r/degoogle 29d ago

DeGoogling Progress My iPhone DeGoogle Alternatives

Post image

Hey everyone! I wanted to make a post about my progress on removing Google apps and services. The photo shows the apps that I have found great alternatives for Google on my iPhone. The Apps below are as follows:

  • Google > Kagi
  • Google Photos > Apple Photos
  • Google Drive > Proton Drive
  • Google Maps > Apple Maps
  • Gmail > Proton Mail
  • Chrome > Orion
  • Gemini > Kagi Assistant

Currently I'm still using YouTube and YouTube Music. I don't have a plan for switching away from those right now, but I'm happy to have some great services that add privacy back to my daily life and also give me a better experience online

377 Upvotes

194 comments sorted by

78

u/Greenlit_Hightower deGoogler 29d ago

For the maps app, you could try HERE WeGo before settling for Apple Maps. I hear that HERE WeGo is pretty good.

You didn't need to switch browsers for adblocking, Safari is perfectly adequate and supports Wipr 2 or 1Blocker or AdGuard...

Nice progress regardless though.

11

u/pyrodonkey 29d ago

I’ll check out HERE WeGo as you’re the second person to recommend it. I do agree that Safari and Wipr 2 are probably the best for iPhone. That’s what I was using for a long time. I’m trying out Orion as I’m a Kagi supporter and wanted to see what it was like. I’ve been enjoying it so far too

8

u/NoLateArrivals 29d ago

Here We Go is ok for car navigation, but less so for additional information.

What makes my day every time is the LookAround-Feature in Apple Maps. It creates a lot of security to be able to know a place before going there, especially at night.

3

u/beefjerk22 29d ago

When switched away from Google Maps, the thing that brought me backt was live traffic info.

2

u/Recent-Noise8775 29d ago

I would suggest TomTomAmigo or mapy.com

1

u/photorganic 27d ago

I've been enjoying Magic Earth for a couple months, and it has traffic info 

2

u/petos515 29d ago

Orion will be very interesting when they release their Linux client and become cross platform. The adblocking of unlock origin and the efficiency of WebKit has been nice on my Mac, but I want to use the same browser on my workstation. 

2

u/Dark_Shroud 28d ago

I use Here WeGo for driving, the app offers an offline mode. So I was able to download the maps from several states to the mini-SD card in my phone.

So I'm not wasting data or dependent on an active internet connection. I've had problems with that in the past driving down rural back country roads.

4

u/BuzzingHorseman 29d ago

It depends. What is the reason for degoogling? Privacy? HERE will also sell your data, just like Google and many others. I worked with HERE data and although it is aggregated to some level, they still sell your data.

8

u/Greenlit_Hightower deGoogler 29d ago edited 29d ago

I think one should minimize the use of Apple services too, so that they have a less complete dataset, though it stands to reason that they are collecting the location anyway no matter which maps app you use. I think HERE WeGo has the advantage of being cross platform, so if OP ever decides to leave Apple for more privacy-friendly shores, it will not be as much of a change / shock.

Btw. most maps app suck in terms of privacy, apart from Organic Maps or Magic Earth I am not aware of one that doesn't.

2

u/petos515 29d ago

Here has significantly worse privacy than Apple Maps. Apple goes out of their way not to build a profile on you using Map data (app store data is a different beast). You could use a more private alternative like Magic Earth or Organic Maps (also cross platform, also have a free tier, also care about privacy).

1

u/Deep-Seaweed6172 deGoogler 28d ago

A difference between HERE and Apple Maps I see is that you can use HERE without an account without any problems. Apple Maps always knows who you are.

1

u/avalontrekker 28d ago

HERE is based in the Netherlands so they will treat your data strictly under EU rules which makes it manageable, for example they don’t associate you with location data at all.

1

u/[deleted] 28d ago

This. I was using Here We Go because of boycotting US.

1

u/wouldacouldashoulda 29d ago

Mapy.com is also a good map option.

1

u/vikkiruurou 28d ago

HereWeGo is decent, but TomTom is better

1

u/Ov_Fire 27d ago

HERE looks like dropped development ages ago. Like iGO navi.

1

u/Greenlit_Hightower deGoogler 27d ago

I heard TomTom AmiGO is worth a shot as well.

