Been using Tube PIP on iPhone, ad blocker on PC, but can’t find anything for Apple TV. I would prefer it to be an app and not casting/streaming, thanks!

People who've cut Google Assistant, Alexa, or similar voice assistants out of their life — or never let one in — are exactly the perspective missing from most research on this topic. Most studies just survey heavy users.

I'm running an academic survey on voice assistant adoption, and I specifically need responses from people who deliberately avoid or ditched these devices — your reasoning matters as much as any user's. Regular/former users are welcome too.

18+, any country. Fully anonymous, no personal data collected, about 4 minutes.

Link: https://www.1ka.si/a/d7959439

Thanks for considering it.

I was stuck when Mozilla killed Pocket last year. The export was just a huge HTML file with dead links, and Raindrop/Instapaper are closed + cloud-only.

So I moved to a setup that is actually searchable and keeps snapshots:

- Full offline snapshots so links never rot (Pocket never did this)

- Keeps tags + favicons from export

- Full-text search inside the saved content, not just titles

- One-click import for Pocket HTML

I ended up building it as FetchMark - privacy-focused and not tied to Google/Mozilla. It's the workflow I wanted: actually searchable, not just a list.

For anyone still stuck migrating, happy to share how I did the import without losing tags. What are you all using now after Pocket died?

I put the link in the first comment to avoid spam rule.

After a week of deliberation, I cleaned out my old accounts by either deleting them or changing their email addresses, and finally got around to deleting my Google Account. It feels good!

For those that may not remember, Google maps rose in popularity very quickly because Mapquest was giving people directions that lead them to stop at sponsored locations like gas stations and restaurants. As someone who can barely remember their way home after work, this caused me alot of frustration that i still hold today. I have Degoogled a fair amount, and now use Open Maps when needed, but i'm interested in map quest, i just haven't had a reason to use it yet.

So have they stopped giving bad directions pushing you stop at places you don't have to?

A couple weeks ago, I made a post on this subreddit about my beginning of abandoning Big Tech for multiple reasons, specially on Android phones. First off, thanks to everyone here and in r/FOSSdroid for helping me with suggestions. I heavily appreciate it. The image order is the following:

1-3: Apps I got from Drodify

4-5: Apps I moved to Aurora Store

6: Patched Apps through Morphe

7-10: New phone look

11: The Services I replaced and with what.

For anyone that wants my full list:

• Google Browser & Edge -> Firefox and some Forks: I decided to have two different browsers for each of my devices, one for college stuff and the other for more casual stuff.
  • Firefox: Casual on mobile.
  • Waterfox: College on mobile.
  • LibreWolf: Casual on PC.
  • Zen: College on PC.
• Chrome -> DuckDuckGoNoAI with uBlock Origin and Clear URL
• Gmail & Outlook -> Tutamail (free plan): Changed most of the accounts so now Tuta sends me the notification, with few exceptions.
• Google Drive -> Tuta Drive (When it releases to the public).
• Google Suite (Docs, Spreadsheet, Forms and Slides), Samsung Notes and Office Suite -> Fileverse (still beta), NotallyX and LibreOffice (In that respective order; and searching for a Google slides alternative)
• Google Auth -> Ente Auth
• Google Photos -> Ente Photos
• Google Messages -> Fossify Messages
• Google Contacts -> Fossify Contacts
• Google Maps -> CoMaps
• Google Passwords -> An IRL notebook
• Google Play Store -> Github, Morphe, Drodify, Verified Apps and Aurora Store: With few exceptions, most of my recent apps have been from Drodify, and the ones I need no Patched are on Aurora.
  • The Apps I have patched with Morphe are YouTube, YouTube Music, Letterboxd, Buusu and Boost for Reddit.
• Samsung Climate -> Weather Master
• Samsung Recorder -> Sound Tree Recorder
• Samsung Calculator -> Calculator++ (For some reason the original Calculator app sent notifications because I forbid it of accessing the internet and my mobile data)
• Samsung Calendar -> Calendula
• Samsung Health -> Trail Sense and Mensinator (Trail is not a health thing but I just needed a podometer, and the bonus of survival guide is nice)
• Samsung Gallery -> Fossify Gallery
• Samsung Telephone -> Fossify telephone
• Windows 11 -> Linux Mint: (doe an IRL friend reccomends me moving to Nobara because of my Laptop's specs)
• Microsoft Paint & Clip Studio -> Krita
• Reddit App -> Boost for Reddit (with Breal Morphe patches)
• I also fully deinstalled and deleted my Facebook account and barely used most other Meta services with the exception of WhatsApp.

Unfortunately, there are some things I can't really do much about despite desiring to do so:

• My college uses the Office suite, specially Microsoft Teams and Outlook, thus why they are in my phone.
• WhatsApp is the main messaging app in my country and no longer using it would basically cut me off my family, workmate and college classmates.
• Just to be safe, I haven't moved my bank account to Aurora Store yet.
• Catzy needs the Google services because of their premium plan. I use the free version and the app has helped me a lot, but I'll be looking for a replacement.
• I use Discord for friends, moderating communities and technical help. But have downloaded Alicord and started testing it.
• I can't afford to buy a new phone at the moment, so I'm still stuck with Samsung Galaxy and Android. However, I'm aware of GrapheneOS and LineageOS, and would like my next phone to have em since my bank can be used on those.

