this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
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Asklemmy

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Right now a lot of us are trying to divest and diversify from having our entire lives on Google both because of the way Google spends its money and the long-standing privacy concerns seeming a bit more scary now.

What services have you switched to and what has your experience been? What do you like, what don't you like, would you recommend them?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 31 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Been degoogled for years at this point:

  • Stock Android --> LineageOS or GrapheneOS (no gapps)
  • YouTube --> Invidious*, NewPipe
  • Google Search --> DuckDuckGo, Brave Search
  • Google Play Store --> F-Droid, Aurora Store

I've also decoupled from other similar services:

  • Outlook --> ProtonMail
  • Calendar --> Nextcloud*
  • OneDrive --> Nextcloud*
  • Windows, macOS --> Linux (after years of distrohopping, I found LMDE is incredibly stable while still being a nice "out of box" distro)
  • Google Maps, Apple Maps --> OSMAnd, Organic Maps

I never used any online password manager myself, I went from writing passwords in a literal book to KeePass, to now Vaultwarden* for that

* - self hosted

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Nice, I have also chosen most of the same as you. For custom ROM there's CalyxOS, which ironically makes a Pixel phone one of the best picks for deGoogleing
I don't like the proprietary style of Proton Mail, plus they charge to have more than one account logged in, which is very inconvenient, so I set up my own Mailcow instance

For YouTube I highly recommend ReVanced

For notes I use Apache-CouchDB and connect using Obsidian with the LiveSync plugin. Live sync is fantastic and is as close as I think I'll ever get to OneNote.

NextCloud is great, a pain in the arse to add existing files as you need to upload everything, but a few hours of uploading with Cloudflare set to DNS only is fine

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[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

chrome > firefox with ublock origin

and while nextcloud does replace drive, docs and photos, its buggy for some people. a decent alternative is syncthing.

[โ€“] [email protected] 14 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)
  • Desktop: Linux (Tuxedo)
  • Browser: Vivaldi
  • Search: Ecosia & DDG
  • Mail / Groupware / Calendar / Contacts / Cloud Drive / Meet: Infomaniak kSuite Pro
  • Backup: Syncthing
  • Movies / Netflix / Amazon Prime: buying DVD / Bluray and ripping to my home media server with Jellyfin and Videoland.nl
  • Mobile Phone: Fairphone with /e/OS or Calyx
  • Whatsapp: Signal, Matrix / Element, Briar, Threema
  • YouTube: Grayjay, Floatplane, Nebula, Curiosity Stream
  • Maps: Magic Earth
  • Photos: ente.io
  • Authenticator: Ente Auth
  • Twitter / X: Mastodon
  • Cards: Catima
  • Keep / Evernote: Notesnook / Anytype
  • Backup comms: Meshtastic / UHF / VHF
  • Translate: DeepL
  • Podcasts: Antennapod
  • Google Home: Home Assistant
  • Google Assistant / Gemini: Mistral Le Chat / LLama
  • Router: openWRT (GL.iNET Flint2)
  • Firewall: opnSense (Deciso)
  • Pushbullet: KDE Connect
  • speedtest.net: LibreSpeed
  • Fing: Ning
  • Kobo / Kindle: Pocketbook
  • Amazon: Local / European dealers
  • Pocket: Wallabag
  • Creality / Bambulab: Prusa
  • VPN: Proton, Wireguard, Netbird
[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

for speedtest, fast.com is pretty great as it's a pretty lightweight page and uses netflix's servers which mean it's not really possible for ISPs to game it

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[โ€“] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago (12 children)

These are what I use:

Browsers: Fennec, LibreWolf

Email Clients: K-9, Fair Email, Proton Mail, Thunderbird

Pictures: Fossify Camera, Fossify Gallery

File Sharing: Proton Drive

YouTube: Tubular

SMS Messaging: Textra (It's not FOSS, but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a FOSS app in existence that shows the actual name of the person who's sent the message in group chats. They just show an icon, which isn't enough for me to keep track)

App store: Droid-ify (F-Droid), Aurora Store

Password Manager: Bitwarden

eBook Reader: Librera FD

Books: Bookwyrm

Translation: LibreTranslator

Calendar: Proton Calendar

What I can't find good alternatives for:

YouTube itself - enough said

Phone screen translation - I still use Google Assistant, and I'm not aware of anything else that grabs and translates all text on my phone screen

Maps - Rant time. This one is so annoying because there are FOSS navigation apps based on OpenStreetMap that are excellent in every way except one that makes them unusable for me: Using POV navigation instead of observing the convention of up = north. I did find one that lets you maintain a normal map view during navigation, but it doesn't keep your position centered automatically, which makes it impossible to use while driving. I have no idea who all you deranged people are who actually like the POV navigation, but there are definitely a lot of you because I can't find a replacement for Google Maps. I even tried Mapquest because at least it's not Google, but when I tried using it to navigate the first time, it somehow autocorrected "St" to "Ave" and I ended up lost lol. This maps situation really grinds my gears. I do still try to contribute as much as I can to OSM though because it's an important project, and hopefully someday an uninsane developer will make a proper alternative to Google Maps.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

FreeTube is a good replacement for YouTube on PC and NewPipe is good on Android phones.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah Tubular is basically NewPipe with Sponsorblock. I'll give Freetube a try.

What I mean though is ... it's still YouTube, y'know?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

for me:

  • google drive > pcloud (objectively better app tbh)
  • chrome > librewolf > floorp (i like having the tab bar at the bottom, and librewolf is a bit annoying sometimes)
  • photos > ente
  • gmail > proton > tuta > "disroot" (proton and tuta aren't IMAP, and their first-party apps are slow. disroot probably isn't the best one, I just chose one that supports IMAP)
  • google search > ddg > SearXNG
  • google office > onlyoffice on windows, libreoffice on linux
  • google maps > Organic Maps
  • google passwords > bitwarden
  • google auth > ente auth :)
[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The #1 Google service/app that I used in the past was Google Maps. I've replaced it with Magic Earth for the last few years and it's been great. It uses Open Street Map for its navigation data, handles addresses very well, has live crowd-sourced traffic and hazard data, and can record rolling footage if you want it to act like a dashcam.

It works on Android and iOS, and supports Apple watch and Android car play if you use those.

For email I use Protonmail, for Google drove I use Proton Drive and my own self hosted NAS. For browsing I use several different Firefox forks like Zen, Floorp, LibreWolf, etc. UnGoogled Chromium for the rare times that a website "needs" Chrome to run.

My phone runs GrapheneOS which works great.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I'll have to check out Magic Earth. My biggest fear switching from Google Maps was not having up to date road closures or accident reports.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (4 children)

Almost everything, finally!
OS: GrapheneOS
Calendar: Proton
Browser: Firefox
Storage: NAS
Youtube: NewPipe and SmartTube

Iโ€™m still stuck with Maps and Android in my car as it has Android Automotive, but Iโ€™m happy with my progress so far

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[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago

I have moved away from Google Contacts and Google Calendar and am now using Synology Calendar/Contacts. I've left Google Drive for Synology Drive and I've left Google Photos for Synology Photos. Everything is self hosted and self maintained.

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)
  • Desktop OS: Linux (Arch)
  • Phone OS: /e/OS
  • mail, notes, calendar, online storager: mureno
  • maps: cittymapper, magic earth

I'm pretty happy with all of those

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[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

Firefox.

Immich for photos

Radicale for calendar and contacts

My own mail domain and server, for mail

Lineages on android

The only thing I cannot do without, is google maps.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

My selfhosted Nextcloud does:

  • Cloud storage (including photo storage)
  • Contact/Calendar/Task Sync (DAV Droid)
  • Notes
  • Podcast subscription and progress sync (gpodder)

While I use OSMAnd for offline navigation MAPS is still my go-to for navigation/discovering places.

My phone is currently running stock Android

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[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I fucked off Google Photos and now run Immich from a Raspberry Pi with raid 1 SSDs.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

Mail: Posteo Maps: osmand for walking, hiking, cycling, skiing and magic earth for car navigation (because of real live traffic) Drive: nextcloud Phone: second Hand Google pixel with graphene OS installed (degiogled Android)

There are like 10 communities called something like privacy and a couple with degoogle in their name specifically. If you need more alternatives check them out. ;)

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Google office stuff > libreoffice

Chrome > firefox and librewolf

gmail > proton

Google > ddg

Iphone > grapheneos pixel

Youtube account > newpipe, libretube, grayjay with exported subscriptions

Google drive > synology

I think that covers about everything google specific.

Note: I included iphone because even iphones ping google SUPL servers whereas Grapheneos settings host their own servers to ping to avoid sending stuff out to google.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

If I remember correctly I started deGoogling "seriously" in the last summer. At this point YouTube and Youtube Music are the only Google products/services I still use daily but only on PC. I never use them on phone. I also am quite forced to use Gmail sometimes but otherwise I avoid it like a plague.

I think my phone is as deGoogled as possible without rooting and/or changing the OS. I have uninstalled every Google app that I have been able to uninstall and also I have disabled every Google service that is possible to disable. I still have to deMicrosoft my PC. I want to move to Linux but I have understood that there's some compatibility issues with Reaper and virtual instruments. That's the only reason I haven't done it yet.

