Hi friends,
I’m trying to get rid of google in my life. But I’m stuck on a good alternative for Google Home. It manages all my smart home stuff. I don’t want to use Apple Homekit because I don’t want to buy yet another device just so I can use HomeKit. Any suggestions?
Thanks

Hey, question... I know TikTok is like the worst in terms of privacy, but I enjoy making content there because of the monetization. I tried to use it after removing all google things from my phone, including the play store, and TikTok now won't let me login saying I need to download from an official store. Is there a way to bypass that?

I tried to log in to a website I use for my studies a little while ago, and I was surprised to find it asking for additional verification steps like a Security Code and Google Authenticator, which I no longer have access to. I tried logging in with the Security Code, but it rejected it, saying it was wrong, even though it was correct and I had just copied it from my phone and compared it. I tried logging in from my laptop, but it also rejected it and asked for additional steps, and there was no way to recover it, like using my phone or email. I also disabled all the additional security options in my account, like two-step verification and backup codes, just to avoid a repeat of something that happened to me a while ago. I had a Google account with all my data, photos, social media accounts, and even games that I had lost money on, all because of one mistake that cost me the account. I tried every recovery method, but Google's flawed security system keeps rejecting me. It asks for my phone number and an OTP code, which is sent to my number, and everything seems to work fine until it asks for another OTP code, which is sent to the same email address I lost, or simply the same email address I'm trying to recover. I contacted YouTube support and tried to explain the situation, but they keep refusing and telling me to recover it from the official recovery link. But it's no use; the same steps, the same stupidity. Of course, I think it's my fault because I enabled two-step verification, but it shouldn't have to send an OTP code to the same email I'm trying to recover. I watched every YouTube video, tried every method, but nothing worked. I even created a second email address, and this is what happened! I'm really annoyed by this, and I'm starting to hate Google even more because of it. Besides, their support, especially YouTube support, is so slow and they barely respond or reply. I suffered even more when I contacted them, and in the end, they rejected me. My frustration with this company has increased, especially since it's such a large, global company. Also, how is it possible that there isn't a human support representative for Google? It's unbelievable that a global company like Google doesn't have a human support representative, especially in these situations. In the end, I see them as a failing company, especially when it comes to security, and I'm starting to hate them.

I used to use brave but with brave I can't use my self hosted search engine. I heard firefox on mobile had extension support does the forks do to?

Im using both ente auth and ente photos and i wanted to ask if its better to use a different photos app, also would it be better to use an aliases for an email account than a real name?

I did search this but am a bit confused~ Everyone recommends graphene on a pixel, but isnt pixel a google device... on a degoogle sub??

is there anyone else that manufactures a secure device? is a dumb phone still transmitting my data?? Thanks for any leads

So it's really between a hosted eu chat, or a self hosted open weight model, its a matter of setup effort/gpu cost v trust of a 3rd party.

imo most people should be hosted at first, and only self-host if you already have a decent GPU

- Mistral Le Chat (french co) has a free version with ~20-25 messages a day soft cap,
--Pro $14.99/month and Team $24.99/user/month
--con: pro is marketed unlimited, but about 120-150 standard messages when using, and model pool is smaller than openai / anthropic offering

- Proton Lumo (swiss, same as protonmail) - has a free version w/ no account needed
-- Lumo Plus $12.99/month or $9.99/year for billing. they run models/data processing at EU datacenters. proton says they don't use conversations for training.
-- con: you quickly hit limits on messages/image generation for free on daily use - only proton unlimited is the free tier - not too many features

self hosting is the most independent option. For example, Mistral Small 3.1 (24B) you need ~13-14GB at Q4 quantization, which fits on a 16GB GPU. some guides say ~55tps on RTX4080. Mistral Small 4 is much larger, ~72.6GB at Q4 quantization, you need like an 80gb card or high mem mac. Qwen 27B should be great actually.
problem is that you are responsible for setup and updates and quality not as high as current frontier hosted models. generally you add a front end of your own to deal with files/search with something like ollama

EU hosted wrappers are in the middle but look at subprocessor list. if you have a wrapper that is just sending prompts to a US model API, your text is still going to a US co.
-- con: shorter track record - trusting their infrastructure claims but can't audit

For comparison, ChatGPT Plus is $20/month on US infrastructure. So the baseline to compare against

I ended up with an eu hosted wrapper because i want daily chat without needing a gpu. I'm willing to give up a bit of control that I'd have with self hosting. For most folks le chat/lumo is good for daily use, and you only self host if you have 16gb+ card you already have.

