The idea of getting outside of the Google ecosystem is intriguing. I have a pixel 8. Is there a website that I can go to to learn how to switch? My battery just drops like a stone.
I’d go with CalyxOS. Install is also easy, but graphene touts allowing Google play services to be used… The very part of the picture that drew you to this comments section. You don’t have to install it in graphene, but then almost no apps work right.
CalyxOS use microG, a fully open-source spoof of Google play that is super light on battery, allows most apps to work fine (including banking), etc. Some apps like Pokemon go don’t, however.
Thank you for your full explanation, kind stranger. Ill give it a good going over!
Cheers!
No worries, and whatever you choose will be better than stock, calyx graphene or lineage. Good luck!
Check out Graphene OS, it supports the pixel lineup and is pretty easy to install if you know how to read and copy paste.
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Thanks Man. Ill do some research.
I second the people that said lineage OS. I am using it right now. I got this Nord phone because I knew they were easy to tinker with. I used it a bit and ended up with a newer galaxy. Well after I put lineage on the Nord every problem it had went away. Excellent battery life, runs smoothly, weekly security patches if I want etc. One thing that helped a lot was the “Aurora” app store. Let’s you install apps anonymously from the play store without requiring google services. Many of them won’t work due to the no google services, but a surprising amount of stuff does just fine even if it complains about it.
I had recently installed Grapheneos on my pixel, with a goal is determining what was responsible for all the senseless Google domains that a pixel normally contacts.
To my surprise disabling Network for the Google Services Framework and Play Services killed all of the nonsense. The only downside was that GSF has the push mechanism in it also, that many apps use for push notifications.
If only there were an alternate for push notifications that all apps would use.
Anyway, Grapheneos runs way cooler than Google’s Malware version.
Check out microG: https://microg.org/
I get all my push notifications, apps etc without any actual Google services on my phone. Remote google servers are still used, but in a more (though not fully) anonymous manner.
TIL that MicroG is used for more than just getting my Google account to work in YouTube ReVanced.
Are you using Grapheneos or another ROM?
I’m using CalyxOS, it comes with microG. I wish graphene supported microG, but they don’t.
I use ntfy for notifications, even on my vanilla Pixel.
The less google services apps you use the less google services needs to run.
That looks nice, but apps that use GSF for push won’t use that. Or am I missing something on their website?
Correct, an app has to be built without GSF. That’s why I still use Vanilla Pixel for Google Maps and Android Auto.
I use Osmand for maps.
How’s the picture quality after the switch
I’m not really the one to ask as I don’t buy a smart phone for a camera. However, it looks good to me and I have a picky eye. And from what I’ve seen, you can use Google Camera on Grapheneos and get the same quality pictures and video.
No surprise, Play Services is Googles tracking framework on mobile too.
