QKSMS hasn’t been updated in almost three years, QUIK is an actively maintained fork. For contacts, I use ConnectYou (which also has integrated SMS, I just ignore that feature though)

I’d personally avoid apps that aren’t distributed through F-Droid or available through Github. Part of the appeal of FOSS on Android is de-Googling, which is incompatible with being exclusive to the play store.

Treeplanting might be up your alley. Doing the actual job is pretty solitary, you’ll see your tree-runner a few times a day, you might have a planting buddy, and the boss might come around once or twice to check your trees.

But outside of the work day, it’s very much the camp environment you describe.

Just a sidenote, the Simple Mobile Apps suite was sold off to a company called ZipoApps which buys apps and stuffs them with ads and trackers. The versions currently on F-Droid should still be fine, but I’ve started using Koler and QUIK for call and text.

A used Pixel with GrapheneOS is a great option. The install is very barebones, and it’s basically the most privacy you’ll get with a modern smartphone without restricting its ability to be a smartphone.

100% just slipped that in there for SEO purposes due to the current trendiness of “AI”.

So far, out of the suggestions in the comments, the only ones that are FOSS and currently work with the latest versions of lemmy are Jerboa, Thunder, and Voyager. Liftoff and Eternity are also FOSS, but haven’t been updated since July and October respectively, so may have issues if your instance is running version 0.19+.

Boost and Sync are both closed source and I really wish people would stop recommending them in a community specifically for free and open-source software. I’m sure they’re good apps and I don’t begrudge devs making money from their work, but if they do I don’t want them getting free advertising in the comments of a FOSS-specific community.

I love how 90% of replies are recommending software that isn’t open-source.