Android without Google? That's how you do that

Android is incredibly popular on mobile devices. It is the free operating system made by Google. It's not just that it's given away for free; Google makes money from its services. And by services, we mainly mean advertisements. Not such a bad idea, then, to use Android without Google. How do you do that?

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Why without Google?

There is one main reason for wanting to get rid of Google: privacy. Google collects a lot of data about you as a user through its various services. Google collects, among other things, who you call, how long you call, your IP address, which websites you visit and what you search for. Google also knows who you are communicating with, because your contacts are synchronized by default. It also stores locations and any interaction you have with the Google voice assistant via "Okay, Google."

The more Google services you use, the more complete the profile Google can build about you. And the more complete your profile is, the more money Google can earn with your profile. Google is and remains an advertising company that earns a lot of money by delivering advertisements as specifically as possible. So if you use as few Google services as possible, Google will know less about you and you will retain more privacy. By the way , you can see everything that Google collects yourself .

Another reason to look for alternatives to Google's software may be that you prefer to use open source software: software where everyone can see the code. While many Google apps are based on open source software, they add secret Google features at the last minute.

Tip 01: Built-in apps

Some of the apps are already 'duplicate' if you have a device from a manufacturer such as Samsung, LG or HTC. For example, you get a separate e-mail app, but also a music player, your own photo app and more. If you prefer not to use an app from your manufacturer, there are many handy alternatives. For e-mail you can think of BlueMail, for example, which supports all major e-mail providers, such as Gmail and Hotmail. You can of course also opt for Microsoft Outlook for Android, which can also handle the most famous email services, as well as IMAP. However, the Outlook app does not sync Android's contacts and calendar. You will also find many good alternatives for many other standard apps in the Play Store. We will discuss a number of them separately here as a tip.

Tip 02: Disable apps

To prevent you from using Google apps on your smartphone or tablet (and from having to update them and being harassed), you can disable the Google apps. You do that through the app Institutions to open and then to apps to go. Carefully browse through the list, Google does not put its brand name for everything, so Google Chrome and Google Maps are simply called Chrome and Maps. You disable an app by tapping it and then choosing Disable / Disable App. Be careful not to disable everything from Google, such as Google Play Services and Google Play itself. Why not? You can read that in tip 3 and in the box 'Play Services'. To know for sure whether an app comes from Google or not, you have to dive into the Google Play Store. Bee My apps and games you will see the name of the manufacturer under the name of the app.

An alternative to the Google Play Store is the open source app store F-Droid

Tip 03: Play Store

You can install all apps for Android from the Google Play Store. However, there are alternatives. One of those alternatives is F-Droid. That is a dedicated open source application store. F-Droid uses repositories just like Linux. In this way, there is not one central authority that manages access to the app store, but it is decentralized. You install F-Droid from the website www.f-droid.org. Tap on Download F-Droid and download the relevant apk. Run the downloaded file. By default, apps from unknown sources are blocked. If a notification appears, tap Settings and add Security / Device Management the switch to Unknown sources and tap OK. You can open the apk again from your Downloads. Then tap to install. In addition to F-Droid, you can also choose Amazon Appstore, or the Microsoft Apps app. The latter is a mini app store with apps from Microsoft. Keep in mind that the offer of these alternative application stores is scant, unfortunately you will not find many of the best-known apps.

Sense and nonsense of custom roms

The abbreviation rom actually means read-only memory, memory that can only be read and that you cannot write with new data. In the Android community, it means something different: an operating system that you install in the ROM section of your smartphone. A stock ROM is the standard software that comes with your phone, the official operating system of the manufacturer. A custom rom is adapted by the community. Other apps and services may be present in such a ROM. The disadvantage of a custom rom is that it can take a while before it is stable, because it is a lot of work to make all drivers of the smartphone work properly. Once that is successful, you can, for example, install a ROM that does not contain Google services. However, this is going too far for this article.

Tip 04: F-Droid

Once you open F-Droid, the list of apps may take a while to load. Top at What's new you can choose a category, for example Internet. You can just open an app and then tap to install to install the app. Unfortunately, if you don't have root permissions on your Android, you should leave unknown sources enabled. Be careful not to just install unknown APKs from the internet, they can be unsafe! By the way, in F-Droid, go to Institutions via the menu and put a tick next to Download updates automatically. Optionally, check Only via Wi-Fi to download updates only over Wi-Fi. Next to the menu button you will find the option to manage your sources (repositories). Tapping on that will show you the active resources. You can find more resources for other apps here. To add a new source, tap New source. Then enter the source address (i.e. the url) and tap Add.

Be careful not to just install unknown APKs from the internet

Tip 05: Google Chrome

If you want to get rid of Google Chrome, you have a lot to choose from. You can think of Mozilla Firefox, for example. The Android version syncs with the desktop variant and even supports extensions. With this you can easily block advertisements, for example. Another option is to choose for example Dolphin Browser, that browser has been around for a long time on Android and is still regularly updated and improved. On certain devices that have root, it is possible to install the AOSP browser. That is the default open source browser for Android. You will find this here. However, the number of supported devices is limited. In F-Droid you will also find an open source browser simply called Browser.

Tip 06: Search

You can install other search apps in Android like DuckDuckGo, Yahoo Search, Startpage or Bing Search. Most search apps allow you to add a widget to your home screen for quick and easy searching. If you would still like to continue using Google Chrome, you can set a different default search engine in it. To do that, open Chrome and tap the menu button to the right of the address bar and go to Institutions. Then tap Search engine and choose another search engine from the list. Unfortunately, a number of popular options are missing there. The Mozilla Firefox mobile browser offers a lot more settings for search than Chrome. You can decide for yourself which search engines you add and which you want to set as default. You can also have that chosen default Firefox search engine in some Android versions start automatically when you long-press the home button.

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