From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

What would you modify in this list of best 1:1 Google app replacements?

YouTube app ==> NewPipe
Gmail app ==> FairEmail
Chrome browser ==> Ungoogled Chromium/Bromite
Google Play Store app ==> Aurora Google Play Store app
Google calendar app ==> Etar (perhaps with DAVx5)
Gboard keyboard & stt ==> OpenBoard
Messages ==> PulsSMS (last known good version)
Android App Drawer ==> Muntashirakon App Manager
Google Contacts ==> OpenContacts
Pixel Launcher ==> Nova (last known good version)
Google Maps ==> OSMAnd~ (not 1:1 replacement, particularly for traffic)
Google Voice ==> TextNow (but not really a 1:1 replacement)
Google Play Services ==> Micro-G (signature issues on non-rooted phones)
Google search ==> DDG search
Google Drive ==> nextcloud,sync.com (not sure, I don't use 'em)

Anything else to replace Google on a phone that has no Google Account
set up on the phone?

Note: You can have a thousand Google Accounts; just don't set the phone up
with any of them. That one action provides privacy like you can't imagine.
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

On 2025-08-22, Marion <marion@facts.com> wrote:

What would you modify in this list of best 1:1 Google app replacements?

YouTube app ==> NewPipe
Gmail app ==> FairEmail
Chrome browser ==> Ungoogled Chromium/Bromite
Google Play Store app ==> Aurora Google Play Store app
Google calendar app ==> Etar (perhaps with DAVx5)
Gboard keyboard & stt ==> OpenBoard
Messages ==> PulsSMS (last known good version)
Android App Drawer ==> Muntashirakon App Manager
Google Contacts ==> OpenContacts
Pixel Launcher ==> Nova (last known good version)
Google Maps ==> OSMAnd~ (not 1:1 replacement, particularly for traffic)
Google Voice ==> TextNow (but not really a 1:1 replacement)
Google Play Services ==> Micro-G (signature issues on non-rooted phones)
Google search ==> DDG search
Google Drive ==> nextcloud,sync.com (not sure, I don't use 'em)

Anything else to replace Google on a phone that has no Google Account
set up on the phone?

Note: You can have a thousand Google Accounts; just don't set the phone up with any of them. That one action provides privacy like you can't imagine.

Deja view. We've been before.

Camera => OpenCamera

Fossify Apps => Phone, messages, contacts, calendar, filemanager,
gallery, voice recorder, notes.

Put on termux and termux:Widget and build you own file sync/backup to
your linux home server or desktop.

So what's changed for you since the last time you went round this?





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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Marion <marion@facts.com> ha scritto:

Google Play Services ==> Micro-G (signature issues on non-rooted phones)

It seems dangerous. Removing google play services from the system
could get you (me) into troubles before you (me) could replace it
with micro-g or any similar. I'm still facing a boot loop on a
non-rooted magic os 9. What's most crazy it's google play
services wasn't enabled on the device and everything was running
smoothly... until Canta removed it.

Anything else to replace Google on a phone that has no Google Account
set up on the phone?

Google voice search or speach-to-text ==> https://github.com/woheller69/whisperIMEplus
--
Qihe
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

On Sat, 23 Aug 2025 01:04:17 +0200 (GMT+02:00), Qihe wrote :

Google Play Services ==> Micro-G (signature issues on non-rooted phones)

It seems dangerous. Removing google play services from the system
could get you (me) into troubles before you (me) could replace it
with micro-g or any similar. I'm still facing a boot loop on a
non-rooted magic os 9. What's most crazy it's google play
services wasn't enabled on the device and everything was running
smoothly... until Canta removed it.

Thank you for that additional information about the most important of
Google packages which needs to be replaced, IMHO, for better privacy.

Every time we cover this most critical of all questions in the Android newsgroup, together we learn more so thank you for bringing that up.

As you're aware, microG is an open-source re-implementation of Google Play Services. However, it won't work on my unrooted Samsung because it needs signature spoofing support for apps believe that it's the official Google-signed package.

Hence, on non-rooted devices, microG is usually only used in limited
contexts (e.g., inside a sandboxed environment, or as a special build for Huawei devices) rather than as a full system replacement. Full replacement
is generally only safe on ROMs designed for it, which mine isn't.

The danger isn't inherent to microG itself though. The danger, as I
understand it, is that removing a core system package without the OS being prepared for it can break the device.

However, it can be done in certain sandboxed environments (e.g., Shelter/Island) or on devices without Play Services (Huawei, some
de-Googled ROMs). I've tried them myself, but so far I've failed.

This does not touch the system partition, so it carries far less risk. Apps
can be pointed to microG in that isolated space, but most of the system
still uses Play Services.

However, replacing Play Services entirely only works safely on ROMs built
for signature spoofing or with a spoofing patch applied. On non-rooted
Android like mine is, this is not supported.

My main point is only that people sometimes hear "use microG" and assume
it's always a direct swap. On a non-rooted stock ROM, a full swap is technically blocked and risky. Using microG in a sandbox is much safer, but it's a different setup and doesn't replace Play Services system-wide.

However, when I tried it, I failed. Sigh.

Anything else to replace Google on a phone that has no Google Account
set up on the phone?

Google voice search or speach-to-text ==> https://github.com/woheller69/whisperIMEplus

I like it!
Nobody has suggested WhisperIME+ before (at least based on my memory).

WhisperIME+ looks like a solid privacy-friendly swap for Google's voice
input as it's an offline speech-to-text (STT) keyboard based on OpenAI's Whisper model.

Running a search, it seems nothing gets sent to Google's servers.

That's key as is the ability to work offline as a standalone app or as your system-wide voice input method, and even translate languages into English.

I'll add it to the list.
<https://github.com/woheller69/whisperIMEplus>
<https://github.com/woheller69/whisperIMEplus/releases/tag/V1.3>

Drat! Is there only source code available?
I wish I had a tutorial of how to compile source for Android APK creation.

I'll have to write it first. :)

Anyone else have favorite replacements for other Google services?
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