My main Android phone is now 99% Google free

41 pointsposted 14 hours ago
by nosky
(simondalvai.org)

31 Comments

ggm

14 hours ago

Installing whatsapp was a "wtf" moment. Degoogle but leave meta in your life?

I know that it's driven in other people's communications modalities.

TFNA

12 hours ago

WhatsApp has replaced the PSTN in many countries. Without it, you cannot contact businesses; they simply do not answer normal phone calls. Also, booking accommodation over the internet may require WhatsApp in order to receive self-check-in information, and if you manage to communicate to the accommodation that you don’t have WhatsApp, it may simply cancel your reservation unilaterally.

graemep

10 hours ago

Even where its not required, it can be a lot cheaper (e.g. for international calls) and has features (conference calls) not offered by consumer phones.

Whatsapp's success has partly been driven by telecoms companies over-charging.

thisislife2

10 hours ago

Telecoms financed and built the communication infrastructure which made the internet (and thus, WhatsApp) possible. WhatsApp is also further subsidised because you also pay for the internet to use it.

Copernicron

2 hours ago

This might be true in your country but it's absolutely incorrect in mine. Most of the telecoms here started as crown corporations, making them an arm of the government. Some of them have been privatized since then but they all received billions in subsidies to build out the networks to cover everyone and not just the most populated areas. An awful lot of Canadian taxpayer dollars have gone to build the internet in this country and we still get gouged like crazy.

graemep

9 hours ago

I pay for an internet connection anyway. Even if I use a pay as you go mobile connection (on which the telco makes a profit) its still a lot cheaper to use Whatsapp than either SMS or voice calls.

There is no subsidy, its telecoms companies making a ridiculously high margin (aimed by regulators in some countries) on some services.

g8oz

4 hours ago

Telecoms received excessive returns on their investment. Effectively acting as rentiers for long distance calls.

jmpman

6 hours ago

I recently made a phone call from the US to UK. I was horrified to find that my unlimited calling didn't apply to that international route. Really?!? Countries should be fighting to remove those fees. I can call Mexico or Canada without any additional cost, so it can be done. I'd originally proposed starting a business with the UK gentleman, but this is likely the first of many regulations which will tax me.

graemep

5 hours ago

This is a case of inaction by regulators, rather than action.

They do it because they can and its not important to most people.

kgwxd

7 hours ago

There are thousands, maybe millions, of alternatives to Whatsapp for that purpose.

Copernicron

2 hours ago

How many of those can my elderly mother use to talk to her sisters? By my estimation the answer is, "zero," and the alternatives will get even scarcer thanks to Bill C-22.

Rygian

6 hours ago

It's way too late for alternatives now, unless regulation is created to break the monopoly.

hamburgererror

12 hours ago

Honestly I understand OP, I also run GrapheneOS but most of my social life happens on whatsapp and I know it's stupid but I can't change dozens of people's choice to install Signal, even though most of them know the issues with Meta.

My hope is that one day or another whatsapp will enshittify so bad that people will be more prone to move to Signal in the same way that recently Windows got so bad that many users moved to Linux.

LoganDark

10 hours ago

I feel like going with LineageOS rather than GrapheneOS for WhatsApp would be a mistake since GrapheneOS has much stronger sandboxing.

al_borland

9 hours ago

Using Android, when the goal is to be Google-free, always strikes me as an odd choice. Kind of like using Brave instead of Chrome.

Ultimately, still using the Google developed and backed platform gives them more power and control over the market as a whole. If de-googling became mainstream, they would almost certainly fight back, as it undermines the entire business model behind developing these things and giving them away for free.

soulofmischief

8 hours ago

What other choices does a regular person have? Buying an iPhone just moves the target. Linux phones are not pervasive enough and typically come at a premium.

Jeff9James

3 hours ago

also try out twent[.]xyz which is an Agentic SuperApp for android. you bring your own keys or use local models, so you've got full control. side note: it's UI automation is way too fast.

graemep

10 hours ago

What about banking apps?

neobrain

8 hours ago

This seems to be mainly brought up by people concerned they'd lose banking apps than people who actually have issues. It's rooted phones that often get blocked, whereas those that run LineageOS/microG without rooting are largely fine.

Yes, there are certainly banks that block more aggressively, but if you look at e.g. iodéOS's forums most of them work fine: https://community.iode.tech/t/banking-finance-and-insurance-...

Anecdotally, I've also seen a lot of stories of people reaching out to support about overblocking actually seeing success. Apparently there are often enterprise reasons for the block and it literally just needs a customer to complain for engineering to be able to act.

PenguinCoder

8 hours ago

My primary banks apps, and websites, work fine on Graphene, with the exception of anything NFC payment related. I do miss that convenience, but I still have a debit card and cash as needed.

zem

4 hours ago

"Before explaining my setup in more detail, I want to clarify, that I still use a second phone. It is an older stock Android phone, with all Google stuff on it. I need still need to use banking and other apps, that don't work on custom roms."

greenchair

10 hours ago

use a bank that provides a website?

TFNA

10 hours ago

To expand on what the posters mentioned: HN is an international community, and the USA is an outlier in having an ample choice of banks. Many countries only have 3–5 usable banks, and all of them require a phone app for 2FA authentication in order to log into their website. Moreover, it happens that banks remove certain functionality from their websites, so it can only be done through the app.

And beyond that, in some countries the strong authentication for logging into government services has been implemented through banks, and so one cannot visit one’s local tax-authority or healthcare portal without a phone that runs the bank app.

graemep

9 hours ago

Even in countries where you have a wide choice of banks (the UK, for example) more and more banks are pushing people to use mobile apps. We have the problem of the government and other businesses and organisations pushing people to use apps.

One example is my local bus company only selling certain tickets (monthly ones, for example) on the app. If you do not want to use an app you pay per trip which can be a LOT more expensive (several times as much for a daily commute).

aand16

37 minutes ago

Sounds like discrimination, no consumer's rights associations to take them to court?

zinekeller

10 hours ago

Lots of HN readers located in countries outside of the US would find your answer infeasible (even the bank website requires their app for authentication, and this is the case for every bank).

microgpt

10 hours ago

website says to authenticate with app, now what?

graemep

7 hours ago

In the case of HSBC I said the app would not work on my phone and they send me a security widget.