
Freeing My Phone from Google - kbit
https://www.hexaquo.at/posts/2019/06/29/Freeing+my+phone+from+Google
======
cameronbrown
There's two Google apps I just can't live without: YouTube and Google Maps.
There's simply no alternative to the amount of value these bring me. OSM is
getting good but it's just not there yet. I'm working on this in my area.

I'd suggest to anyone worried about Google tracking to use Privacy Guard built
into LineageOS, which aims to make each and every request for sensitive
permissions explicit.

A big benefit of free software is that we can also use useful proprietary apps
without giving up control of our hardware.

~~~
commoner
Google Maps is fully compatible with MicroG, a free and open source
replacement for the Google Play Services client. MicroG includes UnifiedNlp,
which was discussed in the blog post.

[https://microg.org/](https://microg.org/)

[https://lineage.microg.org/](https://lineage.microg.org/)

At the moment, I recommend the previous version of MicroG (0.2.6.13280) since
the latest version (0.2.7.17455) may have compatibility issues. If you're
using LineageOS for MicroG, builds on or before June 2 use the previous
version.

NewPipe is like YouTube, but also with a background music player, a
video/audio downloader, and no ads. It also supports SoundCloud.

[https://newpipe.schabi.org/](https://newpipe.schabi.org/)

You can use NewPipe regardless of whether you are using LineageOS or MicroG.
It's not available in the Google Play Store (or the iOS App Store) for obvious
reasons, but you can download it for any Android device from F-Droid.

~~~
izacus
MicroG talks to Google servers and uses Google's infrastructure while breaking
the terms of service (at least in case of FCM).

Same goes with NewPipe - you're using YouTube without actually paying for
bandwidth, storage costs or the video author.

So you're not actually getting yourself rid of Google or tracking, you're just
using their resources without paying the asking price.

Use other alternatives instead.

~~~
autoexec
> Same goes with NewPipe - you're using YouTube without actually paying for
> bandwidth, storage costs or the video author.

> So you're not actually getting yourself rid of Google or tracking, you're
> just using their resources without paying the asking price.

I love newpipe. I block ads on my desktop, I'm not going to feel bad blocking
them on my phone. Google has taken far too much from us, from me, for me to
worry about their bandwidth or storage costs. Somehow I think the
multinational billionaires will manage.

As for video creators (who themselves are regularly screwed over by Google)
they should be supported using other channels.

~~~
kbit
Yeah, ads are a terrible and unsustainable business model anyways. I think
it's much better (both for the creator and for the business and community in
general) to support YouTubers you like through something like Patreon.

------
ekianjo
I really dislike people recommending Signal in a post about free software
since Signal has a pretty bad track record when it comes to allowing non
official clients to connect to its network. So much for user freedom.

~~~
webmobdev
Most people haven't even heard of
[https://jami.net/discover/](https://jami.net/discover/) ... and that's the
problem with messengers - you have to educate your social network and coax
them to use the same product or you will be forever stuck with Facebook
Messenger / WhatApp, iMessage et al.

~~~
meruru
Riot.im and the broader Matrix ecosystem are doing pretty well. Matrix was
even adopted by the French government for internal communications.

