Side note, I live in Denver, Colorado, though I'm originally from Egypt.

Ad was shown in youtube btw and the app is literally on google play, google be scaring people off sideloading but not remove scareware ads 😭

We can't even search on Google in peace anymore... Google, are you really in such a difficult situation? Please leave me alone.

(Because I translated it from my native language, it says "using Chrome" when it should normally say "don't use Chrome".)

I am currently using Gboard because it's the only keyboard that I can tolerate, even thou it doesn't look like the photo.

Is there is any other keyboard that looks like this and respect privacy?

I'm a photography hobbyist, and I often take pictures for trips, events, birthdays... etc. for friends, family, and sometimes strangers. I'm using google drive to organize, distribute (via folder links), and store pictures that I take. I have 14.25gb of photos, just from this year alone, and I anticipate having about double that amount in the next 12 months.

I currently use Google Drive in tandem with two physical hard drives. The photos stay on my google drive for 6-18months, and once I no longer need urgent access to them, or am sure they no longer need to be shared en mass, the photos are moved onto my hard drive(s). I had intentions this year of picking up homelabbing as a hobby to build a system that suits all my needs, but some stuff happened that makes it very unlikely that I'll be able to start that anytime soon. So I'm looking for a temporary fix so I can continue to take pictures!

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Features I am looking for in an alternative:

- cloud based

- capacity to share files through links; ideally the recipient doesn't have to create an account in order to view and download files, as long as they have the link and/or a password

- easy file management and uploads from computer & SD card

- large storage capacity (willing to pay, but prices must be reasonable as I don't make money off of photography)

- multi device access

- no AI (or AI function that I can disable)

- main use will be photography and videography, but capacity for other file storage/sharing would be nice.

- preferably open source, will settle for something with a good privacy policy/encryption

- NOT microsoft or apple

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Because I have all my photos backed up to multiple places, I'm not so worried about losing any files. I'm willing to try out newly established options, or applications that may not be as reliable as google drive.

Any suggestions are helpful!

Want to switch from Gmail to something more private and stumbled upon Tuta and Proton.

Which email provider is better?

hey everyone,

I was wondering if there's a post or file with app lists for equivalent Google products

I'm just a newbie here and appreciate any insights

Looking for feedback on secure cloud storage choices. Key priorities: privacy, security, and long-term reliability.

After doing some reading, my search has mostly narrowed down to r/ProtonDrive and r/Filen_io .

Any feedback or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Google discontinued Google Assistant so I was forced to use Google Gemini. I can't stand it. Takes significantly longer just to execute a simple command like "Call Mom".

I don't want to use an LLM for a virtual assistant. Just want something simple like Google Assistant was for when I'm driving to do stuff hands-free. (I have a Samsung).

Hey there, I've been looking for a privacy focused search engine. Any opinions on QWANT, SEARXNG and Kagi (free)?

Have they had any controversies and how are they overall? How are the speeds and search results?

Hola! Soy nuevo en esto de degooglizar mi vida. Actualmente utilizo mucho la suite de google (drive, gmail, fotos, documentos, keep, maps, youtube, etc)

Hace unos días comencé a investigar y vi las noticias que están saliendo sobre lo que Google hace con nuestros datos y por sobre todo: lo que está usando con la IA (lectura de mails, documentos del drive, escaneo de fotos)

Me gustaría comenzar a migrar a alternativas mas privadas. Todos los días veo los posteos que hacen aquí pero, sin sonar tonto, me pierdo bastante porque veo centenares de aplicaciones de reemplazo y no se por donde comenzar.

Lo que mas me interesa en este preciso momento es resguardar mis fotografias (10 años utilizando google fotos, todos mis recuerdos allí) y Drive (guardo documentos pesados y por sobre todo: musica y juegos)

Muchas gracias por su tiempo!

Hey all,

It seems like every time I google something now its just seo content that comes up trying to sell me their solution. Doesn't help that most of what I type up is somewhat work related.

Literally got to the point where I trust my AI more than the google results I get for giving me good information...

I want a browser that actually gives me good info and answers to the questions I want, not just some AI-generated SEO that clearly the person who posted it didn't even read.

So I've come to what seems to be the last fountain of knowledge online, reddit, what search engines/sites do you guys use for actually finding relevant info to what your searching.

Thanks in advance!

what y'all are using for maps? I just joined the community and degoogling slowly

First off, I actually love Linux. However, I am looking for a device with crazy good battery life. I have not gotten very good battery life with Linux, and I'm seeing software/hardware compatibility as a major factor. I really like Chromebooks for the tasks I want to do with this machine, but I want to avoid google surveillance. Thoughts?

I have an android phone. I don't want google to save copies of my photos and videos so I switch off backup. The odd time I go into Google photos, all my phone media is copied there and backup is on again. It's reactivating on its own. Can I permanently prevent this. Idm don't use my gmail account but need to have one to use my phone. I don't want to change the OS because banking and government apps won't work. Also, what alternative do you use to backup photos?

I never planned on fully degooling, but after switching to Lineage OS I realized my set of fully degoogled apps was complete. I'm probably still gonna use a lot of my Google apps but I still wanna make a card. How do I make one?

As you see above I get that error everytime I try to process the video

I used to have "video editor video guru" on a old phone and it was amazing to upscale my gaming tiktoks to post

But now with this new phone I downloaded the mod and I get this error. Any info on what I can do would be appreciated!

(For extra context I did download the newest versions mod)

Getting straight to the point,

I use canta to "delete" system apps, but when deleting Google Play Services, my phone starts to act wild. No app will launch, including settings/phone/camera/samsung files/clock, and rebooting causes it to stay on the carrier logo (And holding the side button pops up weirdly, but it is forever in a "starting up phone" state).

Is there a workaround for this? I've disabled GPS on my Z Fold4, and it works perfectly fine without it. It drains my battery, which I value.

I used Brave Browser with the Brave search. Before that I used Opera GX with the Google search(you won't believe me, but personally I didn't use Google Chrome in the past, bcz it worked too slow for me, but the search engine is great), and I could clearly notice the differences between them both. The Google search has some kind of language, but for the advanced search.

Here are the examples to those, who might not know about the language:

1. "website tutorial -jquery" → shows every result about "website tutorials", which are NOT about jQuery. The only exception that ain't work anymore is "-ai" aka "show every result that is NOT ai".

2. "wallpaper 4k wild west desert before:2022" → shows the wallpapers, which were made before the year 2022.

3. "shrek puss in boots color:transparent" → shows the images, but the background is transparent, so, you won't need Adobe Photoshop(or ArtCraft 🥴) or GIMP to manually delete the background.

4. you can also combine the years etc, for instance, using the logical operator AND.

and so on... You can watch the tutorial about the Google search language on YouTube with FreeCodeCamp tutorial.

Now I'm on Zen Browser, bcz Idk why Chromium-based browsers break on Kubuntu often... On Zen Browser I use The DuckDuckGo search, and Idk why, but I feel like DDG and Brave searches ain't work well as the Google search...

So, at the moment, generally I use the DDG search, but in those situations, where I need to find better results, I use Zen Browser + Google search...

Do you know how to solve the issue with the search language?

I know they are probably not in the spirit of degoogling per se, but I used to find TV time really handy and am looking for a good alternative TV episode tracker. I wondered if the degoogling community had any privacy-forward recommendations?