Do you need a Google account to use an Android phone? Here’s what you’ll lose—and gain—if you choose not to sign in.
You can use the Aurora Store app to access Google Play without enabling the system-wide Google account.
You can also use Gmaps WV to use a subset of Maps’ features completely anonymously (no navigation).
I think Aurora hasn’t been working right lately due to rate limiting?
It’s only rate-limited when using their Google account (because everybody’s using it). If you add your own you won’t have a problem.
It still works fine if you add an account. Either your existing google account, or you can go make a new blank one
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)
- Google Translate -> Translate YOU
- Google Files -> Material Files
- Google Docs/Slides/Sheet -> Collabora Office
- GMail -> Proton Mail
- GBoard -> OpenBoard fork with glide typing
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.
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
I use Magic Earth instead of Google Maps. For car navigation it’s way better in my experience. Very smooth animations and I find the indications a lot clearer. If you use it for just looking up places then unfortunately Maps has way better coverage.
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.
Yeah, definitely will have trouble in some countries. But if you don’t heavily rely on google maps (like you only check some location from time to time) you can always use the browser version.
I’ve used GrapheneOS on a Pixel 3A for a year or so, I’ll be honest
It was a fuckin’ pain.
MicroG is not a usable replacement for GPlay Services at all. Push notifs randomly stopped working, various mapping apps wouldn’t work. Food delivery apps crashed a ton if they ever did work. Some open source alternatives were a lot better than GPlay Service requiring apps, some were pathetically worse.
Like, as a handheld device that could use a web browser, it was fine. But as a smartphone that you expect to work when you need it day to day, no, no, god no. By the end of it I was using two phones, one of them a stock android device and the Pixel 3A, and I wondered why I was even bothering.
I can’t blame MicroG for this, its maintained by 1 guy and Google’s APIs are huge and everything uses them.
But I’m also never going to use an Android phone without Google Play Services again. Oh sorry gang, I didn’t get your messages because the IM app failed to send push notifs for 3 days. I don’t like Google, but I don’t like broken phones more than I don’t like Google.
I don’t think you’ve been using MicroG on GrapheneOS, since it requires signature spoofing and GOS specifically disable that because of security reasons. Or did you compile your own version of Graphene with the flag enabled?
You’d have been better off with CalyxOS which bakes in MicroG. Push notifications from eg. WhatsApp come in immediately and car parking/e-bike apps which expect Google Maps get the map automatically replaced with OpenStreetMaps without the app knowing any better.
But of course there is sacrifice, and the ideologies and mindset of the person decide if they are worth it. I’m just a bit triggered calling some FOSS app likely created on someone’s freetime pathetically worse than a multimillion dollar one.
Thanks! That sounds like a fun exercise for my next phone
Same! Honestly this is way more accessible to me than setting up a custom ROM
Besides fact you will be running privileged services 24/7 with Internet and location access, it is quite usable.
Don’t forget to turn off WiFi scanning. This feature is for Google to create WiFi hotspot maps by using your devices, but it also constantly leak your location to them.
I recommend anyone having to use phone with Google system-baked services to connect to Internet only via some portable OpenWRT router with strict firewall rules and allowlist only.
What if you have Lieage OS with wifi scanning on?
LineageOS does not have WiFi scanning unless you flash Google Play Services on top of it.
Oh ok (I did), so wifi scanning on my phone is still phoning home to google then? It might be a conspiracy theory but turning on wifi scanning was the only way i could get google maps to work, which was not the case with stock android on the same phone. Can google detect the phone OS and throttle access to google services if they want to?
WiFi scanning is not nessesary for location to work and as a proof we can use any other app other than Google Maps on deGoogled phone just fine.
This option is officially used to build convinient location history on Google Maps and Google Photos and for building WiFi map for Google’s database. Both with creepy consequence - leaking 24/7 location of every Android phone by default.
I just tested- Google Maps doesn’t work unless you turn on wifi scanning. Creeps.
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Basically, the pros and cons about going Google free on android without apps like Play Store, Play Services, Gmail, Maps, photos, Calendar, etc.
You can read the longer summary from bard, here: https://g.co/bard/share/f1f8f365a5cb
Google play protect and updating of preinstalled apps via play store still works without siging in.
Good to know!
It’s painful tbh. I tried it and went back to stock because Google apps and services are really good. They make the device tbh.
Also if you use a custom ROM on your phone your camera will SUCK. The manufacturer of your phone has created the camera app themselves and put a lot of work into it to get great photos. But stock generic camera apps are terrible. You get pictures like it’s 1998… Unusable.
Just stick to the phone as it was when you got it and enjoy.
Google isn’t nearly as bad as people think. They let you turn on anything you want, you can easily export your data etc. Apple is way worse. Not only do they collect as much as Google but you can’t turn it off and you can’t export all your data. My wife’s notes are still stuck in iCloud. And she has hundreds of notes.
So she uses Android as her primary but still has to keep an old iPhone around to access her notes. Appalling
Apple also still uses Google for their cloud services. If you access the Notes from a Mac there should be a way to export them.
I replaced MacOS with Linux ages ago.
Apple need to make the expiry web based like Google do so no Mac required.
If a dumbphone is even on the table, I’d highly suggest a lumia
Mod it to run win 10 1703 and add some repos(and do the interop unlock)
You get a touch screen AND infinite contact storage vs a very small storage space for keypad phones
Thanks for posting this, that’s a great idea! Guess I’ll be doing this on my next phone!
I have no idea why you would want to use Android without Google though. It’s literally free and it’s some of the best products. 🤷♀️
Privacy is one of the main concerns id say
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How is “piracy” evil and how is it any more “evil” than whatever google is doing?
Also check aurora store
It’s been a bit hit or miss in the last few months but it was pretty good before
Troll.
Imagine actually having Google Play Services on your phone. Unthinkable. I’ll be praying for you guys.
Imagine gatekeeping android…
I’ve never tried MicroG but Android is generally just frustrating without Play Services.
On my old device I’ve managed to use MicroG and then flash a patched PlayStore. This made Play Services more restricted, and it didn’t run in the background as often as it did. It was cool, but I don’t think this method works anymore
