No matter how much they brag about their privacy policy, the reality is that they can never deny to give your sensitive information of the US government. If you guys are still living in the 'Privacy' Bubble, then you need to wake up. This is why I say that every country should have their own platforms like Mail, drive, cloud stations, etc. I think this is why they proudly call CIA the best, because it is, man! Like literally government officials are using these to share sensitive data, even intelligence officials are using Google email and drive. Why this type of surrender? It is just surrendering!

So I remember when google search started. They had a sign up on the wall in their garage where they ran thier servers "Do No Evil" Well they became the biggest thing on the planet.

They did not even have ads because back then ads on the internet were the most evil you could do. But as the fame grew they started to attract a lot of attention from people with bags of money who could see where things were going.

They paid some engineers and google Ads was born. It became a virtual money vacuum cleaner sucking up cash by the cart load. They left the sign "Do No Evil" up for a while longer until they decided to go public.

After that it was the end of that sign... It was kicked to to curb and discarded like it had never existed.

The rest is history and here we are today. So if you want to de-google you are going to have to come up with a better plan then switching to a new platform. Why? Because Google will either kill the new platform or buy it.

What you need is to build something totaly new that big companies like Google can't get their grimmy hands on. I am talking opensource and totaly new.

Also I'm running the stock Android 10 Go rom of my Moto e7i Power so I shouldn't be affected *knock on wood*

If you are looking for a top notch alternative to the Google inline search bar app, I highly recommend Quick Search. Discovered it yesterday by pure luck as I've been looking for something like this for years. Actually one of the best FOSS app I've seen for a long time. I'd argue it is FAR superior to Google's search bar. Massive kudos to the creator, this is an absolute piece of art. I've been degoogled for many e years now and the Google search app was one of these things that I always liked but none of the search engines' widgets were satisfactory. Actually surprised none of them cared to build a solid alternative.

https://f-droid.org/packages/com.tk.quicksearch

Disclaimer : This is NOT a self promotion and I have no relation to the dev.

Just got a new Samsung and now they want me to text through GOOGLE?!

Go f urself no way!

And they say you can deactivate your email once youve signed in?? Utter bullshit, let me text without "signing in"

Son ik what I'm doing like dawg stop spamming me every FUCKING SECOND 😭

(This is RedReader and I can't create multiple rows for some reason) YouTube to LibreTube and CoBalt Meowing (for storage downloads), CapCut to LibreCuts, Microsoft 365 to LibreOffice, Chrome to Clint Browser, Google to Brave Search, Android to CalyxOS, Reddit to RedReader, Google Maps tp CoMaps, Contacts to Connect You, Google Messages to Fossify Messages, My Files to Fossify File Manager, WhatsApp to Signal, FaceBook to SlimSocial, Google Camera to Open Camera, Google Photos to Iris Gallery, Google Drive to nothing, QuickShare to KDE Connect, Gboard to Simple Keyboard, Google Passwords to KeePassDX, Default launcher to Yagni Launcher, Google Keep to Notally, Google Authenticator to Clockwork, Google Play to Aurora Store and Droid-Ify, GitHub to Repo Store, Play Protect to Hypatia, VirusTotal to ViScan, Play Services to MicroG, Minecraft to Luanti. UrNetwork (Decentralized VPN), Shizuku, AShell, Pocket Paint, ScreenShot Tile, RecorderX (ScreenRecorder), Neuron Encrypt, EnforceDoze, SaverTuner, Simple Clipboard Editor, Memory Guardian, Lune (Local Music player), etc

Support got back to me and said they couldn't issue a refund because it goes against their refund policy. This just shows how fragile and insecure the digital things we buy are. From now on, I'm not buying any games from the Play Store, and a few months ago, someone's movies were removed from the catalog and that person made a huge deal out of it. I want to do something like that too, how can I do it?

Screenshot

With Google ending the perfectly functional Google Assistant today to force people to use their AI slop bot, I'm in need of something that will let me dictate texts to my wife while I'm driving. Any good third-party/FOSS voice assistants I can use with Android Auto? I literally only need it for text dictation while driving and to not be AI, anything else is a bonus.

🤦 I just don't understand. I know fdroid, apkmirror etc. exist but it's just frustrating to play the find and seek game every time an app has a forced update.

For example Nordlocker needs play store enabled to download but then uses the api login through a browser to log into the app and apparently that's not ​working with Brave. Perhaps it needs google webview or some other sneaky bit. ​Who knows? There's no documentation I've found yet and dns isn't jumping out at me.

If anyone has any app suggestions that don't rely on google ecosystem please add them here! Thoroughly over this nonsense.

So far I've found MagicEarth maps has their own hosting. 👍👏

https://www.magicearth.com/download

What Antivirus apps for a desktop computer are most recommended in 2026; ones that do NOT cavort with Google?

In the past days I convinced my mother to Degoogle her phone, I installed the entire Fossify suite and opened a Proton Mail for her. Everything worked fine, she was able to get acquitant with the new apps except Google itself. To be clear she is lamenting the fact that she can't read news anymore referring to those that come up when you swipe from left to right while being on the Home screen (sorry if it's not clear what I'm talking about, I never used that feature since I tend to debloat a phone the very second I acquire them). Is there an alternative to that? No need to say but ideally I'd need one that doesn't collect personal data (outside maybe the location to show relevant news) and without Advs.

I feel like Im... right where Im supposed to be. Ive been thinking about deGoogling for a long time, but I didnt know there was such a dedicated community behind it, which I discovered just a few hours ago. I decided to commit to deGoogling, and am Starting tonight. Here is my expected roadmap, please feel free to give me advice, otherwise, thank you all for welcoming me into this amazing community!

Looking into Filen and see you get some free storage for a referral link. Does anyone have a referral left? I'll be sure to pay it forward and share mine once I get signed up! Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone, does anyone know how I can request for Google to remove an article from its search results? There’s an article that comes up when my name is searched which states that I was involved in a court case, and I really don’t want it appearing when people Google me.

It’s been affecting my mental wellbeing, and I’m worried about it spreading further and negatively impacting my reputation and future opportunities. I’m not necessarily asking for the article itself to be removed, but I’d like to know if there’s a way to have it removed from Google search results when my name is searched.

Any advice on how I can go about this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

As of September 2026, I notice that I can no longer create new google account without the following two:
- an Android phone

- phone number

Previously, there was a trick to bypass phone number verification by creating a new account from any Google app, per my own testing, it last worked in July.

Now, they want to tie and associate the following to your newly created Google account.

1. already signed in Google account if you have any
2. your phone number type, whether esim or physical sim as shown in the screenshot.
3. your phone model

About point no. 2, previously, you can insert any number that you want to receive sms verif with, currently however, that option is gone. Now your phone number has to be installed in the same phone you use to sign up for new google account. This policy pretty much rendered those temporary throwaway on-demand sms receive services useless.