Android without google?
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I stayed with my windows phone as long as I could, as I really like the platform and the phone itself (Lumia 950XL), but lately it becomes more and more unusable, so I think it's finally time to switch.
Choosing between iOs and Android was kinda hard, like choosing between syphilis and cholera. It seems that I will suffer less under Android. I hope.
Now, not being familiar with Android and not having any disposable phone to experiment with - I wonder how Google free can I get?
I know there are substitutes for calendar, maps, etc, but how well do they integrate with the system?
Can I use the phone without google account? Or connect it only for app installation?
Can I prevent Android from calling home and to what degree?
Can I uninstall/disable completely google stuff I don't want to use?Rooting and playing with custom roms is out of the question, btw.
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@mrl You could techniclly become very Google-free on Android. Google does provide nice integration between all of its apps and services, but they are like Apple in that regard. You can install apps (and even alternative app stores) without touching Google Play and just sideloading them onto the device. As for how much you can uninstall? Depends on the brand of the phone really. Some allow it, some doesn’t. As installing custom ROMs is not an option I can’t say to install Lineage without the Google apps, so YMMV.
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@mrl said in Android without google?:
I know there are substitutes for calendar, maps, etc, but how well do they integrate with the system?
It's not Apple. You choose the apps that you use for certain things by default.
Can I use the phone without google account? Or connect it only for app installation?
No.
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@luhmann said in Android without google?:
No.
Are you sure? I'm pretty sure you can. Whenever I root my phone with some shady rootware, I always make sure I don't put it any personal info until I have a chance to reimage with a good known ROM.
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I have definitely set up Android devices with no Google account sign in required, though the setup process varies and the skip/later button may be in different places with different wordings.
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@lb_ said in Android without google?:
I have definitely set up Android devices with no Google account sign in required, though the setup process varies and the skip/later button may be in different places with different wordings.
That sounds promising. But I won't be able to install apps from the store without an account, correct?
(I mean mainly MS apps, Outlook, OneDrive, OneNote, etc)
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@mrl You need an account to use Google Play yes. But if the app you want is obtainable elsewhere you don’t need to use Google Play at all. But that’s up to the devs.
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If you don't mind Amazon having your info instead of Google, the Amazon Underground app store is pretty easy to sideload and is the biggest after the play store
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@jaloopa said in Android without google?:
If you don't mind Amazon having your info instead of Google, the Amazon Underground app store is pretty easy to sideload and is the biggest after the play store
Sadly, they don't have apps I use.
This is frustrating AF.
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Are you saying that this android can run on a phone without google underneath it, at all ? As in, without a gmail, without any google drive, and without any google play ?
That sounds preposterous to me.
If it were true (and I doubt it), then companies would be selling androids without a google. This clearly is not happening, so there must be some error in your calculations. I hope you realise that google is more than just Google Play ? Its a whole system that runs the phone from start to finish, and that is a very difficult thing to acheive. A lot of people dont realise this.
Google just spent $9 billion and many years to create Nexus, so it does not sound reasonable that some new alternative could just snap into existence overnight like that. It would take billions of dollars and a massive effort to achieve. RIM tried, and spent a huge amount of money developing Blackberry but could never keep up with Android. Microsoft tried to create their own system for years, but finally gave up recently and moved to Intel and Google.
Its just not possible that a freeware like the Android could be extended to the point where it runs the entire phone fron start to finish, without using some of the more critical parts of google. Not possible.
I think you need to re-examine your assumptions.
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@pie_flavor
Missed a 'computer' there.
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@mrl fake news
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I feel your pain. I, like you and Blakey, have also had to downgrade to Android recently. And I've gone back to feeling like I'm the administrator of my phone rather than its user.
Expect to spend days making the thing shut the hell up and stop spamming you with notifications, with many apps refusing to allow them to be turned off through the system settings (Google Maps has 8+ pages of notification toggle switches).
While the Google aspect isn't too bad (although it's spread to my PC browser) some phones have their own versions of apps, and some third-party apps don't allow you to switch from the default :(
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Well, I'm not switching just yet, I'm gathering info for now. The switch will come in a month or so - it seems that I'm in for a world of pain, so I'll rant about it here for sure.
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@lb_ said in Android without google?:
I have definitely set up Android devices with no Google account sign in required, though the setup process varies and the skip/later button may be in different places with different wordings.
I spent a few months with no Google account and no Google apps on my Android phone at all. As I recall, the battery lasted forever and the phone was basically cold to the touch during that time. :P But you do get to miss the convenience after a while. It's all about tradeoffs.
