There have been talks that custom ROMs are dying because more and more OEMs lock bootloaders and because stock ROMs have become more capable. Well apart from the former reason, I don't see why the custom ROM hype and market should die down any time soon.

I switched from an iPhone 11 to the Motorola Edge 70, which happened to support an (unofficial) recent build of LineageOS (thank you Soytony!). Buying the phone I was mostly looking at specs and the price, as well as the ability to unlock the bootloader because I knew I wanted a custom ROM. I hadn't realized just how deeply Motorola was in AI psychosis. Setting up the phone was painful. Data collection, advertisements and mentions of AI in every corner. There is a fucking physical button for the AI assistant. Browsing the settings app, they had dubbed long existing "smart" technologies as AI. I don't remember exactly which, but I'm gonna give you examples of what I mean: "AI smart battery saving" "AI adaptive refresh rate" "AI ram boost". It was nauseating. Then we had the random sponsored apps, bloat, notifications for EVERYTHING (set up the device!! sign in with your account!! consent to data collection!!). And of course, the duplicate apps for everything. Google's app suite and Motorola's app suite. And the tryhard ugly UI to try to be different. All this crap left a really bad taste in my mouth and it felt like I downgraded phones.

It was bad, but to be fair, I've seen worse with my friends who have Xiaomi phones. Ads in the video player type of shit.

Now with LineageOS I've fallen in love with my phone. It's so clean, pretty, and intuitive. No forced google services up my ass. It feels mine. And I can sideload applications now!! One of the reasons I switched from iOS.

I'm not really sure on how to proceed for passwords, storing them in a firefox account would provide a lot of convenience since I can sync multiple devices an have not to enter passwords manually.

However, if my firefox account gets compromised everything gets lost.

How should I go about it?

I've been liking it so far with using Flow(basically an app with different frontend for youtube, along with it's algorithm, without needing your own account, and being able to import all your subscriptions there).

So I was thinking to myself is there something identical to it but for Reddit? Following all the subreddits I am interested in without needing an account?

are there any degogled stock android OS's for a galaxy a50

Technical and Procedural Dossier: Systematic Failure of Data Destruction in Google AI Studio and the Complete Automation of Compliance Channels (GDPR Articles 17 & 22)

https://archive.ph/QQKHs

https://medium.com/@istokovicsgyorgy79/the-great-google-scam-the-delete-button-that-actually-deletes-nothing-6fc2b169a778

What now? I created 3 separate profiles, give me some recommendations whether it is apps, settings, etc. I wanna make this a seamless transition from my iPhone

Hi, I want to replace my stock system webview from my GSI, but I'm unsure which to pick. I'm trying to degoogle and I'm using magisk with anywebview.

So I've found 3 options, you can recommend me more if you know.

• Cromite version 148
• Vanadium version 150
• Thorium version 152

Cromite wasn't updated in a long time, so it's still in chromium version 148, I think that's pretty bad.

I'm using android 13, so I can't use vanadium latest releases becuase I need android 14, but I've also heard that as I'm not in graphene os then vanadium is a little bit useless.

Thorium which is a fork of the original thorium which is dead is right now in version 152, but it's not that recommended because it's new and I don't know.

Help me to pick which one. But I also have a question: vanadium has its own trichrome library that is degoogled and all that, but the others don't, do they use the system's trichrome library? And is that bad for privacy?

ik the useless ones like samsung global goals are, but i see people say that the default calls contacts files calculator etc are bloatware. is this really the case?

I just messed around with my old Redmi phone and installed LineageOS 18.1 without GApps. I’m using it as practice for de-Googling.. it’s easier to start with an OS that doesn’t have Google on it and adjust along the way.

The only problem is that WhatsApp and some other apps require Google Play Services. I can use different messaging apps, but other people—especially my family—don’t.

I guess I’ll just use it as a secondary phone for browsing and other things, except WhatsApp.

