undefined | Better HN

0 pointstheshrike792y ago0 comments

It's not for a lack of trying, but Google has their tentacles everywhere.

You literally can't make a mobile phone today without having support for all Google services. Native support is better than 3rd party. And now all of your user's data is in Google's hands.

Yes, there are some extreme ... fanatics(?), who can live with a phone that doesn't have YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Drive or Play Store in it, but the Joe/Jill Regular will never ever go for that today.

Of all the companies beside Apple, Samsung is the only one I can think of with the muscle to maybe do a device with all of their own services.

0 comments

M4v3R2y ago

> Yes, there are some extreme ... fanatics(?), who can live with a phone that doesn't have YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Drive or Play Store in it, but the Joe/Jill Regular will never ever go for that today.

I would fit your definition of fanatic and I have a friend who does too. The only google service we still use is YouTube because that’s the hardest one to replace entirely unless you want to cut yourself from a lot of very interesting and entertaining content. Otherwise it’s not so hard. Gmail is hardly the best offering on the market, Apple Maps are good enough for most tasks (Google Maps still has better POI data sadly), etc. You don’t need to be a “fanatic” to de-googleify your life, even if only partially.

theshrike79OP2y ago

With Apple it's doable yes. I'm in the same situation, YouTube is the only service of theirs

My point was that there's a snowball's chance in hell for a third party in addition to Google and Apple to come on to the market with a de-googled mainstream device.

Microsoft had a chance with Windows Mobile, but they messed it up.

sudoaptinstall2y ago

If you are running a custom rom on Lineage or some other version of android, check out Newpipe on Fdroid. I've installed it for normy android users and they stopped using the normal youtube front end. It's awesome.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse