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Freeing My Phone from Google

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Re: Freeing My Phone from Google

#61

Post by kbit »

autoexec wrote: post #46
sbr464 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Open question: Which Google Maps feature does everyone here use or value the most? Driving/walking directions? Reliability? Traffic? Street View? I imagine it’s a combination but curious in general what would a competitor need to master to change the conversation, if OSM isn’t there yet.

In my case it's street view. Directions I can pretty much get anywhere, but nothing beats virtually taking the drive yourself so you know what to expect when going somewhere new. I'd love to see a competitor who could make that experience a little smoother. Navigating in streetview is more like a slide show than a drive.

OsmAnd includes Mapillary, a crowdsourced Google Street View alternative! The idea is that over time, a collaborative database will become even more extensive than the one of a single company can ever be (just like OSM). For me, in Vienna, it already is at least as good.

Regarding your point about driving being more of a slide show: Mapillary in OsmAnd can 'drive' you along streets quite smoothly. Of course, there are are some artifacts from deforming the images, but it doesn't 'move and load' like Google Street View, it continuously moves and keeps the images at a constant quality.

Re: Freeing My Phone from Google

#62

Post by kbit »

flaxton wrote: post #7

Speaking of phones, did you try to read this on a phone? Tiny font, not responsive design and faint color (no contrast) makes it very hard to read. Ugh.

Sorry! I just set up my blog and only tested it on my phone, where it worked well. I can see why fonts could be small, the default stylesheet is using absolute values. Should've checked that before...

Will fix as soon as possible!

Edit: It should be somewhat better now, with relative font size values. Still not ideal, I gotta refresh my CSS skills and work more on the stylesheet sometime soon.

Thanks again for letting me know.

Re: Freeing My Phone from Google

#63

Post by kbit »

clircle wrote: post #2

Do you really need to install UnifiedNLP to use location services? Doesn't the GPS radio work without google play services?

I was surprised as well, I do believe that default GPS should work regardless. However, I tried 3 different spots and could not get a single location after minutes of trying.

I'm not an Android developer, but could it be that applications are just expecting that API? It would make sense for Google to want to route location requests through what's usually their service...

Re: Freeing My Phone from Google

#64

Post by bennofs »

izacus wrote: post #41
commoner wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar arguments have been employed against ad blocking. Users should be aware of the ramifications of their software decisions, but whether someone should download and use Google Play Services vs. MicroG, YouTube vs. NewPipe, etc. is the user's choice. From a privacy perspective, MicroG and NewPipe are much less intrusive than Google Play Service and YouTube, because the open source apps send less user data to Goog…

That would be fine if they'd be clean reimplementations of an API using their own backends. But advertising services which abuse SaaS infrastructure of a company is just not ok, especially in an article that's all about not using anything from Google. I'd feel similarly about having someone advertise a way to crack Slack enterprise features instead of using something like Matternmost.

But using FCM is enforced by apps. If they would roll their own, no app would work.

Re: Freeing My Phone from Google

#65

Post by VvR-Ox »

commoner wrote: post #15
cameronbrown wrote: post #3

There's two Google apps I just can't live without: YouTube and Google Maps. There's simply no alternative to the amount of value these bring me. OSM is getting good but it's just not there yet. I'm working on this in my area. I'd suggest to anyone worried about Google tracking to use Privacy Guard built into LineageOS, which aims to make each and every request for sensitive permissions explicit. A big benefit of free…

Google Maps is fully compatible with MicroG, a free and open source replacement for the Google Play Services client. MicroG includes UnifiedNlp, which was discussed in the blog post. https://microg.org/ https://lineage.microg.org/ At the moment, I recommend the previous version of MicroG (0.2.6.13280) since the latest version (0.2.7.17455) may have compatibility issues. If you're using LineageOS for MicroG, builds on…

NewPipe is one of "THE APPS" that make me regret a bit that I had to move to iOS again.

The possibility to just download and listen offline and also to create playlists without an account are awesome.

Re: Freeing My Phone from Google

#66

Post by TeMPOraL »

izacus wrote: post #41
commoner wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar arguments have been employed against ad blocking. Users should be aware of the ramifications of their software decisions, but whether someone should download and use Google Play Services vs. MicroG, YouTube vs. NewPipe, etc. is the user's choice. From a privacy perspective, MicroG and NewPipe are much less intrusive than Google Play Service and YouTube, because the open source apps send less user data to Goog…

That would be fine if they'd be clean reimplementations of an API using their own backends. But advertising services which abuse SaaS infrastructure of a company is just not ok, especially in an article that's all about not using anything from Google. I'd feel similarly about having someone advertise a way to crack Slack enterprise features instead of using something like Matternmost.

