this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2025
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DeGoogle Yourself

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Samsung → iPhone: Need Your De-Google Tips (sopuli.xyz)
submitted 18 hours ago by twikz@sopuli.xyz to c/degoogle@lemmy.ml
14 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/31024070

Making the jump from Samsung to iPhone soon, mainly for privacy reasons. Want to cut Google out as much as possible while I'm at it.

What I'm planning so far:

  • Mailbox.org instead of Gmail
  • DuckDuckGo for search, would prefer something even better
  • Safari with all the privacy stuff turned on

Where I'm stuck:

  • What about YouTube? Just use the web version?

  • Google Drive alternatives that actually work well?

  • Best way to store photos that aren't big greedy corps?

Questions:

  • Any must-have privacy apps once I get the iPhone?

  • Settings I should change immediately out of the box?

  • Services I'm forgetting that are probably feeding Google my data?

all 15 comments
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[–] JumpyWombat@lemmy.ml 4 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Google Drive alternatives that actually work well?

This is a big pain point of the iPhone. You can use Proton or other providers, but you will be stuck with iCloud for your backups.

The issue with the iPhone is that you need to trust Apple. They have a decent reputation (obviously someone will immediately say "nooo, it's baaad!!1"), and it has a good trade-off security/usability, but it's just like a top quality over-the-counter medicine. If you want the real stuff, there will be side effects (on features).

[–] twikz@sopuli.xyz 2 points 10 hours ago

I hear you, I do trust Apple more than Google. I know Apple is more closed down when it comes to freedom and features, so I could use icloud, there is a little guide to iOS privacy here, also talking about iCloud

[–] Tundra@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

instead of google search: https://search.brave.com/

photos: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ente-photos/id1542026904

iphone settings: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/os/ios-overview/

[–] twikz@sopuli.xyz 1 points 8 hours ago

I actually use Ente Auth, so it would be interesting to use Ente Photos, but iCloud could also be a good alternative

[–] actionjbone@sh.itjust.works 10 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

Congrats on your decision to replace Google spyware with Apple spyware.

[–] twikz@sopuli.xyz -2 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

That's funny, if I truly wanted zero spyware, I'd go with a Fairphone running /e/OS. But even then, I'd still need certain government apps to function as a citizen. Since I prefer Apple over Google and I'm not ready to go full privacy-hardened, I'd rather find a balance between convenience and privacy protection.

[–] pineapple@lemmy.ml 4 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

Why don't you use /e/os or another custom rom? all android apps work perfectly fine on custom rom's it shouldn't really be any different from Samsung except there is less spyware.

Also you can just stick with samsung and just turn off as much telemetry as possible, there is a much better ecosystem of foss apps on android + the ability to use third party repositories like f-droid, obtanium and accresent.

[–] twikz@sopuli.xyz 1 points 11 hours ago

I said in my post that I dont like google, dont like the ui or ux of anything related to google.

I don't like the ux on Samsung either, and I kind of got stuck with this phone a bit back by my own fault.

I don't think ios is a better solution for privacy or anything related to that, I just prefer iOS and I wanted to see what my options are when I make the switch, I apologize if I offend anyone for mentioning iOS.

The reason for not using a custom rom on my Samsung is because alot of people have been telling me to stick to stock OS on Samsung, its the recommended thing to do for security if I remember correctly (got told this by a guy in the grapheneOS community)

[–] Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 2 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

When you replace one evil with another evil of the same kind, your situation hasn't become any better. Also, it is quite ironic that you say 'balance' for that.

[–] twikz@sopuli.xyz 1 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

How is it ironic, I want to find a balance with privacy and convenience.

What people have told me earlier, is that it's a bunch of sacrificing to have better privacy.

I've tried graphenOS on a pixel, not using and having google track you means you lose the convenience of really good gps accuracy. For me using only Mozillas location service resulted in slow and inaccurate GPS, could probably have tried to tinker more with it but it had problems even under roofs to get a lock on my location.

That doesn't work for me when my phone is a tool. That's an example of a sacrifice I don't feel like making in my life right now, I also need to use some microsoft and google products for what I'm studying for, which means I cant get rid of privacy invasive stuff altogether, which is why im asking here to see what my options are so I can put something together that works for me

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 5 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

You've made it impossible by doing that. Good luck.

[–] twikz@sopuli.xyz 1 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

You mean its more possible on Samsung?

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 6 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

Yes because of adb. You can't remove the Apple tracking on an iPhone and its equally as bad.

[–] twikz@sopuli.xyz 1 points 11 hours ago

I dont wanna mess with the security of my device, and in my experience, getting rid of Googles tracking entirely is kind of inconvenient,

in my country people can look you up and know where you live, but they most probably cant hack your gps and find you, maybe the government can but im not hiding from the government.

But the point of my post is looking for what options there are to limit the data im feeding to big corps like google, i cant degoogle completely unfortunately