Anyway. Here is a list of apps/services I use instead of Google's sh*t:

  • Browser: Waterfox on PC and Ironfox on phone (of course both with uBlock Origin)
  • Cloud storage: Proton Drive
  • Email: Proton Mail
  • Calendar: Proton Calendar
  • Authenticator: Aegis
  • Map: OsmAnd
  • Search engine: DuckDuckGo and Brave Search
  • Play Store: Droid-ify and Aurora Store (not signed in)
  • Speech Recognition & Synthesis: SherpaTTS
  • Find My Device: FindMyDevice (FOSS)

I think that's all. There's some other FOSS apps and services that I use but they are not exactly replacements for Google's sh*t.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

On your PC, freetube will work as a Youtube frontend, you can point it to an invidious instance to act proxy to youtube if you like.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

Desktop Environment

  • Operating System: Fedora Workstation Linux

    • Great package manager updates
    • Excellent performance
  • Productivity Tools:

    • Note-taking: Zim Wiki (preferred for GUI and plaintext storage)
    • Document Editing: Considering OnlyOffice if Collabora Office doesn't work out
    • Backup Solution: Filen cloud provider with desktop sync app
  • Browsers:

    • Primary: Firefox with Arkenfox
    • Backup: Ungoogled Chromium (for sites incompatible with Firefox)
  • Password Management:

    • Bitwarden (kept on phone)
    • KDE Connect for clipboard sharing between devices

Mobile Setup

  • Device & OS: Pixel 8 Pro running GrapheneOS

    • More stable and polished than previous CalyxOS on Pixel 5
    • Better Google Play sandboxing compared to microG
  • Mobile Apps:

    • Browsers: IronFox and Vanadium
    • App Sources: Primarily open-source from GitHub/F-Droid, updated via Obtainium
    • Non-FOSS Apps: Sandboxed Google Play for banking and other essential apps
    • Maps: HERE WeGo (previously used Magic Earth but it lacked public transport info)
    • Loyalty Cards: Catima
  • Search Engine: Kagi

    • Quality results
    • Sound business model (subscription-based)
    • Fediverse integration for Lemmy search
  • Self-Hosted Services:

    • Contacts and calendar via Radicale on NAS with Nginx
  • Car Integration:

    • Still using Android Auto (found MagSafe holder alternatives more distracting)
    • Physical cards stored in MagSafe wallet on phone back
[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Other than Fediverse apps/websites, and F-droid for FOSS, I have switched to ProtonVPN and their encrypted emails.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (8 children)

Replaced

  • Gmail -> Proton Mail
  • Keep -> Joplin
  • Docs -> LibreOffice + OpenDocument Reader
  • Drive 100 Gb -> Proton Drive (free 5 Gb)
  • Photos -> ente photos
  • Play Books -> ReadEra Premium + Kobo
  • Translate & Lens -> DeepL

Haven't been able to replace (just yet)

  • Wallet
  • Maps & Earth
  • Sheets
  • Home
  • Calendar
[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Tutamail has a calendar. Tutamail hasn't said anything positive or factual about the republican parties either. They've made no statements

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[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I am absolutely dumb with this stuff so I have one question: how do I get all of my photos off Google cloud? That's the only thing stopping me from shitting it down.

I also have a google pixel phone but that will be destroyed once my contract is up and I can afford something not google related

[โ€“] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Don't destroy your phone, you can install grapheneos(a privacy focused android distro) and it's working great on pixels.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (5 children)

Chrome โžก๏ธ Brave - Open source and privacy focused

Search โžก๏ธ Qwant - Good search results and privacy focusing

Photos โžก๏ธ Immich - Pretty much Google Photos but self hosted

Drive โžก๏ธ Nextcloud - Use it with Hetzner Storage Share, pretty cheap and easy to use

Gmail โžก๏ธ mailbox.org - European email hosting focusing on privacy

Meet โžก๏ธ Nextcloud

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[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I use Ad Nauseum. Why degoogle when you can actively cost them money?

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

What's Ad Nauseum? What does it do and why do you like it?

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

As per their website:

As online advertising becomes ever more ubiquitous and unsanctioned, AdNauseam works to complete the cycle by automating ad clicks universally and blindly on behalf of its users. Built atop uBlock Origin, AdNauseam quietly clicks on every blocked ad, registering a visit on ad networks' databases. As the collected data gathered shows an omnivorous click-stream, user tracking, targeting and surveillance become futile

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[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

It seems interesting

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I use F-Droid and Aurora Store on my phone and replaced the Google apps, that came preloaded on the phone, with FOSS apps. NewPipe on my phone and FreeTube on my PC to replace YouTube. I don't use Gmail. My Google account is on a Proton account. After I am sure I have all my desired apps switched over to email sign in, I will delete the Google account. I am also switching my Proton mail for Tuta mail. Proton is on the wrong side. I also dumped Microsoft over a year ago. I have been on Linux since then. I have avoided FaceBook for over a decade and never maintained a Twitter account.

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