Can someone point me to a thread/blog for guiding me to completely de-google an android phone(except the OS itself of course)? Basically I have a Samsung S8+ \ that I don't use anymore and I would like to give to a relative in China. With my past experience, I had no problem by-passing the GFW for getting the phones up to date when I visit, but for an average user and long term use inside mainland China, an android phone with default google services installed makes it almost unusable since all the google services are blocked within China.
If can be done without root, that would be ideal(adb?). If it must rooted, then that's OK too. thank you for your input!
I don't know if it's still allowed to do that,
but considered disabling the google service. Google, Youtube, Google +, Hangouts, Photos, Drive, etc...
Related
I'm using a Nexus 4 and trying to get rid of all the Google tracking services and their built-in Android background communications with Google servers. I have already searched the internet and found a few articles about this, however most of them were outdated or didn't answer my questions.
I do like the look and feel of stock Android, which is why I would probably go for CyanogenMod for this. In an optimal world, it would retain its current look and feel, but without communicating with Google.
My questions that I currently have pretty much are as follows (when using CyanogenMod):
- is it possible to keep using SOME Play store / stock apps but taking their permission to send information to Google? For example, I still want to use whatsapp and I doubt I can find it in the F-Droid store, or perhaps i like the Google camera app, and so on
- is it possible to turn off all Google tracking services (obvious things such as Google Now, but also the less obvious, like the constant hidden communications with Google servers) using CyanogenMod?
Hi all.
I have a rooted phone that is used strictly in wifi mode and only needs to be able to run 4 or 5 standard aps, a couple of optional aps, plus the aps that support rooted phones and enhanced power management. I don't want google-anything on it, and I am not kidding. My prime concern is battery life, I hope to be able to run my phone for 3 to 4 days (or more) between charges, so deleting all fluff aps and crapware is important, as is underclocking it and getting rid of google. I also want to stop updating of the operating system and installed software by google.
I hope to do a hardware mod to remove power from the cell band rf transceiver. Despite it being turned off in the phone using software, I am detecting occasional transmissions from the cell band transmitter. Hardware mods are not a problem for me, I'm a retired EE, who specialized in RF design.
I need to know if it's possible for the phone to function if gmail, google+, google search, chrome, google calendar and google-whatever are exhorsized (uninstalled)? Yes, I also want to give the playstore the boot, to prevent excessive battery drain (and, yes, I do realize downloading aps will be slightly more difficult without the playstore).
For those who might be interested, the phone is used as a wifi phone for the home based Ooma telephone service. I also might like to run a mini bittorrent server. It seems to me that the android community could use bittorrent in place of the playstore, thus making it easier for others to give google and google playstore the boot
I love this forum, and want to thank all those that support and administer it.
Aloha,
A
alohagirl said:
Hi all.
I have a rooted phone that is used strictly in wifi mode and only needs to be able to run 4 or 5 standard aps, a couple of optional aps, plus the aps that support rooted phones and enhanced power management. I don't want google-anything on it, and I am not kidding. My prime concern is battery life, I hope to be able to run my phone for 3 to 4 days (or more) between charges, so deleting all fluff aps and crapware is important, as is underclocking it and getting rid of google. I also want to stop updating of the operating system and installed software by google.
I hope to do a hardware mod to remove power from the cell band rf transceiver. Despite it being turned off in the phone using software, I am detecting occasional transmissions from the cell band transmitter. Hardware mods are not a problem for me, I'm a retired EE, who specialized in RF design.
I need to know if it's possible for the phone to function if gmail, google+, google search, chrome, google calendar and google-whatever are exhorsized (uninstalled)? Yes, I also want to give the playstore the boot, to prevent excessive battery drain (and, yes, I do realize downloading aps will be slightly more difficult without the playstore).
For those who might be interested, the phone is used as a wifi phone for the home based Ooma telephone service. I also might like to run a mini bittorrent server. It seems to me that the android community could use bittorrent in place of the playstore, thus making it easier for others to give google and google playstore the boot
I love this forum, and want to thank all those that support and administer it.
Aloha,
A
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are threads all over the place trying to do this. Google is deeply ingrained into all the apks used by the os. You will be very hard pressed to find away to remove them completely and still have things work right.
I agree that security is an illusion. I dumped Microshaft in 2013 in order to improve my security and privacy.
However, the android operating system is supposed to be open source, so it should be possible to de-google-ize it IF someone knows how to edit and recompile the android OS.
I was merely asking if anyone knew of a way to give google the boot, even if it came down to paying someone to compile a custom rom.
The loss of google playstore is not a consideration, neither is a monetary forfeiture (any programmers out there?).
I'm curious, is it possible to gag google so it can't connect to the outside world (with a firewall)? We used to do this in XP to prevent Bill's Internet Explorer from downloading updates.
Are any of the custom roms currently available able to run without google-anything??
Is there any hope, or is it truly hopeless? If a custom rom that gave google the boot was available, how many would pay a small fee to have it? Just curious??!!
