I have a Oppo X8 Ultra with a Chinese rom. Google Mobile Services is disabled on it by default, and no Google apps is pre-installed.
Unfortunately notifications seem to bug out if I don’t enable it, but still trying to keep it disabled.
Now for the de-googling I’ve done all the basic stuff. I rely on f-droid and obtanium for my apps. In rare cases I need to install something with aurora.
My current challenge is trying to use this blocklist in selfhosted AdGuard Home while still maintaining normal functionality: GitHub - nickspaargaren/no-google: Completely block Google and its services
For YouTube I’m experimenting with selfhosting Invidious (considering spinning up a VM with a VPN for this only, and adding unblock rules in AGH for the domains needed).
But to keep it practical I would like to use PipePipe on Android directly, which means unblocking quite a few domains…
I’ve also found random stuff seems to break with the Google blocklist active. It’s going to be a process to figure out exactly what I need to unblock to not lose important functionality.
I fear I will end up at a point where I haven’t gained much privacy at all, lol.
For Google Maps I’m considering the normal alternatives, or using a phone dedicated to only Google Maps. The challenge here is creating a Google account that has, and will never have, zero ties to me.
For security reasons I’m using Brave over Firefox. See: Reddit - The heart of the internet
Appreciate Input here, and can be convinced the tradeoff is worth it.
Privacy is important, but I also see this as a learning experience - and it’s great fun.
Unfortunately I can’t live with a Google Pixel as my daily driver.