One of my long-term degoogling plans was to find some sort of alternative to an Android phone that wasn't just an iPhone^[1]. This was a pretty intimidating project, and in the back of my mind I figured I would never quite get there.

Then I dropped my phone.

It was one of those things where it started as a small crack and then spread further and further. At a pretty rapid pace. Plus I was feeling like the touch capabilities were getting flaky. Time to replace it, especially given how expensive tech stuff is getting.

I didn't feel ready to try and replace my entire phone ecosystem, but not being ready hasn't stopped me from making impulsive decisions before. My compromise solution was to go with GrapheneOS. "An open-source, privacy- and security-focused Android operating system." The irony being, it only runs on Google Pixel phones.

The install procedure was pretty painless. It's pretty funny just how stark the initial experience is. Almost feels broken. But the core features of the Android phone are still there, swipes, gestures, biometrics, etc.

I had pure intentions to start when it came to installing apps. Trying to really avoid Google stuff. This thing starts with an "app store" of sorts. You can scroll through it. I mean, like, you can scroll from the first app in the list, to the very last app in the list. So there's not a lot of "official" stuff out there.

The next step was to install Obtanium, which is kind of neat. So then you can find an app with a Github page or whatever, and "install" it. Then this thing will check for updated releases and notify you to pull the updates. Which is basically all your Play Store or whatever really needs to do.

I played around with a bunch of open source alternatives to common things like Twitter, Reddit, Youtube, etc. This is where my weak will starts to creep in. Because while all of these things actually exist, technically, and really are fine... They all felt like working left handed. Mildly annoying in the tiniest ways that I wish I was more patient for.

You can install stuff off of the Play Store. But it requires you install the "Play Services" - this is the Google stuff I'm trying to avoid. It runs in a Sandbox though, so I understand the long and the short of it is that apps in the sandbox can potentially be skimmed by the Play Services, and they can't get out to skim anything you install outside of the sandbox. So while I've caved and installed a few necessities, and also some not really necessary but kind of nice to haves, I am still trying to be a bit more sanitized in my approach here. Plus, I guess you can then disable the Play Services network capabilities and most things still work, and now nothing can phone home. But you still need a Google account for all this to work. Lots of people use burners, and of course I have my own already from before.

But what really sunk the all-open-source approach is a little thing I've been learning about which is RCS. This is the thing that lets you do things like group texts, media, etc, through your "texting" app. I was always vaguely aware that this was a thing. I have a long story about what happened to my wife one time when this system goes wrong, which is one of many terrifying side effects of when the cell phone companies hand out the same number to multiple people. Anyway, I spent forever trying to get the stock Graphene app to cooperate, but I just could not get group texts to reliably work. A lot of people out there advising that you just switch to Signal which like, ok sure let me get right on convincing everyone I know to do that.^[2] I already have group texts on RCS, Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, etc., depending on who I am talking to, and I hate everything about the world we live in.

Anyway, I finally threw up my hands. I installed the Google messenger, which works. But talk about an app phoning home, ugh. The first thing that happened after I installed it, was the Play Store insisted I install a bunch of mandatory additional apps, crucially including the new "Gemini" LLM companion. Graphene to the rescue! Even though those apps are not "optional" in the Play Store, I have to individually give each one permission to be installed. Like when you get a UAC popup in Windows. So I said no! And it worked! The installers just errored out and I moved on with my life.

Gmessage still has a big prominent button so I can "chat with Gemini" like I'm ever going to treat this thing like a human fucking being or something. But it doesn't work. Not sure how long this will last, this feels like a thing that will be fine right up until my phone stops working. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

So I'm more or less back to status quo, and I'm barely any more de-googled than I was before. But, I'm not running Google's Android. I'm one more data point out there in the ocean, and that's all I can do. What is an ocean, etc. etc.

---

1. I'd alluded to this before but I am a former Apple guy, but I'd gotten out before iPhones really got big. I'm so fed up with Google though, that I legitimately thought about making the switch back. I've gotten a couple of other Apple devices recently for unrelated reasons that may eventually be covered here. In any case, it's definitely my backup plan if this whole Graphene thing doesn't really land with me. ↩

2. Actually I probably will pitch some people on this, I just don't expect much uptake. ↩