DeGoogle Yourself

A Nextbike client without Google Play service dependencies.

The only feature from the normal app that is not available is the booking via the map (no Google Maps, bikes must be booked via QR code) and thus the reservation function.

The rest works without any problems.

They support now an occupational state to target civilians 🤬

✅ LineageOS
❎ Google Apps
✅ F-droid
✅ Antennapod
✅ Voice
✅ Fossify apps
✅ Kvaesitso launcher

I'm not gonna lie, this "dumb phone" is awkwardly close to how my daily driver has looked for the better part of a decade.

Summary: nothing seems to have changed on my phone except for an initial notification that my device is no longer supported.

The Pixel 4a with GrapheneOS is my secondary phone where I test out apps before committing to them on my main phone and sequester less desirable apps like Whatsapp. GrapheneOS support for it ended over a year ago, so the update notification today was quite the surprise.

With Google recently rolling out an update to the 4a that cripples its battery and charging, I was very wary, knowing that at least one of the GrapheneOS maintainers intends to discourage use of older, unsupported models.

My Pixel had been on the 2024092100 release of GOS, which oddly enough is not tagged in the repo. Comparing the closest release, 2024080800, with 2025012100 yielded no differences in the code (https://github.com/GrapheneOS-Archive/device_google_sunfish/compare/2024080800-sunfish...2025012100-sunfish). So I went ahead with it.

Upon booting, I found a notification saying that my device is no longer supported with a brief explanation. I dismissed it before I could type it up here since I was worried it was a sticky nag banner. It seems that this is acting upon what was mentioned on their Mastodon some time ago:

https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/111170300209864856

I'll come back to update this post if it does become a nag notification.

However, the lack of code changes might just point to me having dismissed the warning last update and then forgetting about it. But why else would they put out an update at this point?

Regardless, I can happily say that there is no impact on my Pixel 4a's battery life and fast charging is still allowed. I have no evidence that anything should have changed, but I'm not knowledgeable enough about the GrapheneOS code to make any promises.

Update: The notification does come back upon reboot, which was not the case before the update. It reads:

This device is no longer supported

This device stopped receiving full security updates in September 2023 and isn't safe to use anymore regardless of OS choice. It's strongly recommended to replace it as soon as possible. Tap to see more info.

Tapping opens up the GOS FAQ section on device support. I'll come back in a couple days if it recurs without reboot.

I have to update a phone that currently has LOS, and degoogle it at the same time. If I just upgrade to the latest version (by flashing) and not install mind the gapps, is it basically a degoogled phone? It seems that installing /e/ over the current LOS would require me to flash stock rom first, which takes more time. The current LOS version on the phone was just 1 or 2 iterations below the latest version, 20 or 21 I don't remember.

TIA

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.today/post/22107773

As the title says I'm looking for a good alternative for Heliboard. I've tried a few of them and:

• Heliboard is my favorite but the suggestions are a bit meh, sometimes it doesn't suggest correctly or does not auto correct me. Sometimes it does but sometimes it doesn't
• Futo is goat in suggestions compared to Heliboard but it doesn't have an much personalization as Heliboard (even if Heliboard isnt goat on that aspect). I can't change symbols layout based on my taste (or muscle memory tbh), themes are a nothing crazy IMO, I wish I was able to make my own but its currently set to "coming eventually"
• FlorisBoard was my first ever open source keyboard but at that time, it didn't have suggestions but placeholders so I uninstalled it because I need them

I'm looking for a few things (ordered by importance):

1. Multilanguage support for correction. Is it even possible? Before switching from Samsung Keyboard to Pixel + Foss keyboard, I think there was something similar but I could be wrong (Top priority but at the same time is optional if not possible/hard to have)
2. Great correction for multiple languages (IMHO Futo is superior to everything I've tried)
3. Customization: Symbols layout, I want to set my own symbols and "subsymbols" (? The hold to show more)
4. Customization: Themes. I want to be able to change the colors of the keys/background/etc basically how Samsung Keyboard is customizable with the Keyboard plugin in Good Lock (or some nice themes with limited personalization but I would love to set my own colors

Thanks!