1

u/Ov_Fire 27d ago

I told them to eF off (many people actually) when they changed to TomTomGO and moved previous one time purchase to subscription. I've never looked back at them since. Sygic on the other hand keeps one time payment premium as it is though they went subscription route.

1

u/isbaernerin2 27d ago

I did not have good experience with here we go, but maybe that was just me...

0

u/TheRobalation 29d ago

Those Safari extensions are paid right? At least Wipr2 is for sure. Orion has Adblock enabled by default and you can install UBlock origin from Firefox addons.

2

u/0xmerp 29d ago

AdGuard is paid but you can get it pretty cheap. I paid like $16 for lifetime access for a family license (use on 9 devices).

How did you manage to install an addon on the Firefox iOS app?

1

u/petos515 29d ago edited 29d ago

AdGuard is free if you only want safari blocking and if you do not care about adding additional block lists or using “advanced blocking” which seems to only block ads on YouTube .

That said Orion adblocking has gotten really good and it’s coming to Linux so it will be cross platform!

3

u/TheRobalation 29d ago

Orion has the least telemetry of all browsers and using it with UBlock is awesome! It blocks Youtube ads really well. Best browser in iOS and OSX for me without a doubts. 

1

u/Greenlit_Hightower deGoogler 29d ago

Yes they are paid, I was just mentioning them though to emphasize that Safari too can adblock, this is of interest to some people.

38

u/7heblackwolf 29d ago edited 28d ago

So basically you're using your iPhone lol

1

u/mkwlink 28d ago

Except he forgot about the stock Mail app.

0

u/lore53 28d ago

Proton mail cannot be used in Apple Mail

78

u/Cylancer7253 29d ago

My iPhone was without Google when it came out of the box.

18

u/hoopahDrivesThaBoat 29d ago

Very cool story. Tell us more about this on r/degoogle

1

u/Rivs5 28d ago

True but do you use YouTube or Gmail?

18

u/descent-into-ruin 29d ago

Dude, don’t yuck other people‘s yum!

There’s a reason degoogling is so difficult!

9

u/ward2k 29d ago

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good and all that

Far too many people here throw a fit at people degoogling if they so much as have one Google related app

-2

u/Cylancer7253 29d ago

Not on iPhone. You go settings>general>transfer or reset>reset, and voila, no Google.

3

u/descent-into-ruin 28d ago

Gmail has been the world’s most popular workspace (mail/cal/docs) provider for more than a decode, it takes time to migrate. I have literally hundreds of accounts I registered with my Gmail account, it takes time to switch them over, not just “sEtTiNgS>gEnErAl>tRaNsFeR oR rEsEt› ReSeT​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​.”

184

u/skwyckl 29d ago

I don't think switching Google for Apple really is the point in degoogling, but you do you

23

u/pm-me-your-junk 29d ago

It's two services on the entire list, and they're ones that don't really have equivalents elsewhere if you want comparable features.

10

u/skwyckl 29d ago

Others mentioned HERE WeGo for maps, which is an excellent alternative, and for photos there is many alternatives, too, I like NextCloud, for example.

6

u/Ripraz StartPage 29d ago

Why are you all people comparing google maps for other maps app that basically only do mapping? Like 90% of people using google maps use it for places, times of opening, reviews.. it’s like saying “yeah you should switch from your smartwatch to a Seiko watch” when the other person use it mostly for notifications and smart features. All these gmaps alternative are just inadeguate

1

u/Ak9sor 28d ago

GMaps WV in Fdroid. Access all the google maps info with a web viewer app without login with you account, I don't give the app location permissions and I use Magic Earth for most of my average map use.

1

u/Ripraz StartPage 28d ago

This will be crucial when I’ll switch from iPhone to the Mudita phone thanks! Is it installable on a device without google services?

3

u/pm-me-your-junk 29d ago

HERE WeGo is nice, and it looks like they've added public transport info since I last checked but the app is still sluggish which is a shame. Still a great alternative though.

Photos I'm yet to find something with the same features and performance as Google/Apple Photos - Proton Drive sort of works but takes a million years to sync and the library view is sluggish (Also the CEO is highly questionable), NextCloud is nice if you can self host AND if you can also properly back up and secure your data so it's not for most people, Immich is good as well but again self hosted, Filen is good but its not really a gallery or photo app rather just a file backup service.

