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.
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.