Hello I use GOS have for almost a year and finally removed sandboxed play services in my main profile and only use Aurora for my bank app and Apple Music in my main profile still have Google Voice in private space but seperated from my main profile all my apps are only FOSS other than the 2 apps from aurora and it feels so good to finally say that. I just wanted to share my big news with you and hope you can all ditch Google apps/services as I have its amazing how my spam calls/texts have stopped or become less the more I degoogled.

I hope everyone has a great Degoogle/privacy enchancing experience

Any better replacements for Google Voice welcome in the comments if there is any.

    • bruhSoulz@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      8 days ago

      Ty! ^^ been thinking about deleting my final remaining gmail account but unfortunately there may be unexpected consequences so I’m second guessing still.

      • cyberwolfie@lemmy.ml
        3·
        7 days ago

        Since deleting my Google account early this year (having used it as a primary account for e-mail for about 15 years), I have only stumbled upon two problems. The first one was that an old account I had with my current ISP had tied my phone number and my old e-mail account. This was solved with a call to customer service that severed that link and allowed me to make a new account with my phone number. The second was that I missed an invitation to an alumni party from a previous job… so yeah…

        Note, I did spend a significant time overlapping my new primary mail account with the Gmail-account to ensure I had resolved as good as all of these issues. Since moving to Proton, I think I spent 2 years before actually deleting my Google account. That included a fairly thorough cleanup of old accounts that took quite some time and energy (boy, do some of these services give you a hard time deleting old accounts…)

      • QuazarOmega@lemy.lol
        2·
        8 days ago

        Yeah, I’m not doing that either yet, I’m using it for a few things and can’t really replace it

  • sic_semper_tyrannis@lemmy.todayEnglish
    29·
    8 days ago

    Good job. You can start off the new year with a breath of fresh air.

    I finished my house privacy finally this week with the FLIRC TV remote to get rid of the OEM remote that had a microphone built in. It’s programmable on Linux too which is awesome

  • zerozaku@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    8 days ago

    Recently I too have made a huge change in move towards degoogling and replaced Gboard with Heliboard. I never thought I’d be able to replace Gboard because I use gesture typing a lot. Heliboard doesn’t come inbuilt with gesture typing but you have to import from closed source(?) data which is just a one time import (would like to know more on this one from someone more knowledgeable). So far, it has been great!

    • copd@lemmy.world
      3·
      8 days ago

      Unfortunately I can’t access my banking app without a “certified virtual keyboard”. I have to flip back to gboard whenever I want to check my bank balance

        • copd@lemmy.world
          1·
          6 days ago

          To be fair, android custom keyboards are ridiciously insecure. They have access to effectively everything on the screen and what you’re typing while also having access to make external requests.

          The solution is for Android to allow you to select keyboards per app

          Yup

  • Cris16228@lemmy.today
    94·
    8 days ago

    hope you can all ditch Google apps/services

    Sadly, I can’t ditch WhatsApp since everyone I know uses it + work and without sandboxed play services, WhatsApp eats my battery like crazy

    • countrypunk@slrpnk.net
      71·
      8 days ago

      That’s weird. I use WhatsApp daily without Google play services and it doesn’t do that. I have a pixel 7a

      • Cris16228@lemmy.today
        4·
        8 days ago

        I have installed WhatsApp without GServices and got delayed/no notifications and ~50% of my battery was WhatsApp in background. Brand new battery (?) on a refurbished Pixel 8. With minimum use, I used to get around 2PM with ~30% battery while now, I can get to 15% to 9PM with roughly more usage than before.

        No idea why

    • EngineerGaming@feddit.nl
      4·
      8 days ago

      I personally have no notifications (aside from SMS, calls and calendar). Not like I would be checking the phone when I suddenly hear a notification anyway, only when already deciding to check it.

      Simplex apparently does a similar thing in terms of draining battery for its notifications, I just didn’t allow it to run in the background in the settings. Maybe this could work for Whatsapp if you’re willing to ditch notifications?

      • Cris16228@lemmy.today
        3·
        8 days ago

        Maybe this could work for Whatsapp if you’re willing to ditch notifications?

        I need it for work so no? I can’t

    • Der_Fossyler@feddit.org
      3·
      8 days ago

      For the lng run there needs to be a solution for the WhatsApp Monopoly we all live on. I mean, this argument is several years old and what can we do to change that? You could start by trying to convince some og your contacts to switch zo signal. In terms of co convinience their app is the closest to WhatsApp.

      • EngineerGaming@feddit.nl
        1·
        7 days ago

        While it would be an improvement, it seems to me that going to another platform would be repeating the same mistake. Protocols are more sustainable longterm solution.

          • EngineerGaming@feddit.nl
            1·
            7 days ago

            If we’re talking about the encryption - yeah, people have done so. If we’re talking about the whole service - from what I understand, it is not practical to selfhost. And even if it was, you cannot communicate with people using other servers…

    • asap@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      8 days ago

      You could use Beeper, which connects with Whatsapp without needing the app installed.

  • Sarcasmo220@lemmy.ml
    5·
    7 days ago

    I have significantly reduced my usage of Google and Apple services for a couple of years now. Sometimes I wonder if I should go back, but then I see the enshitification of it all and it reminds me why I did so in the first place.

      • Sarcasmo220@lemmy.ml
        2·
        7 days ago

        I guess it’s less the services and more the updated hardware that tempts me. I don’t do anything that requires a lot of computing power, so I get tempted to get something with Samsung Dex or Motorola Ready For to use it as both mobile and laptop/desktop.

        I do use the Librem 5 with convergence, but storage is becoming an issue. I have a few things I can try to maximize storage before seriously considering something else.

    • cyberwolfie@lemmy.ml
      2·
      7 days ago

      I’m on CalyxOS with microG, and as far as I know, Android Auto does not work here. I understand this is a deal-breaker for a lot of people, but I have personally never seen Android Auto to be of particular interest, so I am completely fine with it.

  • spookedintownsville@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    8 days ago

    Congrats. I’ve moved away from using Google other than for school/work (I have no choice there). Although I still haven’t deleted my personal account yet.

  • nossaquesapao@lemmy.eco.br
    1·
    7 days ago

    Congrats! It can be a difficult choice for some, because of the inconveniences it brings, but it’s well worth it. We all need to ditch the big corporations and be free.