TY
A.
alohagirl said:
I agree that security is an illusion. I dumped Microshaft in 2013 in order to improve my security and privacy.
However, the android operating system is supposed to be open source, so it should be possible to de-google-ize it IF someone knows how to edit and recompile the android OS.
I was merely asking if anyone knew of a way to give google the boot, even if it came down to paying someone to compile a custom rom.
The loss of google playstore is not a consideration, neither is a monetary forfeiture (any programmers out there?).
I'm curious, is it possible to gag google so it can't connect to the outside world (with a firewall)? We used to do this in XP to prevent Bill's Internet Explorer from downloading updates.
Are any of the custom roms currently available able to run without google-anything??
Is there any hope, or is it truly hopeless? If a custom rom that gave google the boot was available, how many would pay a small fee to have it? Just curious??!!
TY
A.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is one project that is working on removing Google completely in the forums. A search will find it for you. There are some issues that I don't recall if they could find a way around or fix. You could give that a shot.
Hello everybody,
i just got an acer liquid e700.
unfortunately, there's no cyanogenmod available for it, and scanning this and other android forums i soon realised that, if i use some inoffical rom, i will most probably loose the triple sim functionality.
so, how can i make sure my acer liquid e700 with stock android 4.4.2 kitkat does not call home to google?
it is rooted already.
i do not have a google account, so there's already quite a lot of stuff that wouldn't work anyway and can be disabled/uninstalled: drive, gmail, google (search?), google settings, google+, hangouts, maps, google photos, "play movies & tv", play newsstand, play store.
(that in itself is an impressive list. phew)
however, is that enough? there's still some questionable apps. most of all, acer's own apps.
...before i go into much more detail, maybe some guide is already out there?
bonus if it's for acer devices that ship with their very own brand of spyware.
in the end, i'm not a cryptofreak, but i'd like my phone to be as safe as my linux desktop:
i want to decide who and when uses the network, and i want to make sure that apps don't spy on other apps.
i want to listen to my local (on my desktop computer) music collection without google & the world knowing about it. just an example.
ps:
i'm planning on using f-droid as much as possible.
i read an article on a german android forum that said: things to do BEFORE your android phone goes into the internet for the first time:
http://www.android-hilfe.de/thema/c...es-das-1-mal-ins-internet-geht-afwall.611866/
it comes down to having a working firewall and block everything, before you put data cards in or use wifi.
there's an older article here:
http://android-hilfe.digidip.net/vi...d-hilfe.de/forum/acer-liquid-e700-forum.1800/
and these were also helpful:
http://android-hilfe.digidip.net/vi...d-hilfe.de/forum/acer-liquid-e700-forum.1800/
http://android-hilfe.digidip.net/vi...d-hilfe.de/forum/acer-liquid-e700-forum.1800/
here's a similar thread on that german forum:
http://www.android-hilfe.de/thema/todo-liste-fuer-sicherheit-privatsphaere.723271/
Anyone who uses a China Mainland rom of Emui Huawei phone with google apps should at this point be used to glitches, location history unusable, google now screen doesnt refresh, google backup disabled in favour of emui cloud, broken safety net in Betas, spotty Google pay integration... The list goes on.
But the most annoying problem imo is the inability to use Google assistant in voice match. Thanks to some mysterious problem most likely related to huaweis voice assistant (hivoice, yoyo, emy are basically all the same thing). Google assistant voice match is disabled and greyed out for Chinese mainland emui roms. I can say this affect all phones because I have personally tested 5 (mate s, mate 9 pro, p10 plus, P20 pro, mate 20 pro) running emui 4 to emui 9.
No conventional debugging method on Google's forums, from uninstalling to factory reset (short of replacing emui with a new custom rom, I tried that too) can fix this issue.
This issue seemed to have not gained as much attention as it needs as people seems to frequently mistake this for other, easily fixable issues and post their greviences under those posts, and are promptly directed to common, not useful debug steps.
This is a very detrimental problem for an otherwise relatively enjoyable hardware experience, and despite the amount of people experiencing this issue (people post about this a lot in Google's product forums but rarely gets a proper response). There has been no real solution or explanation.
Hi,
I have already posted it in another post. I noticed on my Honor View 10 that there is a connection between the Private Space and the Google Assistant. Whenever I have used the private space and then switched back to the normal account, the Assistant will then click out. It was also reproducible on my phone, but I can not say how it is related. Since the soft and hardware of the Huawei and Honor phones are similar, I thought it helps here. I have now deleted the private space and restarted the phone. After I have not used private space after the last reboot, the assistant works since yesterday without problems.
Regards Ralf.
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FricklerB said:
Hi,
I have already posted it in another post. I noticed on my Honor View 10 that there is a connection between the Private Space and the Google Assistant. Whenever I have used the private space and then switched back to the normal account, the Assistant will then click out. It was also reproducible on my phone, but I can not say how it is related. Since the soft and hardware of the Huawei and Honor phones are similar, I thought it helps here. I have now deleted the private space and restarted the phone. After I have not used private space after the last reboot, the assistant works since yesterday without problems.
