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What apps have you tried to "de-google" yourself? (reddthat.com)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by pleasestopasking@reddthat.com to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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Right now a lot of us are trying to divest and diversify from having our entire lives on Google both because of the way Google spends its money and the long-standing privacy concerns seeming a bit more scary now.

What services have you switched to and what has your experience been? What do you like, what don't you like, would you recommend them?

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[-] rraggl@feddit.nl 3 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Desktop: Linux (Tuxedo)
Browser: Vivaldi
Search: Ecosia & DDG
Mail / Groupware / Calendar / Contacts / Cloud Drive / Meet: Infomaniak kSuite Pro
Backup: Syncthing
Movies / Netflix / Amazon Prime: buying DVD / Bluray and ripping to my home media server with Jellyfin and Videoland.nl
Mobile Phone: Fairphone with /e/OS or Calyx
Whatsapp: Signal, Matrix / Element, Briar, Threema
YouTube: Grayjay, Floatplane, Nebula, Curiosity Stream
Maps: Magic Earth
Photos: ente.io
Authenticator: Ente Auth
Twitter / X: Mastodon
Cards: Catima
Keep / Evernote: Notesnook / Anytype
Backup comms: Meshtastic / UHF / VHF
Translate: DeepL
Podcasts: Antennapod
Google Home: Home Assistant
Google Assistant / Gemini: Mistral Le Chat / LLama
Router: openWRT (GL.iNET Flint2)
Firewall: opnSense (Deciso)
Pushbullet: KDE Connect
speedtest.net: LibreSpeed
Fing: Ning
Kobo / Kindle: Pocketbook
Amazon: Local / European dealers
Pocket: Wallabag
Creality / Bambulab: Prusa
VPN: Proton, Wireguard, Tailscale

[-] black0ut@pawb.social 1 points 19 minutes ago

Vivaldi is google

[-] 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 2 hours ago

for speedtest, fast.com is pretty great as it's a pretty lightweight page and uses netflix's servers which mean it's not really possible for ISPs to game it

[-] Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago

Cloudflares test site is more informative btw

[-] Bronzie@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Almost everything, finally!
OS: GrapheneOS
Calendar: Proton
Browser: Firefox
Storage: NAS
Youtube: NewPipe and SmartTube

I’m still stuck with Maps and Android in my car as it has Android Automotive, but I’m happy with my progress so far

[-] somenonewho@feddit.org 5 points 10 hours ago

My selfhosted Nextcloud does:

Cloud storage (including photo storage)
Contact/Calendar/Task Sync (DAV Droid)
Notes
Podcast subscription and progress sync (gpodder)

While I use OSMAnd for offline navigation MAPS is still my go-to for navigation/discovering places.

My phone is currently running stock Android

[-] Niquarl@lemmy.ml 1 points 8 hours ago

What podcast apps do you use with gPodder?

[-] somenonewho@feddit.org 5 points 7 hours ago

Honestly I just use AntennaPod on Android. I've used Gpodder Desktop before but I don't really listen to podcasts on desktop... So I don't really need the sync but it's nice to have especially if you're moving phones/OS

Regarding AntennaPod it's honestly the perfect podcast app it does everything (chapters/chapter images ...) I want from a podcast app and it's open source

[-] OADINC@feddit.nl 1 points 6 hours ago

I use Antennapod too, I really like it :)

[-] SexDwarf@lemmy.world 5 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Replaced

Gmail -> Proton Mail
Keep -> Joplin
Docs -> LibreOffice + OpenDocument Reader
Drive 100 Gb -> Proton Drive (free 5 Gb)
Photos -> ente photos
Play Books -> ReadEra Premium + Kobo
Translate & Lens -> DeepL

Haven't been able to replace (just yet)

Wallet
Maps & Earth
Sheets
Home
Calendar

[-] Liljekonvalj@feddit.org 5 points 8 hours ago

Tutamail has a calendar. Tutamail hasn't said anything positive or factual about the republican parties either. They've made no statements

[-] SexDwarf@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

Tutamail shared calendars (which is a must) subscription was so confusing I didn't understand it. Like their whole subscription model is needlessly complicated.

[-] lud@lemm.ee 2 points 7 hours ago

Since you already use proton you should check out proton calendar.

[-] SexDwarf@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

We tried it but my wife hated it. With Proton, you have choose one subscription. I already use Pass plus so I can't have Mail plus (shared calendars) without Proton ultimate which is an overkill in my situation and too expensive.

[-] Lyra_Lycan@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

I guess I'll share my setup aha. Forewarning: I invested heavily into self hosting and being in full control of as much as possible, mainly to try to be 'Internet independent'.

