this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2024
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DeGoogle Yourself

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As the title says, I want to finally degoogle (completely) my life. I've found a Pixel 7 8/128 for ~270€ (or pixel 8? ~470€ but no white :c) it's refurbished so google doesn't get a shit from me.

I'm curious to know if:

  • You can change the default icons color (black and gray-ish in the image) or is based on the wallpaper
  • The camera app is good. Not going to make professional pics or videos but I still want to use it to take pics and a good quality is important. Tried their camera on a phone and the bottom menu to switch mode (picture/video/night mode/etc) was buggy
  • Battery life is better/worse than stock Android (if anyone tried that)
  • How the sandboxed play services work
  • Anything else that I should know about. Some people say it's good, some it's bad so I'm curious to know.

I'm still looking for a good maps replacement, Organic Map is not the best because it's missing a lot of places where I live. I wish there was a google wallet Foss alternative... I needed it to use my card with the phone (rare but still possible!)

Help a new user to fully leave shitty phone companies

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

As with most others I use a different launcher but I switched user accounts to try it out for you and you can theme those icons and then pick a single colour, a trio of colours or choose wallpaper to colour the icons in other colours other than black and white.

I use open camera which has always been fine for my needs and doesnt include any meta data with the saved images.

Battery life has been absolutely fine for me but I never used the stock ROM for comparison.

Sandboxed stuff I've used has always worked as is expected but I dont use a lot of apps tbh

I use organic maps but again I very rarely use maps and it can be a bit odd in the way it works but still it has got me where I've been going each time.

I think it is great and wouldn't want to switch back here is a page that lists all bank app compatability as that is a common concern for people.

Hope some of this helps :)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Can you enable metadata in open camera or is it permanently off? I like metadata on my photos..

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

Try Magic Earth for a maps app.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I don't know if you can change the icon color, I didn't try. I have a launcher I like so I immediately switched to that and it let's me use any icons I want.

I have not had any camera issues on mine, 6a

I never used the stock os or sandboxed play services so I can't help there.

I use Organic Maps and am fine with it, but mostly I use paper maps. My need for live mapping is very limited. You might want to try GMaps WV https://f-droid.org/packages/us.spotco.maps/

What it is GMaps WV is a WebView wrapper for using Google Maps without exposing your device. more info, including limitations Here

Overall I am happy with GrapheneOS, no issues.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

Currently using a launcher too but I was curious, probably I'm going to switch to it bhr not sure which icon pack I should use

The camera problem is on a non pixel phone, on GOS maybe it doesn't have problems

I can try it. Didn't know there was a Gmaps wrapper. Thank you!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Looking to degoogle myself too. For the maps, Here we go is a german brand. I know it's not foss but being german, they have to follow GDPR which, I guess, is better than google anyways.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I would like to compare it to another non-foss app: Waze

I think it's better that maps but I don't know

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Google bought Waze 11 years ago, it's been part of Google Maps for years now

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

-I haven't found a way to change the default app icons, but it doesn't bother me that much with all the other apps I end up having.

-the camera app is plenty good for general use. I don't use it for social media or anything, I use mine for work for taking pics of machinery and I use it to take pics of my kids and stuff and it's plenty good for that. I can't say how much tinkering it let's you do, someone else will have to give more detail

-Battery life is plenty good for me. I have a pixel 6, and I go to bed with it at like 45-60% most days. I'm sure the newer phones are a bit better, but can't say for sure

-I wish I could give more detail on the sandboxed apps, I use a few apps that use google play services and they work well, bit idk how it works behind the scenes

-honestly it just works like your phones OS should, it's really quite good

  • I also try to use organic maps when I can, but it is still missing things, I use google maps in my browser, but that's getting worse and worse
[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I wanted to know if the icons color is based on wallpaper or it's black and you can't change it. Not sure if I'll keep the default launcher anyway

I'm not looking for professional picture quality so if it works good, that's great!

Still thinking if 7/7 pro or 8 (no white so probably no)

Organic map is a cool project but the fact it misses a lot of places near me is something I don't like, I need it for work 🥲

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Right, for the color, I have a neon background and the icons stay black and white. There's no option to manually change them as far as I know. I tried changing them before I commented the first time. There might be a way to force it somehow, but that's outside of my interest level lol

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You can change the icons with a different launcher. Try Lawnchair.

I think it's pretty good, although I did install the isolated GCam but I wouldn't with another chance.

I hear battery is better but I can't confirm.

I haven't used the sandboxed services other than the isolated GCam but that worked great.

I've used Graphene for years now and I've loved it!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (3 children)

No, no, the icons are fine but I want to know if their color is based on wallpaper or it's black and stop. Sadly, I miss the old Nova paging but they sold the app 🤷‍♂️ using NeoLauncher now, I tried lawnchair but didn't use it for some reason (I don't remember why)

What do you mean? I can try GCam but I was curious above GOSCam

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The icons can be set to use material you on the default launcher which should change them to match the colors of your wallpaper. Not sure if the built in graphene apps respect this though

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