Things that make me angry about my current smartphone Samsung Galaxy S21Ultra on a Verizon plan is the mandatory software updates in which they install WITHOUT MY PERMISSION stupid apps like Netflix and addictive gambling games and stacking block games and Candy crush. God knows what else they install without my permission. I don’t want any of it!
Next phone I buy I want to start with a clean slate, I’m not going to affiliate with any conglomerate like Verizon or AT&T or Sprint or T-Mobile etc, I prefer to go rogue somehow,
which smartphone do you recommend that has no bloatware and it’s customizable?
A Pixel with GrapheneOS is okay but you don’t get Android Auto, which kinda sucks.
ooh no problem I despise android auto and glad it doesn’t force my phone to connect every time I start driving the way it did at the beginning, I had to dig into the settings and figure out how to disable it.
Well you won’t be able to use it at all even if you need it, but if that works for you, go nuts.
I can’t imagine ever needing it. What is it even for? All it ever did for me was instantly answer spam phone calls that I would have rejected, doesn’t let me use my phone until my GPS indicates I’ve reached my destination, and it would automatically answer texts telling them that I’m driving. Like leave me alone big brother ugh!
What are you going to use if you are driving somewhere new and don’t know where you are going though? I used AA for the maps and directions only and I miss it alot.
I pair my phone to my car’s Bluetooth. Google maps is what I use. You don’t need Android Auto for that.
deleted by creator
I use a phone holder and my phone sits there with my maps app showing me the navigation.
Same. I pair my phone to my car’s Bluetooth.
No Android Auto overbearing Big Brother necessary.
Seems that guy who loves Android Auto so much thinks there’s no other option 🤦♀️
Hey, you’re the one that bought a Samsung phone 🤹
deleted by creator
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Don’t connect your phone to your car
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Lots of good advice here, but many might be too extreme. I find such all-or-nothing approach intimidating for people who just started to think about improving their privacy situation.
Let’s see… you are angry about bloatware. It can come from two sources - mobile service carrier and phone manufacturer. How to get rid of it?
- Buy only “unlocked” phones. Then the carrier will not be able to push anything to your phone. You will also be free to change the carrier as you wish.
- Buy phones from manufacturers that don’t install too much bloatware. Google Pixel has only Google apps, Motorola also is almost vanilla Google. Fairphone is more exotic, but an interesting option. iPhone is OK too if you want Apple ecosystem, but customization is not a thing there.
Now, we are in a privacy focused community and I saw your later comments about Google being an opposite of privacy. I would argue that vanilla Pixel is much better than bloated and locked Samsung already. I see you get recommendations to replace the OS that your new phone might run, and these are valid, but come with significant downsides. There are other ways to improve your privacy stance by changing the way how you use your phone without changing what phone or what OS you run on it.
Warning about bringing an unlocked phone to Verizon (even if it’s a current flagship Apple/Samsung/Google device): 50/50 they’ll lock you out of WiFi calling/HD voice, etc. Because they’re dicks.
Google Pixel with GrapheneOS.
Im going to do this and leave every social media except some federated instances.
Already went with Linux and FOSS years ago. Finally time to say good riddance to everything that doesnt align for what I stand for. I like it better anyway
I keep seeing this idea everywhere. Buy a Google phone and install another OS.
It is completely absurd to fund the exact adversaries you are running away from, while consuming, without contributing a dime, merely a piece of free software. (It is only a small piece of freedom because none of the hardware is free, and some binary blobs [incl. potential backdoors] will still be present in the alternative OS no matter which one it is.)
This is unsustainable, terrible, damaging advice. Stop giving it.
Well, the only viable alternative then seems to be some sort of Linux phone, then.
Fairphone, Librem, PinePhone, f(x)tec, etc. are available alternatives, yes.
Even a OnePlus is better than directly funding and supporting the adversary organisation that is one of the biggest surveillance capitalism corporations on earth.
“Even a one plus” - ?
Fair point, I suppose the only thing preventing me from going for Linux phone are banking apps which want to run on unrooted android. 🤷🏼♂️
The bottom line is that GrapheneOS is the most security-focused mobile operating system available, and the Google Pixel is pretty well the only mainstream phone with an unlockable bootloader.
If Alphabet were to ever lock down the Pixel’s bootloader, the GOS devs would undoubtedly jump ship to a lesser available platform in order to continue the project. But until then, no other hardware comes close with respect to embedded security.
Buy a pixel off marketplace then. You can brag about saving e-waste.
Google isn’t a bad company, just a product of poor regulation. They have amazing engineers and produce valuable hardware and that should be praised.
Its the business side of things which needs massive regulation and an ethics check.
It is not about “bragging” or whatever. Nor is it about “bad” or “good”.
