I use GraphineOS and LineageOS without Google Play Services. They are great and are suitable replacements for Apple and Google.
- Osmand(FOSS) for maps (supports being fully offline!)
- Signal and Discord for messaging (Discord is sandboxed)
- Newpipe(FOSS) for Youtube
- F-droid(FOSS) for my FOSS appstore
- APKmirror for the few non-free apps I need
- Libretorrent(FOSS) and VLC(FOSS) for watching movies
- Firefox(FOSS) and Vanadium(FOSS) for browser
- K9 Mail(FOSS) for email
- Infinity(FOSS) for Reddit
- Secur(FOSS) for 2FA
- Taskkeeper(FOSS) for reminders
Almost everything you need is in the F-droid FOSS app repository. It all works, and it works well. You can buy a used Pixel 3a for around $80 on Ebay and have a better experience in every category than iOS, hardware and software.
Consider Fennec instead of Firefox -- I just switched yesterday, and I think the only difference is that Fennec is usually a couple of versions behind because it removes some Mozilla crapware.
Fennec also lets you install any add-on from addons.mozilla.org through a tedious process,* which is still an improvement over Firefox release/beta on Android. The only channel of Firefox that supports this process on Android is the nightly channel.
What about Firefox Focus? It's private by default and VERY unbloated. The ephemeral nature of sessions also forces me to not leave a hundred tabs open.
There's a workaround to support pretty much any FF extension at this point -- but you have to create a "collection" with your firefox account and then point your Android FF install at that collection. Not too hard, but a little bit of a PITA. If you're like me and maintain the same couple dozen extensions on every FF install, though, it actually works pretty well.
FairEmail is really great, almost as fully featured as Thunderbird with the best support for multiple accounts/identities that I've seen on Android so far. The developer asks for a small donation to unlock a few advanced features,* which I recommend doing.
I tried to switch myself from iPhone and almost everything was OK but these were the worst to get right... I ended up using suite from Tibor Kaputa (Simple Dialer etc) but I ran into some rather annoying issues.
Also, do you use phone recoding? This was actually my breaking point, because i have an iPhone w/ jailbreak that enables me to record phone conversations (for my use only, not trying to get into the legal discussion). I did not find anything for GrapheneOS (or Android in general) - just some info that I need to root my phone to get this working and with that I just reverted to my jailbroken iPhone.
To use this app, you'll need to root your phone using Magisk[1] and the install the Magisk module for Axet's Call Recorder.[2] Then, upgrade the Call Recorder app to the latest version in F-Droid. Note: do not enable "System Mixer Incall Recording" in Call Recorder, since it is not needed and may cause issues with recording.
The default dialer and contact apps are both FOSS and functional, so I never felt the need to replace them. Signal can take over as the default SMS/MMS app, and there are alternatives with more features such as QKSMS:
Just bought a pixel to test lineageOS out. Worth mentioning that if you want less Google and still want to use normal Android services in the OS you need to install the MicroG lineageOS ROM. Otherwise, you're still sending Google a lot of info through Gapps or MindTheGapps.
Graphene or lineage without any of those is also an option but you'll be missing a lot of the normal everyday apps you use. IMO if you're going that far though you might as well just go back to a flip phone.
I don't agree regarding your flip phone comment, that's silly. I don't use any form of Google Play Services (No OpenGapps or MicroG even) and my phone works completely fine.
The only thing that doesn't work is push notifications, which isn't a problem because FOSS apps like Signal bundle their own notification system that does not use Google Play Services. Discord however, does not get push notifications (which I wouldn't want anyway)
Regardless of what software you put on the phone it is a tracking device. It has gps, audio, cameras, and web browsers that are all vulnerable to being hacked or used for tracking. I signed into gmail via the Bromite browser on my Pixe3a. I immediately received an email from google about my new Pixel device. They now know what device I use, what browser etc.
I don't care how locked down and FOSS you make your smart phone it's not going to be as secure as a dumb phone. There's a reason criminals don't use smart phones.
