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Pining for a De-Googled Smartphone

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Ironically a Pixel 4 with GrapheneOS was everything I wanted:

* Privacy Oriented

* Security Hardened

* 2+ day battery life, even with several hours of screen use per day

* Nearly all the apps I routinely use work without glitches

The only app I miss is Google Maps but the alternatives are acceptable

A couple of weeks ago I finished my phone de-googling project (for now).

things I've learned:

- It is a project (not something I could recommend to family)

- It's a PITA

- There are painful tradeoffs to make to gain some privacy.

edit below: hit reply before I was really done..

I personally couldn't stomach getting a pixel 4a (or wait for 5a) because it's a side-grade at best to a phone I bought brand new in January of 2020 for less. I ended up with Lineage OS for microg because it supports way more devices. I ended up picking oneplus 8t and going that route.

Most painful tradeoffs is the camera app. The camera app that came installed on Oxygen OS was great. I had to spend a couple of hours trying different modded gcam apps for Lineage OS to find something good enough. And good enough is not being able to take pictures at the highest mega pixel setting and my macro lens not supported (bummer).

Google maps works fine for me (thanks to microg), but because I'm not logged in there's no history of where I've been for fast selection. I haven't tried any alternatives to google maps yet.

I replaced YouTube with NewPipe. And it's surprisingly good. But to be honest I do miss YouTube recommendations a little for content outside of my subscriptions.

I favor open source apps now when possible on F-droid and Aurora droid when possible and install other apps via Aurora store. Everything works so far. Only issue I've had is sometimes I can't find apps on Aurora store and have to find it on a search engine first and open the google play link with Aurora to find it.

Other annoying thing is my boot loader is unlocked and I get an ugly warning screen letting me know that when I restart my phone. I'm not sure all the security implications of that. I know this is one advantage of GrapheneOS and their choice to mostly support Pixel phones (so they can support locking the bootloader).

Keyboard that comes with Lineage OS without google apps doesn't auto complete for me. I guess that makes sense. I ended up switching to openboard and it seems to work well.

I also miss the ability to just dictate to google maps where I want to drive without typing it in. I guess there's no replacement for that?

Other than a few annoyances, everything's great. I'm sure there's a lot of more hardcore privacy features that GrapheneOS comes with by default (and CalyxOS). I might try those ROMs eventually.

> It is a project [/ PITA]

Agreed, although the only PITA for me was buying a phone that was OEM / Dev unlocked. I was buying on eBay and the sellers just couldn't understand, despite my explanations, that I wanted a phone that was Developer unlocked, not carrier unlocked.

> I personally couldn't stomach getting a pixel 4a

Yea, I considered getting a Pixel newer than the '4' but I didn't see any advantage

> Most painful tradeoffs is the camera app

I don't take a lot of pictures but I did notice the photo quality is inferior now. I'm not sure what 'magic' the software was doing before, but it was a lot

> I replaced YouTube with NewPipe

Yea, NewPipe works well. I imported all my subscribers from YouTube. The lack of discoverability doesn't bother me though

> ..have to find it on a search engine

If I couldn't find it on f-droid I got in the habit of just searching for <app I want> + "apk"

> boot loader is unlocked..I'm not sure all the security implications of that

Security implications are.. no security

Also, some of my infrequently used apps will have a pop-up at the first about requiring Google Play Services but I just hit 'ok' and continue to use the app

There is some site that shows apps that "for sure" work, but I'll add a summary of my apps:

* Browser: Bromite

* YouTube Replacement: NewPipe

* 2-factor app: Authy

* Maps (discoverability): Organic Maps

* Maps (directions): Magic Earth

* Pictures: Open Camera

* Mail: Proton Mail

* Messaging: Signal

* Music: Spotify (glitch-free)

* Audiobook Player: Smart Audiobook Player

* Podcasts: Pocket Casts

Thanks for the list of apps. I'll check those out.

>Security implications are.. no security

I just spent about 20 minutes searching trying to figure out if my encrypted phone can somehow be unencrypted because I have an unlocked bootloader. I couldn't really find a solid answer. I guess that would take some NSA level skills and not something a random person stealing my phone would be able to do.

I did find this guide to locking my bootloader:

https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/guide-re-locking-the-boot...

However, it just doesn't seem worth the time and risk of bricking at the moment. Definitely a big plus for Graphene for supporting this with ease.

edit: Did find this random person on stack exchange: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/38909/unlocked-b...

I have a long pin lock + encryption and no root. I am not really worried about someone flashing malware on my phone via physical access. Either way. I think it's a large step up from the situation I was in before.

In regards to the camera, I was very surprised when I recently learned that they haven't changed the actual camera hardware in their phones in many years, all the gains from one model to the next was in software magic. It ain't actually a 20mp sensor in there, it's much smaller, but through software wizardry it gets upscaled.

>This also coincided with, in my opinion, a horrible yet unsurprising decision by my former service provider (AT&T) to start locking out service for anyone who switches their SIM card to another device unless that device is on a whitelist. (Other carriers in the US such as Verizon seem to be actively restricting devices in other ways as well, so be sure to check with your carrier before swapping your SIM to a PinePhone.)

Uh, this is concerning, right? I'm not crazy for thinking this is a bad sign for the future?

It has that

"and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." (Rev13:17)

feel.

This is exactly why I opted for an iPhone. I knew an Android phone was an invitation to tinker - to de-Googlify. And I knew I would have a large project on my hands.

> This is exactly why I opted for an iPhone.

Apple thinks it's iPhone users could all be pedophiles so... there is that.

Google does the same analysis, just on your uploaded photos in the cloud.

Frankly is not that much of a project. Takes me about half an hour to install LineageOS on a fresh device, then get Fdroid and that's it. Enjoy a day extra batterylife and not being tracked.

It may not be that much of a project now. It was a bigger challenge when I first made my choice.

But yes, it still was a project. I may have to do updates manually, etc. Instead I can just buy a working product.

LineageOS provides automatic updates on the phones my family uses it on. Far past official support I should add. So, I warmly recommend to try it again, not as a badge of FLOSS-dom, which I like too, but because it's easy (flashing the rom the first time is the only hassle right now) and gets you great support and automatic updates for older phones (make sure you get a phone that is well supported by Lineage ofc.)

My point is LineageOS is around 4 years old, so it seems a bit late. Considering most people had bit hard into the Apple or Google ecosystem by then.

That said, I can see picking up an older Android tablet (or phablet) and playing with LineageOS. But it would take a lot of tinkering (and free time) before I want to (or feel comfortable with the) jump from the iPhone as my everyday device.

I don't mean to sound pessimistic or dismissive. It seems like a great version of Android. And I do have secondary Android devices, so I'll give it a shot. But of course I cannot feel anything about it until I've tried it.

I got an iPhone in which I have not installed Chrome. Want to uninstall Gmail but work email needs gmail. Other than that no other Google Apps.

You should really finish de-googling your smartphone. Maybe just use the built in mail app to connect to your work email.

Seems needful to order one at least as a market signal.

Is this product no-kidding available right now?

Yes, the PinePhone is available now.

Convergence model (32 GB storage, 3 GB RAM, includes dock, $199.99, in stock): https://pine64.com/product/pinephone-beta-edition-with-conve...

Base model (16 GB storage, 2 GB RAM, no dock, $149.99, expected to be in stock this month): https://pine64.com/product/pinephone-beta-edition-linux-smar...

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