I tried Jami when it was called Ring and I couldn't figure it out after some
fumbling with the app and skimming of the website. If I can't figure it out
how can I expect nontechnical people to? That was one of the reasons why I
ended up adopting Riot/Matrix back then and have been pushing it since, but
I'm still interested in alternative communication systems if they can bring
any benefits to the table. Does Jami bring any?

~~~
beatgammit
My problem with Riot specifically and Matrix generally is that the adoption
process isn't very gentle. Yes they have bridges, but my experience has been
that they're way more pain than they're worth, especially if you're the odd
one out.

The thing I like about Signal is that I can use it for regular texts as well
as encrypted communications. Instead of converting all of my friends at once
(or even just a significant subset), I can just replace my texting app with
Signal and get my friends to move over one as a time.

I tried that with Riot, but it just didn't work out. I tried the Slack bridge,
but it required admin access on the Slack server (fortunately I had that at
the time) and only one channel could be created at a time, which was tedious.
That's not Riot's fault, but it's not particularly important who is at fault.

I want to replace _some_ app with Riot and slowly phase everything else in,
but nothing really gave me the confidence to do so. I heard rumors that they
were planning to support VoIP, but this doesn't seem to extend to
making/receiving regular calls or texts, but merely providing audio and video
chat along with their regular text service. Maybe that has changed (I check
back periodically), but unless it solves a problem that doesn't require me to
convince everyone else to switch, I'm probably not going to make the effort.

And that's why I like Signal. It's not the best secure messaging system out
there, but it's a drop in replacement for something I use today and doesn't
require me to get everyone to switch at once.

~~~
meruru
>The thing I like about Signal is that I can use it for regular texts as well
as encrypted communications.

Can you expand on that? I'm afraid I don't quite understand the advantage
here. Also, have you tried Silence for sending encrypted SMS?

~~~
cmroanirgo
I presume they meant that the app sends a normal unencrypted message to
clients without Signal. (The user is clearly informed when this will happen).
This means you can use Signal as your default SMS app and as your friends
start adopting Signal, you'll automatically start sending encrypted messages.
It's how I'm using it and appreciate it.

~~~
meruru
That's what Silence does. It is in fact the SMS part of Signal standalone.

------
flaxton
Speaking of phones, did you try to read this on a phone? Tiny font, not
responsive design and faint color (no contrast) makes it very hard to read.
Ugh.

~~~
StavrosK
Use Firefox's Reader mode.

~~~
ivanstegic
It keeps failing for me trying that. So weird.

~~~
commoner
It works for me. What happens when you turn on reader mode?

------
maitredusoi
Wouldn't it be simpler to just use one of this 9 alternatives ???

[https://itsfoss.com/open-source-alternatives-
android/](https://itsfoss.com/open-source-alternatives-android/)

By the way PureOS seems a good shot.

I just can't understand people claming to run free of Google and stay on
Android !!! ;) ;) ;) ;)

Good luck with your fight againsn't the Google devil. Me ? I am staying on
Apple devil device, but I just take responsibility for that choice.

~~~
kbit
It's true that Google plays a big role in Android development, but that
doesn't mean there's something inherently wrong with Android. It's a good
operating system, it's free and open source, and its huge ecosystem and
existing userbase (to whom something like LineageOS or Replicant will be
immediately familiar) is the reason I stuck to it.

Because it's open source, Google can't put their objectionable code directly
into Android - that's what their proprietary apps and services are for, and
those are where you begin to lose your freedom and control.

~~~
OrgNet
the worst part about android apps is that they are android apps...

~~~
OrgNet
but the same is true for most proprietary formats... which is why I was hoping
for web apps to catch ON more

------
Jowsey
The only thing preventing me fully leaving Google is YouTube, but a massive
amount of my News, Entertainment, Music, basically everything, comes from
YouTube.. Does anyone know a way I can watch YouTube videos without sending my
stuff to Google? Some sort of custom client with telemetry disabled or
something? Honestly I'm not even entirely sure what Google does with my video
watching data but it'd be foolish to think they're doing nothing.

~~~
kbit
The app NewPipe and its web version [https://invidio.us/](https://invidio.us/)
were recommended in the comments here. They allow you to use YouTube quite
well without an account and without the official website/app. However, I
imagine through loading videos, YouTube can still collect some data. (I might
be wrong though, I don't know exactly how much they pipe through their
servers.)

If you want to be completely private, you'll probably have to use TOR together
with those alternative clients.

------
RealStickman
I find it sad that there is no recommendation for microg in this article,
since some apps refuse to work without the Google APIs. I'd also add Aurora
Store as an alternative Playstore apps downloader. You can even log in with an
anonymous account, so Google can't link app downloads to your personal
account.

