The idea of getting outside of the Google ecosystem is intriguing. I have a pixel 8. Is there a website that I can go to to learn how to switch? My battery just drops like a stone.
GrapheneOS, has easy to click webpage buttons to guide you through the flashing. It is deggogled, you can add playstore and apps, and they can be sandboxed away from default storage. Updates are frequent, battery drain is way less without all the google BS.
If you’re sandboxing Google play services, you are, by definition, still installing play services. They are still running, but are sandboxed. So I don’t see how you see any less battery drain.
I run MicroG instead of the proprietary Google play services, and while I do see a bit ofl an increase in battery life for light usage, for medium and heavy usage it’s pretty much the same. Admittedly my battery is pretty old.
Because you can add only what you want and restrict notification and other data transfer, auto turn off when not in use, etc. It is the constant google chit chat that kills battery. My play app keeps nagging it wants more permission to function better but I just deny it. also it is just play service, no gmail, no google drive, etc. and I didn’t have it snooze power this week but only 3% play aervice use since sundays charge.
By being ripped out and sandboxed the same way other apps are, Google services isn’t free to siphon battery. This means you can restrict battery use and cut the constant communication down. Thus saving battery. If you allow it, yes it is not different than if it was preloaded.
I second the people that said lineage OS. I am using it right now. I got this Nord phone because I knew they were easy to tinker with. I used it a bit and ended up with a newer galaxy. Well after I put lineage on the Nord every problem it had went away. Excellent battery life, runs smoothly, weekly security patches if I want etc. One thing that helped a lot was the “Aurora” app store. Let’s you install apps anonymously from the play store without requiring google services. Many of them won’t work due to the no google services, but a surprising amount of stuff does just fine even if it complains about it.
What do you Lineage people do for things like banking apps and work required apps?
I’d go with CalyxOS. Install is also easy, but graphene touts allowing Google play services to be used… The very part of the picture that drew you to this comments section. You don’t have to install it in graphene, but then almost no apps work right.
CalyxOS use microG, a fully open-source spoof of Google play that is super light on battery, allows most apps to work fine (including banking), etc. Some apps like Pokemon go don’t, however.
Graphene sandboxes Google services heavily, and is enabled and used only at user discretion. It doesn’t get higher priority than any other user application on the device. Calyx is alright but I would recommend Graphene much more than Calyx. I don’t like either of these though unless you are a privacy nut. If you just want to get out of Google, LineageOS works plenty well although without many of the creature comforts of a stock ROM.
I wish graphene supported microG. They’ve decided running closed-source Google (user-level app or not) is the best option, and I disagree.
I’m glad there’s options though.
divest has all the graphene hardening and have unprivileged microg, it also runs on a much wider range of devices.
Thank you for your full explanation, kind stranger. Ill give it a good going over!
Cheers!
Check out Graphene OS, it supports the pixel lineup and is pretty easy to install if you know how to read and copy paste.
Thanks Man. Ill do some research.
My phone likes to gaslight me and not even show the battery that my system services are taking
At least if you had a wizard Orb instead, it could store theoretically infinite battery potential as internal numbers.
conversations 🥰
I had recently installed Grapheneos on my pixel, with a goal is determining what was responsible for all the senseless Google domains that a pixel normally contacts.
To my surprise disabling Network for the Google Services Framework and Play Services killed all of the nonsense. The only downside was that GSF has the push mechanism in it also, that many apps use for push notifications.
If only there were an alternate for push notifications that all apps would use.
Anyway, Grapheneos runs way cooler than Google’s Malware version.
With Graphene OS there is no Google services at all correct? No android auto?
It’s sandboxed, but still there. Most stuff should work as normal.
They made it where you could sandbox all of the Google stuff, and Android Auto works fine too.
Huh…neat!
No surprise, Play Services is Googles tracking framework on mobile too.
I use ntfy for notifications, even on my vanilla Pixel.
The less google services apps you use the less google services needs to run.
That looks nice, but apps that use GSF for push won’t use that. Or am I missing something on their website?
Correct, an app has to be built without GSF. That’s why I still use Vanilla Pixel for Google Maps and Android Auto.
I use Osmand for maps.
You can still use sand boxed play services in grapheneos for that.
No, not for Android Auto
That’s incorrect, Graphene OS has Android Auto support.
oh they fixed it, cool thanks
It is mentioned in their app store with instructions on how to activate it. Is it broken atm?
Check out microG: https://microg.org/
I get all my push notifications, apps etc without any actual Google services on my phone. Remote google servers are still used, but in a more (though not fully) anonymous manner.
TIL that MicroG is used for more than just getting my Google account to work in YouTube ReVanced.
Are you using Grapheneos or another ROM?
I’m using CalyxOS, it comes with microG. I wish graphene supported microG, but they don’t.
How’s the piceure quality after the switch
I was very disappointed with the (default) Camera after switching to Graphene, luckily you can just download the Pixel Camera (including all the Pixel optimizations) from Play Store on Graphene OS or download it as an APK bundle from some other sites (downloading the normal APK won’t work, it has to be the bundle).
