Wish there were better 3rd party mobile options. On pc I can install Linux on any laptop made in the last 15 years and it will work basically flawlessly. No such equivalent exists for smart phones
this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2025
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I'm still praying for TempleOS mobile version.
FairPhone can run Postmarket OS, eOS, iodeos, calyxos and lineageos.
Some have longer support than others. Also you can buy separate parts for their phones and they are modular.
Yes but do they support the digital national ID and SSO apps that are (only) avaliable for android and apple? Until they do, a lot of users are going to be locked into those two big OS vendors. 😞
Yes, but i have a Nothing Phone (1). I should check the other alternatives, but afaik lineageos does not support my phone.
LineageOS
My experience with Gemini:
Hey Google, set a timer for 5 minutes.
Gemini: I'm sorry, I don't understand.
WTF is the point of it then?
Imagine taking away the only useful feature of a voice assistant 💀
When I first got into Android (I miss my Nexus 6 T.T ), it felt like I could do so much more with my phone than I can now. I had so much cool automation shit that leveraged stuff like Google assistant voice commands, but now it's shit on so many levels. It goes beyond the user facing side of things; I used to use the app Tasker for a lot of the automation stuff, and over the years, it seems like the dev has been climbing an uphill battle against Google gating off functionality, and generally making things opaque and difficult for developers.
My recent experience with my phone is I tell it to set a 5 minute timer and it sets one in the fucking Google search browser, and if I page away I lose the timer.
I switched Gemini language to an unsupported language.
I swear, whenever I try to use it, it just makes me wish I could delete it. I ask the answer to a simple question and it gives me a whole essay on how this one aspect of what I said is more nuanced than one would imagine, and I'm left there waiting 5 minutes to get it to say anything of substance, but it doesn't when I explicitly tell it to "just give me the fucking answer", which I have to say every time for it to say anything useful.
It also doesn't work with timers or anything actually useful and I doubt it'll get any better with third party app access.
Google assistant was so much better, it even still works with its servers being down (for me at least) because it's a better assistant than whatever Gemini is supposed to be.
Anyone know if this is happening outside the US and if it is whether it's happening inside the EU?
I'm in the UK and today I got asked whether I wanted to leave this on or not - it just notified me and asked me to confirm my consent.
So I think this article's headline is slightly misleading - Google is actively informing users and asking them to confirm their consent.
Yeah, this seems like an easy lawsuit in the EU tbh
I'm not signed into a Google account on my phone, am I safe?
ADB tools —> remove google services and other spyware apps —> oops, you bricked your phone
Go to Settings --> Apps
Find "Gemini" and tap into the app page and tap disable
If you can't find Gemini, you phone probably didn't get the Google Play System Update yet, so check the app list when you update next time. (Or you can refuse to update, but outdated android comes with security risks)
Mine is already disable for some reason. Maybe I did that a while ago and forgot about it.
I just removed gemini from my phone.
me too and then it somehow popped up in messages which I had to "turn off" separately. removing AI from an Android phone is an illusion.
Make your next phone a Pixel and load GrapheneOS onto it. Problem solved.
I would already do it now if not for banking apps
Pixel stopped publishing device trees since a few weeks ago, it will be significantly more difficult for the devs now to continue maintaining it.
Laughs in Graphene
I believe /e/OS supports a broader range of devices, and it's also pretty great in my experience. The focus is on getting rid of google (replacing all services with MicroG and nextcloud integration) and blocking trackers while providing a smooth user experience, so it's security features are not as over the top as Graphene. It's still a huge freaking improvement over stock Android though, and I find it to be a joy to use.
On devices supported by the online installer it can be up an running in like 30 minutes, no technical skills required. :)
Does this work with multiple device accounts? Work requires my phone to have a personal/work account to be able to access applications like teams, and it's the only thing keeping me from swapping
In the sense of multiple users in Android settings? That works, it can be enabled in settings -> system -> multiple users. I haven't tested it though, as I don't have any need for that.
I use Microsoft Authenticator and Microsoft Outlook for work, and both work flawlessly with /e/OS. Thankfully I have not had any reason to test Teams, but I'm pretty sure that would work as well.
Thanks for highlighting this. I might try it out on my OP7Pro.
Not a day goes by that I don't regret installing that on my phone.
This... Except for contactless payment.
I used graphene for a month. It was lovely. Even things like banking apps worked.
I don't care about absolute privacy, but I do care about controlling my privacy. Grapheme gave me that.
I had only 1 issue.
Contactless payment.
It's extremely convenient to me, from public transport to groceries. I just bop my phone.
The fact that Google has that locked down surely violates some EU laws. But I'm sure they wave away the laws because of "financial security" or some other bullshit.
As if bank card NFC/contactless doesn't suffer exactly the same issues.
I looked into some "graphene contactless payment" type systems or workarounds, and I couldn't find anything that would fill the gap.
"The fact that Google has that locked down surely violates some EU laws. But I'm sure they wave away the laws because of "financial security" or some other bullshit. "
I don't know as much as I'd like to about the regulatory side of this, but I know that Google and other big tech have done a masterful job of proactively building themselves into systems such that taking action against them is difficult.
I think that's part of why the US antitrust case against Microsoft a few decades ago fizzled out into nothing — even though Microsoft was deemed to have been a monopolist, the big question was how do we remedy that in a way that isn't going to be harmful? The consensus on this amongst people who I respect is that the results of the Microsoft case was woefully insufficient and something that helped to lay the foundations of the big tech dominance that we see today.
It's not necessarily a solution, but my Garmin watch can still hold some of my cards, so I don't need the NFC payment on my phone to duplicate that functionality. Do you wear or carry any other devices that can stand-in?
No.
I tried a smart watch for a week or so, and hated wearing it.
Hadn't worn a watch in 20 years, and it felt very strange
Fair enough. I was in that camp for a decade or more myself. I hope you find a solution!
This may seem like a silly solution but maybe pop your debit card inside your phone case. It should bop through it.
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I hear so many people praise paying with their phones, and there I am, so happy that I can leave my phone at home when shopping. Each to their own I guess.
Everyone has different preferences.
My separate debit card and transport card won't discharge or just stop working as likely as a phone. It also won't be suddenly affected by bugs, nor will it get slower. Nor do I get Google also tracking every single payment as well.
The only disadvantage is compatibility. So many things, and now even some shops use contactless-only terminals, while I got contactless or magnetic payments blocked. Only chip + PIN.
But anyway, the shop that had to downgrade to contactless only due to increased fees on regular old terminal also started asking people to pay in cash instead, again, due to the fees.
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So you regret it every day? GOS is amazing in my opinion. What's your gripe with it?
Double negatives are hard. I love Graphene.
I mean, the way I read it is "not a day goes by on which I am not regretting doing this". So, every day you are regretting it 🤔
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Narrator: And users did not in fact, take action.
It'll just be one more thing for them to complain and do nothing about. That is all.
Most people wont even notice. My non techy friends love their new Pixel phones and all the AI assistance.
Your chats are saved in your account for up to 72 hours, whether Gemini Apps Activity is on or off.
https://myactivity.google.com/product/gemini
I wonder how long before AI services are added to ad blockers and VPN privacy controls.
Doesnt Apple also do this with Siri and basically every app unless the user untoggles it?
Yes, for the amount of hate Google gets... Which I think it is fair to be critical of any product that compromises privacy... I recently tried helping my mom clean up her iPhone, and seriously like 100x worse. Almost everything you do on Apple demands you have another Apple device. One of the worst experiences I've ever dealt with.
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Yes and you have to untoggle it for each and every app individually
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