43 lines
4.6 KiB
Markdown
43 lines
4.6 KiB
Markdown
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---
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title: "A (Mostly) Google-Free Android"
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description: "My experience running Android without any Google Services or even a compatibility layer"
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date: 2020-05-18T15:28:02-04:00
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cover: /assets/pngs/android.png
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toc: true
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categories:
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- Technology
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tags:
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- FLOSS
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- Android
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- Google
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- Mobile
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- 100 Days To Offload
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---
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Let me put a little disclaimer right here at the beginning: I don't use my mobile phone how a lot of people do so your mileage will vary. I also say "Mostly" in the title because it's incredibly difficult to *completely* remove Google from Android though [some projects](https://www.replicant.us/) have done a very good job of it.
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## My motivation
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In short, I value my privacy and Google is about as far from privacy-friendly as you can get. What information algorithms are capable of extrapolating given enough data is downright *scary* and **[that is Google's entire business model](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03/google-says-it-doesnt-sell-your-data-heres-how-company-shares-monetizes-and)**. In addition, the company itself is [really quite terrible](https://www.alphabetworkers.org/resignation-letter/), from [launching a censored search engine in China](https://theintercept.com/2018/08/01/google-china-search-engine-censorship/) and [selling AI tech to the US military](https://gizmodo.com/google-employees-resign-in-protest-against-pentagon-con-1825729300) to [mishandling sexual assault cases](https://gizmodo.com/massive-google-walkout-over-sexual-misconduct-marks-tec-1830157276) and [forcing people onto Google services with sheer market dominance](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/10/eu-hits-alphabet-google-with-android-antitrust-fine.html).
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I do not like Google and I do not want it on my phone.
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## What I'm using
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I have the [Redmi Note 5 Pro](https://www.mi.com/in/redmi-note-5-pro/) and love it. Specifically, one of the things I like is Xiaomi's business model. It's exactly the same as Google's—data collection and advertising—but it's incredibly easy to circumvent. Xiaomi not only uses its [MIUI](https://en.miui.com/) (*me-you-eye*) for user tracking and profiling but it also displays ads on the lock screen and elsewhere. Because of all that, they're able to *seriously* drop the price on their phones and almost sell them at no more than the hardware and manufacturing cost.
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Circumventing the data collection is as easy as flashing your own ROM; I prefer [AospExtended](https://aospextended.com/) though [LineageOS](https://lineageos.org/) is a much simpler and "cleaner" Android experience. Many of the installation guide will tell you to flash some [Open GApps](https://opengapps.org/) package but I don't. Others will say to use [microG](https://microg.org/), which is much better but I decided to even omit that the last time I flashed my phone. Thus, I have absolutely no compatibility with Google Services and apps that break without it, well, break.
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I also have the [Mi Band 4](https://www.mi.com/global/mi-smart-band-4)
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which does give Xiaomi the ability to collect a plethora of biometric
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data as well … if I use their app. Instead, I like
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[Gadgetbridge](https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge/) from
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[F-Droid](https://f-droid.org/en/packages/nodomain.freeyourgadget.gadgetbridge/).
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I do occasionally want proprietary apps such as
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[Linguee](https://www.linguee.com/) for English/German translation and I get those through [Aurora](https://auroraoss.com/) rather than Google Play.
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## What it's like
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I mentioned that some apps will break without Google Services, however, I find that they are solidly in the minority; most proprietary applications will work perfectly fine without Google Services or microG though you won't get push notifications. That's really not a big deal for me because I've been moving to a more minimal mobile experience and do most things on my desktop anyway. This is closely related to the disclaimer at the top. I rarely use my phone for anything other than communication through open source apps and listening to podcasts; I don't even have an email client installed (but if I did, it would be [K-9 Mail](https://k9mail.app/)). In all, it's perfectly useable but don't expect your banking application to work[^1].
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---
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This was posted as part of [#100DaysToOffload](https://100daystooffload.com/), an [awesome idea](https://fosstodon.org/@kev/104053977554016690) from [Kev Quirk](https://kevq.uk/). If you want to participate, just write something every day for 100 days and post a link on social media with the hashtag!
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[^1]: Why would you bank on mobile anyway? Mobile platforms are some of the most insecure and something that sensitive should be kept far away.
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