a few months ago, i posted that google was starting to implement the need for a mobile phone to verify RECAPTCHA (the post). it seems like google has finally started the roll out. i was on my phone so i got this screen rather than a QR code and as you can see in the second slide, it redirects me to Google Play Services on my phone.

It is the most urgent need to nuke RECAPTCHA from our websites and switch to alternatives like cloudflare turnstiles and ALTCHA. we should not be using RECAPTCHA that forces google play services on us.

also an interesting point to mention, even the audio CAPTCHA option has been removed along with visual CAPTCHA.

Entered Dev Mode (Settings > About phone > Build number and tap 7 times), enable USB Debugging.

Prompt: My Android TV is slow and full of ads. Find it on my Wi-Fi network, connect over ADB, and debloat it. Disable the manufacturer's ads, telemetry, and junk. Reversibly, never uninstall. Asking me first about apps and features I might use. Then build and install a fast, minimal Apple TV-style home screen with a dock of my favorite apps and rotating nature wallpapers. Backup before changing anything. Check every step with screenshots from the TV and give me a restore script.

Installed Jellyfin, VLC, and Tempus.

Butter smooth. No crashes, yet.

EDIT: Went with Lavender Photos. I forgot to mention exactly *what* I needed, and that's on me, sorry. I needed a smart photo gallery but didn't need the cloud features.

I'm not impressed. This is a new low, even for Google.

I have F-droid installed, if it helps.

Nice article on DEGoogled and Europeans smartphones: https://tuta.com/blog/degoogled-phones I've opted for a Fairphone and also just got the Fairbuds 2!

Today, by chance, I came across the update. I have F-Droid on my phone, but it doesn't show this update for direct installation... I had to download the new app from theoficial F-Droid website and install it:

https://f-droid.org/es/

What is an alternative to Gboard? I want to find some alternatives to Gboard so I am not recorded by Google for whatever I type.

I use Google Translate to translate things in real life. But I'm rather reluctant to use it now, especially after learning that they added Gemini integration into it. They used to have a toggle that let you use the classic model, but not anymore.

The biggest feature I need is the ability to translate things with the camera, like so.

Hello, I've been wanting to stop using Google Drive for a while now but just never made the change. My initial choice was Proton Drive, but I came across the post today on their subreddit, where a lot of users shared that Proton Drive lacks almost every feature you would want on your drive. Except the privacy i guess.

I've been also waiting for more news on Tuta Drive, but that one seems to be taking forever to be released...So I wanted to ask if there are any other secure cloud storage alternatives that I might have missed out? TIA

So I am in my process of de-googling and I already disabled updates directly from the store, but can't get rid of the "available updates" screen or better yet, get rid completely?

Please forgive the dumb question as it is not clear.
I would like to migrate from GMail to another email service, likely proton. I would like my email set up so I have a custom domain, so I can keep the email address forever, even if I change email providers in the future.
My question: do I need to buy the custom domain somewhere else first (e.g. tucows) or can the email provider sell me the domain name.

What are all you EV drivers doing about Android Auto/Carplay?

About to buy my first EV, and my first car with a shitty computer in the dash. Hoping to find a device for Navigation+Music+Camera, that isn't phoning home.

Its a Honda Prologue.

I'm curious what you guys are using.

I have been using this app for over a month now. It has android custom tab support and behaves quite a like what we're used to. Recently, degoog support was added which made the app even better.

Download Searxist from Fdroid

I make MyWay, an Android/iOS app that reveals the streets you've walked on a "fog of war" map of your city. It's basically a personal location history, so I've tried to keep Google out of it. I'm posting here because I know where it still falls short, and I'd like this sub's opinion on fixing it properly.

