Hello everyone!
Recently, I saw so many posts about this and I started to think about degoogling (degoogleing?) my life.
I’ve started with fdroid and found some nice apps in there and I’m curious to know some alternatives I may or may not know
- Youtube: Currently, I use ReVanced and even though is just the default app with something in it, I want an alternative with background listening, import my subscriptions w/ notifications and if possible with sponsorblock
- Mail: Using a combo or Gmail + proton. I started to use proton recently and I want to move everything there when I have time. Suggestions here?
- Cloud storage: Self hosted/proton? Alternatives
- Gallery app: Stock
- Video player: Stock
- Music player: Stock
- 2FA app: I have Authy and I tried to install aegis. I also have Ente but I’ve never used both
- Mail app: Using K9 and the app is awesome compared to google or Samsung Mail
- Password Manager: Bitwarden
- Weather app: Currently, using Breezy weather
If possible, apps with a nice looking UI, modern with/without Material You
I’m using a Samsung S23 and I would like to know how bad it is to change ROM with something better and if it’s really worth Pixel + GrapheneOS. Thanks
Edit: I forgot the most important one with probably no alternatives (?) Thanks to @JustMarkov@lemmy.ml (idk how to mention)
- Samsung pay
Youtube — try Newpipe for background playback. There is a version with Sponsorblock, I believe
Gallery — I use the Fossify one. You’ll find a lot of other FOSS utility alternatives searching for Fossify.
Media players — I waffle between different ones, but I always have VLC installed as a fallback. It feels clunky on Android, but it will play almost anything.
I have NewPipe and I use it more for downloads. The UI is… It’s okay but more youtube style (because I’m used to it and I prefer TIL you can change it!
Fossify gallery is based on simplemobiletools before ZipoApps bought them
I forgot vlc exists on android
Yeah, Newpipe is pretty great. It’s also a Peertube/Bandcamp/SoundCloud client 🙂
Ugh, let’s never mention simplemobiletools or Zipo again.
I just didn’t know you could edit the “homepage”. I used it sometimes, especially for downloads.
Yeah, I was pretty disappointed too! I liked the idea of simple apps and reading that I was just uuuugh okay, let’s find something else and I couldn’t find an alternative (didn’t use fdroid) and went back to stock app
I use a Fairphone with e/os, which works fairly well as an os. Regular updates and they listen to user feedback. And e/os has an app lounge where you can download apps from the play store (without a google account) and f-droid, which is very easy. And the fairphone is great with interchangeable parts.
For maps I use a combo of organic maps and Magic earth. Magic Earth isn’t Foss but is privacy focused and has traffic alerts for driving.
YouTube - Newpipe
And for mail, passwordmanager, VPN, calendar, and drive I use Proton.
@runwaylights @Cris16228 I just checked out magic earth, it’s amazing
I would love to try it for a month before saying if it’s worth or not, sadly I recently changed phone so I’m not sure if I should do it again.
I will try both apps for maps
I know about protons alternatives to google but I’ve never tried them. Is it worth the monthly plan (if you use it)?
To be fair, the Fairphone is not the greatest in terms of specs, its more middle of the road but on the expensive side. But its has a way longer life. So I get that you want to think on it, because it’s more of a commitment to justify the cost
I’d say the paid plan is definitely worth it. The VPN is awesome. Very fast and with a lot of servers around the world. The drive is solid and they keep adding more features like automatic backup for you photos and secure file sharing. Lately they added a Docs to the drive, similar to google docs.
I have a family plan with my wife and brother in law and we share the costs, that makes it even more worth it.
I care more about storage, camera for normal-ish pictures and battery life
I was thinking about picking the ultimate and I’m probably going to do it later
Just checked and every proton app is only on Google Play (ew), got the mail app from github but there’s no proton mail on fdroid
Calendar, Drive and mail are not
Don’t forget migrating your accounts in various online services if you used Gmail or Google login for registration.
For mail address, it is best practice to register your own domain and use any reputable mail service provider that allows to use custom domains. This way your address is not tied to the provider and you still own it in case of any issues with the service provider. This means you don’t loose access to the online services when Gmail (or anyone else) decides to block you.
Don’t forget migrating your accounts in various online services if you used Gmail or Google login for registration.
This.
Also, there’s this “connector” in Proton you plug in to Gmail and it downloads all the e-mails and even keeps labels etc.
Last thing - even after migrating everything and updating your e-mail in services, I’d wait with deleting Gooogle account for example a year to make sure you haven’t forgotten about anything. Wait before burning down brigdes, let the Goolge account just sit there lonly, abandoned, forgotten. Set a reminder to delete it.
I did that and I should really move everything to proton, but unfortunately I can’t create aliases for every service I use. I know I can use mymail+servicename@proton.me but aliases based on that services would be better so if I get spam somehow, I know from who
For mail address, it is best practice to register your own domain and use any reputable mail service provider that allows to use custom domains. This way your address is not tied to the provider and you still own it in case of any issues with the service provider. This means you don’t loose access to the online services when Gmail (or anyone else) decides to block you.
I wish I could do something like that with my domain + cloudflare + postman (or RPi) but if you can tell me how I can do what you meant, please let me know, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do
Don’t try to host your own email server, at least not at the start. It’s really hard and the main issue is not technical - makn issue is fighting with big providers so they don’t refuse your mail.
Instead, use a professional mail provider allowing custom domains (I use mailbox.org). You can still keep using your domain for web / http access for other services you selfhost, you just point mail-related DNS records to the mail provider (they all have guides about how to do that).
Yes, that’s was my problem, I was able to send a mail through command line but I couldn’t see it in my inbox so I gave up
I’m going to check mailbox.org later at home, thanks!
Here are the ones I use:
- YouTube:
This is the hardest and you might need to hop a lot. But, these are the ones I have: FreeTube, Grayjay, LibreTube, NewPipe, PipePipe, and if none of these work, then YTDLnis (yt-dlp client)
- Mail:
ProtonMail (Tuta is heavily suggested too, but I personally have never used it)
- Cloud Storage:
Proton Drive (although I don’t use cloud storage much)
- Gallery:
Stock and AvesLibre (I heard Immich is good too, but I cannot afford self hosting atm)
- Video Player
VLC
- Audio Player
VLC
- 2FA
Proton Pass and KeepassXC
- Mail App
ProtonMail and K9Mail
- Password Manager
Proton Pass and KeepassXC
- Weather app
Breezy Weather
:O libretube has both sponsorblock and DeArrow, that’s cool!
I know about proton storage but is it good?
Out of curiosity, why KeepassXC over bitwarden?
I don’t use Proton Drive too much, but for my use case, it works great. I sometimes save files in there and share them via urls, and it works great for that use case.
The last time I used Bitwarden, the base plan did not support 2FA which is a must for me. Keepass keeps it local, and supports 2FA too. These days, I use Proton Pass more because I want easier sync across my devices, but I back up everything to Keepass every once in a while.