Regards Ralf.
Translate with Google
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On chinese roms (model AL00 and Al10 huawei) google assistant voice activition is broken in general. Third party apps do not play well with private space, as it is essentially like a sandbox environment.
FricklerB said:
Hi,
I have already posted it in another post. I noticed on my Honor View 10 that there is a connection between the Private Space and the Google Assistant. Whenever I have used the private space and then switched back to the normal account, the Assistant will then click out. It was also reproducible on my phone, but I can not say how it is related. Since the soft and hardware of the Huawei and Honor phones are similar, I thought it helps here. I have now deleted the private space and restarted the phone. After I have not used private space after the last reboot, the assistant works since yesterday without problems.
Regards Ralf.
Translate with Google
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Huawei and honor are the same thing, hardware and software. However there is a massive difference in terms of software between mainland China and outside huawei/honor software, including lack of launcher changing, hivoice which replaces Google assistant, lack of location sharing capability as huawei does not use Google location services in China software, as well as more bloatware and less privacy. The screen time management on China roms also activates a Chinese vpn that essentially blocks everything that is also blocked in China, fb, Google the whole shabam.
Hi. I live in Korea and um... I live in a country that is quite tight to use Google services.
In South Korea, some Google services are restricted due to North Korean provocations and security reasons.
Representative examples are Google Maps and Google Earth. Google Maps has been updated in 2014, and Google Earth is not being serviced in Korea.
I need to use Google Earth, but even if I install Earth with my US account, it automatically detects this and the Android OS automatically deletes it.
So, it turns out that the Android OS automatically detects the package name and automatically deletes it when it is used in Korea, but the Google Earth package name has not been changed. Anyone can help?
rockybear said:
Hi. I live in Korea and um... I live in a country that is quite tight to use Google services.
In South Korea, some Google services are restricted due to North Korean provocations and security reasons.
Representative examples are Google Maps and Google Earth. Google Maps has been updated in 2014, and Google Earth is not being serviced in Korea.
I need to use Google Earth, but even if I install Earth with my US account, it automatically detects this and the Android OS automatically deletes it.
So, it turns out that the Android OS automatically detects the package name and automatically deletes it when it is used in Korea, but the Google Earth package name has not been changed. Anyone can help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your OS deletes them automatically?
I don't think you can change the package name that easily.
You could download the apk and reverse engineer it, then change the package name and rebuild your app.
But that isn't legal i guess...
Maybe you could try to find that app which automatically deletes your google earth app. Maybe you can trick this one somehow.
If you can use your webbrowser as well, you could also use the web version of google earth.
If it's restricted you could use a free non-logging vpn like e.g. protonvpn.
If your government, however, doesn't what you to access such things, they may take legal actions against you, since your internet service provider sees if you connect to a vpn (but not, what you access from within this vpn).
rockybear said:
I need to use Google Earth, but even if I install Earth with my US account, it automatically detects this and the Android OS automatically deletes it.
So, it turns out that the Android OS automatically detects the package name and automatically deletes it when it is used in Korea, but the Google Earth package name has not been changed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android OS is an operating system, it therefore only processes instructions, but never does the latter by itself.
jwoegerbauer said:
Android OS is an operating system, it therefore only processes instructions, but never does the latter by itself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are right. But I guess he wanted to say, that something (a script, app, etc) is automatically deleting it.
Then OP should should be clear: I am not a clairvoyant as you might be.
jwoegerbauer said:
Then OP should should be clear: I am not a clairvoyant as you might be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, people don't always know it better so they describe it in the best way they can.
And besides: I actually studied the art of clairvoyants – but since there's no way you could know that I assume you are one too
To stay on topic: It's a good idea to help people to understand things like that, which is why I appreciate your clarification about what the Android OS actually is!
OP knows that usage of Google Maps - with regards to South Korean maps - is refused in South Korea. Wondering why he instead doesn't make use of Naver Maps for his/her day-to-day navigations.
jwoegerbauer said:
OP knows that usage of Google Maps - with regards to South Korean maps - is refused in South Korea. Wondering why he instead doesn't make use of Naver Maps for his/her day-to-day navigations.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know. But his main concern is google earth, which is quite different compared to google maps.
I know that the 2 apps are completely different ones, serve different purpose.
OP surely also knows that usage of Google Earth is denied in South Korea.
OP should know that Google Earth is copyrighted by Google and not open source what freely can be modified - that's valid for its APK too.
Therefore, in my opinion, it is a violation of the XDA-forum rules to point out here how one might have to change Google Earth APK - means re-master it - that it is also executable in South Korea.
BTW: Google Earth's APK's AndroidManifest.xml comes as compressed. Google know what to do to avoid hacking.
jwoegerbauer said:
BTW: Google Earth's APK's AndroidManifest.xml comes as compressed. Google know what to do to avoid hacking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Isn't that always/often the case and should be easy revertable?
However, that would be another question and I must admit your right.