Hi!

I have a light degoogled Zenfone, using Aurora Store and F-Droid. Recently my company moved offices and the new building requires an app to unlock the door, no alternatives -_-

The problem is, I can't sign in to the app due to an "Integrity API Error (-2)" - PLAY_STORE_NOT_FOUND. I don't work from the office very often so its not suuuper critical, but still quite annoying to always ask someone to let me into the building.. the apps support also said "sorry you gotta install the official store".

Does anyone know if I can resolve this somehow without installing the official playstore? I have not made any progress the last couple times I tried to find a solution..

Also annoying that Asus discontinued their bootloader unlock, so I am not even too sure about fully rooting my phone. Though, I could/should honestly look into that again, but have not managed yet..

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/23094766

Hey do you know any alternatives of google camera live translator for translating signs, documents, etc?

I recently switched from Vivaldi to Firefox bc chromium. I've since realized that the tabs, address bar, and bookmarks bar are like twice the size of other browsers. I've tried a couple Firefox based browsers and they all do the same. How can I make Firefox a normal size so I can actually see what I'm doing?

Edit: found out how to restore the old compact option. Search about:config in the address bar, then search "compact" and enable "browser.compactmode.show", then right-click a toolbar element, select "customize toolbar", and select compact from the density menu.

I'm actually using NativeAlpha app to my social networks. But I'm having an issue... Can't paste any link on my Facebook because the app crash. Can be a configuration issue or it's something about the app?

So I just took the next step on the de-Googling pathway and installed Asteroid OS on my smartwatch.

For the uninitiated, Asteroid OS is an open source alternative operating system that replaces Google's WearOS: https://asteroidos.org/

And my first impressions are that it's really nice 😁

So far, I actually like it better than WearOS.

The process for getting it set up was a little fiddly, and it took two attempts to get it right.

That's as much to do with the fastboot menu on my phone and its tiny text.

I wouldn't recommend doing it to my great uncle, but it's easy enough for anyone who knows their way around the terminal in Ubuntu. The instructions were very clear too.

@degoogle #Google #deGoogle

Hello everyone,

I am looking to degoogle my android phone (moto G stylus 2022 5G) but the issue is that there is no custom roms for android 13, however i can root the device and unlock the bootloader. I know in the past doing what im about to ask can break the phone, but has anyone ever had success degoolging their stock ROM with a rooted device?

As the title says, I want to finally degoogle (completely) my life. I've found a Pixel 7 8/128 for ~270€ (or pixel 8? ~470€ but no white :c) it's refurbished so google doesn't get a shit from me.

I'm curious to know if:

• You can change the default icons color (black and gray-ish in the image) or is based on the wallpaper
• The camera app is good. Not going to make professional pics or videos but I still want to use it to take pics and a good quality is important. Tried their camera on a phone and the bottom menu to switch mode (picture/video/night mode/etc) was buggy
• Battery life is better/worse than stock Android (if anyone tried that)
• How the sandboxed play services work
• Anything else that I should know about. Some people say it's good, some it's bad so I'm curious to know.

I'm still looking for a good maps replacement, Organic Map is not the best because it's missing a lot of places where I live. I wish there was a google wallet Foss alternative... I needed it to use my card with the phone (rare but still possible!)

Help a new user to fully leave shitty phone companies

~~Edit: Does it have some kind of cross profile notifications? Can I see notifications of another profile on the main?~~

GrapheneOS supports forwarding notifications from users running in the background to the currently active user. Forwarding notifications to other users is disabled by default and can be enabled within each user profile where forwarding to the active profile is wanted. Notifications forwarded from other profiles are displayed by default in a standard local notification channel.

It does

My work uses a whole lot of group texts. I don't know why they don't use something like Signal or whatever...it is what it is.

But every Google Message alternative I've tried sends my replies to every member of the group individually rather than replying IN the group chat itself. Is that an issue with the app itself, or in the settings, or something else entirely.

