Short answer: yes
Long answer: yes totally!
this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2026
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While I agree (and I'm largely degoogled for a couple years now), there are a few things that make it quite a pain.
Maps being the biggest one. I have 5 mapping apps (CoMaps, Magic Earth, CoPilot, Organic, Waze and Gmaps) and even the combo of them doesn't approach what GMaps can do, unfortunately.
I've paid for CoPilot to have true offline mapping, I would pay for an app that can do what GMaps does.
But the average person will have a real hard time de-googling, unfortunately. Google has done an exceptional job locking people in.
What exactly are you missing? The /e/os team has their own FOSS maps app in beta. In my experience it's not that great, but you seem like someone who can't get enough map apps (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)
Not OP, but I can't find replacements for two Google maps uses:
- Share my location/eta travel. My spouse and I use this fairly extensively.
- Traffic/road condition/police reporting - the "Object in road" has saved me a few times from large debris (when that alert comes up, I slow down and make sure there's visibility for the road ahead).
Location sharing - Zood Location.
I have rarely found the store/town/restaurant I was selling in OSM Apps. There is no traffic data. I can't search for places in maps that I haven't downloaded already - this makes sense, but it means I can't just look up a place of I don't already know where it is.
To be fair, Google maps has started to get super shitty with their search - especially voice. I forget if it's normal maps or Android Auto maps, but one of them has started trying to open apps instead of actually navigating to places.
Maybe gmaps will keep getting worse and worse and eventually osm maps will catch up.
Searching for businesses on anything other than Google Maps is atrocious.
Given how many times google maps has been wrong and OSM right, I think I will stick with OSM.
Back in my day we'd stop and ask for directions.
the biggest problem is banking and government apps that require strong play integrity... this kills the custom rom
One degoogled as a daily, one cheap stock for these privacy invading apps. Phone A goes with you, while Phone B stays home and comes out to play only when required. At least, that's my take.
That's probably the simplest solution. Even though it's not intellectually satisfying, I don't think there's another option at the moment.
Depends on your country .
yeah... stuck with a phone loaded with spyware cus of that :x
i hope jolla and their sailfishos become a viable option in the future
If you're doing banking on a phone, lol, you're doing it wrong.
I never thought it was a good idea myself.
it's unfortunately convenient... like for splitting bills at a restaurant
Haven't read article yet, but my experience jumping to Graphene: it was surprisingly easy, but I'm a tech nerd who already understands a lot / has reps and sets on digging through documents to learn. Its definitely not one-for-one swap with Android and there are some minor inconveniences I put up with that some in my family would never tolerate.
Overall: doable and worth it. Expect at least a small learning curve as you do it.
What are the minor inconveniences you're referring to? I've run e/os on a Fairphone for a while so I'm pretty sure they will be similar but I've never used graphene so I'm curious
Total grab bag of random things that immediately come to mind. There's probably more, but first set that come to mind:
Some apps won't boot at all (mostly the grocery store apps I was using at time of swap + Costco - though I've found the Costco browser experience is actually better than in app).
Some features of apps just don't load or error out (Thinking insurance and banking apps, especially when trying to sign docs - I expect its them doing a flavor of play store verification that I have blocked at the app level).
I know its possible to set up Android Auto, but I've run into some difficulties with it and ultimately determined it wasn't worth the privacy sacrifices. But the inconvenience of not having Android Auto be plug and play is something a buddy commented on.
There's not an Assistant search bar in the app tray. This "feature" of stock android is baffling to me. A different buddy commented on it (when I passed them my phone to DJ while I drove) since they usually open the app tray and type the app they want to use (vs finding it in the list).
I wish a Linux based OS worked on my Pixel 8. I run Graphene, but the dream of pocketable then dockable Linux is one I've had for years.
Same. Been a dream of mine for about a decade.
As the owner of both a Pixel 8 running Graphene and a Pinephone, you really aren't missing anything.
The missing feature I really wish FairPhone 6 had.
Yeah I really want a Fairphone.
Recently lent a family member an old phone and took a chance by leaving GrapheneOS on it. Of course they reinstalled all the google apps but it's cool to see they can still get some benefit without major issues.
Yes
Lineage themselves repeatedly state their OS is not degoogled, but using it is definitely much better than using stock android.
Lineage is degoogled...if you don't install gapps
Lineage devs say otherwise, repeatedly.
Source?
Their subreddit. I use lineageos, the devs have a lot of attitude and repeatedly take issue with people claiming it is degoogled, even without the inclusion of gapps, they state that lineageos is not degoogled.
My main phone is lineage os with gapps, my no sim/wfi only (older) phone is lineageos without gapps, or microg (which I haven't looked into yet). I only started using lineageos a couple of months ago, which is why their reddit posting is familiar to me.
It's literally an optional step in their install guide
Gapps is an extra step. The developers state that the os itself is not degoogled, regardless of how many other people say it is. I assume the devs are correct, but that for most users lineageos is 'degoogled enough'
there's just no reason to have gapps installed even on a manufacturer rom unless you really need the google safetynet shits
Here in Brazil some apps (such as banking apps) demand it. I used it sandboxed on GrapheneOS.
What about notifications
Microg. But in the end the real obstacle is devs not adding unified push support which as I understand is not that immense. Work sure, but not insurmountable.
The result unfortunately is the same. Luckily microg exists, although GOS doesn't see much valie in it vs sandoxed gapps
UnifiedPush
Which OS can easily be installed on an HMD skyline.