> you're still back using Google services You are going to download APKs from Google servers, but you are not running the Google Play Services, which are the G

> you're still back using Google services You are going to download APKs from Google servers, but you are not running the Google Play Services, which are the Google proprietary blobs that runs many Google stuff in the background. It already makes a huge difference. So if your Google is to run a phone free of Google's proprietary stuff and you are willing to compromise on a few proprietary apps that you don't see yourself going without, or even open source apps not in F-Droid (that exists too), you are fine. But when I ran Android, I wasn't making any of these compromises and still had a fulfilling life. The situation for Signal in the free world is sadly not optimal indeed. I went to the extra mile of recompiling it myself without its dependencies on the Google libraries (GCM), which required a few code edits. It worked but it was a pain. The intermediary solution that still allows you to use a store is Aurora, and I guess it's convenient enough.