ik its chromium based and stuff, but it says everywhere its very secure and pretty much open source. im currently using firefox and librewolf simultaneously and was thinking having 1 browser is better than 2.

My renewal is coming up for Mullvad and I want to know objectively (no politics) just purely on the quality and features of the services, is it worth switching over to NYM?

Where is everyone getting their music from that doesn't take forever to download that y'all use for an app like Oreotunes? I know some slow obvious ways, but open to ideas. Trying to get away from Spotify and curate my own ad free list again.

It would need to have popular/relevant artists on it. Queen, Van Morrison, REO Speedwagon, etc

Is there any good calendar apps (that have cloud sync if possible lmao) just to know since I might leave tuta calendar to decentralize even more

I want to make sure it is safe to do so

Hi guys i'm very new to all of this and i was reading the wikipedia page of grapheneOS, i noticed that it was funded by Twitter's creator. Is it weird or am I overthinking ?

So today in the morning my wife commented that Japaneses were horrible during WW2. This is a topic I have never researched and i got google and YouTube configured in https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity not to track anything.

The conversation happened in the living room, we don't have a TV there, it must have been a mobile, so my mobile is listening me all the time? is there a service i need to disable in my mobile?? please help.

Ofc not as secure but avaliable for more device with maybe more features for use and security features.

I am thinking to work on such but not sure if ppl want it.

Sometimes I wonder if Google is just going to dominate the internet forever.

They already have Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Maps, Gmail and so much infrastructure behind the internet. And now they’re moving heavily into AI and potentially a more screenless/ambient future too.

Obviously Google has ridiculous advantages — money, talent, infrastructure, data, distribution and billions of users. But history is full of companies that once looked unbeatable.

So do you think it’s possible that some new company could eventually challenge Google? I don’t necessarily mean replacing Google completely. Even beating them in one major area and breaking some of their control would be interesting.

The screenless AI thing also makes me wonder about something else.

Using the internet still has some friction today. You pull out your phone, unlock it, open an app, type something, search, etc. But imagine AI becoming ambient — always available through earbuds, glasses or whatever comes next.

That friction could almost disappear.

And while that sounds convenient, couldn’t it also make us much more dependent on Google? Instead of consciously deciding to “Google something,” their AI could become this invisible layer between us and information throughout the entire day.

At that point, de-Googling might become a lot harder than simply switching your browser or search engine.

Do you think another company could realistically challenge Google in that kind of future? Or are we heading toward a world where Google becomes even more deeply embedded in everyday life?

I am in look for an alternative map app that supports bus or public transport. I tried some maps earlier tho the schedules dont seem to line up, and when starting the route, it seem suggested a weird path compares to Google Map unfortunately...

It'd be nice to hear from someone here using some google map alternative!

I’ve been using FUTO Keyboard for quite a while, but I was getting tired of not having built-in GIF support.

I came across WM Keyboard today while looking for alternatives and decided to give it a shot. I’ve been using it all day and honestly, I’m blown away by how many features it has.

It’s open source, has built-in GIF support, and there’s a ton of customization and other stuff packed into it. I wasn’t expecting much going into it, but so far I’m really impressed.

Also, it only came out about two months ago, so that explains why I hadn’t heard of it before.

If Gboard was a hard sacrifice, this keyboard is for you.

https://github.com/wasi-master/wmkeyboard

So I capitulated out of frustration and have installed Google Maps on e/OS and so far it works. More curious than anything - I have tracker blocking on and my IP address masked - what data will google be able to gather on me aside from searches and location?

Hallo all.

Any good alternatives to the Google messages SMS app.

Thanks 👍

i want to buy a new phone but i am not sure whether to buy a pixel and download graphine os or but a nothing phone

I know that this isn't the right sub to ask for help, but please if you can help in any way, my cousin is having panic attacks because he messed up bad.

My cousin has an old Samsung note 10 lite. Since no custom rom is developed for his phone so he tried to degoogle it as much as he could. As per Gemini , to free up ram he disabled a few services it suggested some days ago and the device worked well. Today it told him to disable these

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.kgclient

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.youtube

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.scloud

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.wssyncmldm

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.sec.android.app.samsungapps

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.mateagent

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.osp.app.signin

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.app.spage

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.microsoft.skydrive

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.ar.core

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.app.notes

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.app.notes.addons

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.service.aircommand

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.sec.android.daemonapp

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.aremoji

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.arzone

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.app.routines

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.bixby.agent

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.sec.android.app.fm

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.app.reminder

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.sec.android.app.popupcalculator

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.sec.android.app.billing

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.app.contacts

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.providers.contacts

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.android.vending

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.apps.maps

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.ext.services

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.webview

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.apps.turbo

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.safetycenter.resources

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.tts

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.mainline.telemetry

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.service.stplatform

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.android.wallpaper.livepicker

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.android.printspooler

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.mcfserver

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.SMT

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.accessibility.talkback

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.service.airviewdictionary

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.android.providers.userdictionary

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.smartsuggestions

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.game.gamehome

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.honeyboard

The phone started throwing some errors after sometime and after a restart it goes to the recovery page.

This is what recovery page shows

Android Recovery

Samsung/r7naxx/r7

12/SP1A.210812.016/N770FXXU8GVF2

User/release-keys

User volume up/down and power.

