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Why I'm Ditching Android

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Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#121

Post by brownbat »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #57
brownbat wrote: post #44

Based on the stated concerns, data sent to Google, bundled apps that can't be removed... And given the author's interest in FOSS... Really interesting Lineage failed. He claims apps kept nagging about the lack of Google app support. How pervasive is that? Could he have just found a couple app alternatives rather than throwing them all out at once? It's hard to disentangle whether the problems we have are with our pho…

As someone who also tried Googleless Android before giving Android a kick to the curb, it's often specific service clients with no alternative. Like I needed Skype, and despite Microsoft being a Google competitor, their app didn't work without Play Services. And with security being key to me, I'm not interested on depending on a third party hack with all my sensitive data.

Makes sense, thanks for that insight.

Yeah, helping third parties engage in signature spoofing does sound far from ideal.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#122

Post by yason »

matart wrote: post #6

On the notifications part, I had a Huawei phone for a bit and encountered the same issue. Huawei does some crazy things to keep the battery from draining. It does kill almost all background apps. There are some settings to stop this but it seems like a crap shoot whether it decided to listen to them. I thought android had gone down hill and eventually tested out an S9 and realized it was the Huawei android flavor tha…

To me, this sounds like a feature.

Basically I'd like the phone to cut off all mobile data, wifi, gps, and other radio and kill all applications when the screen is locked.

OnePlus has some background activity limits and you can turn on the aggressive Doze (or whatever it's called these days) but if my phone is locked I would really, really like to just receive calls and sms and have the system enforce that, and switch off all the unrelated hardware to extend standby time.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#123

Post by slothtrop »

flycaliguy wrote: post #120
SamWhited wrote: post #12

I've been coming around to this way of thinking more and more lately. Apple has a clear business model that involves selling high-end phones and other hardware and taking a percentage of app sales, not selling me to advertisers. I've found at least 5 different privacy settings buried in various places around the Android menus in a confusing way (instead of just having a single switch in the privacy settings menu), an…

Have you considered a Blackberry? I’m using an android BB from maybe the first run, few years old, and it’s got all the privacy I need up front.

Also recommend this.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#124

Post by realusername »

rando444 wrote: post #89
me551ah wrote: post #4

Notifications, as you rightly mentioned, are a huge problem with Android. Some manufacturers implement battery saving measures which force kill applications so they can no longer process notifications. I used to work at a team messaging startup Flock and we used to get a lot of complaints from users about missing notifications. We were able to detect impacted users and reduce complaints substantially using duplicate…

Pardon my ignorance, but why do you see this as an Android-only problem? Surely every possible operating system suffers the same problem, no?

No, only Android suffers of these hacky issues because Google allows manufacturer to customize Android way too much. Android is the modern equivalent of Windows XP themes if you want to compare.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#125

Post by dep_b »

rando444 wrote: post #89
me551ah wrote: post #4

Notifications, as you rightly mentioned, are a huge problem with Android. Some manufacturers implement battery saving measures which force kill applications so they can no longer process notifications. I used to work at a team messaging startup Flock and we used to get a lot of complaints from users about missing notifications. We were able to detect impacted users and reduce complaints substantially using duplicate…

Pardon my ignorance, but why do you see this as an Android-only problem? Surely every possible operating system suffers the same problem, no?

iOS notifications are in a separate system and do not need any part of the host app to be started to receive them.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#126

Post by ryl00 »

I ditched Android 2+ years ago for... Windows Mobile. :)

While I did so for purely financial reasons (Microsoft was in the process of bailing out, so was putting their stock on fire sale and I couldn't resist, ecosystem disadvantages notwithstanding), I've come to appreciate the design and will be sad once I have to leave (I'm still using a Windows 10 Mobile Alcatel IDOL 4s as my daily driver).

To me, Windows Mobile had some of the best parts of Android (hardware variety) and Apple (regular OS/security updates for all).

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#127

Post by [deleted] »

rando444 wrote: post #89
me551ah wrote: post #4

Notifications, as you rightly mentioned, are a huge problem with Android. Some manufacturers implement battery saving measures which force kill applications so they can no longer process notifications. I used to work at a team messaging startup Flock and we used to get a lot of complaints from users about missing notifications. We were able to detect impacted users and reduce complaints substantially using duplicate…

Pardon my ignorance, but why do you see this as an Android-only problem? Surely every possible operating system suffers the same problem, no?

[deleted]

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#128

Post by bunnycorn »

rando444 wrote: post #89
me551ah wrote: post #4

Notifications, as you rightly mentioned, are a huge problem with Android. Some manufacturers implement battery saving measures which force kill applications so they can no longer process notifications. I used to work at a team messaging startup Flock and we used to get a lot of complaints from users about missing notifications. We were able to detect impacted users and reduce complaints substantially using duplicate…

Pardon my ignorance, but why do you see this as an Android-only problem? Surely every possible operating system suffers the same problem, no?

Not me551ah, but the problem with Android is that:

1. iOS is an Apple operating system. Every iOS device has a daemon running a service that connects with Apple's APNS (Apple Push Notification Service), and that service routes the notifications of every App to the user's device. APNS is non-negotiable, every iOS device has it running, and every App that wants to [reliably] deliver notifications must use it. It's part of the OS, so the OS won't kill it, in fact, if it crashes, the OS restarts it. It also means it's "well behaved", meaning it won't mine cryptocurrencies in the background (unless Apple breaks bad and decides that it's $1T value is not worth it anymore).

2. Android is not a strictly Google operating system. Google has it's APNS analogous, GCM (Google Cloud Messaging), but not every Android device has ties with Google, its open source, meaning millions (billions?) of Android devices out there are running without any Google ties. So in turn, many Apps device to have their own background tasks running all the time, with a persistent connection to the server to watch for notifications. Problem with this it's okay when you have 10 Apps with notifications, not when you have 100 Apps with notifications, each one having it's own background service. Some Android OEM's want their users to have great batt life and kill those background services, leaving notifications dead.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#129

Post by philjohn »

chmln wrote: post #111

As they say, when there's a will - there's a way. The author clearly did not evaluate all of the alternatives, and simply jumped from one walled garden to another. Bloatware, adware, and battery life are cited as his reasons. But he could have rooted his phone in 5 minutes then deleted all the bloatware and google apps in an instant. Add microG and adaway on top, and you have a nice ad-free system with much better ba…

> All he had to do was research.

And that's the problem. One platform offers, mostly, sane defaults with strong privacy guarantees and no bloatware, the other requires you to invest time and effort, first to research, then enact.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#130

Post by commoner »

kingosticks wrote: post #34
qaute wrote: post #21

"I tried replacing Android with Lineage OS on a old phone I had. Whilst that meant I didn’t have any Google Apps on my device, it was still Android underneath. Also many apps kept complaining that I didn’t have Google services on the device." An alternative is to install microG [1], which reimplements assorted Google services. YMMV, but I've been able to run ~70% of all Android apps with no problems. [1] https://micr…

What's the best hardware supported by microG? My current phone is not supported and while my previous one is, it's an original Moto G; I don't think I could handle returning to those specs, not to mention the ageing battery.

MicroG supports all Android devices, but requires manual installation.

LineageOS for microG (which is a pre-built ROM) supports all phones that are supported by LineageOS. A full list of these phones can be found here:

Sorted by device age, with pictures and specifications: https://piotr-yuxuan.github.io/choose-a-new-phone/

Sorted by model, with LineageOS version and build day (view on desktop for all columns): https://www.lineageoslog.com/build/scheduler

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