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@jaloopa said in Android without google?:
If you don't mind Amazon having your info instead of Google
That's a bit like choosing between the frying pan or the fire.
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@polygeekery said in Android without google?:
@jaloopa said in Android without google?:
If you don't mind Amazon having your info instead of Google
That's a bit like choosing between the frying pan or the fire.
The whole thing seems like choosing between eating hot and cold shit.
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@mrl Condolences. Windows Phone was great and it will be missed.
Google and Apple were too busy making snarky jokes about it to actually bother trying to use it and learn anything from it.
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Actually an answer this time.
First off, I dunno what your issue with Google is. They make quality software for the most part.
You can set any app you want for default actions like texting, email, camera, calendar etc. You can even install your own app launcher screen. There are Microsoft versions of everything, including launcher, if you want to switch over from Windows as smoothly as possible.
You do need a Google account when you set up the phone, and you'll use it for stuff like Google Play. So that would be the 'connect it only for app installation'. You don't have to sign into anything else if you don't want to.
I assume by calling home you mean data collection. You can't prevent that, not even by turning off the services it's collecting data for. Additionally if you get a customized version of Android, like a Samsung phone, they'll have installed their own trackers.
You can uninstall some stock apps, but not all of them. You can however disable them completely.
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@pie_flavor said in Android without google?:
They make quality software for the most part.
I beg to differ.
You can set any app you want for default actions like texting, email, camera, calendar etc. You can even install your own app launcher screen. There are Microsoft versions of everything, including launcher, if you want to switch over from Windows as smoothly as possible.
I'll definitely try that.
You do need a Google account when you set up the phone, and you'll use it for stuff like Google Play. So that would be the 'connect it only for app installation'. You don't have to sign into anything else if you don't want to.
I assume by calling home you mean data collection. You can't prevent that, not even by turning off the servicesEh...
a Samsung phone
That will not happen.
You can uninstall some stock apps, but not all of them. You can however disable them completely.
Good, disabling completely sounds nice.
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If you want Android without google you can try flashing AOSP or LineageOS.
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@mrl said in Android without google?:
@pie_flavor said in Android without google?:
They make quality software for the most part.
I beg to differ.
Remember, this is the person who thinks
is quality software.
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@mrl I believe the 'Yalp Store' app offers a gateway to the Play Store that doesn't require you to set up a google account, but i'm not certain about that. You can download it from F-Droid, an alternative app store focused on free/OSS apps.
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I'm very tempted to recommend Blackberry. I'm mostly happy with my KeyONE, and I think that the performance issues I've had might actually go away by trying to minimize Google things, but I'm just too embedded in the ecosystem to eliminate it.
There is a feature on Blackberry's version of Android called DTEK that is likely to appeal to you; you can audit what applications get what access to what services and when. If you want a history of when Firefox used GPS, or Microphone, or Camera, and where you were when that happened, you can do that. You can also set it to give you notifications when permissions are used, and you can enable/disable notifications on a per-app, per-permission basis.
It does look like the KeyTWO is supposed to come out very soon, so you might want to wait for that.
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@circuitsoft said in Android without google?:
I'm very tempted to recommend Blackberry. I'm mostly happy with my KeyONE, and I think that the performance issues I've had might actually go away by trying to minimize Google things, but I'm just too embedded in the ecosystem to eliminate it.
There is a feature on Blackberry's version of Android called DTEK that is likely to appeal to you; you can audit what applications get what access to what services and when. If you want a history of when Firefox used GPS, or Microphone, or Camera, and where you were when that happened, you can do that. You can also set it to give you notifications when permissions are used, and you can enable/disable notifications on a per-app, per-permission basis.
It does look like the KeyTWO is supposed to come out very soon, so you might want to wait for that.
Aaaand you're correct! Key2 it is - waiting for delivery from UK in some 3-4 weeks.
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@mrl said in Android without google?:
@jaloopa said in Android without google?:
If you don't mind Amazon having your info instead of Google, the Amazon Underground app store is pretty easy to sideload and is the biggest after the play store
Sadly, they don't have apps I use.
This is frustrating AF.
You're Polish, right? Can't you just pirate whatever's missing? Unlike iOS, Android allows installing any .apk file out of the box.
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@mrl Samsung has its own separate app store FWIW.
But I don't think anyone ever downloaded anything from there.
