I use GrapheneOS with multiple profiles. My main profile contains only FOSS apps, along with two proprietary apps that have no network access. One secondary profile is for my personal Google account (just Gmail) for work and bills, while another is for a disposable Google account for apps like Google Maps when I need GPS.
On my PC, I maintain a browser profile for work Gmail, which I almost never check, and I don’t have anything else connected to Google.
I’m not entirely comfortable knowing that I’m not free from Google and still rely on some of their services. However, I feel much better than I did a few years ago, when Google had complete control over my phone and everything I did on it. Now, I feel free most of the time.
What about you? Do you feel free? Or does it ever seem like Google owns a part of your life? Share your thoughts with me
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I’m as distanced as I can be for now but have one more big cord to cut - Google Fi. It’s just by far the most affordable carrier for our use here, and frankly every alternative sucks ass just as much anyway, but I’d still like to move to something else sooner rather than later.
Otherwise, my gmail accounts are still active but rarely used, both forwarding to Tuta. Been using GrapheneOS for over a year now, Aurora and the Play Store are last resorts for app installs. I only use youtube through a self-hosted Invidious instance. Photos has been long replaced with Immich, Drive long emptied and replaced with OpenCloud. For navigation, Magic Earth’s been the most reliable, not FOSS but so be it, CoMaps is good for browsing/exploring but kind of terrible for driving.
I switched from Fi to US Mobile. They just had a deal running for $150 dollars for your first year of unlimited (it’s since expired but they have deals going all the time). You can swap between Verizon, a&t, or T-Mobile, and they offer everything Fi does I believe
I don’t use anything Google at all anymore, with the exception of YouTube videos (via non-Google apps like PipePipe). That and my phone being a Pixel - running GrapheneOS, no GooglePlay Services running ever. If an app doesnt work without them I simply don’t use it, and just use the web browser. Email, photos, GPS, calendars etc all have viable replacement options.
It feels free and great. I never look back.
Google Maps is the one thing left for me… have tried moving but find other gps apps meh in comparison. I use MacOS for work with office 365. My personal computer is Linux, I use proton for my email. Librewolf browsing. DuckDuckGo for searching. If you count it, I suppose I do use Brave on my work computer, chromium base is needed for some websites I use a lot for work. My cell phone is an iPhone (thanks work)
Waze is also by Google but: Works without gapps installed and without login. Has live traffic data and same features as maps.
Comaps
Oh we’re way past “it’s complicated”. I skipped “on a break” and were now cleaning out the appartement.
All that’s left is double/tripple checking that mailbox for any loose ends and it’s bye bye!!!
Make sure you switch you email for banking, steam, eBay, and all the other stuff that can be forgotten. I think I’m going to keep the email open and poison it with furries and cat subscriptions, but I might just go subscribe to conspiracy nut forums and let the emails fill up their space. I am almost done deleting. God it took forever.
leave it dormant, don’t cost you nothing; check it every month or so.
100% finaly No Google account, no Google services
it feels free 🧘♂️
Amazing. I’ll get there hopefully.
Looks like you and I randomly generate usernames :D
I’ve almost completely moved everything away from google. If you ever used sink it there is YouTube version in the works. And I’ve started using this
What does the profile switching look like on Graphene? I see people talk about it but haven’t seen it touched on as far as day to day usage. I just bought a pixel and am curious to try it out.
I think the only things I’m actively using is google calendar(which I would like to replace at some point) and youtube.
I guess my phone is running android, but I’m not much of a phone person so I barely use it.
Maps + location, calendar, contacts, google docs, google drive, all have been moved to self-hosted and private services I run myself.
All that’s left is email, and that is actually quite difficult to ditch. I have a protonmail account whose philosophy I don’t agree with, and a tuta account, which has nasty delivery problems.
So I actually don’t really know how I’m going to solve this.
I have two gmail accounts which i need for now but i check them with Thunderbird. I have to have Google play store and services on my phone because my banking app will not work without them, both stripped of permissions and no background data. I use Aurora store and F-Droid for everything else. All search engines at home and work changed to DDG or Ecosia. Organic Maps is ok , i read in this thread Comaps is good so i’m gonna try that. Firefox everywhere with either Brave, Ecosia or Chromium browser as backup.
For Gmail – I use Thunderbird for both Android and Desktop (linux) to access my Gmail. I’m sure they are still reading my emails on the server side, but at least the phone app isn’t tracking me 🤣
I use a Google Pixel 6 Pro with GrapheneOS, Google Voice for probable spam, YouTube, and Google Maps for search. Once the GrapheneOS phone comes out that will probably be my next phone (and fuck Google with their planned obsolescence, makes me not want to buy another Pixel). Google Voice I don’t care but I could switch to another paid JMP.chat number if I need to. YT is difficult to leave (both for content and algorithm) and the Google Maps alternatives suck for searching.
My current sitch is that (at least at home, work is an entirely different question) I was able to delete my Google account last year. That said, I’m in the Apple ecosystem, which made things a lot easier. I do check Youtube occasionally, but without an account and with Vivaldi’s built-in adblocker working well. I’m aware that Vivaldi is Chromium-based, which is a trade-off I have accepted for myself.
I’m getting there more day by day. I’ve moved over to using my own dns and email service, that was a big one, but kept my gmail for leftover items and now it’s mostly for spam. All of my oauth I’ve rolled off Google, and now use a password manager and separate emails. Phone is still the largest annoyance, but I just ordered a fairphone this week! (After google pushed a huge update which killed my battery, seriously sitting at home my battery died at 7pm last night, after barely using it. That didn’t happen even a month ago). So it’s a process.
I forward all gmail’s to my new domain, exported my YouTube subscriptions to newpipe and freetube - the only thing I’m working through is TVs… That is still using my actual YouTube account… Google Photos is, unfortunately a thing still, as-is Google Keep. I like using my S-Pen stylus for random notes.
Not planning to change OSes for banking app compatibility. Although, after thinking about it, I really should consider just using a “clean” browser (librewolf, is what I use on desktop) and “dirty” browser (chromium - very little privacy plugins for temperamental websites) – so I can care less about an app supporting a feature.
