this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
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Asklemmy

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Right now a lot of us are trying to divest and diversify from having our entire lives on Google both because of the way Google spends its money and the long-standing privacy concerns seeming a bit more scary now.

What services have you switched to and what has your experience been? What do you like, what don't you like, would you recommend them?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 42 minutes ago* (last edited 38 minutes ago) (2 children)

If I remember correctly I started deGoogling "seriously" in the last summer. At this point YouTube and Youtube Music are the only Google products/services I still use daily but only on PC. I never use them on phone. I also am quite forced to use Gmail sometimes but otherwise I avoid it like a plague.

I think my phone is as deGoogled as possible without rooting and/or changing the OS. I have uninstalled every Google app that I have been able to uninstall and also I have disabled every Google service that is possible to disable. I still have to deMicrosoft my PC. I want to move to Linux but I have understood that there's some compatibility issues with Reaper and virtual instruments. That's the only reason I haven't done it yet.

Anyway. Here is a list of apps/services I use instead of Google's sh*t:

  • Browser: Waterfox on PC and Ironfox on phone (of course both with uBlock Origin)
  • Cloud storage: Proton Drive
  • Email: Proton Mail
  • Calendar: Proton Calendar
  • Authenticator: Aegis
  • Map: OsmAnd
  • Search engine: DuckDuckGo and Brave Search
  • Play Store: Droid-ify and Aurora Store (not signed in)
  • Speech Recognition & Synthesis: SherpaTTS
  • Find My Device: FindMyDevice (FOSS)

I think that's all. There's some other FOSS apps and services that I use but they are not exactly replacements for Google's sh*t.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 4 minutes ago

On your PC, freetube will work as a Youtube frontend, you can point it to an invidious instance to act proxy to youtube if you like.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 51 minutes ago (1 children)

I am absolutely dumb with this stuff so I have one question: how do I get all of my photos off Google cloud? That's the only thing stopping me from shitting it down.

I also have a google pixel phone but that will be destroyed once my contract is up and I can afford something not google related

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 43 minutes ago (1 children)

Don't destroy your phone, you can install grapheneos(a privacy focused android distro) and it's working great on pixels.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 40 minutes ago (1 children)

Interesting. Is that an app or do I need some technical know-how to implement it on my device?

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 35 minutes ago (1 children)

Here's the official guide https://grapheneos.org/install It's a bit technical, but very detailed.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 25 minutes ago

Awesome. Thanks friend. Just like cooking: if I follow the recipe to the tee then it should have great results

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)
  • Desktop OS: Linux (Arch)
  • Phone OS: /e/OS
  • mail, notes, calendar, online storager: mureno
  • maps: cittymapper, magic earth

I'm pretty happy with all of those

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 30 minutes ago* (last edited 9 minutes ago)

You don't use gentoo? Ha. Peasant. /s

I actually love arch and somehow found arch easier than all the other distros once you get it down.

[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (2 children)
  • Desktop: Linux (Tuxedo)
  • Browser: Vivaldi
  • Search: Ecosia & DDG
  • Mail / Groupware / Calendar / Contacts / Cloud Drive / Meet: Infomaniak kSuite Pro
  • Backup: Syncthing
  • Movies / Netflix / Amazon Prime: buying DVD / Bluray and ripping to my home media server with Jellyfin and Videoland.nl
  • Mobile Phone: Fairphone with /e/OS or Calyx
  • Whatsapp: Signal, Matrix / Element, Briar, Threema
  • YouTube: Grayjay, Floatplane, Nebula, Curiosity Stream
  • Maps: Magic Earth
  • Photos: ente.io
  • Authenticator: Ente Auth
  • Twitter / X: Mastodon
  • Cards: Catima
  • Keep / Evernote: Notesnook / Anytype
  • Backup comms: Meshtastic / UHF / VHF
  • Translate: DeepL
  • Podcasts: Antennapod
  • Google Home: Home Assistant
  • Google Assistant / Gemini: Mistral Le Chat / LLama
  • Router: openWRT (GL.iNET Flint2)
  • Firewall: opnSense (Deciso)
  • Pushbullet: KDE Connect
  • speedtest.net: LibreSpeed
  • Fing: Ning
  • Kobo / Kindle: Pocketbook
  • Amazon: Local / European dealers
  • Pocket: Wallabag
  • Creality / Bambulab: Prusa
  • VPN: Proton, Wireguard, Tailscale
[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 5 hours ago

Vivaldi is google

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

for speedtest, fast.com is pretty great as it's a pretty lightweight page and uses netflix's servers which mean it's not really possible for ISPs to game it

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 7 hours ago

Cloudflares test site is more informative btw

[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (2 children)

Almost everything, finally!
OS: GrapheneOS
Calendar: Proton
Browser: Firefox
Storage: NAS
Youtube: NewPipe and SmartTube

Iโ€™m still stuck with Maps and Android in my car as it has Android Automotive, but Iโ€™m happy with my progress so far

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago

If only osm had better search and complete addresses...

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

@Bronzie @pleasestopasking for maps you can try magic earth and @organicmaps . They both support android auto now.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago

Thanks for the advice, but this is Android Automotive, not Android Auto.
The entire car runs Android stand-alone.
The app selection is quite small still.

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 15 hours ago (3 children)

My selfhosted Nextcloud does:

  • Cloud storage (including photo storage)
  • Contact/Calendar/Task Sync (DAV Droid)
  • Notes
  • Podcast subscription and progress sync (gpodder)

While I use OSMAnd for offline navigation MAPS is still my go-to for navigation/discovering places.

My phone is currently running stock Android

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