I've successfully debloated my stock one ui 6.1, but one package bothers me, that is android system webview. It is an integral app for most apps to work properly including some useful ones like mihon(formerly tachiyomi) and many youtube music clients in fdroid to login to google account.

I have uninstalled many google components from my system through shizuku and canta like google play services and framework or any other google related component not required for basic functioning of android.

Is there anything i can do about android system webview, does it lessen my privacy by connecting to google's servers? does it track? any way to replace it without root? Any tweaks to prohibit from connecting to google and still maibrain usefulness?

for YouTube atleast

A reader can be OK, but libreoffice lack view notes on ppt that can be useful sometime during presentation...any alternative that can do that? Online solutions can be OK too. Thanks

Hey,

Considering the increasingly worrying development in the USA right now I'm planing on degoogling myself and my family as much as possible.

Maps has already been replaced by Here WeGo app. But I'm having difficulties finding a good replacement to the one app my family uses the most; Google Photos.

I need it to have reasonable pricing, family option, sync to our android phones. Secure and safe obviously.

Tried the european alternatives site but could not find what I was looking for.

Any tips? Preferably a European company, since I trust our privacy laws more.

Over the last month I've been degoogling my life, and as the title states I'm ditching Google Auth.
Been looking into Aegis (https://getaegis.app/) and Stratum (https://stratumauth.com/).
Anyone here with experience in these apps or any other suggestions?

Each Google so has its non Google next to it no Google except for rvx but that uses microg brave in also wondering about cuz it's pretty much chrome with a wallet built in for web3 and some privacy stuff like ad blockers and tracker blockers

I use it since it exists. Never did any harm to me. Got only good things. Beside yt premium and GCP all free. What are your REAL bad experiences?

So, I own a GooglePixel and I've been looking into how to degoogle for a couple days now. It's something I'm very eager to do, but I am a bit of a tech newb.

The main reason for me wanting to degoogle is to give no more money to Google - any added security measures is a bonus. I don't have a ton of free cash, so subscriptions to services are going to have to be based on necessity for me.

I guess my questions are:

1. Do I just follow the instructions as per GrapheneOS to start the new setup of my phone?

2. How have you guys dealt with gmail and degoogling? My account is linked to pretty much everything..

3. What apps do you recommend for: a) texting and phone (is this even needed?), b) photos/camera, c) files and ebooks, d) calendar

As you can probably tell, I'm overwhelmed at the amount of information out there. I have a couple replacement apps in mind (i.e. FUTO, Aurora, Firefox, Quillpad, Signal).

Sorry I'm asking for a lot of help here, but even if someone could direct me to a site or youtuber that would be awesome. I really want to learn and be better about what data the internet and Google are stealing from me. Thanks in advance y'all's :)

Hello !

On my way to degoogle my phone (I have a nothing phone 2a and, not having found an os, I just desactivated all google app + eventually I will remove my Google account, as soon as I finish the changes) I 'm blocked for YouTube :

I've been listening to my music exclusively on YouTube (not YouTube music, but YouTube) for 5 years now. For various reasons, but basically I put it on brave and I can listen without ads and anytime. Except that in 5 years, I've got a mix that's starting to be substantial with a whole bunch of different music... And I can't seem to find one of the various apps here that could automatically create such a precise and consistent mix for me... Do you have a solution for this?

(Sorry if my english is bas, i don't speak well and I use deepL)

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to cut my american consumption (reddit included, but it's a lot in your life to suddenly change and I'm researching alternatives right now, so. don't come at me. I'm trying my best right now) given the trade war which has started with Canada/Mexico.

... and I'm realizing I use Google A LOT. It's my go-to browser. It's my email. It's my data storage. It's where my photos are. It's my email. It's how I look up information. It links all my major accounts. I'm so engrained in google and didn't even realize until I started really evaluating how my buying power/data power is being used and by who.