> But advertising services which abuse SaaS infrastructure of a company is just not ok

A nitpick, but somewhat important: they're not services, they're products. Pieces of software. Alternative user agents. Very opinionated web browsers, if you like.

Re: Freeing My Phone from Google

#67

Post by Youden »

commoner wrote: post #15
cameronbrown wrote: post #3

There's two Google apps I just can't live without: YouTube and Google Maps. There's simply no alternative to the amount of value these bring me. OSM is getting good but it's just not there yet. I'm working on this in my area. I'd suggest to anyone worried about Google tracking to use Privacy Guard built into LineageOS, which aims to make each and every request for sensitive permissions explicit. A big benefit of free…

Google Maps is fully compatible with MicroG, a free and open source replacement for the Google Play Services client. MicroG includes UnifiedNlp, which was discussed in the blog post. https://microg.org/ https://lineage.microg.org/ At the moment, I recommend the previous version of MicroG (0.2.6.13280) since the latest version (0.2.7.17455) may have compatibility issues. If you're using LineageOS for MicroG, builds on…

> Google Maps is fully compatible with MicroG, a free and open source replacement for the Google Play Services client. MicroG includes UnifiedNlp, which was discussed in the blog post.

Google Maps can get its location from MicroG but in my experience it isn't even close to fully functional. Basic things like searching for a location or asking for directions just result in endless spinning.

Re: Freeing My Phone from Google

#68

Post by kbit »

commoner wrote: post #15
cameronbrown wrote: post #3

There's two Google apps I just can't live without: YouTube and Google Maps. There's simply no alternative to the amount of value these bring me. OSM is getting good but it's just not there yet. I'm working on this in my area. I'd suggest to anyone worried about Google tracking to use Privacy Guard built into LineageOS, which aims to make each and every request for sensitive permissions explicit. A big benefit of free…

Google Maps is fully compatible with MicroG, a free and open source replacement for the Google Play Services client. MicroG includes UnifiedNlp, which was discussed in the blog post. https://microg.org/ https://lineage.microg.org/ At the moment, I recommend the previous version of MicroG (0.2.6.13280) since the latest version (0.2.7.17455) may have compatibility issues. If you're using LineageOS for MicroG, builds on…

SkyTube is another free YouTube client which works really well. One feature I am very fond of (not sure if NewPipe has that as well?) is 'subscribing' to channels through a local database, without a YouTube account.

Re: Freeing My Phone from Google

#69

Post by kbit »

autoexec wrote: post #45
izacus wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MicroG talks to Google servers and uses Google's infrastructure while breaking the terms of service (at least in case of FCM). Same goes with NewPipe - you're using YouTube without actually paying for bandwidth, storage costs or the video author. So you're not actually getting yourself rid of Google or tracking, you're just using their resources without paying the asking price. Use other alternatives instead.

> Same goes with NewPipe - you're using YouTube without actually paying for bandwidth, storage costs or the video author. > So you're not actually getting yourself rid of Google or tracking, you're just using their resources without paying the asking price. I love newpipe. I block ads on my desktop, I'm not going to feel bad blocking them on my phone. Google has taken far too much from us, from me, for me to worry ab…

Yeah, ads are a terrible and unsustainable business model anyways. I think it's much better (both for the creator and for the business and community in general) to support YouTubers you like through something like Patreon.

Re: Freeing My Phone from Google

#70

Post by commoner »

Youden wrote: post #67
commoner wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Maps is fully compatible with MicroG, a free and open source replacement for the Google Play Services client. MicroG includes UnifiedNlp, which was discussed in the blog post. https://microg.org/ https://lineage.microg.org/ At the moment, I recommend the previous version of MicroG (0.2.6.13280) since the latest version (0.2.7.17455) may have compatibility issues. If you're using LineageOS for MicroG, builds on…

> Google Maps is fully compatible with MicroG, a free and open source replacement for the Google Play Services client. MicroG includes UnifiedNlp, which was discussed in the blog post. Google Maps can get its location from MicroG but in my experience it isn't even close to fully functional. Basic things like searching for a location or asking for directions just result in endless spinning.

Have you tried it recently? The most recent version of Google Maps works without any issues for me.
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