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Tell HN: I De-Googled Myself

3 points by degoogled ↗ HN
I really enjoyed the old Google, the nerd Google, the "don’t be evil" Google... Google Reader, Android, GTalk, etc. It made communication with my friends much easier.

I had already been moving everything away from the Google ecosystem for about two years, but Google Photos was the hardest part because it contained so many memories that I wouldn’t risk losing.

The final straw was when I accidentally subscribed to Google One with AI, which costs much more than simple additional storage. It’s not that much money for me, but when I found out I couldn’t downgrade, it became a matter of principle to do a Google Takeout of my photos and create a script to import them into Apple Photos (which is also not a nice company, none of them really are) without losing metadata.

I also moved them to Backblaze, where I have already had backups for more than five years, and to add even more redundancy, I backed them up to BorgBase using Borgmatic.

De-Googled! Now all my photos and videos are in the palm of my hand (~238 GB). My email client is not bloated. Well, assuming Apple doesn’t decide to shove AI down our throats in Apple Mail.

The only Google service I still pay for is YouTube. In exchange, I get zero unbearable ads, many of which promote illegal things like gambling websites. My ad blocker solves the problem on my computer, but on TV the situation is much harder, and I’m old enough to spend my time constantly finding ways around this stuff.

17 comments

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verdverm
I'm on a similar path, huge Google fan for 20 years. Something has happened under Sundar and Kurian (cloud), maybe some insiders will comment to let us know. What I see is slop across every product line, I assume from over indexing on Ai with insufficient HITL around a model family that is not as good at agentic.

Haven't made it all the way, but I was able to find a way to downgrade my Google One back to the $2/m for extra storage. YouTube will remain to avoid ads. Everything else has been switched or is being worked on, but after 20 years it takes longer than I imagined. I'm giving up tap to pay and headed towards GrapheneOS instead of Apple, where your going to get Gemini a la Siri. OpenCode Go, Fireworks, and OEM Spark for my llms. Still looking for my cloud provide, leaning towards digital ocean.

danshipt
I liked it until the part about paying for yt. I prefer to not use yt again than to pay for it and make google even richer
zache6
If you're using something Fire Stick/Android TV, TizenTube Cobalt has been great for me and my family. It has an ad blocker, Sponsorblock, Dearrow, and a few other goodies.
fsflover
> it became a matter of principle to do a Google Takeout of my photos and create a script to import them into Apple Photos

Meet the new boss, the same as the old one. If you actually want to make a change, consider GNU/Linux on desktop and phones.

bythckr
How did you degoogle Android?
tripleee
I'm using GrapheneOS - very simple to setup. Only actual downside is it only works on pixel devices currently
Cider9986
It's fantastic. If you want any app recommendations, lmk. I like to replace the default apps with more up to date ones.
al_borland
That doesn’t feel very de-Googled, when it’s using an OS that was built by Google on hardware made my Google. Sure it removes their services and adds some security/privacy, but it still adds to Google’s power but giving marketshare to both their mobile OS and mobile hardware.
jraph
It's uniquely hard to get rid of Android (when you don't consider iOS as an option, because possibly the remedy would be worse than the issue). A degoogled Android is already a good step.

I'm as little reliant on proprietary services as possible and I'll jump to Linux mobile (having used a pinephone for one year as my main phone) when a convincing phone that's not very expensive given the outdated hardware it has and that doesn't rely on an Android base can run it smoothly enough, but that phone doesn't exist yet.

Alternatives include not having a smartphone but the network effect and the expectations on you having one are quite strong.

tripleee
> it removes their services and adds some security/privacy

that to me is what de-Googling is. I'm not trying to hurt their marketshare.

jraph
> Apple Photos (which is also not a nice company, none of them really are)

There are entities that provide services that are nice, which actually value your privacy, are possibly non profit, based on free software.

Of course it's rarely gratis, sometimes it's less smooth, but hey, at least you avoid the villains.

See for instance https://www.chatons.org/

Or you could self host (of course that costs time and you need to have a strong backup strategy... but on the other hand you should also backup what you host at the gafam, you never know when they decide to lock you out for some reason).

It's kinda sad to flee from one gafam just to trap yourself in another one. However, congrats for your successful degoogling!

zloy88
Best Google Replacement for me is proton.me - use it for many years already. It also solves the Google Photos problem.
01jonny01
I De-Youtubed myself by switching over to skipvids.com

Never looked back

dyingkneepad
"De-googling" is a spectrum, and I was pretty proud of being farther and farther away (Android and Youtube being the main resistance). But recently, I find myself using Gemini more and more often... I hate that I am more relying on it, but Gemini seems significantly smarter than the other free alternatives for the stuff that I do :(. But Gemini has been extremely helpful for me.