~~~
kbit
Absolutely, microG is a great project, especially when you need to use
proprietary apps which rely on Google APIs. However, with the goal of also
generally moving towards free software on my smartphone, I personally only
needed the UnifiedNlp part (which is mentioned in the Map section) - in my
experience, most free apps don't depend on other Google services.

------
butz
Any suggestions for Google Keep replacement? I really hate that all reminders
end up in Google Calendar. I've already tried almost all Tasks apps from
F-Droid, but each has some or other annoyance that prevents me from using it.

~~~
MayeulC
Carnet is one I like, though it's quite early in its development cycle
(started less than one year ago, I think). Author is supported trough
donations. It also syncs with nextcloud (and is available as a webapp
--nextcloud or standalone), and explicitly takes google Keep as an
inspiration. The desktop version has a barebones google keep import feature.

[https://apps.nextcloud.com/apps/carnet](https://apps.nextcloud.com/apps/carnet)

[https://github.com/PhieF/CarnetDocumentation](https://github.com/PhieF/CarnetDocumentation)

[https://carnet.live](https://carnet.live)

I've been on the lookout for such an app as well, and after trying a lot of
different ones, this is my favorite so far.

------
lozf
[META] This site becomes _much easier to read_ with e.g. sakura css
bookmarklet [0]

[0]:
[https://oxal.org/projects/sakura/bookmark](https://oxal.org/projects/sakura/bookmark)

~~~
JoshMnem
Or Firefox reader mode. Just click the icon in the address bar.

~~~
neogodless
I switched to Firefox early this year, but I still haven't cemented reading
mode into my muscle memory yet. I'm a little better about it on mobile. But on
desktop I did what I often do on sites like these; inspect, turn off color:
#777 on body/p tags. Oh, there is text on this page after all!

------
clircle
Do you really need to install UnifiedNLP to use location services? Doesn't the
GPS radio work without google play services?

~~~
kbit
I was surprised as well, I do believe that default GPS should work regardless.
However, I tried 3 different spots and could not get a single location after
minutes of trying.

I'm not an Android developer, but could it be that applications are just
expecting that API? It would make sense for Google to want to route location
requests through what's usually their service...

~~~
izacus
There are two sets of APIs - one provided by Android AOSP where you choose
whether you use GPS, network location or other provider and handle it
manually.

And then there's a more powerful version provided by Google Services, which
automatically fuses all providers and talks to Google servers. Most apps these
days opt for the Fused provider, since it's easier to use and automatically
handles getting a reliable location in pretty much any environment. It's not
available on "Google-free" phones though, since it depends on Google's
infrastructure.

------
IloveHN84
I would immediately switch from Google if I get the same integration between
services, all encrypted and for free.

~~~
toxicFork
Which services are your top 3? I am working on integration between email and
calendar in my spare time :)

------
fithisux
Any phones that can be used for FOSS experience?

~~~
kbit
The Fairphone seems to offer the option to buy it with an open Android OS and
no Google apps preinstalled. It also has the added benefit of trying not to
kill people in its production process.

------
mda
I don't really understand how using tons of different services with probably
much worse privacy and security teams and policies just for the sake of not
using Google is improvement. It is actually much worse.

~~~
kbit
Are you referring to a specific recommendation? I'll gladly change or remove
it if I included something with worse privacy or security unknowingly.

Overall though, Linus' law ("given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow") is
a huge factor when it comes to privacy and security in my opinion. If an open
source app is bad in one of those aspects, it will be noticed and fixed (or
forked). Additionally, community driven projects like OSM simply don't have
any reason or motivation to spy. They're a collaborative effort owned and
developed by their users, not a company driven by capital and short-term
profit.

------
muhmas
Google is evil by all means. I'm so happy that people start to use
alternatives..

Ditch evil doers, be in positive side to support companies that actually have
people's privacy in they priority.