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@aliceif I can't even find it anymore, the icon got removed. And mostly it's just shit I already have like Amazon or don't need like games with Samsung-specific microtransaction deals.
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@magnusmaster said in Android without google?:
If you want Android without google you can try flashing AOSP or LineageOS.
He mentioned custom ROMs was right out.
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I've got the same problem when running the commercial version of SailfishOS with an Android app sandbox; it's Google-free but then you can't get at the apk files needed to run those apps.
I have downloaded mobile Firefox straight from their FTP server as isn't / wasn't available in the Yandex or Amazon store. Non-FOSS projects are less likely to give you the raw apks though.
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@mrl said in Android without google?:
how Google free can I get?
There are two main things that will tie you to Google in most configurations: the base services layer (Google Play Services) and the app store (Google Play). Everything else is pretty easy to replace (and will integrate to a standard that depends on the quality of the app). Switching to a different app store is possible AIUI, but not necessarily better, but you can side-load the apps you care about fairly easily if you've got the APKs; there's some warnings about it, but that's not a problem as you probably don't want to be updating software from untrusted sources without knowing it. I believe that getting rid of the base services layer is basically rooting the phone, but you can tell it to phone home a lot less (the main one is stopping location tracking).
What apps can be uninstalled depends on the configuration of the shipped device (the manufacturer will probably slap some crapware in there), but apps that don't get run are just space-wasters…
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@gąska said in Android without google?:
@mrl said in Android without google?:
@jaloopa said in Android without google?:
If you don't mind Amazon having your info instead of Google, the Amazon Underground app store is pretty easy to sideload and is the biggest after the play store
Sadly, they don't have apps I use.
This is frustrating AF.
You're Polish, right? Can't you just pirate whatever's missing? Unlike iOS, Android allows installing any .apk file out of the box.
I'm not sure what you mean by 'pirate' in this context, but no, I don't pirate things.
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This worked for me to get around Play Store in the past (on weird things like desktop phones using Android, or, in latest case, one of those warehouse inventory scanner things where the client wanted to install SIP softphones on them):
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31 posts and nobody's mentioned MicroG (https://microg.org/)? It's a free and open reimplementation of Google Services, for apps which depend on it (including Google apps).
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@jimbo1qaz-0 said in Android without google?:
31 posts and nobody's mentioned MicroG (https://microg.org/)? It's a free and open reimplementation of Google Services, for apps which depend on it (including Google apps).
It's was not fully compatible last time I checked. Plus I think I can't switch it for GS without rooting the phone (?).
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@jimbo1qaz-0 Welcome to the forums!
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@mrl FWIW: I had a Windows phone and had the same problem, when it started to die. Went with Android, hated every minute of it and finally after 5 or so months ditches the whole "smart"phone. I'm down to a dumbphone and it's just better. I can't believe people put up with that rubbish.
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:/
All I do is listen to audio books, get text messages / email, and use maps.
I don't know what it is I'm exactly missing out on here.
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@mrl said in Android without google?:
But I won't be able to install apps from the store without an account, correct?
(I mean mainly MS apps, Outlook, OneDrive, OneNote, etc)You can probably install those from somewhere else. However a large issue might be that you need updates for Chrome, because it doubles as the system WebView that all the modern “hybrid” apps—which includes much of the Microsoft stuff—rely on and that comes from Google and thus is installed via Play.
@atazhaia said in Android without google?:
You need an account to use Google Play yes.
I have used a “throw-away” (random username @gmail.com) account that I didn't even remember password for for years here. The account has to exists, but if you don't want to use any of the other features, it does not need any personal info and does not need to be connected to anything else.
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@el-dorko said in Android without google?:
@mrl FWIW: I had a Windows phone and had the same problem, when it started to die. Went with Android, hated every minute of it and finally after 5 or so months ditches the whole "smart"phone. I'm down to a dumbphone and it's just better. I can't believe people put up with that rubbish.
It may come to that - worst case scenario. There are apps that I find useful enough to have a smartphone, but on the other hand there are not that many. I wonder how my life would look with a dumbphone, maybe it would actually be better.
@bulb said in Android without google?:
I have used a “throw-away” (random username @gmail.com) account that I didn't even remember password for for years here. The account has to exists, but if you don't want to use any of the other features, it does not need any personal info and does not need to be connected to anything else.
It really doesn't matter if you put any personal info there, it's the data gathered that's identifying you.
