Just switched to a new phone carrier, and they had a promotion that included a free phone: the Google Pixel 8. I'm not a fan of Google, but I am a fan of free, so I took the bait.

It's already bombarded me with pitches for their new AI bullshit. I've opted out of as much as the settings allow, but I'm under no illusion that doing so actually provides any real privacy.

So, damage control time.

On my previous device I used YouTube Vanced for music and videos, but I guess Vanced isn't around anymore, and I'm pretty out of date on what the current options are... any insight on streaming specifically?

*I'm a medic who's only surface-level competent with tech, so please idiot-proof any instructions.

Thanks all!

I haven't used it much if at all in the past year, but I finally took the last step and deleted it! Sorry if this is low effort I just don't have anyone I know to share it with.

Awesome Android Apps

AAA

Hi all,

for 2 years, sporadically, I've been adding awesome FOSS apps with the following:

Rules

• Open Sourced
• Free of charge (on F-Droid and source code repository releases)
• Free as in Freedom
• Ad-free
• Installed and tested by me or by contributor
• Privacy-friendly aware
• Easy to use
• Still in development or polished experience
• Does not lack features compared to proprietary app
• Does not need an account (the only exceptions are self-hosted) apps)
• Has dark theme

...tested by my and then later by contributors. I think many of you will appreciate this simple README.md repo, and I would love some help with it.

🏔️ Codeberg version

I hope you will find it useful! 🤩

I didnt need even more motivation to degoogle but got it anyway.

... And damm it feels good! Before starting this step, I had to migrate to a better browser that respects privacy (Brave, because🖕Firefox, I mean Mozilla at this point doesn’t even want you to be safe on the web anymore!) And a better “Google-style” ecosystem (Proton is the best they have an email service, a calendar, a password manager and the holy drive).

The last step was YouTube. How to do without a Google account? Well, thanks to Piped + Yattee, the best combo I had a hard time finding. For those who do not know, Yattee is a great app that is an interface for Piped on Apple devices, besides, do you consider Apple to be respectful of privacy?

In short, today I am the happiest of men.

Hi all,

Currently trying to DeGoogle my phone. I'm down to the last few apps. I want to replace the Phone and Messages apps.

I tried the Fossify versions from FDroid but was met with mixed problems. The first is the phone app. The Fossify version doesn't have Spam call warnings like the Google version. The Fossify version also doesn't have a voicemail button, not really a deal breaker but nice to have.

Second was a bigger problem though, the messages app. At first it seemed to work, but couldn't send pictures after a short time. I usually send picture links anyway so not the worst but kind of annoying. After a while I would start getting delays in receiving standard SMS messages and finally wasn't able to send any messages at all. I switched back to Google messages and everything worked flawlessly immediately. Also I turned off RCS in Google messages prior to switching.

If any of you could recommend a good SMS/Phone app i would appreciate it.

• QKSMS is unmaintained as are a lot of other SMS apps in the stores.
• I've got a Pixel 7 with the stock OS, but will be moving to LineageOS soon.
• I use Signal when I can, but I have clients that I can't simply request they use a whole separate app just for me.
• Using T-Mobile

I'm not sure about my phone, maybe I'd like to keep Google Lens, but on a TV box it seems completely unnecessary. Its identifier com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox also sounds like it shouldn't contain anything important for the working of a device, but who knows with Google. Is there anything unexpected that would stop working when uninstalling / disabling updates for this?

I've seen that LTT made a video about degoogling our lives, that's a great point that a big youtuber like him would make videos like this!

Since some time I've searched photos related apps, to edit and take pictures but I've not found anything interesting in open source... Does someone has an explaination?

I'm looking for a Google Photos search replacement in local, preferable FOSS.
Does anyone know one?

Google is one of the biggest obstacles to privacy. This article will explore how and why to de-Google yourself to reclaim and protect your digital privacy.

Like instead of google docs or google sheets use this?

• /e/OS V2 is a de-Googled Android operating system with Android Auto support, UI enhancements, and privacy improvements.
• The update includes features like a new launcher app, App Lounge app store with privacy ratings, and a "wall of shame" for tracking apps.
• Based on LineageOS 20, /e/OS 2.0 offers bug fixes, security updates, and performance enhancements, along with device-specific improvements.

