My main Android phone is now 99% Google free

https://simondalvai.org/blog/google-free-android/

by nosky • 24 days ago

49 42 24 days ago

simondalvai.org

ggm• 24 days ago

Installing whatsapp was a "wtf" moment. Degoogle but leave meta in your life?

I know that it's driven in other people's communications modalities.

hamburgererror2• 24 days ago

Honestly I understand OP, I also run GrapheneOS but most of my social life happens on whatsapp and I know it's stupid but I can't change dozens of people's choice to install Signal, even though most of them know the issues with Meta.

My hope is that one day or another whatsapp will enshittify so bad that people will be more prone to move to Signal in the same way that recently Windows got so bad that many users moved to Linux.

TFNA2• 24 days ago

WhatsApp has replaced the PSTN in many countries. Without it, you cannot contact businesses; they simply do not answer normal phone calls. Also, booking accommodation over the internet may require WhatsApp in order to receive self-check-in information, and if you manage to communicate to the accommodation that you don’t have WhatsApp, it may simply cancel your reservation unilaterally.

graemep6• 24 days ago

Even where its not required, it can be a lot cheaper (e.g. for international calls) and has features (conference calls) not offered by consumer phones.

Whatsapp's success has partly been driven by telecoms companies over-charging.

LoganDark• 24 days ago

I feel like going with LineageOS rather than GrapheneOS for WhatsApp would be a mistake since GrapheneOS has much stronger sandboxing.

bergie• 23 days ago

I resisted WhatsApp until we started cruising with our sailboat. So many processes require WhatsApp. In many places you can't do customs and immigration without it.

Well, maybe not 100% true. There might still be the remnant of an old paper-based process around, but since nobody uses it, it would be a recipe for spending days queuing in random offices.

Once we're back in Europe, it will be a happy moment when I can finally uninstall the app.

nubinetwork• 24 days ago

Cool story bro

graemep6• 24 days ago

What about banking apps?

greenchair• 24 days ago

use a bank that provides a website?

microgpt• 24 days ago

website says to authenticate with app, now what?

zinekeller• 24 days ago

Lots of HN readers located in countries outside of the US would find your answer infeasible (even the bank website requires their app for authentication, and this is the case for every bank).

TFNA2• 24 days ago

To expand on what the posters mentioned: HN is an international community, and the USA is an outlier in having an ample choice of banks. Many countries only have 3–5 usable banks, and all of them require a phone app for 2FA authentication in order to log into their website. Moreover, it happens that banks remove certain functionality from their websites, so it can only be done through the app.

And beyond that, in some countries the strong authentication for logging into government services has been implemented through banks, and so one cannot visit one’s local tax-authority or healthcare portal without a phone that runs the bank app.

neobrain• 23 days ago

This seems to be mainly brought up by people concerned they'd lose banking apps than people who actually have issues. It's rooted phones that often get blocked, whereas those that run LineageOS/microG without rooting are largely fine.

Yes, there are certainly banks that block more aggressively, but if you look at e.g. iodéOS's forums most of them work fine: https://community.iode.tech/t/banking-finance-and-insurance-...

Anecdotally, I've also seen a lot of stories of people reaching out to support about overblocking actually seeing success. Apparently there are often enterprise reasons for the block and it literally just needs a customer to complain for engineering to be able to act.

PenguinCoder• 23 days ago

My primary banks apps, and websites, work fine on Graphene, with the exception of anything NFC payment related. I do miss that convenience, but I still have a debit card and cash as needed.

tim-tday2• 23 days ago

There are real problems with banking apps on graphene. Chase app won’t launch at all the us bank app nags every 15seconds that it needs some play services privilege that’s not even in the list. Maybe they’ll work once I tear play services back out.

troyvit• 23 days ago

I don't know about LineageOS, but there is crowd-sourced list of banks that work with GrapheneOS: https://github.com/PrivSec-dev/banking-apps-compat-report

More info here: https://grapheneos.org/usage#banking-apps

My credit union wasn't on the list, but it works.

microtonal• 23 days ago

Many do require passing Play Integrity at the basic level and/or having a locked bootloader, etc. In these cases, it works well with GrapheneOS, but not necessarily with LineageOS. If you end up using microG to do it, you just gave Google privileged access to your phone (by microG downloading/using DroidGuard).

zem• 23 days ago

"Before explaining my setup in more detail, I want to clarify, that I still use a second phone. It is an older stock Android phone, with all Google stuff on it. I need still need to use banking and other apps, that don't work on custom roms."

al_borland• 24 days ago

Using Android, when the goal is to be Google-free, always strikes me as an odd choice. Kind of like using Brave instead of Chrome.

Ultimately, still using the Google developed and backed platform gives them more power and control over the market as a whole. If de-googling became mainstream, they would almost certainly fight back, as it undermines the entire business model behind developing these things and giving them away for free.

hamburgererror2• 23 days ago

So what do you propose? Buy an iPhone?

soulofmischief• 23 days ago

What other choices does a regular person have? Buying an iPhone just moves the target. Linux phones are not pervasive enough and typically come at a premium.

Jeff9James• 23 days ago

also try out twent[.]xyz which is an Agentic SuperApp for android. you bring your own keys or use local models, so you've got full control. side note: it's UI automation is way too fast.

aand162• 23 days ago

PSA: somebody put together a detailed table[1] comparing security and privacy features of most common Android-based OSes. Yes, GrapheneOS looks amazing but requires a Pixel phone, at least until the new Motorola devices come out.

1 - https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm

akimbostrawman3• 23 days ago

LineageOS is not 99% Google free just watch traffic logs and you will see plenty of google connections. Maybe around 70%, GrapheneOS is 99% Google free with no direct google connections.

My main Android phone is now 99% Google free

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