Whats your paid for stuff, is it more the location hosted or monthly price how you decide?

I am starting to look into email replacements on my deGoogling journey, and one feature that I would dearly miss after switching away from gmail would be the Simplify Gmail extension. It changes the UI on normal gmail to something close to Google Inbox, something more streamlined and efficient. It is made by one of the former Google Inbox leads, and is a paid subscription. There are alternatives to it out there as well (such as Shortwave and Inbox Reborn), but they all share a common problem -- they work exclusively with gmail.

I have not been able to find a similar project that works with the suggested privacy-friendly alternatives like Proton and Tuta. A regular webmail interface now feels incredibly clunky and unfriendly and I really don't want to use it.

I am hoping that someone might know of a similar project (or mail client) that I can look into, that will work alongside my other deGoogling efforts (e.g. doesn't require a non-privacy-friendly browser or OS). I run android on my phone (probably eventually Graphene or Lineage or similar) and linux (CachyOS) + Vivaldi on my desktop.

All suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

im thinking about switching from Proton to Tuta but im not sure if i should

Not sure if this fits the sub, but some of the traffic is by Google and it's an Andorid phone, but if you have suggestions for other subs please let me know.

I used Netguard to block every single app on my samsung phone with lockdown mode.

0 apps should have internet access and that includes system apps, but according to my routers software my phone is still uploading and downloading something almost every hour. Hour by hour it can be less than 1 KB and as high as a few hundred KB.

Is this expected behavior? Faulty readings by the router?

I can just turn off wifi if I don't want any traffic, but I wanted to test the lockdown mode and maybe later allow some apps internet.

Hi everyone, I found your group and I want to start a weekly meetup in my community where we bring our devices and begin to DeGoogle/DeApple/DeMSN/DeTech as a group. Does anybody have a roadmap so I dont have to reinvent the wheel?

So i recently got the fairphone gen 6 but all the basic apps on there are from google. No basic notes app, just "google workspace", the messanger app is from google... i wanted to set up a proton mail adress, but in order to do that id need to ho into the google playstore to download it and make another gmail first???

Im probably gonna factory reset and try again, but how do i even get rid of them in the first place?

Anyone else experiencing murena.io workspace being offline?

I just found out about this subreddit and it's very interesting. Though I have a few question before venturing around here:

1. Why do people 'deGoogle'?

2. What's the recommended phone brand that align with this community principle? (Except Samsung and Apple)

3. What's the best step for beginners?

Thanks! Looking forward to venture here :)

I keep a couple of small dev side projects running on weekends and most of them end up needing a shared spreadsheet for budgets or timelines. The clients already live in Google Sheets so I get sent edit links without thinking about it. I started trying alternatives like OnlyOffice and CryptPad because the day job already has me buried in Excel all week. The problem is no one else on the project wants to learn a new interface just to tick off a task list. I tried exporting to CSV and sending files back and forth but that always ends up with version mismatches by the end of the week. Right now the least painful option seems to be hosting my own instance of something but the setup time keeps getting pushed to the bottom of the list. Curious what other people have settled on when the other party refuses to switch.

I recently flashed a Android Phone with a Custom ROM again.

I was quite surprised it hat the tiny notification LED still.

And it got a Gemini Button...🙈

So it got me thinking about remapping this specific button.

And guess what. It is useful Again!

...it triggers my Flashlight on my new Phone 🤣🍻

I love it.

How would you remapp those new found extra buttons that AI-Drunk Companys give us?

There's way too many people left and right saying and getting comments on how they talk on phone then they get ad on browser about that topic.

Tested this, used VPN, Signal call, no other mics in the room, no other apps enabled. Just Signal end to end encrypted with another signal user.

Shortly after, got on reddit. Sure enough, the specific account was receiving ads from the conversation.

This is basically like the UFO people. For the longest time these people out there getting called crazy for saying they seen UFO. Then government starts uploading UFO videos left and right.

Nah man, iPhone is bypassing laws through some technicality, and still collecting data regardless of what apps run on it. No matter how private at the software level, it's the phone itself that's bugged, for all.

Peace, stay safe friends.