I've found helpful guides for de-googling here, but I wasn't able to find any for limiting the personal data that is shared with Google before making the switch to other services.

I'd greatly appreciate if anyone could link me to existing guidance or offer guidance here. Some questions I have:

• If you've de-googled, were you able to clear out any of your data from wherever Google captures it?
• Does Google allow you to clear out data upon account deactivation?
• What is the extent of control we have (if any) over our personal data once Google has captured it? Once Google has sold it elsewhere?

Hey there, I'm looking for an alternative to Google pay that'll allow me to use NFC payments etc. Thoughts?

I don't have a Google account, nor am I interested in opening one.

E: Just to clarify, the payment part would be convenient, more annoying is how I don't get to use a single place for my subway/gym/ticketmaster passes.

It seems that the motherboard is dead, and that it's a common issue with the 5a and I "should've known better," despite it being impossible to find decent information on phones these days.

I got it because it was the last Pixel with a headphone jack, and because it had good official LineageOS support. But I compromised: giving up the SD slot was tough for me, and now that I've been burned by not having one (I typically auto-backup my Signal history and other things to the SD card) I don't want to get another phone without it.

But the landscape seems bleak. The vast majority of phones that are officially supported by LineageOS are Pixels. It's impossible to find easy information on which phones have non-official LOS ROMs. Search results are useless these days, and I also keep running into an issue where after researching a phone for half an hour I discover that it has some arcane process to unlock the bootloader that doesn't always work, and the forum posters imply that the purchasers "should've known better." I'm just at my wit's end.

If anyone can suggest something that has decent deGoogled ROM support with the following features, I'd be very grateful:

• OLED screen (a must-have for my photosensitivity)
• SD card slot
• I am willing to give up the headphone jack in order to expand my options

I am in need of a separate degoogled phone for some things that require high level of privacy (nothing illegal).

I have 2 phones that I can use. One of them is my business phone (it has my business number, apps, data and that sort of stuff) which is now running an OS with all the Google spyware because it's necessary for the apps to work. I can reinstall everything on the second phone and use the first one as the secure device since it supports everything I need. The problem is that it has some issues on vanilla ROMs that I don't really want to deal with and the reinstalling will take a lot of time.

The issue with the second phone is that it is rocking an old MTK chip and rooting instructions are let's say a bit beyond my ability to understand. I still want to use it without Google if possible though. So can I degoogle its stock ROM with ADB or something? And is it worth trying or there will still be some vulnerabilities?

EDIT: to clear some possible misunderstandings, the reason of why I need a separate secure phone is that I am forced to use a very invasive proprietary app that I'd prefer just keeping on a separate device instead of trying to limit its spyware abilities with firewalls and that kind of stuff. I don't trust the last solution much. Also I can't use it in a VM because I need it to always be accessible wherever I am and yk carrying a PC is not an option

I have 5 of the older generation google home speakers that i dont use because google assistant got dumber and dumber so that in the end it was just easier to get up and turn off the light instead of having google do it.

It seems like a waste though to throw them away. Could I re purpose them in any way?

I really want to try Filen as my main cloud provider but my main brake point is that the app doesn't automatically upload my images in the background. I'm not sure if this is because I'm on the free plan or because of my device, has anyone had better luck with the automatic image upload in the background?

Sounds like trouble for Newpipe, Sponsorblock, etc...

Hi y'all, in my quest to de-goog my life, I've switched from using google's calendar to a new service from a company I trust more. (Someday I will self-host but not today)

In any case, I am looking for a way to have any new invitations which are sent to my google account be auto-forwarded to my new calendar. I was able to set up something similar for my gmail, but is there a way to do with with calendar events? I've searched around and not found anything yet.

Thanks for any ideas.

I've thinking about ditching my Protonmail email address with Posteo since I need IMAP support (because I hate using the Protonmail app) and honestly paying for Proton Mail Plus didn't worth the money because they are pushing me to buy the Protonmail Unlimited but I don't need all those capabilities nor would I use them and the best alternative I've found is Posteo and honestly I like it, I even got CalDAV support which I didn't have in Protonmail, but personally I don't know anybody who use Posteo, so I post this here.