I’m quite a few years into this de-Googling thing. It’s also pretty much an extension of the de-Microsofting I started when I first tried Linux around 2005 or so. I was one of the original users of whatever Google Workspace was called back when they were still offering it free to Organizations and Families who wanted to use their own domain name with their Gmail accounts. I started de-googling in earnest around the time they first tried to take away this free-forever perk. Lately, I’ve been working hard to get ready for the era of identity verification and the pending Android lockdown. I consider large companies and surveillance-advertisers as my primary adversaries.
I’m down to my last few google dependencies and I’d appreciate your help in trying to overcome them as that lockdown date gets closer and the whole ecosystem will be thrown into chaos. I’d like to have essential services self-hosted and backups of essential APKs and such prior to that date. There are a few items not on this list that are occasional installs (and immediate uninstalls). These are usually hardware companion apps for stuff like my little wireless hotspot.
I wasn’t sure if it was safe to publicly post a spreadsheet from my machine, so please see the image for the bad stuff I have left (the red rows), mildly questionable stuff (yellow), and the good stuff I have installed (green), it’s not necessarily Google itself, but the red and sometimes yellow stuff chains me back to the Play ecosystem. I genericized any financial or health apps, except UHC because it’s super common and fuck them, I want to call out how shitty their app is and point out that their approach to attestation and verifying device integrity must be out of desperation because they themselves have no integrity.
Feel free to call anything out by name in the left column if you:
A. Have a better alternative that maintains good functionality.
B. Commiserate with my plight replacing a particular piece of software.
C. Think that I’ve mis-catagorized something as an undesirable when it’s actually good, or vice versa.
D. Anything else.
I would love to hear from you all.
What is your plan? Are you going to stop using Play Store on lockdown day? If so, why? Just trying to Degoogle in general? Why are you worried about lockdown day? You can still install apps outside the Play Store, even on stock Android, which you don’t appear to be using. If I am inferring correctly, you’re using GrapheneOS, which is entirely unaffected.
Alternatives (from top of list towards the bottom)
Dr app>website (I dont see why not)
Play Store>Aurora Store (doesn’t auto update apps in GrapheneOS though)
aCalendar>Proton Calendar (encrypted, cloud sync)
Obsidian>Notesnook (encrypted, cloud sync, can link notes similar to Obsidian, albeit not as advanced)
Xplore>Fossify File Manager or Material Files (not sure why you want X specifically though)
Google Camera is not distributed by GrapheneOS actually. They have their own app. If you disable network and download from the Play Store it might be fine? I’m OK with the GrapheneOS Camera app though, I don’t like unattural Ai filtering anyway.
What do you use Wireguard for that isn’t covered by Mullvad? Tailscale may be an option, depending.
Tidal>Metrolist (YouTube Music client, FOSS and free with no ads.) OR SoundCrowd (FOSS client for multiple sources including Tidal. Pretty barebones though)
Discord>Element X (if you can convince people to move…)
YouTube>WizeStream (YouTube, PeerTube, SoundCloud, Material Design)
WhatsApp>Signal (if you can convince people to move…)
SMS backup: I would recommend against doing this at all, actually
Personally, I need Play Store for Here We Go, as CoMaps is useless in my area. It doesn’t work through Aurora. And I think I prefer it this way, having auto updates is more convenient and secure enough of a tradeoff for me with sandboxes Play Services. Google just knows someone somewhere with a burner Google account downloaded a few Play Store apps. I don’t use any more of their stuff so who cares? I also still use Tidal. They’ve massively decreased the trackers in their app over the years, and I prefer paying artists over not. Tidal pays the most in the biz except maybe Qobuz. Plus the lossless audio of course…
Nice writeup. Full disclosure, I work on one of the alternatives so take it with salt: for the Workspace-shaped stuff (docs, calendar, drive, chat, calls) we built uOS. It runs in the browser, end-to-end encrypted so the server literally can’t read your content, hosted in Switzerland, free for personal use (alpha, invite-only for now; orgs can self-host under licence). I won’t pretend it replaces your whole list today, but if the “provider can’t read it” part is what you’re chasing, I’m glad to get you a seat to test. Either way, respect for doing the work instead of just talking about it.
Regarding FUTO voice input, a friend of mine made a transcription app. I know that there are a million transcription tools right now, and many of them are probably good. But I know this guy and his dedication to open source, and this app is very featureful and intuitive. And fast.
As Scribe on your phone, It downloads a small model one time and then all transcription and all data stays on your phone.
It can be a standalone app or a keyboard voice input, and it can accept microphone input or any other audio on your device that you feed into it, or both. It even includes diarisation.
Isn’t FUTO stuff already FOSS? they make Immich, FUTO offline keyboard, etc.
Be wary of FUTO. There have been reports of them claiming to be sponsors of FOSS projects when all they did was make 1 small donation, unbeknownst to the FOSS project itself. Plus they have their own licenses which are FOSS-ish.
FYI: I use and love Immich. But I’m concerned that it will be ruined by FUTO someday.
Futo projects are all AGPL 3.0, not “their own licenses”.
I’m worried about the same things, but let’s not perpetuate inaccuracies.
Is their Source Forward license just a cut/paste agpl?
https://gitlab.futo.org/videostreaming/grayjay/-/blob/master/LICENSE.md
They are doing some good work on their various projects. I’m generally a fan, and I’ve seen Louis’ videos about why they licenced it like this instead of something else. No hate on my side, I just made them yellow because they’re worth keeping an eye on because they are a bit weird.
Is their Source Forward license just a cut/paste agpl?
https://gitlab.futo.org/videostreaming/grayjay/-/blob/master/LICENSE.md
No. FUTO’s restrictive temporary license is not a standard open-source license. It limits use to review, compilation, and non-commercial distribution, and prohibits commercial use.
Yeah, I realize the AGPL 3 license is on Immic, not all of their products.
But I’m concerned that it will be ruined by FUTO someday.
The way of Plex, maybe? Maybe it’d be forked if that ever happened. Idk.
Yes, plex, and so many others. I’m sure it would be forked. I already keep a fork in case I want to continue using it if upstream ever goes to shit, but then I’d be stuck with a static version because I’m not going to update it and improve upon it.
I believe most of those red apps dont require play services to operate, mainly just for push notifications.
If I were you, I’d just use Aurora store in anonymous mode to keep those updated and use a firewall like rethinkDNS to block any potential trackers. I do this for my few apps that arent FOSS and banking etc.
Use web apps installed via vanadium for anything you can to delete the actual apps off your phone alternatively.
Theres a few websites easily searchable for replacing proprietary apps with FOSS you could explore also.
Thanks for your feedback. I hear you and I used Aurora store the last time I redid my phone. It certainly works as a stopgap to avoid installing the Play Store. Your right that most don’t need the actual Play appor even the services because I have pushed them to an empty profile before and only 1/10 of the apps freaked out about not being able to see Google Play in their new profile. My concern is that as Google policy shifts, I’ll be trapped without functioning software when I should have spent the time searching out and supporting nonproprietary and non corporate alternatives.
The Vanadium thing is more or less my plan. It played a big part in getting the list as short as it is now.
Reolink works wonderfully with Home Assistant, without app, without internet access, 100% local.
For Wireguard, I use WG Tunnel on Android which is available in F-Droid and provides some cool features that the original app doesn’t, like auto-tunnel to enable it automagically when you quit your wifi network
I struggled with the HA integration, so I put it off for later. I’ll take another whack at it. As for WG, that sounds useful. When I redo my phone again, I’ll have to work through the quirks because play store apps may not be an option anymore.
