Just a few examples I use on my S23:

• Hiding the alarm and VPN icons from the status bar
• Charging the battery to only 85%
• Rearranging/deleting the camera mode favorite buttons (Photo, Night Mode, Video, …)
• Creating folders in the app drawer of the default launcher
• Option to customize the long press of the power button (I set mine to the flashlight)

Don’t invest in crypto.

Yep, me too. Unbelievable that it was LastPass, Authy and Gmail a few years ago. What a shift for me :-).

I’ve been using Kagi for a few months now. Before that I used Brave Search. With Brave search I had to use the g! bang every few searches. Now with Kagi I have maybe used it five times in total. It has so much better search results!

Sure, I could go the full de-google route. But with each step towards more privacy you sacrifice a little bit of usability and convenience. And I think everyone should find the level she/he is satisfied with.

I could use Linux, but I’m “still” using Windows because I’m a gamer. And gaming is more important than privacy for me.

I could use LibreWolf/Mullvad Browser instead of Firefox, but they both had very stuttery scrolling on my 165 Hz monitor and I like using Firefox Sync. With Android Chromium based browsers I had problems with the filled in data from Bitwarden and security updates often take quite a long time to be released.

I could use NewPipe, but I’d rather pay for YouTube premium to support the video creators.

I could use ntfy (didn’t hear about this before), but I’m sure there are some problems that don’t exists with GMS. I can imagine that the battery consumption is higher when using both GMS and ntfy for example (?). Or that there would be some delays with received notifications (?).

The list goes on and on. I really like trying out new FOSS apps, but I wanted to state that there are often not only upsides when using them :-)…

I’m more in a middle ground there. When there is an alternative that offers a similar experience to a Google (or other big company) app, I will use it. But sometimes there isn’t and then I’m okay with it.

Kagi, Proton, Signal/Threema, … are all really great and I use them as alternatives to their Google/Meta counterparts, but for some apps there are no alternatives (for me).

For example Google Maps: I drive quite a lot and need real time traffic data. Magic Earth also has some data, but it is not nearly as good and it sometimes suggests very questionable routes.

For example? I use many FOSS apps from the Play Store already and I’m not missing any :-). Aegis, Bitwarden, Notesnook, Tasks.org, AntennaPod, Tusky, Signal, Firefox, …

That would also be an extra app just to get one other app. So two apps for one :-D…

Ach, das wusste ich gar nicht, dass das funktioniert. Ich dachte, die Nummer sei irgendwie mit an die DSL-Einwahldaten gekoppelt. Da müsste ich morgen mal nachschauen, vielen Dank!

Einstein. Or Newton.

Habe eine Debitkarte von der DKB und zusätzlich (für den Notfall im Ausland) noch eine kostenlose “richtige” Kreditkarte von Barclays.

Which lossless streaming service do you consider to be better for privacy? Deezer, Tidal, …?

I’m using Qobuz. Since it is a rather small service, I just hope it is more private than the “big players” like Spotify/Apple Music. But the main benefits of Qobuz are the audio quality and the (afaik) highest payment per streamed song for artists.

Wow, I didn’t know about this. I think that’s a big reason for not choosing Apple…

I was a Nexus/Pixel user for a very long time (until the Pixel 5). But there is no more small Pixel so I “had” to switch to Samsung. The Pixel 8 could be an option although it is not really high end - I’d like to stay with 3 cameras for example.

No, because a cow has to be impregnated and their baby is taken away (and either killed (male) or is also going to be a milk cow (female)) just for you having some pleasure.

Yep, Kagi

Kagi is also really nice. But it’s not free…

Thanks for all your answers. I completed the story now. But I am far from finding all altars…

What’s still missing is an automatic upload function for specific folders (pictures, backups, …) from my Android phone. Then I would consider switching from Google Drive (I’m currently using an app called DriveSync for that).

I’m using Notesnook.

Privacy focused, end-to-end encrypted, open source and you can import your Evernote notes.