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What does degoogling mean?
Degoogling

We always and constantly read the suggestions and questions that are asked to us, especially on our Telegram group and in that Telegram/Matrix. There degoogling it is one of the hottest, most requested topics which also lead to a lot of confusion among those who want to start a process in this sense.

For this reason we thought of creating a sort of guide to de-googling, done in order of difficulty and with clear and precise points. It being understood that each of us is made differently and that there are those who like to "hit the ground running" and cancel everything and those who like to do things very calmly taking one step at a time. Just as everyone's needs are different and we must therefore not criticize those who do too little, just as we must not take at face value everything said by those who do "too much".

Before starting, we remind you that on Le Alternative, by choice and will, we do not deal with complex processes but only alternatives that are truly within everyone's reach. For this reason you will not find anything on this article adb, for example, but if you want you can read about it for example here.

What does degoogling mean?

Let's start from the basics first. Degoogle it is a born neologism, according to Wikipedia, not on one occasion but has been used more and more over the years. Already in 2013 we started talking about Android Kindle Fire as a "Degoogled Android” ¹. Subsequently the word also caught on among specialists and we too like to use it after Italianizing it in degoogling (it's not our invention, we're pretty sure we read it somewhere in Italian, such as on the website of devol).

It is, essentially, about try to leave Google out of your life. Or at least try as much as possible because, as we will see, it really isn't easy at all. In our opinion, the processes can be summarized in 4 fundamental key points:

Easy
Medium
Advanced
Degoogled

Degoogling

This list is to be taken as a guide to be revisited at various times. It is not recommended (then do as you please, obviously) to read the list and think about completing all the points immediately. In our view the watchwords are: take your time.

The guide is here, use it as a starting point and come back from time to time to see where you are at and if you can take a step forward or if it is not yet the case and it is better to wait a bit.

1. Easy

To begin the process degoogling in our opinion it is necessary to think about how many Google services we use, often unconsciously, and try to understand which ones we can do without completely and which ones we will definitely need sometime.

In the meantime, let's face those who are real gods Google services, pre-installed apps on your Android smartphone that most people use and that you should try to do without.

The easiest ones to abandon in our opinion are:

Gmail, we know that this point isn't everyone's agreement, but Gmail is Alone an email. It's easier than changing your phone number because you don't even have to tell everyone, just forward all emails to your new address (you can choose here a new provider) and put an automatic reply that says: “thank you, send me the next emails to the new address”. Here you will find our guide For leave Gmail. It is important to understand that abandoning Gmail does not mean going from one hundred to zero in one day, it is a process that can take weeks but which will come naturally and easily to you. If you then have the good idea of buy a domain and use it as an email you will never be tied to any provider again and when you want to switch from “xxx” to “yyy” you can do it by changing just two settings and without saying anything to anyone. Just like when you change, for example, from Vodafone to Tim, no more, no less. This is a slightly more complex operation and less suitable for beginners, but as it is not excessively difficult, a guide to do it will also be coming soon.

after Gmail it's natural to think that it's time to try abandoning the applications connected to it: Google Contacts And Google Calendar. If you have always found yourself comfortable with Google, there are "all-inclusive" alternatives such as Infomaniak, Mailboxes, Kolab Now or also Mailfence. These alternatives, unlike Google, are paid and live thanks to this: they do not use your personal data to earn money. Even the suite Nextcloud It's perfect for changing everything in one go. Alternatively you can very well use any other email and for calendars/contacts use a different system, such as Fruux. We would like to remind you that all the suggestions are designed ad hoc (and tested by us) to have simple and working solutions. We never suggest products for which we have several doubts regarding their effectiveness or ease of use;

The Search engine by Google, this is also easily replaceable for example using Startpage, Brave Search or the most famous DuckDuckGo. But there are so many alternatives, such as Ecosia which uses part of the proceeds to plant trees around the world (even if it uses the research of Bing). Always remember that Google is always reachable there, if you don't find what you were looking for with these search engines you can also use Google for some searches. In some cases like DuckDuckGo And Brave Search it's also very simple, just add !g at the end of your search. For Ecosia just add instead #g;