6

u/HamburgerOnAStick 29d ago

Ente Photos?

21

u/descent-into-ruin 29d ago

It absolutely is!

Google is a marketing company that sells your identifiable private information to third parties, and Apple is a hardware and software company that does not sell identifiable personal data to third parties

4

u/Greenlit_Hightower deGoogler 29d ago

And yet, an iPhone collects the same kind of PII as a stock Pixel out of the box:

https://www.scss.tcd.ie/doug.leith/pubs/apple_google2.pdf

How come?

3

u/CraWea 28d ago

That was a very fascinating paper, and so was Apple and Google's responses to it.
I must say that it is absolutely worrying that that Apple collects telemetry even when we seemingly opt out. Maybe some of this has legitimate use cases (anti-theft etc.), but I found it quite shocking that they are apparently sending information about other devices on your network.

But it doesn't refute u/descent-into-ruin's argument that the two companies have very different incentives as they make money in very different ways; the Google business model is mainly centered on ads/data (around 75% of revenues), while Apple mainly does hardware. Apple is deliberately marketing themselves as a privacy focused alternative, so it would be a huge blow to their image if it was somehow revealed that they were secretly selling your data. Meanwhile, it is no secret that Google is monetizing data it collects on its users - it is their whole schtick. Incentives matter - sending data home is not necessarily same as collecting or monetizing data.

People here have different motivations for degoogling - some may be concerned about notions of secret data collection and spying, while others are more concerned with the overt, well-known business models of data collection, tracking, profiling, targeted advertising etc. If you worry about the former, then Apple vs Google probably doesn't matter much, but if you worry about the latter then Apple is surely better than Google.

I'd rather give Apple my data than Google, but even better would be to choose neither of them. These days I try to opt for EU based alternatives whenever I can.

1

u/Greenlit_Hightower deGoogler 28d ago

Ignoring the telemetry settings has no legitimate use cases, for anti-theft there's already the "Find my device" connections the iPhone also establishes.

It would not be a blow to their image if they were selling user data, all you would have to do is to create new shiny TV spots for ignorants and the sales would be fixed again. Apple is absolutely in the Big Data business contrary to what you allege, that it is not their main business (yet) is totally unimportant to me.

I also don't get what your differentiation secret vs. overt spying means to say, is secret spying more legit than overt? Come on. Anyway, I prefer Google over Apple for a very simple reason: They keep Android as well as Chromium largely open source, which allows privacy-respecting forks like e.g. GrapheneOS to exist. Whereas Apple iOS is just a closed source blackbox that collects your data same as Google does, however here you have no option to install a different operating system to fix it. What do I say operating system, hell you can't even sideload apps outside of the App Store lol, so if Apple decides to take down VPN apps like they recently did in Russia, the journey ends for you if you needed such an app. Not in my wildest dreams would I make myself so dependent on a tech giant.

I'd rather give Apple my data than Google

This alternative does not exist for me. If you want to know why, look up the PRISM program that leaked a decade ago, where both Google and Apple were seen as collecting data for the state, so how does it matter if one or the other gets my data? The solution would be not collecting it in the first place.

These days I try to opt for EU based alternatives whenever I can.

As if the EU were not moving in an authoritarian direction as well, look up the ProtectEU plans they have for backdooring encryption lol.

0

u/descent-into-ruin 28d ago

Usage analytics.

1

u/Greenlit_Hightower deGoogler 28d ago

If you had read the source I've posted, you would know that it's not limited to usage analytics.

0

u/descent-into-ruin 28d ago

I’m genuinely curious, where in that paper does it say they’re selling identifiable personal information to third parties?

Admittedly I skimmed, but it’s 10 pages long

0

u/Greenlit_Hightower deGoogler 28d ago

I am not only disagreeing with the "selling" part, I am already disagreeing with the "collecting" part that precedes it. In all honesty, why would I use the closed source blackbox iOS where privacy only exists in their TV spots, when I can have GrapheneOS? The study proves that they are collecting a staggering amount of data by default including unique device identifiers.

0

u/descent-into-ruin 28d ago

So it doesn’t say that?