By funding or promoting the use of Google products, you would be funding litigation and influence such as lobbying to keep poor regulation as it is, if not worse. You would be funding their acquisitions of great tech and startups that might offer a more ethical and/or free technology. You would be funding their poaching of said engineers and valuable hardware intellectual property.
Simply put, it is a counterproductive and an unsustainable practice.
That being said, their amazing engineers, and technical value of their hardware are irrelevant to this community, post and comment. That simply doesn’t excuse their entire business model being built on breaches of privacy and other forms of curbing user freedoms.
Any smartphone. You need no rooting for 99% of whatever fancy custom ROMs do, especially ones that sell snake oil in the name of security.
https://lemmy.ml/post/128667 You can use this guide for any Android smartphone made in the last 6-7 years.
Google Pixel. I dont know I want to keep my 4a actually as its small, nice and has a headphone jack.
The 4a is end of life and shouldn’t be used anymore.
I know the mantra
Personally waiting for the shiftphone 8. Fairphone 5 is also a possibility if you value ethics. These should be less bloated than most I believe. The pixel is nicer than most mainstream phones. As it just comes with the vendor who made Android and their proprietary bs instead of yet another layer. The best way to eliminate bloat is a custom rom. Pixel supports GrapheneOS and I believe all of them will be supported by CalyxOS. (They made a build for the newest released shiftphone)
Just a tip, you can debloat your galaxy without rooting it with adb tools. You can remove any apps you want this way fairly easily.
Not a long term solution, and all the other comments are great options for replacement. Until then, you can remove almost anything you want until you’re ready to switch.
The none root method that you mentioned is just removing the application from your profile. It’s still present in the OS.
I don’t think that’s true. From XDA forums, you can choose to disable the app or completely remove it. I have completely destroyed the system from uninstalling critical apps. I have had to do a complete factory reset due to uninstalling core apps. No root whatsoever.
I’ve read it a few times over the years. Maybe I keep reading people say the same misinformation. I suppose without root we’ll never know.
Your anecdotal evidence could just be that you’ve ruined your profile; although of course, you could be entirely correct.
I’ve only used it to remove annoying apps, e.g. Facebook. I’ve never gone crazy with it as I don’t care about the manufacturer’s pre-installed apps as they’ve remained silent for me.
Get a Pixel
I also caved for a pixel (4a) for my last phone, it still has Google’s bloatware (can’t remove youtube music app for example), but at least it doesn’t have Samsung’s bloatware in addition.
Still interested where this thread goes in other options though, as it’s getting worse in battery life and I’m also looking out for something new.
Flash a third party OS like Graphene/Lineage/DivestOS. No more bloat.
A Pixel is rootable, which would enable you to remove whatever you want. Though I prefer starting clean.
Will a pixel respect my wishes for them to not install game apps behind my back?
And how can I buy one without bloatware already loaded on it? When I bought this phone I had to delete so much bloatware.
Pixel is stock android and is guaranteed to not have bloat unless some carrier is involved in it. Whenever anyone here suggests pixel they are definitely doing it for custom ROM like grapheneos and its pointless to buy otherwise.
Only buy the Pixel if you are going to install GrapheneOS on it. GrapheneOS is de-googled and has no bloat pre-installed.
Just avoid carrier-branded phones. Those are often boot locked.
Install grapheneos after
Maybe a fair phone? https://shop.fairphone.com/fairphone-5
Short summary:
- no bloatware
- 5y waranty
- easily Repairable
- Planned to receive 5 android major version upgrades
Addition:
- several unsolved (hardware) issues in the past
- security patches are far too late
- 8 years support
- Using the promoted /e/ results in loss of support (you habe to flash back FairphoneOS). Maybe this has changed as they are sellig phones with preinstalled /e/ by themselves
- Screws in the FP4 where very low in quality
- above-average batterie drain
I have the fp5 and flashed e/os myself. Im very happy with it. You need to flash it back when you want to sent it in (they have the instructions on there own page). Build Quality is nice. Repairs are simple. The price for spareparts is reasonable. And they really try to make a difference here and that is why i support them. Are they perfect? No? But who is? And you need to start from somewhere i think.
- no bloatware
Does it come without GApps? Most people don’t need half of those
It is google Android but they do not pay for the name so they call it ‘FairphoneOS’. It comes with all the standard GApps.
It is google Android but they do not pay for the name so they call it ‘FairphoneOS’.
That’s not how that works, they call it FairphoneOS because they added their own customizations. Default Android is pretty barebones nowadays so nobody uses that. You dont have to pay Google to use the Android name
Now for the important question though:
Do they allow the user to uninstall those apps like any other app?
They really need to sponsor graphene to get it officially supported on fairphone. Cant recommend fairphone when you are stuck with google tracking everything you do on stock android.