Google DriveIn our opinion, this service is also easily replaceable. You can use a complete suite like the one at Infomaniak or others Nextcloud and you won't miss it too much. Alternatively we have already addressed the issue many other times and also find some price comparison tables to help you in your choice;

Google Chrome, here too it is really very simple. If you really can't swallow it Firefox you can try Browsers as Brave which uses the same one motor of Chrome. You won't even notice you've changed Browsers and in return you will have a Browsers which protects you from advertising, from Fingerprinting and come on tracers;

in the place of YouTube you can try using the application NewPipe;

remove Google's permissions for spy on you. At this stage you are still tied to your Google profile on Android, you are still downloading many applications from the Play Store and, if you are one of those who "always accept everything", Google probably knows more about you than you can imagine:
- your data in Search, turn off the deactivable: saving history and personal results. The latter are most likely more useful for Google to get to know you better than for you. Scroll and, little by little, deactivate everything;
- your data in the assistant, as before: deactivate the deactivable. If you really see something that you can't do without, leave it but we advise you against it;
- your data in Maps, as above, deactivate what you find here too.

It doesn't take much to take away power from Google!

Try to imagine how much power you are taking away from Google just by eliminating these first applications: Google will no longer know all your emails, will therefore no longer be able to collect and discover your purchases and trips or your private conversations. Furthermore, he will no longer be able to know your daily appointments and if you have also deleted Google Drive as suggested it won't even know what files you have and what they contain.

It will no longer know your location history, nor will it know everything you search for on the internet.

Did you know for example that a classic Google Pixel sends about 1MB of data to Google every 12 hours? And that some Google applications like Chrome, Docs, Messaging, Search and YouTube do they send data every 10-20 minutes? ²

By “will not know” we clearly mean that he will not be able to easily (and legally) associate this data with your Google account. There are many ways to know that "it's you" anyway, thanks for example to Fingerprinting. But leave the dirty work to them to eventually identify you and fit all the pieces of the puzzle for their marketing. There is no reason why you should make his job easier or even work for free for them ³.

Now, if you no longer use these applications, you can move on to deactivating them because it is almost never possible to uninstall them (easily), unfortunately. To do this normally, simply go to settings -> Apps, select the application and press "Deactivate“.

1.2 Netguard

A small step forward that you can take is, after deactivating the applications, try to block their connection through applications such as Netguard. Netguard in fact it allows you to block the connection of any application, even system ones. Use it with caution even if you can't break anything permanent, in case you uninstall it and everything goes back to the way it was before.

Generally, however, it will be enough for you to take a small step at a time, removing the connection, especially from applications that you know how Gmail, Google Drive and similar, perhaps leaving aside those of the operating system. This operation is very useful because it allows you to be a little more sure that no data is passing from those applications (although this does not mean that this does not happen entirely).

2. Medium

Already with the first procedure you are, in our opinion, much safer from Google's tentacles. You have taken away his power and he will no longer know you as intimately as before. Now let's see how we can take it to the next level.

In our view the next step is be able to eliminate, as far as possible, applications that depend on Google. Thanks to this process you can subsequently unpair your Android smartphone from your Google account.

In fact, you know that Isn't it mandatory to have a Google account to use an Android smartphone?

It's one of those things that few people know and that those who know often take it for granted. In the common world, however, many are even surprised when they see a smartphone working without a SIM, for this reason we always try to specify everything and explain everything in a simple way.

We were saying, the objective at this level is therefore to be able to delete your Google account from Android. Don't worry: you don't have to delete your Google account forever, in fact this is definitely not recommended.

Make a small list of the applications you use. How many are essential? How many come from F-Droid or from alternative stores?
- Often some applications that you usually use have their own free version on alternative stores. For example Telegram you can download directly from the official website or from F-Droid. Bitwarden allows you to add your own Repositories on F-Droid. Firefox has its own version on F-Droid call Fennec and so on

Now try not using the Play Store anymore (you can also deactivate it from the settings) and install Aurora Store. Thanks to Aurora you can download applications from the Play Store without having an associated Google account.