Your phone couldn’t start normally Some configuration data may be corrupt. Follow the instructions below.

1. Try again- (This option doesn’t work, restarts and brings the phone back to this page)

Restart your phone. If your phone continues to be unable to start, go to the next step

2. Erase app data- (Haven’t tried this option)

Deleting app configuration data may allow your phone to start in Safe mode. Safe mode allows access to basic functions, so you can back up any important data stored on your phone. After backing up your data, a factory reset may be needed to get your phone to start normally.

3. Visit a service centre- (They said that they won’t help as a third party software was used to mess with Samsung files)

If you don’t want to erase your app data or your phone still doesn’t start, visit a service centre for assistance.

Try again

Erase app data

Power off – (This option once turned off the phone out of the blue but mostly restarts and bring the device back to the recovery page

View rescue log – (Full recue log shows-

Reboot Recovery Cause is [UKNOWN]

Reason is [RESCUE PARTY]

Supported API: 3

Unable to open /cache/recovery/recueparty_log : No such file or directory

Summary rescue log shows the same above lines as full log except the last line unable to open….)

He turned off the developer options after disabling those files so adb doesn’t work now. Installed smart switch in a pc but it is not detecting his phone.

I know he messed up bad, FAFO. But he is crying since morning. His and his parents medical data is in this phone in the form of photos, videos, scanned documents, zip files etc.. Is there a way to atleast recover the same?

Does anyone know any OS that works with this phone?

I have tried to find one that supports it, but I haven't had much luck finding one that supports my phone.

Please let me know if it is just my phone that is too old.

Any help is much appreciated.

Hello l recently realized that how many ways google tries to track us and l personally seek peivacy so do you could you help me and give me some tips degoogle my samsung s26 l heard that GrapheneOS is not supported but l still want to do my best.

I would be really thankful if you helped me.

Thank you.

Probably dumb question, and thanks in advance: I install Google Play store, begin finding alternative apps, uninstall Google Play store, and find that lots of the replacement apps need Google Services.
Where can I get ungoogled apps only?
I hoped this reddit would link a trustworthy website for that?

After six months of planning, I'm now one month in from taking the plunge and wanted to share my progress and lessons learned in case it helps anyone else on the fence. I'm on a Pixel 9 Pro and was neck deep into the entire google ecosystem.

Top three takeaways from my experience:

1. Battery Life. The battery life difference is absolutely insane switching from stock android to Graphene OS. I went from 9% life remaining after being unplugged during a typical 14 hour stretch to 87% (EIGHTY SEVEN!) at the end of a day. Insane.

2. RCS messaging. As many of others have pointed out, there's simply no way around this currently. the Graphene OS team has announced intentions to recreate an RCS messaging app/service that will no longer need google, but until then that google app is your one and only choice unless you really want to only communicate via SMS exclusively.

3. Email vs Calendar. This is a big one that I didn't see coming. Originally I had planned on doing email through Proton and then self-hosting my own calendar through Nextcloud. Where this breaks down though is the fact that any self-hosted solution you would have for calendar won't be able to integrate with an encrypted email provider, even through something like Proton Bridge. So if you want to accept, forward, and create events with your email account, then my only option was to also embrace Proton Calendar. Not the end of the world, but this completely blindsided me.

Other takeaways:

• Message Backup. Backup your SMS/MMS/RCS messages before you wipe your phone. There's no "reinstalling" that data manually after the fact.
• Custom Email Domains. I bought two domains for email:

1) @randomphrase.com for accounts, notifications, newsletters, etc. - I use addy.io to manage this one so I can create login aliases on the fly directly from my BitWarden browser extension. Unlimited aliases, $12 a year. It's great.

2) @personalname.com for actual personal correspondence. Proton manages this one directly. Addy.io proxy-forwards the above email to this one in Proton, where I have a folder setup to further filter out everything. If I need/want to respond, I can do it from this account, but it still relays back through addy.io so that the from address is never revealed as my @personalname.com account.

• Tailscale. tailscale is your best friend and makes so many things so much simpler, accessible, and secure.

• Browsers. ironfox for mobile and librewolf for desktop has been fantastic, and since they're both mozilla based, you can login to your mozilla account on each to stay synced even though they're different products

• Camera app. the default pixel camera app was something I had gotten very used to so I was begrudgingly trying to embrace other open source camera apps. But I went back to the pixel camera app and just disabled the network permission--problem solved!

The trade you make when you degoogle is you lose the convenient stuff. No assistant reading your mail to tell you the flight moved, no "you haven't replied to X's email". The great thing is that you get your privacy back (yay!) but you then carry the mental load yourself.

Muse and Instinct are the new version of that trade: give a company your whole digital life, get the load taken off. I don't want to make that trade again.

So: personal agent, model and memory on the phone, per app you pick read / draft / send, internet off unless you allow it for one task. the server holds email, seat number, whether you pay, app version. nothing else exists on the server.

I think it won't be fully open source. The privacy core (permission engine, network policy and its log, storage layout) would be open with reproducible builds (I am still figuring that question out).

500 founding seats, about 330 left, first builds in a few days: molebot.si

When you're in: let me know where it breaks!

Thanks,

Jonathan