Privacy

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Question regarding android phones (lemm.ee)

submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by geography082@lemm.ee to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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When the iPhone 15 came out, I felt the pressure to upgrade, so I bought the standard model with 128 GB. I'm now experiencing the limitations of their ecosystem, which closed as dolls ass. I'm looking to sell my iPhone 15 and buy two Android phones for myself and my wife. If I could get some extra cash out of it, that would be a nice bonus. I'm not concerned with the fancy cameras or features. I just want something I can manipulate to be private and also install whatever I want, use the common apps everyone uses with no issues, stream movies and TV shows. My main concern is that most phonew from well-known brands, their Android OS are almost as disappointing as Apple products. I think it would be better to get a phone with hardware that is well-suited to a custom Android OS that is well-maintained and known for being reliable, and with a focus on privacy and not bloated. Thank you in advance for your help.

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[–] loganb@lemmy.world 18 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

A last-gen refurbished pixel + GrapheneOS has been my go-to for years now. Gives me all the polished featured of flagship hardware with regular security updates and privacy.

Bonus points, the google play compatibility shim means you can run 99% of apps that are on the play store.

Just test the refurbished phone thoroughly on the stock os in case you need to swap it out.

[–] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Can you run google maps without their location service? That's the one thing I really miss and there's no way to do it with Calyx that I know of

[–] scott@lem.free.as 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You sure can.

[–] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Thx, time for a reinstall then

edit: naw, one has to install google play services (and sign in) in order to use their location services which are required for google maps. hard pass.

[–] hobbsc@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Organic Maps works really well and uses OSM, though searching for business names is kind of wonky. also, GMaps WV is a wrapper around the web interface for Google Maps that works pretty well.

[–] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 weeks ago

GMaps WV looks perfect for when OSM doesn't have the address. Thanks, looking forward to copying the GPS location out of it and pasting it right into Organic or OSM_and

[–] scott@lem.free.as 1 points 3 weeks ago

You don't need to sign in and it's not needed for their location services. It works without it. It complains but still works.

GrapheneOS supplies a sandboxed version of those libraries and the underlying location requests don't go to Google.

[–] loganb@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

I believe you can... I have google maps installed and disabled (frozen) by default in case I absolutely need to use it.

[–] disguised_doge@kbin.earth 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I don't know if you can or not, although I can confirm you can use Google Maps in a web browser if you grant the google maps website location access, and it's pretty one to one with the app I believe. It does require you burn through mobile data if you don't have unlimited since you can't download offline maps, but the web version has gotten me out of a jam when open source map apps fail and if you don't worry about data it might be worth trying.

[–] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago

I think Firefox with maps.google uses Firefox location, because I've used it like you, to supplement the open source maps. I don't have google location on my phone at all.

The thing I need is street addresses, which OSM doesn't really have yet for a lot of streets.