this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2024
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Privacy

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Hello I use GOS have for almost a year and finally removed sandboxed play services in my main profile and only use Aurora for my bank app and Apple Music in my main profile still have Google Voice in private space but seperated from my main profile all my apps are only FOSS other than the 2 apps from aurora and it feels so good to finally say that. I just wanted to share my big news with you and hope you can all ditch Google apps/services as I have its amazing how my spam calls/texts have stopped or become less the more I degoogled.

I hope everyone has a great Degoogle/privacy enchancing experience

Any better replacements for Google Voice welcome in the comments if there is any.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago (6 children)

hope you can all ditch Google apps/services

Sadly, I can't ditch WhatsApp since everyone I know uses it + work and without sandboxed play services, WhatsApp eats my battery like crazy

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Hopefully one day they'll all use Signal

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

While it would be an improvement, it seems to me that going to another platform would be repeating the same mistake. Protocols are more sustainable longterm solution.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You can fork signal's protocol

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

If we're talking about the encryption - yeah, people have done so. If we're talking about the whole service - from what I understand, it is not practical to selfhost. And even if it was, you cannot communicate with people using other servers...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

That's weird. I use WhatsApp daily without Google play services and it doesn't do that. I have a pixel 7a

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

I have installed WhatsApp without GServices and got delayed/no notifications and ~50% of my battery was WhatsApp in background. Brand new battery (?) on a refurbished Pixel 8. With minimum use, I used to get around 2PM with ~30% battery while now, I can get to 15% to 9PM with roughly more usage than before.

No idea why

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

For the lng run there needs to be a solution for the WhatsApp Monopoly we all live on. I mean, this argument is several years old and what can we do to change that? You could start by trying to convince some og your contacts to switch zo signal. In terms of co convinience their app is the closest to WhatsApp.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago

Saying "Signal is more secure and private"? No one gives a shit apparently

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You can still use Google Push notifications with microG.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

I had it but I don't know how to connect the 2 together

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I personally have no notifications (aside from SMS, calls and calendar). Not like I would be checking the phone when I suddenly hear a notification anyway, only when already deciding to check it.

Simplex apparently does a similar thing in terms of draining battery for its notifications, I just didn't allow it to run in the background in the settings. Maybe this could work for Whatsapp if you're willing to ditch notifications?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

Maybe this could work for Whatsapp if you're willing to ditch notifications?

I need it for work so no? I can't

[–] asap 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You could use Beeper, which connects with Whatsapp without needing the app installed.

[–] zerozaku 4 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Is Automattic a good company tho? Heard some not so good stories about them recently.

[–] asap 1 points 16 hours ago

They use open source solutions for this, so you can spin up your own version if you want. It's just Matrix with bridges.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

They went crying about WPEngine having found a good business model around Wordpress support, and started sabotaging for them.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/2/24260158/automattic-demand-wp-engine-revenue-wordpress-battle

Looks like they lost in court a few days ago!

https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/10/24318350/automattic-restore-wp-engine-access-wordpress