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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Next step is to de-Apple your Iphone.
De-Google but using an Apple. Yeah, Apple is soooo much better than Google 😂
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.
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.
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
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 @[email protected]/@[email protected] 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.
I didn’t know about sink it, will have a look! I currently use hydra to access Reddit on iOS.
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…
Imagine spending 1k USD and then Not using any what you paid for lmao
Wdym? 😭
Isnt iPhone already degoogled?
Yes, but iOS is even more closed than Android which makes all iPhones a small prison for open-minded and privacy oriented people.
Google is Big Tech, logs everything. Apple is Big Tech too, but only logs tiny less than Google. All Big Tech is a big no-no if you’re privacy oriented. This applies to all services that uses Big Tech, too.
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.
Wow, thenewoil website is great. Thanks for sharing.
Saved! Good work and thank you.
Try Impressia for PixelFed
Saving this post. I have been deGoogling as much as I can but havent done the research to find some of these options. Thanks
So you start with an iPhone…
Why don’t you put an edgy sticker on it?Gotta start with what you have 🤷
Somehow I think you may have had a choice about what phone you buy.
I have had the same phone for the past 3 years, so the degoogle process started a couple of years after I got it.
I want to use Signal but can’t convince everyone to get on it
The US DoD uses it
Is that a good or bad? Could go both ways 🤭
And they hand out invitations to group chats
Matrix/element doesn’t make you give out a phone #
That’s not why most people aren’t on Signal.
Neither do signal anymore i think
Them dropping sms took away a big carrot for adoption though.
Them dropping sms took away a big carrot for adoption though.
Still miss that feature everytime I get an SMS or have to send an sms if data isn’t working.
Nope, they still require a number.
From their site:
Requiring phone numbers in Signal lets people see which of their friends they can easily talk to on Signal while limiting the potential for spam within the app.
There are options to spoof a number in the States, and probably some areas of th EU, but many other places are SOL.
They absolutely do, but you can hide that behind a username after you’ve registered now. But you still have to come up with a number to register a new account.
What’s unwatched?
YouTube player app. Open source, no ads, no login, just import your subscriptions and playlists and you’re ready to go.
YouTube -> FreeTube (Unwatched on iOS)
I see Proton and Bluesky. Appreciable effort, but it can be done better.
I mean, it the end it’s all up to personal preferences. I’m strongly considering to delete Bluesky due to the latest controversy. But would you care to elaborate?
Not many people have resources to set up a mastadon instance and I don’t think bluesky can be connected using activitypub but I’m not sure about that.
Proton’s ceo has recently made some Trump sympathizer statements but honestly, I’ll still keep my subscription because of how cheap they are for me.
I didn’t like the statements regarding Trump either, but he deleted it and made some comment/post on reddit distancing himself from Trump and right wing politics. So I made peace with that, but yeah, people won’t forget.
Not sure why people care so much, the individual can think whatever he wants, it hasn’t stopped proton from continuing on its good path (even though I don’t use them much nowadays, they are a great service with a respectable free tier).
Trust in a product can be weaponized.
Also, as a Roman, I would never trust a Swiss. Call it genetic memory.
That article is stupid. Any company that receives a “legally binding order” has to comply with it… what would you expect?
Most companies aren’t going to commit a crime to protect a user (like that one dude who ran an email service and destroyed it when he was required to hand over data, forgot his name!!!). If they did, they’d be out of business…
(The article isn’t exactly dumb, but it doesn’t address this properly in my opinion. The outrage over it seems dumb to me. The government will force companies to do whatever it wants, be mad at the gov not the corpo in this case when its to apprehend a journalist or whatever… i understand if its a terrorist or similar, but this specific case may be more poopy om the gov behalf)
If you had nothing, as you said you would have, you would have nothing to provide to the authorities.
This is exactly what happened with Mullvad: https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/21/23692580/mullvad-vpn-raid-sweden-police
I know that this may be a requirement in Switzerland, that is why I would not use a Swiss product in the first place.
