this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2023

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Technology

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103

How much of your life have you degoogled? (beehaw.org)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by frogman@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org

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We're reaching the end of an era wherein billions of dollars of investor money was shovelled into tech startups to build large user-bases, and now those companies (now monoliths) are beginning to constrict their user-bases and squeeze for every single penny they can possibly extract. Fair or not.

Now more than ever, it's important for us to step back and reconsider whether we want to be billboards for these companies anymore.

For anyone unfamiliar, some good resources to have when starting your degoogling journey are below:

Privacy Guides - A list of privacy-respecting services you can use.

Plexus - A crowdsourced information bank of service compatibility with degoogled devices.

This random PDF - A study from 2018 detailing data that Google tracks about its' users.

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[–] InterSynth@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've degoogled my life as much as I can, but it's almost impossible to completely ditch Google Maps, YouTube, and Android. So I'm not even sure I've done anything significant, because I assume they get pretty much everything from my phone.

[–] blackstrat@lemmy.fwgx.uk 1 points 1 year ago

Magic Earth for maps
NewPipe for Youtube
Android with no Google account & FDriod + Aurora Store

[–] coolin@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

I used to be on GrapheneOS, but the drama with the developer plus mainly not being able to put my university ID on the wallet, forced me back on stock Android.

Besides Android, I use Google Play Store, YouTube, and Maps. For YouTube I've technically degoogled, using Invidious and NewPipe, but that's obviously still using Google services.

I really wish that digital payment didn't rely on two proprietary services (Google Wallet and Apple Wallet). It would be so much easier for phone companies to ship privacy friendly versions of Android if there was a FOSS alternative directly integrated into AOSP. I also wish apps didn't have to use Google service framework just to function, it seems stupid af. I don't think this will ever improve, so I'll probably end up on a true Linux phone whenever those catch up (2030 YEAR OF THE LINUX PHONE???)

We also need open collaboration on mapping. There is the OpenStreetMaps and Overture maps from Linux foundation, but those aren't really there yet unfortunately.

[–] tokadorium@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Only apps by Google I use are gboard, gmail and translator. If someone knows well designed alternatives please share.

[–] thayer@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

FlorisBoard keyboard is the one to watch as the Gboard killer. v0.40 will finally bring word suggestions and inline autocorrect. In all other respects, it's more customizable than Gboard and can be configured to match the exact size/layout.

For email, K-9 Mail (soon to be Thunderbird Mobile) has made a lot of progress in modernizing its UI this year now that Mozilla has partnered up with the main dev, cketti.

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[–] Fizz 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I think ive gotten rid of everything except Gmail and Google maps. Oh and youtube

[–] zxo@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago

I'm not that degoogled now, but I am slowly working towards it; removed my Google Account from my phone, uninstalled or disabled all the proprietary apps I can, and am going to install GrapheneOS in a couple weeks.

[–] Awwab@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Google still runs a good chunk of my life and some of it I know I could use some of the great alternatives that others have mentioned but some of it I'm not really sure about.

Namely:
Maps
Messenger (web browser access to my texts)
Contact sync and backup
Google voice
And all the various services that let my phone operate...

[–] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 1 points 1 year ago

For Maps there's an alternative on FDroid called GMaps WV which is actually just the Google Maps website wrapped in a tiny webview app. It can't spy on you if you run it that way.

Or you can install Hermit and add Google Maps as one of its sandboxed light apps.

If you're interested in things that aren't Google Maps you can look at OSMAnd, a great app with tons of features and my go-to app when traveling because you can download offline maps and info about local stores, restaurants, attractions etc.

On the lightweight side there's Map Marker which can use map tiles from a dozen different map services, and you can place markers on the map and group them in collections.

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[–] code_is_speech@lemmy.fmhy.ml 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

LineageOS for microg: degoogled android. DuckDuckGo: search. Firefox: web browser. Ublock origin: ad blocker. Proton: email. OsmAnd+: maps.

Only google product I still use is youtube, but I have made some efforts here:

On desktop pc I use firefox with sponserblock and ublock origin to hide ads and automatically skip sponsered content. I also have an addon called unhook, which hides recommendations, 'people also watched' etc.

I also use and recommend Odysee as a youtube alternative.

On my TV I use SmartTubeNext, on my phone I use revanced.

I host my own music server with navidrome (and my own video media server with Jellyfin). But when I dont have access to that, I also use ViMusic as a youtube music replacement for (degoogled) android.

Can absolutely recommend any and all of the tools I listed.

[–] EmielBlom@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

I use DuckDuckGo for search. Firefox for browsing. Just moved from Gmail to ProtonMail. And will do the same for Calendar.

I still watch Youtube and use Google maps as that's build in on my car, and I have an Android phone. I installed Lineage OS in my previous phone but started missing access to the play store and my banking apps.

It's honestly kinda frustrating how hard it is to move away from the convenience of big tech products, especially most of my friend use them already and companies usually don't care to support open alternatives if the user base is so small.

[–] parmesancrabs@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That Plexus list os fantastic! Its one thing that’s always held me off of going from iOS to AOSP.

Hopefully someone can answer my main concern for years - Plexus show’s certain banking apps not requiring any Google services, but how do you get up to date versions of them installed. Relying on a 3rd party store seems quite the risk for a sensitive app like that?

[–] frogman@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

if you're okay with owning a google account, then you can sign into that google account using the Aurora Store and download it there. the aurora store pulls the files from Google's repo. bearing in mind this is against google ToS so use a throwaway account; it's just for downloading apps anyway. this is the safest way i know of, it carries as much risk as using the play store.

aurora used to allow anonymous sign-ins, but that's not working at the moment. if you do want a 100% no google route, as an alternative, you could download from APKPure. it has a good reputation but the apks are uploaded by users, so there's no guarantee of safety on that front. if you go this route, you're doing so at your own risk.

on a side note, you could use the web versions of banking apps. but the website for my bank sucks. maybe yours does too lol. aurora store + signed in account is the way to go until there's a solution for anonymous logins again

[–] Silviecat44@vlemmy.net 0 points 1 year ago

Not much honestly. Still use Gmail and Drive

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