Years ago, before I de-googled, I set the language in Android to “English (UK)” so the assistant voice would be British. The side effect of that was minor UI labels such as my “Flashlight” quick action changing to “Torch”.
Little steps: (applicable if you use google services)
Changing email from gmail
Changing browser from chrome
Use alternative search engine
Using Docs alternatives
Using photos alternatives
Using maps alternatives
Major impact steps:
GrapheneOS
Uninstalling google play services
Using push notification alternatives
Using alternative app stores
I never really used googles apps much to begin with apart from youtube, maps and chrome, I used a lot of microsoft shit before they really started shitting the bed with windows 11 and ai garbage.
Biggest issue I ran in to changing to Graphene and not using play services was lack of push notifications but these days i prefer to have notifications off for most things and the really important stuff either has alternatives or runs in the background.
Battery life without play services is insane too so thats a bonus.
Havent deleted my google account yet cause I still use it for youtube subs but im sure in time it will disappear.
Some I flash LineageOS which requires an extra step to install MicroG or the Google Services. I just skip that optional step.
Some that aren’t supported by LineageOS but are able to be rooted: I just remove / disable all the Google services and apps.
Even on stock phones that can’t be rooted or bootloader unlocked, you can still disable things like Google Play Services. You may have to deal with and manually silence notifications saying Play Services are unavailable.
In the latter two cases, you’ll often need to find alternative apps (like the phone dialer, SMS messenger, etc) before you can disable the built-in Google ones.
Years ago, before I de-googled, I set the language in Android to “English (UK)” so the assistant voice would be British. The side effect of that was minor UI labels such as my “Flashlight” quick action changing to “Torch”.
How did you de-google? I am fascinated by this because they’re in everything we use, often unknowingly.
Little steps: (applicable if you use google services)
Major impact steps:
I never really used googles apps much to begin with apart from youtube, maps and chrome, I used a lot of microsoft shit before they really started shitting the bed with windows 11 and ai garbage.
Biggest issue I ran in to changing to Graphene and not using play services was lack of push notifications but these days i prefer to have notifications off for most things and the really important stuff either has alternatives or runs in the background.
Battery life without play services is insane too so thats a bonus.
Havent deleted my google account yet cause I still use it for youtube subs but im sure in time it will disappear.
Depends on the device.
Some I flash LineageOS which requires an extra step to install MicroG or the Google Services. I just skip that optional step.
Some that aren’t supported by LineageOS but are able to be rooted: I just remove / disable all the Google services and apps.
Even on stock phones that can’t be rooted or bootloader unlocked, you can still disable things like Google Play Services. You may have to deal with and manually silence notifications saying Play Services are unavailable.
In the latter two cases, you’ll often need to find alternative apps (like the phone dialer, SMS messenger, etc) before you can disable the built-in Google ones.
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There’s a lot of resources out there specifically for it. Depending on use case it may be impossible to 100% degoogle, but every bit helps.