Warning: if you have purchased any applications in the premium version with the Aurora Store you will not be able to download the pro version. There are two solutions to this problem:

try contacting the company explaining what you are doing, telling them that you have already made the Premium payment and if they can give you a code to enable the Premium version without having a Google account. From personal experience we assure you that there are many companies that have no problem helping you;

you could try logging in to the Aurora Store with your Google account, the one you used to make the purchases. This operation is possible but not entirely recommended as your account could potentially be closed or removed by Google ⁴. We don't know anyone who's had this happen to them but it's something that could happen - take that into account.

At this moment and at this stage you still have a very normal Android smartphone, However, you have taken away a lot of power from Google and you have greater awareness of what you have in your hands. Now you can also try to think about going to Settings/Accounts and removing the Google account associated with your smartphone!

You can download the new applications via the Aurora Store, your Google email address will no longer be associated in some way with your person and your smartphone.

2.1 Isolate applications

Let's add a point to the layer medium because there are also interesting solutions to be able to use some applications more safely if we are forced to. For example, if we necessarily have to use Whatsapp because the "xxx" group only uses that, we can try installing it on the Android work profile. The work profile is a completely separate and isolated profile from the main one on which we can run applications.

To do this, two very simple to use applications come to our aid: Shelter (Play Store And F-Droid), Insular (F-Droid) or Island (Play Store). All three are applications Open source and free ones that will help you install certain apps separately. It can therefore be an interesting and intelligent idea to use applications that we would not want to use. We will talk about it later in a dedicated article.

Meanwhile up here Reddit (link Teddit) a brief explanation of how the job profile works.

3. Advanced

Having overcome the first two points unscathed, we can now begin to evaluate change the operating system of our smartphone. We will always have Android but in its own version degoogled. Now this phrase scares us a little less since we are already ahead and we know well that without Google we can live without major problems.

At this stage you can think about giving up the stock version of your smartphone which is normally full of ~~rubbish~~ proprietary applications and start thinking about a completely new smartphone!

Small note: in case it wasn't obvious, we would like to underline something. Obviously we do not intend to encourage you to change smartphones when not strictly necessary. We mean that, the moment you find yourself having to look for a new smartphone, you might start thinking about getting it already degoogled.

If you think you have the technical skills you can take a look at operating systems LineageOS, /And/ or CalyxOS. By clicking on these three links you will be taken to the respective pages where you will be told which smartphones are supported and how to put this operating system on your smartphone;

as we said, this is not a simple operation suitable for everyone. However, there are smartphones on the market with pre-installed alternative operating systems! It is the case of /And/ but also of iode. In both cases you will find our review: here the one of /And/ And here the one of iode.
These smartphones do not require any technical knowledge and are already sold with the alternative operating system pre-installed.

You are now in the advanced stage of degoogling, so you can also think of having a real smartphone degoogled. These operating systems that we are suggesting have within them the project microG which allows you to simulate Google services. This is needed to make the vast majority of applications available on the market work. However, unfortunately not all of them, therefore before this operation we strongly advise you to look at our list above The Alternatives | A la carte, come in our Telegram group or consult the site Plexus.

This way you can find out if some of the applications that are essential for you work with microG or less. As we said, almost all of them work, however some like that of Intesa Sanpaolo or Enjoy they cause problems. In this case, if you are not an expert, we advise you to give up this phase or to use another low-cost smartphone only for those essential applications that don't work on it.

4. Degoogled

Compliments!

There are very few who have managed to get this far. At this stage you can even eliminate microG from your life and use only and exclusively applications present on F-Droid or on alternative stores.

It means that you don't use any applications on the Play Store, you have absolutely no need for Google services and you can use your smartphone on a daily basis without any problem.

The operating system par excellence at this stage is probably GrapheneOS or even CalyxOS without installing microG. Alternatively, if you don't feel like installing an operating system on your smartphone yourself, you can still try to buy a smartphone online from /And/ or from iode And disable microG.

4.1 Degooglyzed and deandroidized

If you want to take it a step further you might even think about eliminate Android altogether from your own life. In fact, there are smartphones with Linux installed, this is the case with Ubuntu Touch, Of PinePhone, Mobile Plasma And Librem 5. However, these are projects in the experimental phase and no Android application will work on them. It is suitable for you if you plan to use it only with applications available on Linux or via WebApp.

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