4 ms·

This is an interesting list of reasons. Even if it is long, I'd say it's still somewhat incomplete... I was motivated by this list to stop depending so much o

This is an interesting list of reasons. Even if it is long, I'd say it's still somewhat incomplete... I was motivated by this list to stop depending so much on google. But it's harder than it seems. For example, if you purchase a fastmail account, you still need a google account to install the app in your non-google phone, because fastmail only provides the apk files via the google play store. There's so many such "roadblocks" in de-googlification that you inevitably give up at some point.

smnrg 4y ago
You can use the Aurora store and no account.
- enriquto 4y ago
  Thanks! I'm going to try it! But how can you be sure that you are getting the real thing? Fastmail does not publish checksums of their apks. I asked their user support (which is otherwise excellent) if they could publish apks or at least the checksums, and they basically said "thanks for your suggestion".
  - FollowingTheDao 4y ago
    The Aurora store apps are an exact duplicate of Google Play Store. You are literally still getting it from Google.
    - 31337Logic 4y ago
      Yes but without the Google.
- esperent 4y ago
  Does this still work? I recently got a new tablet and tried to avoid creating a new Google account for it. Installed the Aurora store. When you start that you're given three options: anonymous session, another type of anonymous session, or log in with a Google account. Both types of anonymous session timed out repeatedly over a period of about three days so I eventually caved and made a throwaway Google account for it. In which case I should have just used the Play store.
  - smnrg 4y ago
    Still works great. You still get the download from Google.
Kye 4y ago
The app seems to be a wrapper for the website. Does Android let you pin web apps and get notifications?
vanilla_nut 4y ago
Do you have to use the official Fastmail app? I use an app called Fairmail from F-Droid to connect to my email account, but I use Purelymail instead of Fastmail. I understand that IMAP doesn't normally support 2FA, so some folks are wary of it, but if you're concerned about Google it's likely worth it to give it a shot. PSA: Fairmail is fantastic, IMO, but be aware the settings are a bit of a paradox of choice. You can customize damn near every field, font, card, and style in the app... but that's a bit overwhelming at first.
- sitzkrieg 4y ago
  no. you can create app passwords for imap etc
- Gigachad 4y ago
  IMAP doesn’t support all the features the official one does, the most important one being server side filters. Fastmail has been working on an alternative api called jmap for ages which should modernise 3rd party clients. but as far as I’m aware they haven’t released it for real use and there are no clients.
  - mfashby 4y ago
    it's been standardized by the IETF recently: https://jmap.io/ https://jmap.io/ and there's a couple of client & server implementations https://jmap.io/software.html https://jmap.io/software.html but it's a long long way from popular yet AFAICT from the lack of support from the big hosted mail providers other than fastmail.
  - josephg 4y ago
    > they haven’t released it for real use Its been released & in use for years. (Nearly a decade at this point?). The problem is all the big email providers - Apple Mail, GMail and Outlook haven't added support. Its a bit of a chicken and egg problem - there's no demand for jmap clients because so few servers support it. And there's no pressure on email servers to implement jmap because so few clients support it. Source: Friends with some of the JMAP authors.
  - 4y ago
Delento 4y ago
[dead]
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
rollcat 4y ago
> There's so many such "roadblocks" in de-googlification that you inevitably give up at some point. If your explicit goal is to have a modern phone without Google specifically, you really should consider Apple.
- midoridensha 4y ago
  That's not any better. It's actually worse in many ways. At least with Google, it's possible to side-load an APK from an unofficial source onto an Android device. With Apple, you're completely locked down and at Apple's mercy for everything. No thanks.
- enriquto 4y ago
  > If your explicit goal is to have a modern phone without Google specifically, you really should consider Apple. Apple is much worse, I don't consider it a viable option. I was gifted an ipad recently, but couldn't use it without even entering my phone number (!). This is a ridiculous level of invasion that I'm not willing to put up with.

smnrg 4y ago

You can use the Aurora store and no account.

enriquto 4y ago
Thanks! I'm going to try it! But how can you be sure that you are getting the real thing? Fastmail does not publish checksums of their apks. I asked their user support (which is otherwise excellent) if they could publish apks or at least the checksums, and they basically said "thanks for your suggestion".
- FollowingTheDao 4y ago
  The Aurora store apps are an exact duplicate of Google Play Store. You are literally still getting it from Google.
  - 31337Logic 4y ago
    Yes but without the Google.
esperent 4y ago
Does this still work? I recently got a new tablet and tried to avoid creating a new Google account for it. Installed the Aurora store. When you start that you're given three options: anonymous session, another type of anonymous session, or log in with a Google account. Both types of anonymous session timed out repeatedly over a period of about three days so I eventually caved and made a throwaway Google account for it. In which case I should have just used the Play store.
- smnrg 4y ago
  Still works great. You still get the download from Google.

Kye 4y ago

The app seems to be a wrapper for the website. Does Android let you pin web apps and get notifications?

vanilla_nut 4y ago

Do you have to use the official Fastmail app? I use an app called Fairmail from F-Droid to connect to my email account, but I use Purelymail instead of Fastmail. I understand that IMAP doesn't normally support 2FA, so some folks are wary of it, but if you're concerned about Google it's likely worth it to give it a shot. PSA: Fairmail is fantastic, IMO, but be aware the settings are a bit of a paradox of choice. You can customize damn near every field, font, card, and style in the app... but that's a bit overwhelming at first.

sitzkrieg 4y ago
no. you can create app passwords for imap etc
Gigachad 4y ago
IMAP doesn’t support all the features the official one does, the most important one being server side filters. Fastmail has been working on an alternative api called jmap for ages which should modernise 3rd party clients. but as far as I’m aware they haven’t released it for real use and there are no clients.
- mfashby 4y ago
  it's been standardized by the IETF recently: https://jmap.io/ https://jmap.io/ and there's a couple of client & server implementations https://jmap.io/software.html https://jmap.io/software.html but it's a long long way from popular yet AFAICT from the lack of support from the big hosted mail providers other than fastmail.
- josephg 4y ago
  > they haven’t released it for real use Its been released & in use for years. (Nearly a decade at this point?). The problem is all the big email providers - Apple Mail, GMail and Outlook haven't added support. Its a bit of a chicken and egg problem - there's no demand for jmap clients because so few servers support it. And there's no pressure on email servers to implement jmap because so few clients support it. Source: Friends with some of the JMAP authors.
- 4y ago

Delento 4y ago

[dead]

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

rollcat 4y ago

> There's so many such "roadblocks" in de-googlification that you inevitably give up at some point. If your explicit goal is to have a modern phone without Google specifically, you really should consider Apple.

midoridensha 4y ago
That's not any better. It's actually worse in many ways. At least with Google, it's possible to side-load an APK from an unofficial source onto an Android device. With Apple, you're completely locked down and at Apple's mercy for everything. No thanks.
enriquto 4y ago
> If your explicit goal is to have a modern phone without Google specifically, you really should consider Apple. Apple is much worse, I don't consider it a viable option. I was gifted an ipad recently, but couldn't use it without even entering my phone number (!). This is a ridiculous level of invasion that I'm not willing to put up with.