My experience: I got a Nothing Phone 2 recently and decided to degoogle it. Using ADB commands, I removed every google app from my phone, from the Dialer all the way up to the PlayStore, apart from just 2: Play Services and Maps. Both work fine without a Google account. I did take away all permissions of Play Services and it still works fine. Without this app, you will stop getting notifications from most of your apps so it is necessary.
Open source alternatives that I turned towards:
Google Dialer -> Simple Dialer
Google Contacts -> Simple Contacts
Google Photos -> Simple Gallery Pro
Google Play Store -> Aurora Store and Droid-ify
Google Messenger -> QKSMS
Google Calendar -> Proton Calendar
Google Drive -> Proton Drive
Google Chrome -> Mozilla Firefox
Youtube -> Youtube ReVanced (Not FOSS, I use a throwaway account here with Vanced Microg)
Getting a Pixel 7 and installing GrapheneOS on it was another option but I just don’t like the low performant and inefficient Tensor G2 chip. 8+ Gen 1 is an excellent chip, both in terms of power and efficiency.
I had recently gone to India and Magic Earth and Organic Maps both had pretty weak coverage. Outside major cities, even roads aren’t mapped. Works better in Europe and US imo.
Indeed. Simple Dialer is I think the only FOSS dialer app that is actively maintained. And Simple Gallery Pro is fairly advanced for a FOSS app, even having a video editor!
Google made a change a while ago that disabled some apps from having hidden folders, but you can just get an old version of Simple Gallery from F-Droid from before that change so you can still use hidden folders for your pictures and videos of… nature ':D
My experience: I got a Nothing Phone 2 recently and decided to degoogle it. Using ADB commands, I removed every google app from my phone, from the Dialer all the way up to the PlayStore, apart from just 2: Play Services and Maps. Both work fine without a Google account. I did take away all permissions of Play Services and it still works fine. Without this app, you will stop getting notifications from most of your apps so it is necessary.
Open source alternatives that I turned towards:
Everything works fine :)
Getting a Pixel 7 and installing GrapheneOS on it was another option but I just don’t like the low performant and inefficient Tensor G2 chip. 8+ Gen 1 is an excellent chip, both in terms of power and efficiency.
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I had recently gone to India and Magic Earth and Organic Maps both had pretty weak coverage. Outside major cities, even roads aren’t mapped. Works better in Europe and US imo.
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The Simple suite by Tibor K(aputa?) is so good.
Indeed. Simple Dialer is I think the only FOSS dialer app that is actively maintained. And Simple Gallery Pro is fairly advanced for a FOSS app, even having a video editor!
Google made a change a while ago that disabled some apps from having hidden folders, but you can just get an old version of Simple Gallery from F-Droid from before that change so you can still use hidden folders for your pictures and videos of… nature ':D