Google Pixel with GrapheneOS
Heads up, the bootloader cannot be unlocked if you buy a pixel through Verizon. You have to buy it straight from Google if you want to install anything custom.
Source: I have a pixel 6 pro from Verizon that I got originally thinking to try out grapheneOS.
And if your bootloader is unlocked, VZ is likely to lock you out of VoLTE/HD Voice/WiFi calling/etc.
I mean, you could go to T-Mobile who don’t currently play these specific games with devices, but then you’re trading coverage for features/freedom.
All carriers, wired and wireless, need to be regulated as DUMB PIPES. Title 2 for everyone. That’s what we’re paying for: Not “the Verizon experience” or “the pride and accomplishment of being an AT&T customer.” Let me buy a phone, and do with it whatever it is technologically capable of doing on your network. The network provider doesn’t need to provide any Android/iOS tech support if they keep it simple and stay out of the customer-fuckery business.
You dont have to buy straight from Google, just literally from anywhere else than Verizon.
“smartphone” doesn’t matter. it is a computer that runs software. the only question is who controls that software? free/libre software is by definition one that you control. and what you described means that you dont control your device.
so advices: easy way is to just install lineage os or graphene or some other open source android version. you will control it. i dont advice to install google play services.
other advice: you can get a sony phone because it can run sailfish os. also i believe those are great. otherwise install open source android, lineage or something.
sailfish has android emulator (it costs money) but sailfish is not android. it is a linux/qt based system. very polished. not as polished as open source android, but it is fast, lightweight and beautiful. native sailfish apps arent feature rich but do you really need feature rich? then you can get more apps from fdroid store and use android emulation layer.
other, better but harder option: get a device which is well supported by postmarketos.
postmarketos has several user interfaces but neither of those is what you have used to. i believe it is the best option but you must prepare yourself to be able to change. most probably you wont have a working camera. thats ok, i live like that.
Perhaps Fairphone?
Those are plagued with security issues.
I’m interested in reading about those. Dou you have a link or a list of some of those issues?
removed by mod
No bloat? Stay away from Samsung then.
A Google Pixel running GrapheneOS is your best option. Graphene doesn’t have any Google services by default, no bloatware at all, maximum privacy and security. It’s super easy to install, you can check out this video guide or just read their official documentation.
Another video about GrapheneOS that I totally recommend: https://youtube.com/watch?v=yTeAFoQnQPo
I recommend this after the install: https://youtube.com/watch?v=BymH90zFe30
How well does apps that require locked bootloaders, non-rooted device etc. work on grapheneOS? We have an official 2FA app in my country that’s used for digital identification for everything from banking to social security services. Right now it isn’t working on my oneplus 9p with lineage, despite using magisk and passing safetynet check, because it still detects that my phone is rooted.
GrapheneOS is built to work with a locked bootloader, in fact, relocking the bootloader is a step in the installation guide. It’s not rooted by default and the GOS team highly recommends against rooting, all apps should work as long as they only require SafetyNet basic integrity. If they require full integrity, they won’t work on GrapheneOS because the OS has to be manually whitelisted by Google in order to pass the full integrity check. Most apps (including banking or government apps) only mandate basic integrity though, full integrity is rarely required. It should definitely work better than LineageOS.
Hmm, my lineage OS phone passes basic integrity check, and my banking apps all work as intended, as do other government apps. But this damn 2FA app is still complaining and refuses to work, saying the phone is insecure.
Yeah, that’s because your phone is rooted. By default you can’t get root on GrapheneOS so it should work there.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/watch?v=yTeAFoQnQPo
https://piped.video/watch?v=BymH90zFe30
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
I have a Xperia 1.
It has a flagship SoC, but it also has a SD card slot, a headphone jack, no notch or cutout, front firing stereo speakers and a nice blocky look without a massive camera bump.
The downside is software support can be a bit spotty and the cameras are made for manual use, as opposed to being AI-driven point-and-shoot things. That last one could be a positive depending on your preference, though.
But overall? I’m very satisfied, and I went there specifically because I was tired of the ongoing Apple-ification of Samsung in the first place. You may want to consider coming to the dark side and incentivizing Sony to keep making a phone with a feature set, instead of copy-pasting Apple’s or Samsung’s playbook.
Same boat here, I have the 5 II and I absolutely love it. Great size, the camera is OK on auto but can do wonders in manual mode (depending on your skill).
The lack of software support is a bummer though. I was surprised it’s not in LineageOS’ official support anymore…Do you use any custom ROM on your Xperia?
Nope. Honestly, I stopped tinkering with that stuff altogether ages ago. It’s a candybar that gives me text messages and takes photos, I don’t need to make it my own.
