Degoogled Android

[Etern4l]

Has anyone had any experiences with degoogled Android phones?

I understand the two main options are Graphene OS and Lineage OS. How well do they work in practice? How do they compare? How much degradation of functionality is to be expected, especially regarding Google Play apps compatibility.

 

BTW on degoogling via iOS

 

 

[kojack]

My iPhone has nothing google and very little apple on it. I just don't like their services. I enjoy my MS365 software and edge browser. 

[Etern4l]

Looks like someone finally spotted the glaringly obvious opportunity:

 

Could Apostrophy OS Be the Future of Cellphone Privacy?

[raptorddd]

On 4/25/2023 at 2:26 PM, Etern4l said:

Has anyone had any experiences with degoogled Android phones?

I understand the two main options are Graphene OS and Lineage OS. How well do they work in practice? How do they compare? How much degradation of functionality is to be expected, especially regarding Google Play apps compatibility.

 

BTW on degoogling via iOS

 

 

i have used microG but that was a long time. more battery and faster phone.

https://microg.org/

but i was using a magisk module. cant playstore wroked well.

 

[6730b]

Degoogle and privacy, my take on the subject.

Quite easy really to acheive a good rate without too much hassle, and still keep the useful \ needed bits available as options. They gracefully offer to disable (+ easy to uninstall things with ADB if one wishes going deeper). A reset \ new phone got no need to set up with any google (or phone brand) account or email. As for apps, pretty ok for me just starting with whatever the phone maker delivers in their setup (some will label an app bloat, some may label same app useful as gold), then tune into needs & wants > disable, uninstall, permissions, stop data activity etc.


Got a google account, an absolute need for some short commando raids into the playstore to get things like banking apps updated. So enabling a few g-store related apps for a few minutes, then disabling and\or stop data access. As for general apps I use apkmirror etc. In my case a Samsung account is acceptable, fine to update their own set of apps. No real name or personal data there, no payment things etc.


Looking at my google account (fake name & personal data etc), shows never bought anything, never been anyplace (am using Here WeGo, offline navigation, complete country maps predownloaded), never searched for anything, no sharing, seeing nothing except the list of apps in use. Of course they surely still get lots of info like region\cell towers\imei\phone brand whatever, but avoiding that and one moves into pigeon post territory.


Example screeshot, in addition to the 'disbaled' a bunch of preinstalled stuff from both Samsung and Google have been ADB'ed away. + Netguard (screenshot) blocking all data except for those apps I use. Result is the wanted half-dumb\severly-notgoogle phones for normal daily routine (email\sms\internet\some social\bluetooth\photo etc), & can be non-dumb'ed anytime when needed. F.ex. monthly security updates, am keeping the related apps on the phone, only allowing them a short window of data\wifi access for doing the download.


This imo is the major privacy tool, Netguard (and great for curbing data use if on a monthly quota).
And the ADB program (with backup\restore\snapshots > useful after any failed late night experiments like ending up with a phone that can't make a call or take a photo lol, so make a plan and do some research :0) https://adbappcontrol.com/en/