I’m not really the one to ask as I don’t buy a smart phone for a camera. However, it looks good to me and I have a picky eye. And from what I’ve seen, you can use Google Camera on Grapheneos and get the same quality pictures and video.
Bonus: Thanks for the 2 40 guys, not as good as 4 20, but it’s close enough <3
dude, people wonder why i shit on android constantly, why would you ever produce a product that can just, do shit like this, it’s awful. (to be clear, i hate IOS as much, for the same reasons)
And its only worse with manufacturer flavors of android, samsung loves shipping a bunch of useless apps that you can’t even remove.
and no, i don’t want to hear about rooting. Just call me when you guys figure out how to make an actual OS.
this seems like a good situation to hear about rooting but go off
it seems good, until you realize it’s a nightmare process that only works on “most phones” requiring some kind of crackpot technique pulled straight from someones ass that happened to work.
only to get moderately more access to googled android and oops, it’s still mostly shit. Oh good, i can probably just install an android derivative, and oops, it’s also mostly dogshit, just less worse and more annoying.
I did not have any problems installing LineageOS on my Galaxy at all and it solves most of the issues you listed. Helps with battery life etc. It’s not just mostly degoogling.
that’s nice, personally i just think that anything android derived is essentially a boat made out of ice.
So what do you use instead? Not iOS I hope LOL. LineageOS is the best option I’ve found. I’m not a Tech Philosopher, I want control over my device.
android, shockingly, it’s almost like it explains why i hate it so much lmao.
I’ve heard some decent things about lineage, but i feel like i would still hate it, just moderately less than android since it probably won’t give me aids as opposed to android.
One of these days i’m either getting a linux phone, and just using linux (which doesn’t absolve me fully of the terrible hardware platform that phones are based on, unfortunately) that or i’ll pull some shit out of my ass and use a PDA or just make some shit out of thin air that aligns with my requirements. One of the two.
I want control over my device.
if it makes any more sense, i’m a linux user at heart, so linux has ruined me because it’s essentially the perfect OS design, aside from how aggressively modular it is. I essentially just want linux, but turbo specific for android and it’s hardware. And ideally, the hardware would be less dogshit, a proper BIOS standard would be nice for one, rom flashing is kinda fucking silly ngl. Proper hardware support in the open source space would also obviously help a lot, qualcomm and other providers are quite dogshit about that in particular, which causes a lot of problems.
I won’t nag you to switch until you have a second device handy haha that’s when I did, but switched from a secondhand iOS device bought off a friend for almost nothing
Your negativity sucks but at least it’s not targeted at anyone. It’s just souring people’s moods.
the negativity sucks, but android is frankly, deserving of it, especially with how much better IOS is now than it used to be.
Android only implemented MDNS in android 12, OS wide (the only useful implementation of it) a literal decade after microsoft added it to windows
mounting shit like an SMB share is literally impossible, unless rooted. Because fuck you, why would you ever want to mount remote storage on a device known for having super expensive storage, or really shitty storage.
It’s customizable, if all you want to customize is the homescreen, because the lockscreen isn’t trivially customizable.
it’s also a google product, so it comes with the really cool feature of being terrible.
Oh and if you wanted to install apps on the playstore, they’re also all shit. Most of them are paid, and the rest are either ad filled, or malware. Cool, i’ll just use fdroid then. Oh wait it’s just a glorified APK installer…
not to mention androids nonsense file structure and partitioning done by default, as well as it’s wonderfully obtuse .NOMEDIA standard, that doesn’t seem to work properly, and doesn’t fucking implement anywhere.
the ram management is also fucking horrid, seeming to only unload apps entirely, but arguably that’s more of a problem with apps taking literal gigabytes of ram to load fucking text on the screen just so you can read someone making a your mom joke.
People talk constantly about how amazing the technical leap from PDP11s to iphones was, yet we seem to be regressing in the software space faster than germany during the hitler arc and it fucking baffles me how.
I, too, just want Linux phones to take off already. We’re this far in the future and I still don’t really have a “computer in my pocket” so much as a “specialized commerce and consumption device that can occasionally be made to do useful things.”
Android feels like the whole OS was made to be telemetry and advertiser friendly. I just wish I could have that “It’s my device” feeling in my pocket like I do on my desk.
Your complaints about Android are valid, and I think there’s fewer people who are actually “android enthusiasts” vs "It’s what we’ve got right now"ists lol…
same, i suspect linux phones will take off, the primary issue ironically, is hardware. Shitty hardware vendors providing bad closed source hardware drivers, and other menial bullshit that doesnt help (thanks qualcomm)
Once those issues are sorted out, i think it’s a fairly straight shot to getting software support, since most mobile hardware is effectively the same.
