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Degoogle your Android phone! This article is about the steps and practice of “de-Googling” an Android phone.<br>Is it possible to use an Android phone without logging in to a Google account, without using Google apps, and only use them in the browser when necessary? Yes, after flashing the phone. In the image below, the common apps installed on a fresh Android system are almost all free software.
(This article was originally written in June 2022 and was first posted on Blogger, but yelling about de-Googling on Google’s turf felt kind of weird)<br>1. Overview of Degoogle<br>Did you know? Through the GMS services inside your phone, Google is tracking you 24 hours a day! Every move you make online is recorded by Google, so it can push more ads to you!<br>According to the Wikipedia definition, “Degoogle” is a grassroots movement that has emerged in Europe and the United States in recent years.<br>There is an r/degoogle subreddit dedicated to discussing degoogling strategies.<br>Degoogle means removing Google services from an Android phone and no longer relying on services provided by GMS.<br>As for why degoogle? See the links above. Common reasons include protecting privacy, resisting surveillance capitalism, reducing future Barrier of exit, escaping walled gardens, and so on.<br>Analyzed according to threat model, degoogle can be divided into many degrees, ranging from simply switching your email provider away from Gmail, to completely removing Google services. It depends on personal needs.<br>What this article discusses is how to perform the most extreme form of de-Googling on an Android phone<br>Android phones sold outside mainland China mostly come with Google services (GMS), and many apps depend on it to function. Usually, GMS services are set as system apps and cannot be uninstalled.<br>We are going to uproot the GMS services embedded in the Android phone.<br>For the best experience, we need to flash the phone with a ROM closer to stock Android, such as “LineageOS” or “GrapheneOS”. These ROMs do not include any GMS services by default, and getting root is also quite easy.<br>We need to stop using Google services, but too many apps depend on Google services, and some apps simply have no alternatives. At this point, “microG” is a good alternative choice. We can use microG, an open source implementation of Google functionality, to replace GMS services. It minimizes the data that Google services need to collect, has lower privileges than Google services, and can also prevent some apps from failing to run.<br>Degoogleing naturally means refusing to use Google Play. But you still need an app store, right? This article will introduce how to use “F-Droid”, which only contains free software, and “Aurora Store” to replace Google Play. I will explain the use of these two stores in more detail later.<br>As for apps, since you have escaped Google, which monitors you, you should use free software as much as possible, reject the whole Google suite, and avoid installing any Chinese spyware.<br>Alternative apps for common Google services (search, Gmail, maps, calendar, cloud, and so on) are listed at the end of the article.<br>The benefit of using open source software is that the system-level Barrier of exit is reduced. You are not tied to system services provided by Google or Apple, nor do you become infatuated with proprietary apps provided by a particular OEM.<br>2. Unlock Bootloader & flash a ROM<br>Related article: General Steps for Rooting<br>My phone is a Sony Xperia 1 III. The stock system is already close to stock Android, but it still contains vendor junk, with many annoying bloated apps. Here I chose the cleaner route: flash a third-party ROM, so even Sony’s built-in software disappears.<br>For ROM choice, the first option is “LineageOS”. The reason is simple: LineageOS supports the most phones. And by default, it does not include the Google Services Framework, so you can freely choose whether to install it.
Although LineageOS has very little built in, personally I think stock Android is already good enough.<br>If your phone supports other third-party ROMs, you do not have to use LineageOS. GrapheneOS, for example, is a good choice. Its privacy-protection options are more thorough than LineageOS. Others than that are fine, too. But you need to pay attention to whether they provide flashable packages without GMS services.<br>Afterward, use Magisk, APatch, or KernelSU to obtain root privileges. Root is not required, but it is very useful when modifying some system settings.<br>3. microG installation tutorial<br>“microG” is an open source implementation of Google’s service APIs. It originated in Germany and is used to replace GMS services, preventing some apps from failing to run and letting...