In looking into this, I'm realizing a lot of alternatives are also American and I'm overwhelmed with how where to even start with this (as dramatic as that sounds, but this trade war is scary and I want to do my part, as a Canadian, and it turns out there's A LOT to change).

I started looking into alternatives and it seems all the major tech companies are american...

Can anyone please provide recommendations in alternatives that aren't american? Really appreciate your help!

Hey folks!

I've started the journey of removing data collecting companies from my life and haven't regretted a single thing so far. Looking at my phone, I've managed to replace the following apps:

• Google Phone App - Fossify Phone
• Google Messages App - Fossify Messages
• Photos - Fossify gallery
• Google Authenticator - Ente auth
• Google drive - own NextCloud (probably going to try filen for convenience though)
• Chrome - Firefox (+ uBlock Origin)

But I'm obviously not done yet.

Right now, I'm looking for two crucial replacements: A nice calendar app (with sync) and a keyboard.

I ditched gboard long ago, but sadly landed in the arms of Microsoft SwiftKey. What's important to me is to be able to a) customize my keyboard, b) switch between themes and c) (most important one) have the multilingual support that SwiftKey does. It allows me to use 3 languages at the same time without the need to actively switch and the suggestions are just awesome.

I tried AnySoftKeyboard, but it really annoyed me that I had to actively switch between the languages.

Does anybody maybe know a keyboard app comparable to SwiftKey?

Also, any suggestions when it comes to a clean, privacy friendly calendar app with cloud backup?

Thanks in advance!

Does anyone have experience with getting tickets exported from ticketmaster without using "add to google wallet"? There is no official way to download the actual ticket file and add it to a FOSS wallet app

I have old google school account which I was given when I was like 8 years old. As a kid I probably used it on many random virus websites and that mail receives spam even today, the email is probably leaked everywhere.

The problem is I can’t delete it because basically everything is restricted on account, when I go to the delete option, it takes me to error window “Please contact your administrator“. Man its been 10+ years how am I supposed to know who’s the admin.

Hey all, found this subreddit recently and loved the idea. Wanted to share how/why & where I am migrating to.

I decided to use mailbox.org for the following reasons

• Based in Germany, falls under EU privacy laws
• Cheap price (3 euros per month, ~3.26 UDS)
• Powered 100% by clean energy

I bought a custom domain from cloudflare, that way I can take my email address with me should I ever wish to migrate. It's actually great, I've cleaned up my contacts, imported them into mailbox, same with my calendar, and now I have a concise list of contacts and events syncing across all my IOS devices.

I am using apple mail along with mailbox.orgs web client. Setting up the domain and DNS stuff was a bit tricky but just took some tinkering.

Feels really great to not have ads in my inbox from google, a fresh email, and a domain/email of my own.

So I've started my process of de-googling, I purchased a pixel and put grapheneos on it and currently using it as a second phone until I commit. I've been experimenting with a few alternative apps but I'm looking to see what other people are using for a bit of advice. I am currently using -

OS - Graphene Mail and calender - Tuta VPN - proton free Browser - default Password Manager - Bitwarden YouTube - Redpipe

Can anyone recommend a photos app that's is as close apple or Google photos and a music streaming app. I currently pay £3 for tidal family but I'm a little wary about downloading apps from aurora store as I've been told it's not secure. ( Please correct me if I'm wrong )

Hello , I am using a android phone and woudl like to not use Google services and use my phone more privately.

My threat modem for using my android phone so I'm not tracked. How to de Google the phone , what benefits would this give and would this protect against a global adversary

I would like to know if are there any options that I can do to recover my old google account which was created many years ago? I don't have any recovery email or phone number which is making me harder to recover it but I am really desperate to regain access on it since some of my socmed accounts was connected to it. Also, may I ask if why is my google account isn't deleted even if I am being inactive for many years?

I have a new phone, Samsung, running Android 14. I'd like to set it up with a work profile for "Big Brother" apps. But I was thinking, would it be better to have such apps on the main profile, and personal/private apps (Brave, Aurora Store, Proton, ect.) in the work profile?

