusky, because the stock one was unbearable with all the ads).

There are also two folders with a music app (Oto Music), a podcast app (AntennaPod) and other odds and ends for when I’m out and about. Daylio is actually Ghedã’s fault. He wrote about it once and I scoffed, thinking “Why on earth, good lord, would anyone need an app to log how they feel?” But the truth is I’ve used it for years, I buy the subscription and, besides logging my mood, I track my migraines and my period. Love it <3 Yes, Ghedin, I ate my words, and boom! The other folder has the Google stuff I use most.

My rule is being well organized, and I don’t like a bunch of icons scattered around, hence the folders.

Which apps do you use the most?

• I use Oto and Antenna a lot to listen to music or podcasts when I’m out.
• Skeelo is cute, and I use it to read or listen to books because my carrier, Vivo, throws in some freebies there.
• NewPipe, to download music.
• Firefox, for searching.
• “Whatsie” (WhatsApp) to talk to my mom and “TG” (Telegram) for my peeps.

What’s the most obscure, weird and/or surprising app you use that you wish more people knew about?

SD Maid, I guess… It’s an app that gives Android a deep clean: every run sends some 7 or 8 GB down the drain. Super useful, I bought it. It needs some pretty aggressive permissions, but I only turn it on when I think my phone needs a good scrub. I use it and switch the permissions off afterward.

Editor’s note: Patrícia mentioned that she uses the old version of SD Maid, that there’s a newer one she tried ages ago and didn’t like, but that she’s considering giving it a second chance.

Lastly, any parting words?

Hmm… I think, or rather, I wish people were more curious about poking around in their apps’ settings to turn off the endless stuff that comes set up by default, you know? It doesn’t cancel everything out, I know, but at least it minimizes privacy issues and even the waste of the phone’s hardware/resources.