this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2025
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DeGoogle Yourself

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A process that started roughly a year ago with just changing browser and search engine, now feeling that I got somewhere. The journey ended up being more than just degoogle, but also demetaing and taking more control over my data and privacy.

Before and after picture with notes:

Chrome -> Zen browser (Firefox on iOS)

Google -> Qwant

Gmail -> Proton Mail

NordVPN -> Proton VPN (I don’t use VPN very often, but have NordVPN through another subscription, now replaced with Proton across my devices)

Google Drive / Photos -> Proton Drive

Google Password Manager -> Proton Pass

Google Authenticator -> Proton Pass / Ente (Ente Auth is only used to store my 2FA keys for the Proton account, other keys are stored in Proton Pass)

Google Translator -> DeepL

YouTube -> FreeTube (Unwatched on iOS)

Google Maps -> Magic Earth (OSM on desktop)

WhatsApp -> Signal

Notion -> Anytype

Keep / Notes -> Notesnook

X -> Mastodon / Bluesky

Reddit -> Lemmy (Voyager on iOS, dreaming of an eventual complete migration)

Instagram -> Pixelfed

Facebook -> stopped using

Windows 11 -> Ubuntu (Only personal laptop, work laptop still windows)

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[–] ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Next step is to de-Apple your Iphone.

[–] joelvdc@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

Fuck that, next step is linux 🚀

[–] pyre@lemmy.world 3 points 12 hours ago

Hmm people keep talking about qwant I wonder what it's like...

Thanks for your visit

Unfortunately we are not yet available in your country.

lol wtf

[–] AusatKeyboardPremi@lemmy.world 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Reddit -> Lemmy (Voyager on iOS, dreaming of an eventual complete migration)

I too long for when communities (Indian and some niche ones) have more activity on Lemmy. They exist here, but have no activity after their creation. Until things pick up, I continue to access Reddit on iOS using SinkIt.

YouTube -> FreeTube (Unwatched on iOS)

Thank you for sharing about Unwatched. It fills the void in iOS that Tubular fills perfectly in Android.

P.S.I am not entirely sure why, but I remember seeing Unwatched’s creator @fer0n@lemmy.world/@fer0n@lemm.ee quite often back when Lemmy iOS apps were starting off (Mlem, Memmy, WefWef, etc.) in the fall of 2023, perhaps he was a major contributor or creator of such apps.

[–] joelvdc@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

I didn’t know about sink it, will have a look! I currently use hydra to access Reddit on iOS.

[–] LordWiggle@lemmy.world 0 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

De-Google but using an Apple. Yeah, Apple is soooo much better than Google 😂

[–] joelvdc@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

As I mentioned in other comments, I didn’t buy a new phone to degoogle. I’m sure there are more people on the same boat. And this is a degoogle group.

[–] LordWiggle@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

After experiencing the iPhone 3 and MacBook pro 2009 I knew I'd never want to give Apple my money anymore. Boy did they try to scam me. "Broken hard drive? (500gb non-SSD) Sure, well fix it! 600 euros!" I'll never sell my soul to Apple anymore.

[–] 3aqn5k6ryk@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Isnt iPhone already degoogled?

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[–] brown_guy@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago

Am I only one who doesn't like proton services?

For some reasons, I don't get the OTP emails in proton mail. Just the OTP emails..

[–] EuropeanPrimate@lemm.ee 37 points 1 day ago (8 children)

I want to use Signal but can’t convince everyone to get on it

[–] FreakinSteve@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] EuropeanPrimate@lemm.ee 5 points 1 day ago

And they hand out invitations to group chats

[–] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

Is that a good or bad? Could go both ways 🤭

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[–] pewpew@feddit.it 77 points 2 days ago (4 children)
[–] admin@sh.itjust.works 42 points 2 days ago (4 children)
[–] Jhex@lemmy.world 68 points 2 days ago (1 children)

an imperfect ally is not an enemy

[–] ohshit604@sh.itjust.works 29 points 2 days ago

This right bloody here, you have to make sacrifices for peace-of-mind otherwise you’ll live your life paranoid on the smallest of things.

One persons opinions don’t suddenly make a service unusable or unreliable.

