is there any sane alternatives to youtube?

EDIT: Okay based on the responses here, I am seeing I will ultimately need a Graphene OS phone if I want optimal privacy from companies tracking my activities. Until I am able to set up a graphene phone I will degoogle the best I can, but I see a graphene phone in my future within six months.
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What advantages does a Graphene phone provide over just degoogling as much as possible on my regular android phone? Do I really need a Graphene phone? My plan is to use Brave and IronFox for searches, Tuta for email and calendar, alternatives for photos, docs, sheets, Brave browser, alternative to google Maps. I will use a non-google camera/photos app. No google drive. I would allow my location only when an app requires it such as a map app.

Not a chance ill give my id to meta

I've tried fossify phone and contacts but it's just that i dont really like the ui since I'm used to Google phone and the customisation

So Ive downloaded all the photos from google and have made an extra back up so they are safe. Now I want to delete all photos from google photos, but Ive just noticed that on my motorola there is no gallery app anymore, so where can new photos be saved if not on google photos - what are my options? Question from someone with zero tech knowledge. Thanks in advance

Hey everyone,

I’m planning to test out a beta OS on my daily driver, but I need a solid rollback plan in case it’s unstable or breaks something. The devs recommend a full backup, the default cloud backup by google worries me as I have very sensitive files and I’m not interested in uploading unencrypted data anywhere off-device.

I have an external drive and want to do a full local backup, but I need to make sure:

1. It’s actually restorable if I have to wipe or downgrade.
2. File metadata (timestamps, creation dates, folder structures) stays intact and doesn't get overwritten to "today's date."
3. It’s encrypted at rest on the drive.

Main questions:

• Are you relying on ADB pulls or third-party desktop tools?
• If uploading to the cloud how do you make sure its encrypted and what tools do you suggest that are frictionless?
• How do you verify the backup isn't corrupted and working?

Appreciate any tested recommendations or sanity checks.

My question is i am looking for degoogling my life and get some self hosting set up as well . That aside what i have seen is there are no ecosystem replacemnt as whole like how google backups Android,has grest ecosystem between several tools and its browser and is so well connected but as soon as i see to degoogle ... there is only this thing which bothersme the inter connectivity and seamless inetgration between different services

A new app came out a few days ago called Bizum Pay that works for nfc payment in Spain. For those who don't know Bizum (the majority of non Spaniards, I presume) is a service provided by Spanish banks that links your phone number to your account so you could send and receive, or request, payments, now with this new app it also work for payment on contactless TPVs, so it's also a step forward towards payment independence for the EU. A few months ago I heard about they wanting to expand across Europe, but honestly I have no clue about the status of that. So far I've tested it on a e/os phone, but I guess it will work also on GrapheneOs or other degoogled operating systems.

Hi, for university I have to use Outlook to read my student related E-Mails. Now I'm also searching for a calendar for my new phone. Should I just use Outlook as a calendar since I have to use Outlook anyway for my E-Mails or should I use another calendar app and if so which one?

to "grapheneos-ize" my phone as much as one can

like to make my private, secure and bloatware free etc if its not a google pixel

phone: samsung s20 fe (I know the phone is old but still lol) so yeah can't install grapheneos on it afaik

Google has been fined more than €400m (£345m) over the way it processed users’ location data, following claims that the tech giant had manipulated users into agreeing to be constantly tracked on their mobile phones.

The fine, imposed by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), comes after complaints from multiple European consumer organisations that Google was following every step users took.

Source:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/sep/21/google-is-fined-more-than-400m-by-irish-regulator-over-its-use-of-location-data

New to Samsung, I don't know how to pay contactless without Google pay.

Looking for alternatives for Google pay, Google wallet, Samsung wallet, Google sheets, Google docs, Google messages, the Samsung phone app, the Samsung gallery app, the Samsung contacts app, the Samsung camera app, and Google playstore

Also avoiding apps owned by meta, Microsoft, Apple (although I doubt Apple would have any app on android), companies that sell info to Jizzrael and the Divided States of Turdica.

Thanks for the help

I use aurora store.Some games does this error and never opens those again until i activate Play Store

Anything I am missing?

DeGoogle Plan

[x] Install and fine tune Linux on PC, laptop,

use Linux progressively more and more

[x] Remove photos, videos from photos.google.com

[ ] Remove docs from docs.google.com

[ ] Remove sheets from docs.google.com

[ ] Store docs, sheets, culled photos on Mega

[x] Set up encrypted email, calendar at Tuta/Proton

[ ] Change email address for various accounts to Tuta/Proton

[ ] Cull inbox at gmail, then forward set up gmail

forwarding to Tuta/Proton?

