Bloatware mandated by google on all android phones:
1. Google+
2. Google Duo
3. Google hangout
4. Gmail
5. Google play music
6. Google play games
7. Google play movies
8. Google play newsstand
9. Google drive
10. Google sheets
11. Google chrome
12. Google maps
13. Google assistant
14. Google app
15. Google photos
16. Youtube
Seems like the author made a decision diametrically opposite to his desire. I literally use 4 of these 16 pre-installed apps. Keep in mind that these are non-removable too. You can disable them, but they will forever sit in the flash storage you paid for.
Photos are probably non-issue. There are many options - I basically feel that almost every single app that has anything to do with sync or storage offers to upload photos. That is, including many self-hosted options or cloud storage that promises client-side encryption with keys not known to the service.
What I haven't found is alternative backup transport. There is Google's default one (com.google.android.backup) that sends everything to Google Drive (no encryption!), local debug transport (com.android.internal.backup) that just dumps data locally and... as far as I know, nothing else.
1. Google+
2. Google Duo
3. Google Hangouts
4. Google Play Games
5. Google Play Newsstand
6. Google Sheets
7. Google Assistant
That's true, but preinstalled apps sit on the /system partition, which is a separate partition from where your data is stored. The size is fixed so having it there or not doesn't affect how much data you can store.
Someone at Google HQ is thinking: "It works as intended".
2) You can install Android without GApps (and even with microG). For example LineageOS. You can even decide to use minimal GApps such as the nano variant.
To disable the Google feed if the disable toggle disappeared just clear the App data of the Google app to make it reappear.
To disable the Google feed if the disable toggle is present but has no effect anymore you can log out of the Google app by deselecting your Google account in the "search" settings menu.
I'd spend hundreds to avoid any kind of feed in my os.
- "Pure" Android from Google (Pixels and co): You end up being controlled by Google and enclosed in their ecosystem. They manage and decide the ToS for everything and you have very little say about it (as this issue proves).
- "Modified" Android from other manufacturers: Full of bloatwares and basically unusable after 6 months
- iPhone: Closed source and managed by Apple. Not a lot of technical options to customize if you don't like the default behavior (An issue I have with every Apple product).
For a non technical person, as a comment said above the iPhone is the best ethical solution. You get what you pay for and there are no shenanigans.
As a technical user however, I feel it is kind of sad to own an iPhone as I like to go deep and being able to modify a lot of settings and behaviors. I simply don't like the overly opinionated way iOS or MacOS handles the user (Which again would be fine for 99% of normal users).
microG lets you use apps that depend on Play Services without actually having Play Services - it's not complete but most of the common APIs are there.
There are other ROMs, but LineageOS (formerly CyanogenMod) is the only one I personally have experience with.
Yes, Android is open source, but at the end of the day Google is the dominant contributor, so you're still subject to their will... (just like Chromium)
1 https://qz.com/1131515/google-collects-android-users-locatio...
My understanding is that both are open to a similar extent: the kernel is open-source; most of the rest of the system isn’t.
I don’t use or work on android so I could be wrong.
The only closed source stuff is device-specific hardware drivers.
Also, Android the platform is more open than iOS, you can build and install any APK you like and even root your device if you want. iOS restricts you to the app store.
IIRC only two major things aren't included: binary blob-only drivers, and proprietary Google apps: Play store, Maps, etc.
Despite those limitations, you can practically just `git clone` and build the entire OS for your device. :-)
For example, the Kindle app (on iOS) keeps bugging me about random things that are basically ads for Kindle. The Etsy app does the same. I recently installed the AliExpress app, and it started sending me notifications daily about deals ("Still looking for wigs? Look what we found, just for you!" -- just because I was entertaining myself the other day by browsing through all the crazy crap that AliExpress sells, it now thinks I want a wig).
Apple (and Google, presumably) really should penalize app creators for abusing notifications.
Targeted ads are a joke in 2017.
Notification abuse is honestly worse. It is mostly stupid notifications that were clearly not written by someone with any advertising experience.
They take a small group of people with money who don't care about the shit you sell and honestly resent seeing your beef jerky ad when trying to buy a couch, dilute it with a bunch of people who once Googled "beef jerky" to figure out that one brand or make a funny meme so as to neutralize statistical qualities about the cohort you might not like, and pretend it'll do something for your business besides act like a sinkhole for your money.
But I've slowly come to think most business statistics are deeply flawed, but now we're trapped using them because there was an upward slope to the cliff and people are dumb. Even if you point out that their flawed number models caused their businesses to collapse over and over for no reason but poor optimization, most people just hear "made money for a while".
C'est la vie.
You can obviously disable all notifications of an app in Android itself but it cripples an app if some of those notifications are actually useful.
This is the kind of marketing spam done by crapware apps. Should we also expect this from Google now? I've come across too many nontechnical user's phones with hundreds of spam push notifications to have any patience for this crap.
That said, this is one of the many reasons I have been moving out of the Google ecosystem to paod services.
In comparison, this phone is sold at a premium and then displaying ads? It seems Google wants to have it's cake and eat it too.
You will be SHOCKED at how many apps insist on a connection to the internet despite not apparently needing a connection. I even had apps I never use, still try to call home!
On a sidenote, I love how the app also gives Wifi or Mobile Data option. ie, prohibited updates unless over WiFi.
Are there any decent no-root firewalls on android?
I hate that installing new apps enables every stupid notification by default, seemingly only fixable by going 3 levels deep into every app’s settings and disabling things. Designers talk about the importance of having good defaults, and notifications have really, really stupid defaults coupled with bad UI for fixing them.
Since I will be in the market to replace my aging phone sooner rather than later, the phones I've been eyeing are
HTC U11 Unlocked
Essential Phone
OnePlus 5T
Google Pixel 2 (not the XL to avoid screen issues, it's mfg'd by HTC and similar to the HTC U11)
This list is US centric, etc.
I would consider the iPhone 8, but not the X personally.
But I got bitterly disappointed by Microsoft, I pay them for Windows and Office, a very simple transaction, right? Guess what, Windows 10 not only displays ads in the startmenu and taskbar. Also it automatically installs Pay2Win gambling games littered with loot crates to the startmenu. Also it tries to upgrade itself whenever it wants (in the middle of gaming, during boot, during shutting down) and not just updates but re-installs a new copy of the whole OS in-place, loosing all customization settings. Also it collects all my keyboard inputs, all my microphone audio and webcam video, my usage patterns, my directory structure, my crashed application incl all related files, the running application list, and sends them encrypted to various cloud servers own by them or third parties (who can tell?).
I thought it is a very simple transaction, but I figured out when a company gets greedy and evil, you cannot trust such a company any more. It's better part ways and to revert back to an older version (Win 7) and prepare to move to a competitor.
I also don't really trust Apple to keep my data secure, I'm sure they have plenty of security measures, but I feel safer putting my data on my own servers via Nextcloud and stuff.
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/153379/how-do-you-...
Alternative is to Disable the preloaded app.
Maybe try again or use private browsing mode, as you may have cookie or previous login session causing issues.