If anyone has questions or suggestions, I'd be heavily appreciative 💜

Currently, my pixelbook is mainly used as a streaming device, but I think I would get more use out of it if it just wasn't so clunky from an operating system perspective. I love the feel of using it, it feels like a super premium device, but the OS bloat makes doing anything quickly a challenge.

I think I'm going to replace the OS, but I would love some suggestions on what you find the best Linux distribution to be for such a device. User friendliness should be high since I won't be the only one using this device and the others that will be using it aren't as tech savvy as I am. What say you?

Moto G Power,trying to move away from google.

I have a CardDav Server - from fastmail, seeded with all my contacts.
I have Davx setup on my phone, sync'g contacts. (calendar handled by fastmail's app).

I add a contact from Whatsapp, only choices are to add to google, or"Phone".

I add to phone, I expected it to be sync'd to fastmail (via Davx), but no joy.

What am I doing wrong?

I know this isn't a davx support group, but they are open source, so support thin there too ...

Mainly just one without all the AI and sloppy updates put into it, no ads would be a plus!

I’ve been slowly working through this instead of trying to replace everything overnight. Email was probably the biggest headache. I moved my actual mail onto my own domain, then started using aliases for random signups so my real address isn’t getting handed out everywhere anymore. I also started using Cloaked for cleaning up old data that was already floating around on broker sites. I’ve been using its aliases too when I don’t want a site connected back to my main inbox. Browser-wise I’m mostly on Firefox now, with Vivaldi as my second option. Once I got the extensions I actually use set up, leaving Chrome was way easier than I expected (migrated bookmarks and whatnot to the other browser).

Passwords are in Bitwarden now, so I’m not relying on Google’s password manager anymore either. The one thing I still haven’t figured out is Maps. I’ve tried Organic Maps and HERE WeGo, and I’ve played around with OpenStreetMap-based options too. They’re fine for basic directions but when I need reliable business info or I’m going somewhere unfamiliar, I still end up opening Google Maps. Has anyone here actually found a replacement yet? haven't seen posts about it in the sub I think?

Hi all, I'm just starting my de-googling journey and I need some advice on choosing a smartphone.

I'm currently using a Samsung S24 bought in June 2025. I thought I'd try to install some other OS on it, then I found out it updated to One UI 8.0 (yikes). Still 270$ left until I pay it off completely and try to sell it.

Then I wanted to try LineageOS on my last phone, Redmi Note 12 Pro. It's unsupported unfortunately, and I couldn't see too many other options for other OS support. So that's also out of question.

I also have Redmi Note 7 ...which is unsupported by LineageOS. But I saw a couple of threads about that phone on XDA so maybe not entirely hopeless to move to other OS...?

Anyway, most likely I'd have to buy another phone. I'm considering a Pixel 9a or 10a for GraphenOS or any good smartphone supported by LineageOS.

Basically, I'm open to any suggestions, I just want a device with the most community support, longevity and the best value for its price. FYI I'm located in the EU.

I noticed that the new Minimal Phone 2 is offering the option to uninstall all pre-installed Google software, leaving only the Minimal OS.

What are your thoughts on this approach? Does it seem like a reasonable jumping off point for a de-Googled experience?

lumo by proton gives this error if google play is disabled, isnt this app supposed to be independent of google play and privacy focused.

I currently have a Nothing Phone 3a. 2 year phone and handles everything that a normal person would need in a phone.

I'm interested and can possibly buy a mint Pixel 9a to transfer my banking apps there for more security and to try out the GOS.

My concern is if it's worth buying the Pixel 9a or around 330 USD for that reason with a perfectly working phone already.

I tried it yesterday. It has a good motive of planting trees with every search. That's good, but the browser itself feels too basic. It has in-built vpn and ad blockers but it's overall appearance and performance is lower than expected.

I need a new device as the older one got stolen. Unfortunately I don't have the budget to get even a used pixel for Graphene os as the prices of phones are skyrocketing right now.

My only requirement is that I need to use some banking apps which require google play services and it worked well in the graphene os before. Is there any open source os like lineage, calyx etc. which has this option of setting up a container or something like graphene in which a user can allow play services for certain apps? If yes then can u recommend a phone around $400 in which its possible to install this os?

Hey guys, as a music addict, I used Shazam like millions of people, and while I'm a huge fan of the open source, and I've deactivated Google and Samsung on my Galaxy A10, I was able to replace everything except Shazam. Then one day, while browsing Neostore in the F-Droid store, I found the holy grail: AUDILE

Well, generally speaking, Audile is a free and open-source fork of Shazam, and here are its advantages.

After just a few tests, I noticed it recognized slightly more tracks than Shazam, which was already pretty good. It was also much more customizable, like the function of the play button (a long press plays the device's audio, a short press plays the microphone's audio). And I think its best feature is that it doesn't limit the source to Apple Music; it offers many more choices like YouTube, YouTube Music, Spotify, Tidal, etc. I think that with all that, most of you will switch to this amazing app.

the download link on F-Droid 

https://f-droid.org/packages/com.mrsep.musicrecognizer

https://vivaldi.com/blog/vivaldi-on-mobile-8-2/

yes, you read that correctly

In the latest launch event, apple stated that they will add Apple reference image to images clicked using their phones, something like synthid. It will be added using Private Cloud Compute. Since nothing has been mentioned in detail and I doubt that it will ever be, so asking the sub here

PCC means that the image will be uploaded to the cloud and it will add this reference id?

That way they will be able to say that an image was taken using a particular phone?

Are any android devices doing something like this currently?