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If you want to switch specifically for free software, make sure that the phone you're buying is bootloader-unlockable. The Pixel phones (not from a carrier, but unlocked) are good options.
If not, you will simply be locked into Google's ecosystem (along with whatever OEM, such as Samsung's), which isn't much better than Apple's.
As for ROMs, I'd recommend either GrapheneOS or DivestOS. Both are free of all Google services by default, and are as FOSS as Android allows for in the modern age.
To deregister iMessage, visit this site: https://selfsolve.apple.com/deregister-imessage/
In the future, I'd look into Linux phones, but as of right now, they are not usable for daily driving IMO. You can also test Linux mobile on most modern Android phones using Halium with a distro like Droidian.
Also check out privacyguides.org for alternatives to proprietary apps/services.
This is indeed my main reason for a switch, so thanks for the recommendations! I really want to try a Linux phone when it’s ready with either phosh or gnome shell mobile (I love libadwaita), but it’s just not there yet for me.
I would definitely recommend trying Droidian (Mobian for Halium) and UBPorts (although UBPorts is less traditional Linux, as it uses Snaps and has an immutable filesystem by default).
Manjaro is also available, but I don't recommend Manjaro in general due to untimely security updates.
You can use Waydroid as an Android compatibility layer.
Loooking at the wiki for those doesn’t list modern devices, or even older ones like the pixel 4 through 7. The phone I was looking at buying was a pixel 7 pro as people here seemed to recommend the pixels. Will droidian or others run on this?
As for operating system, manjaro is obv a no go. I also will avoid UBports as I don’t really like snaps or Ubuntu. This leaves droidian and I was looking at postmarketOS, but that doesn’t seem ready. Ideally as I’ve said phosh or gnome shell mobile distros would be best but I can’t find any that support modern devices that run these and I don’t really want to spin my own. Are there any you can think of or perhaps some privacy respecting androids that still let me use google apps I may need or stuff of the like?
Droidian would be more to try out and less to use as a daily driver. It runs atop Halium, so it should work on most modern Android devices that support Treble. Hardware support is a bit hit or miss.
I'd stick to Graphene OS for now.
EDIT: Halium only supports up to Android 11 for now. You will have to wait for support for Android 13 for the Pixel 7 Pro.
If you want to try Linux sooner, the OnePlus 6 can be gotten for relatively cheap nowadays.
I think grapheneOS will probably be fine. There are however a few google apps I absolutely need for work, namely google docs and sheets. From what I could read on their website the google services aren’t included at all, even microg and require extra setup. Can this be made to let me run all my apps that need them?
You can still install Google services on GrapheneOS. It is sandboxed as user apps, so you can deny it permissions.
https://grapheneos.org/usage#sandboxed-google-play
DivestOS can use MicroG, which is a FOSS replacenent for Google services.
Neither ROM includes it by default.
Although if you can use the apps inside of a web browser, that would be better for privacy/avoiding Google.
Also not sure if you use it, but Android Auto is proprietary as well and requires Google Apps. Not compatible in Graphene due to it requiring very invasive permissions.
Divest seems interesting, if I can get around the iMessage hurdle that may very well be what I land on!
What hurdle? You can deregister here: https://selfsolve.apple.com/deregister-imessage/
The issue is more social, friends and family have refused to leave iMessage just for me.
That's to be expected. I'd just tell them where they can find you or fallback to SMS, and if they want, they can reach out. Everybody's situation is different, though.
I'm using grapheneos and docs works just fine
sheets should also work, I don't see any reason why it shouldn't
and you probably haven't read the website in a long while, grapheneos doesn't support/recommend microg as it is an insecure/partial implementation of google services
grapheneos has developed their own sandboxed play services, which act as a regular android app, it doesn't get any special privileged access to imei or whatever stock oem android gives
after installing this through the "apps" app, you can use grapheneos like regular oem android, but with better privacy and security features