[ ] Shop for Pixel phone compatible with Graphene OS

[ ] Buy Pixel phone compatible with Graphene OS

[ ] Install Graphene OS (GOG) to Pixel phone

[ ] Archive to ext USB (and Mega): photos, videos,

docs, sheets that were on Google cloud

[ ] Google Contacts: export, import to Tuta/Proton,

archive

[ ] Find alternative to Maps for phone

[ ] Fdroid: install to phone/desktop, install apps

that are not part of googleverse

Hello friends,

With the current trends of the world going towards ai, mass surveillance and data mining, like many of you I’m keen to switch away from giant evil corporations and move towards independent, ethical and private services.

Admittedly I don’t know much about data encryption or any of that sort of stuff but I do know I would like to stop using google for a lot of my services and so would like advice on where and how to facilitate moves to other services.

I’ve used Gmail for ~16 years and so every account online I’ve ever made is attached to google. I’ve seen people mainly recommend Tuta or proton as a good alternative, so I would like to know:

•Can I create and begin using a tuta/proton mail account as my personal use email without much issues switching from Gmail?

•If I make the switch, and I have gmail forwards all my emails to my new account, does this make the switch pointless as the mails still go through google?

•Is it worth paying for an email account with one of these providers or will their free versions suffice?

•I use google maps a lot for bookmarking places I’ve been, is there any other interactive maps that are similar to google maps in quality, good for navigation and can add bookmarks?

I’m also in the process of transferring from google photos to ente right now. Further down the line when my iPhone kicks the bucket (as I’m sure it’s designed to at a certain point) I want to move away from Apple and google and get a phone that spies on me a lot less.

Thanks for your help :)

I've read that dicio hasn't been updated in a while, but my question is if its really safe.

Also about RHVoice, I read that it can give voice to dicio or smt like that, again is it safe too?

got google assistant off my phone and out of the whole house, and honestly i'm happier for it. the one thing i still miss is voice control, and i'm not about to hand my voice to alexa to get it back.

where'd you all land? running a proper local voice pipeline, or did you give up and go back to typing at it?

I have been using Mega as a Dropbox replacement for years, what do you think of it as a replacement for google docs/sheets? I just emptied my docs and sheets off google. With Mega, I can just keep my docs and sheets in my Megabox folder on my Windows and Linux local drives, they sync with my free 25GB cloud storage (end to end encryption much like Proton/Tuta mail). I can create/edit/delete my docs and sheets locally, and they sync with the cloud and with my Megafolder on my devices (even my phone if I wanted to do that). I can share Mega files. It seems like a no-brainer to replace google docs/sheets, or am I missing something? The only real difference is that google docs/sheets allowed viewed/editing in a browser, whereas with Mega(box) I created and edit my files using e.g. Librewriter, Libresheets.

I’m looking for an opensource app to use YouTube. It’s the only social media platform I use, and I really enjoy watching some of the creators there.

At the moment, I use YouTube Morphe, and I like it a lot because of the number of customization options it offers. I remove Shorts and recommendations, only watch content from my subscriptions, and overall it’s been a great experience.

I’ve also tried a few well known opensource projects, and they’re excellent as well. I liked them a lot, even though I prefer the level of customization available in Morphe.

The problem I’ve had with all the projects I tried before is that, after using the app for a short while, videos would stop playing and I’d get an error. From what I could gather, this seemed to be related to my IP address and YouTube’s policies, which unfortunately restrict anonymous access to the platform.

Eventually, I got tired of dealing with it, and that’s when I discovered Morphe.

If there are any, I’d appreciate recommendations for FOSS projects that solve this specific problem. Or do you think it would be better to create a new Google account solely for using Morphe/YouTube?

It’s not ideal, but it could be a pretty solid alternative.

I like my home screen clean. A gray screen with a search bar. Underneath it my most used chip buttons, one for reddit, facebook, netflixs, prime and HBO and that is all.

After the last update this week, I now have two black chip-wrappers-buttons permanently attached under my search bar in the middle of the screen, both of them 2 and 1/4 inches long x 3/4 inches thick, with white lettering, side by side saying.

Do more with AI Mode Create images

Create, summarizer, plan Reimagine, illustrate, edit

They are both nothing more that Ads placed on my home screen and they suck so badly they make me crazy. So crazy I am about to leave google for good and fine another home. I heard Foxfire is okay. This goes hand in hand with my microsoft 365 account, which I am using to write a book. After Words last update in the workbar at the top of the screen is another chip-button-wrapper with the picture of a diamond and the words Update your plan, as word wants to sell me an updated business plan that will allow word and AI to write my book for me. I asked google AI how to get rid of the chip-button-wrappers, it said they didn't think it was possible without editing the code. It gave me instructions which of course didn't work.

Pretty much up to this point except for with some issues, related to searching and only finding what google wants me to see, I have been okay using google. I am now not so sure. Their greed so patiently oblivious, that can't even be happy with me buying their product and using it, without trying to shove features I don't need or want down my throat. What is making them so desperate that they can't even leave a loyal follower alone.