[–] Biskii@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 2 days ago (7 children)

This is my thing. I've ditched all of proton for the obvious reason, but aside from that, I no longer want everything under one umbrella. Convenience has shown it comes at too great of a cost

[–] Psyhackological@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

Yes but it can also give you extra cost. Bundled services cost less than individual ones. For example Proton offers better value with their email and cloud than individual ones.

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[–] Petersnowden@lemmy.ml 93 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Don't put all your eggs in one basket (dont use proton for everything)

[–] joelvdc@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I usually tell people the same, this is a decision I will have to live with. I am happy with Proton and also happy to support their growth, hopefully it will go well for a long time.

From the other services I tried, Filen and Ente deserve an honorable mention. I was close to just go Mail Plus + Filen + Ente. But as soon as you do Proton Mail + VPN, you then go with Proton Unlimited and that is what makes the most sense financially.

[–] coldaf@lemmy.world 30 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I recommed Tuta for mails. May be not good as Proton but not American, not from Google and most important, private as Proton.

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[–] baggachipz@sh.itjust.works 45 points 2 days ago (13 children)

As predicted, here come all the purity tests.

I know there's no way to definitively prove it, but in my mind Apple is the safer alternative vs. anything Google. I know you can do custom roms and all that, but let's face it: It's a huge pain in the ass. I know, I know, "It's not really"... I beg to differ. I went through my purity phase with degoogled roms and all that. Due to driver inconsistencies, updates breaking things (even the phone part), and the inability to use a lot of "normal" apps, I gave up and went with an iPhone. Apple's business model is to sell you the thing at a higher price, thus reducing the incentive to sell your data or enshittify. Yes, that will degrade over time and I'll reach a threshold at which I'll reevaluate my options. Given the two major choices, I choose the less terrible ecosystem of the two.

I refuse to have any Google or Meta products on my iPhone. I know that makes me lame here, but we should also understand that any normie would never go to all the trouble of OS tinkering. The are a lot more people who want to degoogle vs. the people who understand how to do rom flashing. Criticizing a person's degoogle effort as "not good enough" does nothing but drive people directly into the arms of the very evil we wish to diminish. This is a community to banish Google, not everything backed by a for-profit corporation.

[–] const_void@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago

This sub is strangely pro Google

[–] Chastity2323@midwest.social 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Apple is the safer alternative vs. anything Google

Not really. Research has demonstrated that iOS and Android send very similar types of data even when users explicitly request to opt out. Apple was even so arrogant as to not bother responding to the authors of this paper when they reached out for comment (unlike Google which did reply).

https://www.scss.tcd.ie/doug.leith/apple_google.pdf

iOS is also much more hostile towards 3rd party apps than Android, greatly limiting what they can do. This makes moving to FOSS options harder.

Due to driver inconsistencies, updates breaking things (even the phone part), and the inability to use a lot of "normal" apps

Sounds like you haven't tried modern GrapheneOS with sandboxed Google Play Services. Neither of these are issues for me and I've been using it for years after switching from iOS.

The are a lot more people who want to degoogle vs. the people who understand how to do rom flashing

Flashing GrapheneOS takes like 2 seconds and requires nothing but a desktop/laptop and a browser. If you can read, you can install GrapheneOS with minimal effort.

[–] Franklin@lemmy.ca 25 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

You know our lawmakers have failed when you have to be this concerned about privacy on your own behalf.

it's really shouldn't be this much effort in order to retain your data and I know the argument can be made that you just use services that respect it but without legislation it's incentivized to monetize data which makes it extremely hard to find alternatives that don't.

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[–] FreakinSteve@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Saving this post. I have been deGoogling as much as I can but havent done the research to find some of these options. Thanks

[–] sonalder@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago

Try Impressia for PixelFed

[–] pineapple@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I feel like my story is a lot similar to yours almost a year ago now I saw a YouTube video about degoogling. It caused me to switch to Firefox with betterfox on the betterfox github pages there was a new oil link which I read and followed ultimately leading me to all of this and so much more.

[–] joelvdc@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Wow, thenewoil website is great. Thanks for sharing.

[–] Rhoeri@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Saved! Good work and thank you.

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