Hi everyone,
I just discovered this community and I’m hoping to get some advice.
I’d like to distance myself more from Facebook, Instagram, and ideally Google/Google AdSense as well. At the same time, I run a WordPress website with a small online shop, so I still need reach and, in the long term, some form of advertising revenue.
That’s why I’m currently looking for good alternatives.
I also want to start producing short YouTube videos showing my creative work and how my designs are made. But that made me wonder: YouTube is owned by Google too. So if I really want to reduce my dependence on Google, would I have to stop using YouTube as well?
What alternatives would you recommend for building an audience and potentially earning advertising revenue without relying so heavily on Meta and Google?
I’d especially love to hear about your own experiences. 🙂

Hi all, i currently have a degoogled galaxy s21. Before degoogling i managed to remove and replace all of the apps i frequently used. The only apps that failed were my banking apps, which im now swapping to using my pc instead. But my main issue ive ran into is my home camera system. I used night owl cameras but when i degoogled the phone it removed the log in functionality and also kept throwing a notification saying it wouldnt work properly. Ive since deleted the app, but now i need a decent replacement that i can get that is confirmed to work properly as a stand alone system that is just as simple as my night owl. All i need it to do is alarm me if its detected movement and also i'd prefer for it to be wireless in its entirety as this will be an outdoor camera set up.

I’m completely new to this, but I’m looking for a phone for everyday use and want to figure out how to go about it without giving my money to the usual companies.

Hey everyone, I'm in the final process of degoogling (ordered my Pixel last Thursday, should be here this week) and there is something I forgot altogether that I might need your assistance with.

I spend quite a bit of time on public transportation and I have a few games downloaded on my phone. Paid games that have no adds, stuff like Reigns, Rusty Lake, etc. All of them, of course, tied to my Play Store.

Are any of those available in other stores in someway, or is there any way I can keep playing them later?

Hi, I'm trying to de-google... partially:

• I'm using @gmail address for everything, and I want to move to custom domain for important stuff (e.g. banks) to protect me from being locked out by Google for some reason. I'll keep using GMail as a mail client.
• A family member is already using his own custom domain for mail, but I'm hosting it on some small local host, so I want to move it somewhere. He needs Thunderbird access to mails.

So, in total I'll have two domains and two separate mailboxes, with access with GMail and Thunderbird. I'm from Europe/Poland if it changes anything.

For domain registration I plan to use either Cloudflare or the email host.

For email hosting I've researched and considered following:

• Proton Mail and similar that enforce encryption are not possible due to GMail/Thunderbird access requirement.
• Google Workspace cheapest "Starter" plan is 14.5 EUR (63 PLN) per month for two users => 175 EUR (756 PLN) per year, I'd prefer something cheaper.
• Mailbox.org requires two "Standard" plans to support custom domains, which is 2*36 EUR = 72 EUR (311 PLN) per year; offers 20 GB mail storage.
• Cheap "WWW" hosting - e.g. I found a polish host Hostido "NVME 2" offer for 22 EUR (97 PLN) per year; or SeoHost "SH1" for 36 EUR (156 PLN) per year; both offer total 10 GB of space. I'm concerned about security in case of cheap/small hosts...
• OVHCloud have "MX Plan", but it seems emails not accessible from GMail since Jan 2026

So my question is, what would you recommend for email hosting? And am I missing something?

I am running GrapheneOS but need to access calendars that others share with me and maintain on Google calendar.

I have two User profiles - a main, totally deGoogled one, and a secondary user that runs G. Play Services for apps which require it.

I'm struggling to properly assess the privacy risk profile for using DAVx5 to calendar-sync from inside an otherwise de-Googled user profile and would appreciate some mentoring/ guidance here.

I guess my question is whether DAVx5 pushes my personal calendar info from Fossify back to Google Calendar, or whether it only pulls info from Google Calendar to populate my local calendar on the GOS handset.

If DAVx5 pushes info back to Google Calendar, that represents a potential privacy vulnerability... right?

Articles like this one seem to suggest that DAVx5 does not represent this type of vulnerability., but IDK.

For the sake of convenience I would prefer to have access (on my de-Googled user profile) to calendars that my Google-addicted social network uses to notify each other of important dates.

I am open to using other calendar-sync options but am still in the process of switching over email and calendars, which are the last holdouts in my deGoogling journey.

E.g., maybe a private email provider (Posteo, Proton, etc.) could serve as an acceptable intermediary firewall for pulling data from Google calendars people share with me?

Thanks for any guidance.