De-Googling: app compatibility
Some thoughts about Android, Google, and the “de-googling” process.
I de-Googled my smartphone more than a year ago. I use Google as a search engine most of the time, and I’m OK with their “data-mining” while using their web search engine. I keep trying DuckDuckGo and others, but they are not as effective as Google.
What I don’t like is that Google collects an infinite amount of data of me (especially in Android) even if I told them to stop. Also, all Android phones that I re-flashed in these years with alternative ROMs (for testing/development purposes) are damn fast without Google bloatware.
So I decided to relegate Google services to an old refurbished smartphone, as some apps won’t work without (at least) “Google play services”. Note that I’m not using microG.
While in the past, I tried leaving Google-Android multiple times, and I failed, the last time was a success. Alternative ROMs are becoming very good, and there are no significant differences (at least, for now) except for everything that depends on Google. If you replace Google with other services like Nextcloud, Syncthing, or others, you will still have a good experience (e.g., sync’ed calendar and contacts, e-mails using IMAP, etc.).
I made a partial list of apps and their “google-dependency”:
Apps with issues
- Avia Weather - METAR & TAF: the base (free) app is working. Add-ons are not working because they use the “In-app purchase” feature from Google.
- Titanium Backup the base (free) app is working. The paying version (with the license APK) is not working due to the missing “In-app purchase” feature from Google.
- DB Navigator keeps saying that it won’t work without Google Play services. However, the only section that seems to have issues is the Google Map (of course). Warning: this app is collecting data by default; see in-app “Settings”.
- FlightAware Flight Tracker keeps saying that it won’t work without Google Play services. In practice, only ads and maps are not working.
Apps that don’t work at all
- Avia Maps Aeronautical Charts: the app is not working. A Google account is needed to use the trial feature or pay via the “In-app purchase” feature from Google.
- Flightradar24 Flight Tracker keeps closing and saying that it won’t work without Google Play services.
- ISS Detector: See the Space Station and satellites: it is not working. It opens but keeps saying that the app won’t work without Google play services.
- MyTIM it won’t work at all. The app says that it won’t run in a “modified environment”. Hide Magisk is not working.
Actually, there are more apps that I use and they have issues, however I can’t put them here for now. I’ll update this post in the future.