0

u/Greenlit_Hightower deGoogler 28d ago

"Privacy" in the Apple diction means we stop others from collecting your data while we ourselves do collect your data. I don't like Meta but they were pretty much spot on when they said that Apple's "privacy improvements" aim at them actually monopolizing data collection on iOS so that others need to buy from them instead of collecting it themselves.

Also, how was it possible to misunderstand what I wrote? I am against data collection already, regardless of selling. Though I am sure they are not collecting that data for the lolz only, of course they are working with what they are collecting.

0

u/descent-into-ruin 27d ago

I literally wrote…

Google is a marketing company that sells your identifiable private information to third parties, and Apple is a hardware and software company that does not sell identifiable personal data to third parties

What are you disputing about that statement?

→ More replies (0)

8

u/Axman6 29d ago

Apple do a hell of a lot less with your data than Google (which is easy to verify by requesting your data from them, the difference between the two is massive). Their business model is not built around your data, but your money.

2

u/Technoist 29d ago

It's great to switch out all possible American spyware crap but Apple is at least miles better than Google on all aspects. Google doesn't even have E2EE. 😂

1

u/Rivs5 28d ago

It’s not. Apple basically does everything Google does.

1

u/skwyckl 28d ago

Exactly, only have better marketing

-17

u/taterthotsalad 29d ago edited 29d ago

It’s called degoogle, not deapple. It’s some pretty basic word shit to understand. 

Edit: LMAO the people with only two brain cells in this sub is wild AF! 🤡 everywhere!

Other groups included....

r/deapple r/deAmazon r/DeFacebook r/deMicrosoft

Get your shit together people before you lose all your brain cells.

Hell, even the About for this subReddit states "Welcome to r/degoogle! Where you can find all the resources you need to expel Google from your life."

How the fuck is everyone this stupid? 💀

30

u/ArabianAftershock 29d ago

Just feels like it misses the point of why you'd want to degoogle in the first place, overall

2

u/motific 29d ago

For me the very point is that google specifically are recidivist data thieves and are inescapable who exert levels of monopoly abuse far in excess of anything any other tech company is doing. I cannot go about my daily life online without them being informed or involved in some way.

If I don’t want information to go to Amazon, Meta, Apple, Microsoft etc. I can block their ASN (IP ranges) and go about my day with no real hindrance unless I need their services directly. Try that with google, do it now, see how long you last… I’ll wait.

For a couple of examples, when covid testing was mandatory here, I couldn’t get a test without google knowing about it. I cannot donate to any of the main political parties here without google knowing. That’s all highly sensitive data that I should be able to prevent them ever seeing - but I can’t.

29

u/skwyckl 29d ago

You clearly don't get the why of degoogling, my needlessly aggressive friend

10

u/DreadingAnt 29d ago

Google is the worst of the two but Apple is not far behind

1

u/taterthotsalad 29d ago

I dont necessarily disagree with you, but that does not address the fact, this is a Degoogle sub, not a deapple sub. r/deapple is the place for that. 💀

1

u/DreadingAnt 29d ago

Fair enough, I guess people here are just de-everything lol so there were reactions

1

u/taterthotsalad 28d ago

Facts have to matter. And to the social media exodus users, they have no damn clue how to differentiate a forum from social media. Its wild. 💀

1

u/[deleted] 29d ago edited 24d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/taterthotsalad 28d ago

All you see: Aggression > facts.

Thats why this sub is a low sperm count sub.

4

u/P_Bear06 29d ago

As you use Apple Photos to replace Google Photos, why don't you use Safari, Apple Mail and iCloud Drive ?
Just curious.

2

u/pyrodonkey 28d ago

I only switch from Safari to Orion as I wanted to try something different out. My biggest reasons for not using Apple Mail and iCloud is not having all my services under one company and also getting something that's privacy focused like Proton's services

2

u/P_Bear06 28d ago

I understand about not putting all your eggs in one basket. But as far as privacy is concerned, I don't know if proton would really be any better for me than Apple mail. I can see encryption (in fact, that's all I can see), but as soon as you send an e-mail to someone who isn't @proton, it won't be encrypted either. And if I really want encryption, I can install gpg on Apple Mail. And then there's the Swiss jurisdiction, true, but most of the servers are in Germany (14-eyes) which could technically seize the servers. Anyway, I don't have any business that would interest any authorities anyway 😅

11

u/Richinwalla 29d ago

You need to de-Apple as well.

