#de-google

I jailbroke my kindle recently and got into editing some warrior cats artwork for warrior cats fans! here are some I made from The Rise of Scourge. The screensavers are sized for PW 10th generation kindle.

Here’s how it looks on the Kindle!! I’m obsessed —

I’m going to also work on resizing some of Wayne Mcloughlin’s classic artwork.

in the spirit of the blackout, I'm gonna talk about some of the alternatives I use for various google services

Chrome - Firefox!!!!!!

just go download firefox now tbh. close this app. kill your chrome for everything you don't need it for. and use firefox. give them money if u can.

Messaging - Signal

No, it's not Google related, exactly. But it is very important to have your messages be secure. If you can, use Signal and get your friends to do it too! it's free! they have giving links too, but no paid tier. it mostly works well, but there are some bugs/quirks that take getting used to - e.g., I often will notice my messages taking an extra second to send, and if I go to a different app in that split second, they won't send until I look at signal again. annoying, has caused me some miscommunications, but the app is ultimately worth using for end to end encryption

gmail, calendar, drive, photos - Proton - plus, a VPN!

ProtonMail is also very secure. I'm not even involved in like, organizing or anything sketch but I know those people have found refuge in proton.

Proton's calendar is pretty good, very similar to google calendar and you can make group calendars. Unfortunately, you can't have multiple colors in one calendar unless you're on a paid tier, and I think that's hugely limiting on the free version, but if you can do a monotone calendar for free, do it. my partner and I have proton duo for like $21.99/month or something (which is steep for a calendar alone, but also includes email aliases, a VPN, and 500 gb of drive space)

Proton drive... I don't get it yet. I just use it to back my stuff up. But it looks fine, and google drive is mid anyway. take your files off there. use a real word processor unless your collaborating or smth.

keep notes - Notesnook

compared to keep, Notesnook has both upgrades and downgrades. Free and paid tiers.

Upgrades -

there are so many more ways organize notes. you can organize by notebooks, the free tier gives you 20 of em, and tags. you only get 5 tags for the free tier which is limiting, though.

formatting wise, you can add tables, code blocks, math equations, and use a bunch of tools. it's practically a word processor

customizable light/dark UI. is pretty nice.

paid tier can attach pdfs

Downgrades -

no collaborative notes yet :( - this is its BIGGEST drawback to me. I haven't been able to fully let go of keep yet bc collaborative & quick grocery lists etc are SO useful in my life. taking recommendations

no drawings yet :(

one thing - those updates are proposed on notesnook's website and people can vote on which will be implemented by the devs first. They seem to prioritize based on an effort-to-votes ratio, so features that are easier get developed after a few hundred votes, while harder stuff with thousands of votes may sit longer.

Translate - Depends; Leo is good for German

depends on what language you're learning/translating. I used to use deepL but now I prefer Leo for German.

Maps - Waze

it's not google

first app I saw that had police reports. it's got a pretty accurate ETA for me, ymmv

to me - it's fine. taking further alternative recs too :)

Honorable mention: Cosmos instead of Pinterest

it's just nice. not sure how applicable outside of like, drawing refs tho

What alternative apps do you use?? Any recs? Especially replacements for YouTube (I've heard good about curiosity stream but can't verify) and Spotify (Soundcloud?? bandcamp?? a bunch of apps?) ofc in the spirit of the times.

Starting September 2026, you will no longer be able to control what apps you get to download to your device unless the developer pays a fee and gives their ID to Google. This will further contribute to Google's monopolistic practices, raises the vulnerability of our IDs to a company that has a poor track record of keeping it protected, dismantles our right to privacy AND right to own, and in extreme cases where someone lives in an authoritarian regime, would mean that Google can be bought into putting vulnerable people in extreme danger.

Read this page, spread the word, send developer feedback to Android, and contact your representatives to prevent this from happening.

Follow this link for solutions for your device (requires technical knowledge, consult with someone who KNOWS what they're doing before attempting these measures)

Had to fight it a little to customize it for my own preferences (as all free and open source projects require you to do to some extent) & of course gboard refused to go out without kicking and screaming, but we made it.

i've been curious about moving through the internet with more intention, using more privacy-friendly services, moving away from giants like google, facebook and microsoft, etc. for a long time and always enjoy a good blog post or article about these topics including hacks, tips and alternatives.

@ms-demeanor's password manager advocacy and de-googling guide were some of those that got me thinking more about it bc quite frankly i'm heavily reliant on google services and it's not cute. i signed up for some alternatives, too overwhelmed to fully use them right away (i will never not be mad that proton advertises features as included, but you only get them if you follow a bunch of steps within the first 30 days. now my autistic brain thinks all those email addresses i created with them were wasted bc they only have 500MB inboxes and i can't do anything about it but alas).

i know you can pay for alll services to get more features and storage and that's nice or whatever, but as a broke college student with no income, my main priority atm is to gain as much privacy possible for free. it's not impossible.

so the other day i found the opt out project and i love a good step by step guide designed to follow over a specific number of days (even if i won't follow the days in that order or time frame, it just helps structure it and makes me feel more productive if i can do things from more than one day in a day blah blah).

some days i didn't have to do anything (already had multiple hard drives, firefox and a password manager), some days a little (adding a few more extensions), some days a lot and sometimes i added my own steps if i felt they were missing.

now i moved the days around a little bc my main priority is closing unnecessary accounts right now, not leaving social media or migrating my contacts (tho i will do those to some extent later) and i think deleting unused accounts should go hand in hand with cleaning out and migrating your emails. but that's just me.

i'm very excited to later try out email masks and all those things but i gotta take it one step at a time. nevertheless i'm having fun with it rn and can't wait for a less cluttered digital life.

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