Google ads, APIs, telemetry and everything else that is not necessary: AdGuard Home (selfhosted)
Android app store: Fdroid with IzzyOnDroid repo, failing that Aurora Store, if apps still whine about not being to use Play Services then I use the Play Store
Gmail: Mailcow Dockerized (selfhosted) with K9 Android client
SMS (not that I use it anyway): Fossify SMS
Instant messaging: Matrix (selfhosted) for Discord/Telegram style with Element client, or Telegram FOSS
File Manager (I goddamn hate that Google Files forces itself onto any phone after initial setup, even when there's a manufacturer installed one already): Material Files
GBoard (It's also really fucking invasive): HeliBoard
YouTube: via Revanced Manager, with Odysee as a hopeful replacement. Much lower userbase though, obviously.
Google Photos (refuses to settle for less than 100% file access): Part of a self hosted Samba share that I keep synced to via FolderSync (from Play Store - they charge €10 for the app outside of Google)
Chrome: Brave (I downloaded a script to debloat it of crypto and AI)
Google Search: My partner uses Ecosia for environment reasons, and I use DuckDuckGo for privacy reasons
Chromecast: I recommend a Roku
AndroidOS: CalyxOS if Pixel, LineageOS if not
Play Services: Gapps pico or nano because some things are still tied to Play Services
Maps is superior, unfortunately, but OSMAnd is a good alt
Google DNS, used by default by a lot of things like routers: Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1

[-] black0ut@pawb.social 1 points 16 minutes ago

Brave is chrome

[-] kamen@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

I've tried HeliBoard as already suggested elsewhere, but I find its autocorrect and suggestions absolutely abysmal in English and even worse in my native Bulgarian. With Gboard I can usually type a letter or two and it already knows what's up, and it often knows what's the next word based just on the previous one.

How's your experience with it?

[-] black0ut@pawb.social 1 points 11 minutes ago

Usually autocorrect accuracy is directly proportional to info stealing by the keyboard. Google's autocorrect is so good because it's constantly phoning home with what people write so they can improve their model.

I use a keyboard with no autocorrect (Unexpected Keyboard), and, although it took a while to get used to it, I got used to typing fast and mostly accurately after some time using it. You can also get used to your autocorrect's quirks, and you'll find that you will type faster with it.

[-] JustARegularNerd@lemmy.world 24 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

Been degoogled for years at this point:

Stock Android --> LineageOS or GrapheneOS (no gapps)
YouTube --> Invidious*, NewPipe
Google Search --> DuckDuckGo, Brave Search
Google Play Store --> F-Droid, Aurora Store

I've also decoupled from other similar services:

Outlook --> ProtonMail
Calendar --> Nextcloud*
OneDrive --> Nextcloud*
Windows, macOS --> Linux (after years of distrohopping, I found LMDE is incredibly stable while still being a nice "out of box" distro)
Google Maps, Apple Maps --> OSMAnd, Organic Maps

I never used any online password manager myself, I went from writing passwords in a literal book to KeePass, to now Vaultwarden* for that

* - self hosted

[-] Lyra_Lycan@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 13 hours ago

Nice, I have also chosen most of the same as you. For custom ROM there's CalyxOS, which ironically makes a Pixel phone one of the best picks for deGoogleing
I don't like the proprietary style of Proton Mail, plus they charge to have more than one account logged in, which is very inconvenient, so I set up my own Mailcow instance

For YouTube I highly recommend ReVanced

For notes I use Apache-CouchDB and connect using Obsidian with the LiveSync plugin. Live sync is fantastic and is as close as I think I'll ever get to OneNote.

NextCloud is great, a pain in the arse to add existing files as you need to upload everything, but a few hours of uploading with Cloudflare set to DNS only is fine

[-] JustARegularNerd@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago

I've considered CalyxOS but prefer the hardening of GrapheneOS with no gapps - still means a phone decent on privacy. However I do try to keep an open mind, so if CalyxOS has additional privacy benefits to my existing setup I'd be interested.

I agree with the proprietary style of ProtonMail point, and my workaround for multiple accounts has been to use my own domain and have email rules for delivering messages to the respective folder. I don't have immediate plans to move from them, but I am watching the news cycle and have considered Tuta as an alternative.

I haven't used ReVanced, but I remember the original YouTube Vanced was a mod of the original YouTube apk - if that's still the case, I feel like ReVanced would offer even less privacy than Invidious or NewPipe. However I'm happy to be corrected.

I personally use Nextcloud notes but the Obsidian setup you have sounds interesting, especially if it's like OneNote - I'll keep it in mind!

Completely agree on your Nextcloud points - I uploaded my uncompressed Telegram archive to it, which took like 12 hours over my Gigabit lan. I suspect it hated the sheer amount of small files

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this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025

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