If you think Google is adversarial then don't use Gmail; It seems strange to avoid using their 'apps' but continuing to use their products? I think you just handed them that information when you logged into their website.
>I think you just handed them that information when you logged into their website.
Obviously and that's my point. You are not going to avoid Google if you use the web. The best you can do is limit exposure.
>Google is adversarial then don't use Gmail
This is ignorant and unhelpful. Do you think I just decided not to consider that option? I don't have an option. I have to use it for work. This is the problem with the "don't use it" crowd. Most people are not going to get away from the major email provider options. The best I can do is sign in via browser or a 3rd party app.
> Obviously and that's my point. You are not going to avoid Google if you use the web. The best you can do is limit exposure.
That couldn't have been your point. It's very easy to avoid having a gmail account.
> This is ignorant and unhelpful.
People here don't know you personally, or your needs. Most people don't need gmail for work. If your job requires you to use google products, it's going to be difficult for you to avoid google. But, again, your situation is not representative of the vast majority of people.
>That couldn't have been your point. It's very easy to avoid having a gmail account.
Did you miss the part where I told you we have Google Workspace (GSuite) and I have to use it for work? What part of getting rid of that is easy? I cannot stop using it end of story.
>People here don't know you personally, or your needs. Most people don't need gmail for work.
I feel like you're not aware of the fact that Gmail is used in corporate environments through Google Workspace. You need to research before spouting off stuff that's obviously misinformed. It's a direct competitor to Office 365 and MS Outlook servers.
Depends on your administrator. If they allow IMAP to be turned on for your gmail account then yes. However, your email is still going through Google's servers and this is still only a partial mitigation. You get the gmail app off your phone but that's about it.
A lot of admins won't enable IMAP for security purposes though.
I don't think it's fair to say I was ignorant when you only now mention need it for work. You could use a second handset, or try asking your employer to move away from Google products, or even find a new employer. There's plenty of options here.
If you say that the best you can do is limit exposure, then do that!
GraphineOS constantly spoofs the device's MAC so that argument is not valid (I also don't know how a website based email client is getting your MAC). It's also extremely easy to spoof the device's name. The way they are getting that is simply your browser's User Agent, or if it's an app, your phones root properties. There may be some other identifying properties about the device they can collect though, I agree with you on that.
Also, I agree with your argument about phones being tracking devices. Anything with a radio that connects to cell towers is going to be logged and tracked in perfect detail.
It's unbelievable that I'm getting downvoted for asking people to pay for software on a platform where a large % of users are involved with technology. No wonder opensource based businesses are dissatisfied with how they are treated.
At a guess, it may have something to do with how rude the original comment was and how you doubled down on that rudeness with this one. If you toned it down a little and actually spoke to other people as human beings it might help you with this problem.
How does "I hope you at least pay for these apps" adds anything even remotely relevant to the thread about what apps someone uses as part of their de-googled phone?
Yeah, developers do need to eat, but this (IMO) snarky comment is hardly relevant to the OP.
1. Google is tracking you. They track you because they need this data to target better ads, this is how they make money.
2. The OP for this comment, says they use FOSS apps to get around Google’s tracking.
My comment is about - if you are against the idea of being tracked from profit, it would be a good idea to vote with your wallet to help open source developers get paid and to show that there is a viable business model for other individual developers.
- Osmand(FOSS) for maps (supports being fully offline!)
- Signal and Discord for messaging (Discord is sandboxed)
- Newpipe(FOSS) for Youtube
- F-droid(FOSS) for my FOSS appstore
- APKmirror for the few non-free apps I need
- Libretorrent(FOSS) and VLC(FOSS) for watching movies
- Firefox(FOSS) and Vanadium(FOSS) for browser
- K9 Mail(FOSS) for email
- Infinity(FOSS) for Reddit
- Secur(FOSS) for 2FA
- Taskkeeper(FOSS) for reminders
Almost everything you need is in the F-droid FOSS app repository. It all works, and it works well. You can buy a used Pixel 3a for around $80 on Ebay and have a better experience in every category than iOS, hardware and software.