What Google doesn't get - Your walks. History is stored in a local SQLite database. No account is needed, and the app has no server that stores routes. - An advertising ID. The AD_ID and ad-services permissions are stripped from the manifest. No ads. - Analytics by default. The Firebase Analytics SDK ships in the app, but collection is disabled in the manifest until you opt in. Even then it gets no routes, coordinates or steps. - Launch pings (from 1.9.1, in review). Until now the app used Firebase Remote Config for update checks, which sent an installation ID to Google on every launch. 1.9.1 replaces it with a static JSON file on my own server: no identifiers, no cookies. - Your steps. Health Connect counts stay on the device. They are not in backups and not uploaded. - Map tiles. Tiles come from OpenStreetMap, not Google Maps. Nearby sights come from my own Overpass instance with access logging off.

Where Google is still involved - Play Services for recording. Location uses the Fused Location Provider, and walk/ride detection uses Activity Recognition, both from Play Services. Without GMS, recording probably won't work. I haven't tested microG. - Google Play only. There is no direct APK yet. - Opt-in features use Firebase: cloud backup (Google or Apple sign-in, EU region), the leaderboard and analytics. All are off unless you turn them on. - It's closed source, so F-Droid isn't an option. I know that's a dealbreaker for some of you.

What I'm considering, and want your take on 1. Fall back to plain Android LocationManager (GPS provider) when Play Services aren't present. Walk/ride detection would then use speed only, with manual correction. 2. Publish a signed APK on the website for people without a Play Store. Would Obtainium or Accrescent be better? 3. Is a microG compatibility test worth reporting on, or does everyone here want no-GMS anyway?

Privacy summary: https://myway.p4.lv/en/#privacy · Full policy: https://myway.p4.lv/en/privacy.html

I am struggling to find an option that will truly replace Google Maps like I need it to. I have basically replaced my Google use in many ways, although I still watch YouTube and use Google Maps. Otherwise, I have stopped using Google Drive, stopped setting up accounts with Google, stopped using gmail, etc. I want to stop using Google Maps but I can't seem to find an alternative that will allow me to export my huge maps lists.

These lists aren't just trip plans from previous years, if they were I wouldn't care so much. These are huge collections of things to do across multiple states. For Minnesota, I have over 1000 places saved. For Colorado, I have over 800. For Wyoming, I have over 400... And I could go on for the myriad of states I have lists for. This has been years worth of work and collecting of information into a mass compendium and I refuse to leave it because it would take me months if not over a year to rebuild it all from scratch on a new platform.

So is there a platform that allows for me to upload or export these lists? I also would like the platform to have the functionality of a GPS like maps, the ability to add to the lists, create new lists, etc. That's really about it. Any advice is appreciated!

So my contacts are currently saved via my Google account on my Android phone. I installed Foss contacts and thought that Foss is accessing the contact list from my physical SIM-Card which apparently isn't the case because when I removed Google from my accounts Foss contacts was blank. So how can I move all my contacts to my physical SIMcard or the phone storage?

Hi everyone,

I'm a Game Dev (Working on Unity/Godot/Unreal) and I'm currently degoogling myself.

I'll try to switch on an alternate phone os (Lineage, /e/ or Graphene don't know yet) soon but I was wondering.

Does anyone knows if APK works on theses devices and if so can I game dev for these in the same way I'll do a game for android ? Is there stuff I should know ?

If anyone have an article, thread or video talking about this topic i'll take it too.

Thanks

One of the things Google Photos did really well is it would automatically tag photos of people based on facial recognition. Obviously on the MAIN hand, I don't want google using my images to train the clankers and feed me unnecessary ads, but on the other hand... it did make sorting through tens of thousands of photos over the course of decades a lot easier.

I'm using Adobe Bridge right now as a tool to help me batch rename all of my image files, and I know I can assign Keywords to images, but I really don't want to sort through and apply keywords one by one for that many photos.

Is there some kind of smart tagging tool that can ID faces in images automatically like that that isn't fueled by or feeding the LLMs? Google was doing smart tagging before AI was a thing, so I figure there MUST be some kind of software that can run facial recognition locally.

Does this exist?