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@mrl said in Android without google?:
@bulb said in Android without google?:
I have used a “throw-away” (random username @gmail.com) account that I didn't even remember password for for years here. The account has to exists, but if you don't want to use any of the other features, it does not need any personal info and does not need to be connected to anything else.
It really doesn't matter if you put any personal info there, it's the data gathered that's identifying you.
But if you don't use the applications, or don't use them with the account, they can only gather the list of installed applications and your approximate location, but not much else.
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@MrL if you're after alternative app stores for Android with no Google nonsense, I'd highly recommend APK Pure. I've been using it for a few years with good results.
You don't even need to install the app, you can just use the web interface if you want to keep your android installation lightweight.
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@xaade said in Android without google?:
All I do is listen to audio books, get text messages / email, and use maps.
I don't know what it is I'm exactly missing out on here.Well to give just one example, my Android phone binged me on Saturday with an important notification. What was it?
"Give the best cellphone to dad or grads buy a Motorola blah blah"
Yeah it was a fucking commercial. I bought the phone, Motorola, I paid cash-money for it and I paid extra for the (supposed) "ad-free" version. Why did I get this ad! Why did Google send me ads! Why does Android send ad notifications!
That's something Windows Phone never did.
This reminds me, I should write an Amazon review making sure people know even the "ad-free" version sends ads.
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@blakeyrat said in Android without google?:
@xaade said in Android without google?:
All I do is listen to audio books, get text messages / email, and use maps.
I don't know what it is I'm exactly missing out on here.Well to give just one example, my Android phone binged me on Saturday with an important notification. What was it?
"Give the best cellphone to dad or grads buy a Motorola blah blah"
Yeah it was a fucking commercial. I bought the phone, Motorola, I paid cash-money for it and I paid extra for the (supposed) "ad-free" version. Why did I get this ad! Why did Google send me ads! Why does Android send ad notifications!
That's something Windows Phone never did.
This reminds me, I should write an Amazon review making sure people know even the "ad-free" version sends ads.
That's odd. Never happened to me.
Wait, there's a version of the phone that is marketed as being full of ads?
I have the samsung, which is apparently the worst phone ever made, but I haven't really had any problems that I particularly noticed.
Sorry about that. I didn't realize there were Android phones so scummy.
Reminds me of the movie "Ready player one". The VP guy wanted to sell ad space on the virtual display, taking up so much room as to make it practically non-functional. I thought that was being facetious, but I guess now I know what to look forward to. :(
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@xaade said in Android without google?:
Wait, there's a version of the phone that is marketed as being full of ads?
Yeah Amazon sells some low-end electronics in two versions, one which has ads embedded (but saves you a few $$$) and one that's ad-free. A little ridiculous for a $200 phone, but there you go.
If you buy their own cheap Fire tablet with ads, it becomes monumentally cheap. Like $25 or something. Pretty ridiculous.
BTW I bought this phone before I learned that Motorola is now Lenovo. I wouldn't have bought it had I known. Because fuck Lenovo.
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@blakeyrat said in Android without google?:
@xaade said in Android without google?:
Wait, there's a version of the phone that is marketed as being full of ads?
Yeah Amazon sells some low-end electronics in two versions, one which has ads embedded (but saves you a few $$$) and one that's ad-free. A little ridiculous for a $200 phone, but there you go.
If you buy their own cheap Fire tablet with ads, it becomes monumentally cheap. Like $25 or something. Pretty ridiculous.
I just got a vision of the future where everything was like Twitch ads for bits.
You stand in line at the grocery and you pay for food by watching ads.
xaade shudders
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This post is deleted!
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@xaade Why would you ask that in a thread about using Android without Google?
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@blakeyrat said in Android without google?:
@xaade said in Android without google?:
All I do is listen to audio books, get text messages / email, and use maps.
I don't know what it is I'm exactly missing out on here.Well to give just one example, my Android phone binged me on Saturday with an important notification. What was it?
"Give the best cellphone to dad or grads buy a Motorola blah blah"
Yeah it was a fucking commercial. I bought the phone, Motorola, I paid cash-money for it and I paid extra for the (supposed) "ad-free" version. Why did I get this ad! Why did Google send me ads! Why does Android send ad notifications!
That's something Windows Phone never did.
It's also something none of the 8 Android phones me and my family have owned (2 of which were Motorola) ever did. They also never did something the only Windows phone I've ever seen did on daily basis - crash during a phone call so bad it reboots itself.
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@gąska WAR OF THE ANECDOTES!
Sorry your Windows Phone was broken I guess?