The pros of having the bad apps in the main profile would be things like calendar/alarms working, opening messages and calls (i.e. calling a number that was linked in an email by pressing it), phone and service-specific apps and utilites, home screen widgets, and so on.

From what I've read, the work profile is 100% separated, so it seems it'd be an OK choice. I'm not sure though, would there be any compromises?

I'm degoogling and i need to access my password list from Keypass in Firefox. There appers to be no Firefox Keypass extension. Im using DuckDuckGo as a search engine.

Manually enter every password?

Why would I want to degoogle?

The mobile apps, browser apps, app extensions, overall browser experience, desktop integration, cloud services, APIs, are all great. All under one umbrella with a secure MFA login. The service holds immense value.

They can use my data to try to sell me stuff if they want, I'm not gonna buy it. Any truly sensitive data is on my C drive or in bitwarden. Accounts of consequence (finance, etc.) are behind MFA.

EDIT-- Sorry this has rubbed so many people the wrong way. Not my intention to troll. Thanks to those of you who took the question seriously.

Can anybody please reccomend a integrated photo back up service that can replace Google

I'm annoyed by the recent Proton CEO comments and am open to choosing different programs, but as a newbie in Privacy, Proton really does seem like the most set-it-and-forget-it option, as it has a variety of necessary features as mentioned in the title and seems to have decent apps to go with it. Can anyone name some comparable alternatives that are specifically user/newbie friendly?

(And in case anyone is curious, yes, I have done ample research on this sub and elsewhere to find an answer before posting, but there hasn’t been much specific mention of programs as they relate to user friendliness IMO)

Assuming I have disabled automatic update, can Google Play Services interfere with apps I have already installed, or side-loaded? I am trying to decide of a HarmonyOS tablet if a good idea (in addition to my Android phone).

Hello,

I have wanted to leave Google because it's evil, right ? So I switch to Proton Unlimited but now I feel like, Proton is pretty pricy for what is it : special they had pb of unavailability. So I hesitate moving back to Google, the offer with 2To drive and Gemini really sound interesting (I'm also looking to AI). But in the other hand I use mainly three service of Proton : Mail, Pass and SimpleLogin

BitWarden for 10euros per year

Posteo : 1 euros per month (2Go is low, I will have to delete mail or find a bigger mail version.

addy.io : 1 euros per month (to hide my mail)

(I don't want to switch to free version because I prefer to pay so I can contact support if I need to).

My device are laptop Windows, iPhone, iPad and MacBook. What do you think of it ? I also feel like I can use iCloud but iCloud mail is really basic :/ .

Is someone else leave Proton after DeGooglelize ? Thanks

Hi everyone! I would really like to get started on de-googling my phone and laptop. I was just wondering if there is a recommended app to use for video calling, messaging, voice notes for international contacts? I use Instagram at the moment but I'm aware its gotta go.

I’m on an iPhone. Ofc, not great for privacy, but atleast it’s relatively easy to not use Google at all. I’m using brave, I want to switch to Firefox soon though. I deleted my googles photos account already and removed everything on it. I do my best to avoid Google map usage as much as possible, but I kinda need the app on my phone. What’s left is sheets, docs, and Gmail.

I use google sheets a lot. Budgeting and tracking expenses. What’s a decent alternative? Is Microsoft better? I’d assume that they don’t have any better privacy, but someone did recommend me excel over google sheets, but aren’t they pretty much the same in the end?

I've seen many posts in the past that imply WhatsApp is one of the apps that doesn't deliver notifications without play services. That happens ONLY if you download it from the play store or other websites hosting the play store apk. That apk has google analytics and uses google play services as the back end for the notification system.

BUT, if you download the apk from the WhatsApp website, notifications work flawlessly even if you remove play services from your device ;)

https://whatsapp.com/android