Living without Google 2.0 - A Google free FP2

I updated the top post and made it a :pencil2: Wiki.
Feel free to contribute.

@Sonne: Most GAPPS can’t be uninstalled and none can be uninstalled without root. And most services can not be deactivated.

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Did you know that you can make F-Droid a system app, so you’ll be able to untick “Unknown Sources”?

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You’ll need root for that though.

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I found this topic very interesting and it really helped me improved my experience with my new Fairphone!
Thank guys :grin:

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Hello,

I’m using OSMand+ since quite a while and it works really well - thought it takes a while to get used to the somehow strange user interface.

One of the things I missed was an easy search, as in Google - so for example I mised that I could type in “Lunzers Vienna” (a shop in Vienna) and it would bring up a list of results, regardless of where I am currently and without the need for further information. On the web interface of https://openstreetmap.org one can do that, but in the android app OSMand I missed it. One could only search for full addresses, putting country, city, postal code, street name, number in (all (!) of it).

For me this was the reason to still go back to google maps every now and then. But now I found the trick.

Open OSMand → Menu → Plugins → Online maps (Enable)
back to main menu
Dashboard → POI (Points of Interest) → Type in what you search → click “Online Nominatim - Address” and woooosh the desired list is there.

This only works if you are online, but then again: same for Google Maps.

OSMand is a really good tool, it has many nice features (e.g. records your GPS tracks locally as GPX file). Give it a try.

Cheers,
Georg

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My best hit today, seems very promising…but not yet tried…

Download APKs from Google without the need of play store installed:

I found two links to a german explanation how to use http://www.onyxbits.de/raccoon
here and here

It is an OpenSource Java-Program for desktop PCs to download APKs directly from GooglePlaystore with your google account login.
It is usable for apps, which you can’t access without playstore (e.g. DB Navigator, …) but while avoiding to install/use the PlayStore in Android.

Anybody already experiences?
Cheers, Robert

P.S.: As @Jordi wrote below: it also exists a web-based apk-downloader.

This would be great! Especially for FP2 - User who have no experiences in programming or rooting.

I don’t know this particular one but I personally use Apk-downloader since ages, works great!

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Since this is a main part to live Google free, I don’t know why I missed this possibility until now. Was it mentioned in the forum before?

For sure it gives me a quite better feeling and confidence to start with my FP2 without a Google account… This made my days during setting up my FP2 :slight_smile:

Edit: Now after knowing what it is good for, I realized that the apk-downloader was already mentioned in earlier posts. But I was not aware about its function at this time…:confused:here, here and here

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I have disabled exactly the same services to get a non google phone and installed some alternative apps using f-droid (in most cases). Also I didn´t created a google account on the FP2.

Now I have one question: How do I view and edit contacts, when I have disabled the google-contacts app/service?
With the help of MyPhoneExplorer, I added my contacts. It is possible to view them as a list, f.e. by pressing the phone button and tap on contacts on the right side, but it is not possible to view or edit one single entry of my contacts. I also installed MyLocalAccount to add new local contacts, which is also not possible to view or edit contacts. An android message sais “You´ll have to activate the contacts app”.
So I´m in search for a foss app to view and edit contacts. And I don´t want to use some dialer-contacts-all in one apps.
Is DAVDroid a possible way? I think it is just to sync contacts?
But I just want to use my contacts locally on the phone and sync them with MyPhoneExplorer to my PC, not more.

Or is it save to use the google contacts app, if every other google service is disabled an no account is created?
I just want to be sure that google does not get my contacts :smile:

Does someone has a suggestion?

Thx in advance
Klaus

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For contacts and calendars on (self hosted) Davdroid works fine on my FP2. However I’m not using the tasks synchronization, so I can’t tell if this one works.

Thanks BeMiGro for your fast reply.
I gave DAVDroid a try but it didn´t let me view my contacts.

So I had a closer look on my deactivated apps and services. The contacts app I deactivated sais “Version 5.1-r4275.1_FP2_gms36_1.1.7” It looks to me, that this isn´t a google specific app and that would be in my opinion “safe to use”. By re-activating this app, this would solve my problems for sure.
Is this a fairphone or native android app or is this the bad google-let-me-sync-everything-to-my-cloud-app? :wink:

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If you disable the right app, the Google sync is disabled: Add contact without using "Google account"? - Android Enthusiasts Stack Exchange

It should then say on the next contact creation that it cannot sync to Google and the contact is stored locally.

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Thank you tofra,

that helped me to solve this problem and my phones behaviour is now the same way as you described / linked to.

Merci :smile:

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I just found out that if you disable Google Services Framework you’ll no longer have the option to disagree with using Google Location Services and they’ll automatically be switched on every time you start GPS.

This sux.

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But they won’t be active, I guess:

[Source]

Someone would have to check the server connections…

That’s about the NLP without GAPPS isn’t it? In that case the warning would be misleading, but on the FP2 where you can’t disable Google Location Services the warning is indeed accurate. Disabling the Framework just gets rid of the warning, not of the Location Service I’m afraid.

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I’ve installed OsmAnd~ (from F-Droid) and followed the steps you mentioned to archive a Google Maps like Search. Unfortunately t’s not working very good.

At first it didn’t work at all. When hitting Online Nominatim - Address it just did nothing. Until I discovered I need to install an pre-loaded vector map (as stated here), even though I’m not actively using it in the app.

Secondly, almost every search I do delivers results which are at least 100 km away from the spot I searched (either current map center or current position). E.g. I’m searching for Supermarkt in Hamburg and the first result is in Gifhorn, which is 125 km away.

@georgmayer did you notice the same behaviour?

Hi Freubert,

you also have to enable a plugin (Menu->Plugins->OnlineMaps) - I guess you did that.

When I search something, I usually type in the name of either the region or the city, e.g. “Supermarkt Hamburg”.

Cheers from Vienna,
Georg

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Thanks @georgmayer, that’s an essential hint. Works much better. Sure I enabled the Online Maps.
It’s somehow strange to do it that way, but you already mentioned the somehow strange user interface :wink:
This also somehow reduces the Ausgangspunkt (point of origin?) setting to absurdity, as it’s only used to show the distance from that point to the results.

But nonetheles, better than feeding Google :laughing:

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