Your complaints about Android are valid, and I think there’s fewer people who are actually “android enthusiasts” vs "It’s what we’ve got right now"ists lol…
i’d like to say the same, but honestly i think most android users are just, too stockholmed to actually care.
Whats wrong with fdroid? Glorified apk installer. Ye…es? What else should an app store do?
I think it would be a more constructive use of your time to find solutions to your problems or to just switch to a dumb phone and carry a netbook around just live a less stressful life.
Complaining and doing nothing about it doesn’t fix anything and it even makes things worse. Manufacturers love to hear a customer resign to complacency even when they’re dissatisfied. It shows them just how far they can push their users around for profit.
Generally most people at a company wants to do good in their respective roles but as a company the choice between user choice and more profit is obvious, higher-ups want to be good at their jobs too.
Whenever you see an opportunity always prove to the company why the things you care about could make them money or help them gain more users weather that’s voting with your wallet, creating better alternatives, or rallying people up to peacefully boycott and or protest.
Complaining and doing nothing about it doesn’t fix anything and it even makes things worse. Manufacturers love to hear a customer resign to complacency even when they’re dissatisfied. It shows them just how far they can push their users around for profit.
“you shouldn’t complain, just do something else”
“manufacturers love when their customers stop complaining and just do something else instead”
my brother in christ android and IOS have a combined market share of over 99% the only alternative is this wonderful little thing called the pinephone (and it’s few friends that exist) which are, marginally better. Because they’re still under the whims of the hardware manufacturers of the chips they use. (which fun fact, produce chips for android devices)
Unless you are unironically recommending that i start a hardware design company rivaling arm, which is not dogshit like qualcomm, and actually produces hardware for a phone company, likely pine, but they might not even do what i want because they are a separate company entirely after all. I’m not really sure what your proposed solution here is. What i can tell you, is that i have zero plans to buy a phone, ever. Maybe a satellite GPS communication device so i don’t die in the fucking woods or something.
Whenever you see an opportunity always prove to the company why the things you care about could make them money or help them gain more users weather that’s voting with your wallet, creating better alternatives, or rallying people up to peacefully boycott and or protest.
ah yes, good think i didn’t complain about issues i had that bothered me or anything. I swear to god between the trolls and bots on this platform (and reddit) they only spend their time doing one of two things, politics, or yelling at people about mobile phones because apparently they have nothing better to be doing. No shade to you personally, unless you are trolling, but it’s one of the very few areas that i have such annoying problems with, that people consistently reply to with “haha, dumbass, get fucked”
I don’t know what’s eating you up inside but it feels beyond any sort of reasoning. I never liked it when people twisted my words. Were practically saying the same thing. I’m just saying hit them where it hurts, their bottom line. You are free to complain just do something productive with it.
I’d recommend a hike or maybe go rent a kayak and soak up a little nature. You seem so angry all the time it’s not good for you.
Conversations francaise
Ha! That’s one of the reasons I switched to a degoogled android phone. The extra battery life is quite noticeable.
Degoogled means you don’t use any google’s services either?
I’m using the volla phone x23 which runs vollaOS, an android fork without all those pesky Google background processes. It uses MicroG to simulate them though, since most Android apps expect them now.
Makes me consider doing that again.
Years ago I had a Samsung Galaxy Alpha and ran LineageOS on it but that just completely fucked the battery optimisation. Did this get better? Better than Google even?
My last phone with standard Google Android had a 5000 mAh battery while the new degoogled has one with a bit more than 6000 mAh I think. Even then I feel the overall increase in battery life cannot be explained with hardware only. Without watching videos or playing games, I only have to charge my new phone every 3-4 days. And I’ve background apps like syncthing running all the time. I’ve just checked there’s actually a few other open source forks of android other than LineageOS. If you’re disappointed with it.
degoogled
android
These are mutually exclusive
Degoogled as in “no code from google present” would require Ubuntu touch etc., but as in “no closed source stuff and no telemetry” is quite easy, using either Degoogled Android or another specific distro.
Degoogled as in “no code from google present” would require Ubuntu touch etc.
I know what I said :3
Does that mean no code written in google employees, or not using code written by google employees on company time, paid by the company? Because both are basically impossible.
Code produced within google’s umbrella to the benefit of google; I don’t care what devs do in their free time.
To the benefit of google
As their contributions to the android kernel are also partly used in the main branch, you surely manually remove every commit of the kernel before building it manually, or do you use windows or mac?
I’m an OpenBSD user, I don’t think there’s any/much Google code there. Here’s some kernel contributions for Linux 5.10:
If you use chrome or any chromium based browser, googles still executing any code they won’t on your device at will.
Even if you don’t have chrome, but an app uses a chromium based web view.
Mate everyone uses Firefox here
Well I use Firefox on vollaOS. It’s not fully degoogled in terms of apps for sure but I hope change will come.
googles still executing any code they won’t on your device at will.
Source?
It’s in the source code of chromium
What is? Are you claiming the open source code base has a timer grabbing binaries from a Google server and executing them?