I want to move away from anything that is linked in any way to stupid Gemini. But this is the last thing keeping me using Google's built-in Messages app.

Hey there, right now i degoogle my nothing phone 2. Here is a list of stuff that I use. Also some stuff is open. U can recommend me stuff for that and maybe also stuff I already have something for. I am always open for new stuff.

SMS - QKSMS

Phone / Contacts - Fossify

Clock - Fossify Clock

Browser - Brave Android and Pc

Search engine - Brave Search (would use Kagi but not for 10€ a month / would pay 1€ per month)

Keep notes - Quillpad (perfect)

Google Tasks - For now ToDoDo (not sure About it)

YouTube and Twitch - Grayjay

Email - Proton (mail plus sub is enough for me)

Calendar - Proton (tested Tuta but Proton is better)

Password manager - Bitwarden

2FA - Bitwarden (10€ per Year Sub)

Google Drive - Filen.io (lifetime 2tb no subscription), Synology Drive with DS224+ Nas, Synology Photos (DS224+ coming 2025 2x2tb Seagate iron Wolf) just photos Videos and some docs

Gallery App - Fossify Gallery, Nothing Gallery when it releases

Reddit - Eternity for Lemmy

Shazam - Audile

Playstore - Aurora Store, Droidify

Anti Virus - Bitdefender

Ad and Tracker Blocking - Adguard App (works awesome)

VPN - ... ?

Office - Colabora

PDF Scanner - OSS Document Scanner

Calculator App - OpenCalc

Google Files - Material Files but still searching for another one with Safe Folder Function

Translate - DeepL

Weather - Nothing Weather because I use Nothing Phone 2

Camera App - For now Nothing Camera

RSS Feed - Read You

What's App - ... ? searching for other Apps with working What's App Bridge (sadly everyone I know uses WhatsApp and doesn't want to change)

YouTube Music- ... ?

Google Home - ... ?

Greetings

Hi guys! I've been looking so bad for Greentooth app, is there any way to get it?

Looking for something - preferably open source/privacy respecting - that will allow me to perform reverse image searches

Today I unlocked a device I have that is not degoogled. A Play Store notification appeared about 1 update being available for an app called "Android Switch". However when I opened the Play Store to update it (I have automatic updates disabled), there were no updates (even after checking manually) and searching for the mentioned app in the settings didn't give any results.

I guess that's a yet another little reason to stay away from the Goolag ecosystem.

Hi everyone!

I’ve almost entirely degoogled my life, except for Youtube.

Here are my center of interests and some channels I follow:

• Linux: The Linux Experiment, Tech Hut
• Basketball: NBA, Andy Hoops, Heat Check, Jonny Arnett, BasketNews
• Cars: Throttle House, Everyday Driver, Car and Driver
• Console Gaming: GamingBolt, IGN
• Tech: Linus Tech Tips, Techquickie

Concerning Linux, it has been easy to find alternatives to YouTube as The Linux Experiment is on PeerTube and I can support him for 1$ a month Through Patreon.

Tech Hut is on Odysee so I could watch his videos here and support him through Buy Me A Coffee or something similar if I wanted to.

I know I could watch everything from the Linus Tech Tips on Floatplane but 5$ a month is a bit too expensive.

Do you have any suggestions about anyone producing similar content to what I’ve described above (Basketball, Console Gaming, Cars and Tech) that I could watch on a YouTube alternative?

I don’t mind paying 1-2$ a month for a channel I enjoy but I can’t pay more for now 😇

Hi guys! Recently my wife began to use my amazfit bip lite (old model). Have a lot of time without use the official application, always used gadgetbridge. Is there any way in gadgetbridge to have stats if I ride a bicycle?

Guys I don't know how Disroot"s doing, I've been using using proton and tuta for nearly 2 years, so far its good but I don't know much about disroot. So just wanna hear out some opinion.

Sorry if I'm the millionth to ask this, but what are some good trustworthy email providers? Even if paid. But if I'm paying it'd best if it's privacy focused. Thanks!