I am actually using a degoogled phone, and the only thing I’m missing are push notifications, for one single app. Everything else I use works just fine for me, but as always, ymmv
I’d love it if Signal officially supported UnifiedPush, it seems to be the most promising direct alternative to FCM. They started talking about quantum-resistant encryption or whatever, but at the same time resorted to using a websocket.
Which is pretty much the least elegant way of doing it. Not something I’d expect from them, to be honest.
Then there’s Tuta Mail, they have a much better way of handling push notifications, but it’s still their own thing too, and instead of promoting something like UnifiedPush, they write blogposts dragging Protonmail for not having an alternative.
(Which I’m also annoyed by, but their posts about it seemed a bit pretentious, which I just hate to see.)
GrapheneOS seems to be the all out best, from what I can tell. It’s just that their strict requirements needed to achieve this level of privacy and especially security severly limit the selection of devices you can use, which is a bummer.
I am using Fairphone (great company, they make ethical phones) together with /e/ OS, a fork of LineageOS. The great thing about Fairphone is that they officially support /e/ and offer a waranty of 5 years. In the past, they offered their Fairphone 2 a support of 7 years, including Software and Android version updates , which is absolutely mind-blowing.
Also their phones are highly modular, you can switch basically everything (Battery, camera, speakers,…), they actually make an effort to improve production and manufacturing processes by e.g. using Fairtrade certified Gold, they obviously like Open Source,…
And /e/ basically goes the route of “degoogling without making life inconvenient”. They have an App Store preinstalled (Aurora Store), with which you can access Google Play apps. They include MicroG, if you wish to, which makes using apps depending on Google services a lot easier. Also they offer their own ecosystem with e.g. Mail, Calendar, etc. And they are nonprofit!
So seriously, if you want to get a degoogled Phone, I’d recommend the Fairphone (5 or 4 both are okay, although 5 would probably be better) together with /e/ OS combo without any doubt. The phone is amazing and hasn’t let me down, and although it has been quite a journey, I wouldn’t want to have chocen otherwise.
I am actually using a degoogled phone, and the only thing I’m missing are push notifications, for one single app. Everything else I use works just fine for me, but as always, ymmv
It was a while since I tried it now. I used Cyanogenmod before, quite a few years back. But camera was bad with it.
Yeah, the default lineage cam today can’t do a whole lot either
Signal? microG works great for push notifications
You don’t need thay either. Signal has its own thing, so does whatsapp. And if you use molly, it supports unifiedpush.
I’d love it if Signal officially supported UnifiedPush, it seems to be the most promising direct alternative to FCM. They started talking about quantum-resistant encryption or whatever, but at the same time resorted to using a websocket.
Which is pretty much the least elegant way of doing it. Not something I’d expect from them, to be honest.
Then there’s Tuta Mail, they have a much better way of handling push notifications, but it’s still their own thing too, and instead of promoting something like UnifiedPush, they write blogposts dragging Protonmail for not having an alternative.
(Which I’m also annoyed by, but their posts about it seemed a bit pretentious, which I just hate to see.)
Signals own version used to be really bad for your battery though.
It generally used like 30% of my battery on its own.
Although now it is much better.
What phone and mom are you using? I’m considering this for my next phone
Edit: ROM not mom haha
I’m using DivestOS on a OnePlus 5T, runs like a charm.
But Divest is in dire need of funding right now, and might not be able to continue development, so that’s something to keep in mind, sadly
Do you follow Graphene OS at all? What is your opinion on it?
GrapheneOS seems to be the all out best, from what I can tell. It’s just that their strict requirements needed to achieve this level of privacy and especially security severly limit the selection of devices you can use, which is a bummer.
Thanks! I’ve been looking at graphene os too
Reminder to everyone to phone mom though. <3
I am using Fairphone (great company, they make ethical phones) together with /e/ OS, a fork of LineageOS. The great thing about Fairphone is that they officially support /e/ and offer a waranty of 5 years. In the past, they offered their Fairphone 2 a support of 7 years, including Software and Android version updates , which is absolutely mind-blowing. Also their phones are highly modular, you can switch basically everything (Battery, camera, speakers,…), they actually make an effort to improve production and manufacturing processes by e.g. using Fairtrade certified Gold, they obviously like Open Source,… And /e/ basically goes the route of “degoogling without making life inconvenient”. They have an App Store preinstalled (Aurora Store), with which you can access Google Play apps. They include MicroG, if you wish to, which makes using apps depending on Google services a lot easier. Also they offer their own ecosystem with e.g. Mail, Calendar, etc. And they are nonprofit! So seriously, if you want to get a degoogled Phone, I’d recommend the Fairphone (5 or 4 both are okay, although 5 would probably be better) together with /e/ OS combo without any doubt. The phone is amazing and hasn’t let me down, and although it has been quite a journey, I wouldn’t want to have chocen otherwise.
Just my take :)