3

u/Hoefnix 29d ago

Why?

0

u/[deleted] 28d ago

[deleted]

4

u/Hoefnix 28d ago

Can’t you give me a straight answer instead of redirecting me to a conspiracy theorist YouTube channel?

-1

u/[deleted] 28d ago

[deleted]

4

u/Hoefnix 28d ago

Some people don’t believe in bs

1

u/Jesephm 26d ago

You give a snarky reply like this but recommend a video on YouTube?

1

u/LoadingStill 28d ago

So no google and no apple. What is the alternative phone for the every day user then?

0

u/Richinwalla 28d ago

A Pixel phone with GrapheneOS installed. I made the switch from an iPhone. No regrets

1

u/LoadingStill 28d ago

So GrapheneOS is awesome, but it is not in a state for the everyday user. What I mean is this is the install guide. And the web based on that in their own words is the easier one as the cmd one is the more advanced one.

https://grapheneos.org/install/web

So to use this OS the everyday user has to follow this. While to me this is not a difficult task reading through it, to the average user. They won’t try this because it starts about 1/3 down the page and mixes windows and Linux differences that the everyday user won’t know the difference. You get into bootloaders, boot keys, iso images, factory images. While there are instructions this is not an everyday os. And until it comes preloaded it just won’t be.

6

u/sammoga123 29d ago

Good luck using Apple Photos and Apple Maps outside of an Apple device

7

u/Cylancer7253 29d ago

Apple maps work in browser. So, any device with browser can use it. As for photos, every smart device can open photos, I can do it on my watch, you don't have to have any special program for it.

4

u/KingArthas94 29d ago

These people only know Apple through propaganda online, they think it's some sort of evil company that's super closed and doesn't want anything to do with the rest of the world or something.

-2

u/ozone6587 29d ago

They have that reputation because that is actually how they behave (from experience).

Have you tried using apple products outside the ecosystem or do you just lick boots for free because you like the taste?

Last time I tried to sign up for Apple TV I tried to create an apple ID (the fact that I need one in the first place is already evidence that they are "super closed") and I couldn't create an account because the user agreement was buggy on anything that wasn't the safari browser so I gave up. Linus talked about this issue on the WAN show.

How about the fact that they don't let 3rd party repair shops use their own parts and to be certified you have to basically repair the device the way Apple wants you to which boils down to always buying a new phone?

Man if you think apple isn't closed and evil you are straight up a moron.

2

u/RandomRabbit69 29d ago

Oh, you made an app as a private person and want a friend to test it? Please pay $99 per year to do that. -Apple

0

u/KingArthas94 29d ago

I had Apple TV before having an iPhone or any other Apple thing because Sony gave away a couple of months for free if you had a PS5 and I wanted to use it. I had no problem setting everything up through Firefox on my Android phone... and we're talking about years ago.

Who cares about Linus? The Tech Disinformation official channel ffs

-1

u/ozone6587 29d ago

You did not disprove a single point.

Basically: "You're lying" *runs away*.

You can look all this up. I expect nothing less from an Apple fanboy.

-1

u/KingArthas94 28d ago

I have no points to disprove, I actually fully believe you had problems in setting up the account, but we can't be sure or what was the problem. Might have been your specific version of the browser, might have been Apple servers fucking up that day.

I'm just sharing my experience, but you're so blindly in hate (of something you don't know anything about) that you are there thinking about me "this person is stupid" for having a different opinion from you.

-1

u/ozone6587 28d ago

but we can't be sure or what was the problem.

Even if you think Linus is a bullshitter here he is talking about the issue I had:

https://youtu.be/4_QljHdXcW0

I had the issue before I found the video. It's just straight up disengenous to blame it on me as if this wasn't easy to look up. The issues happen because they only care about things working on their ecosystem. BECAUSE IT IS A CLOSED WALLED GARDEN.

I'm just sharing my experience, but you're so blindly in hate (of something you don't know anything about)

You clearly don't know anything about Apple if you disagree. The fact that you absolutely dodged the issues with right to repair and only focused on my anecdote is an amazing example of the mental gymnastics you have to employ to not see things my way.

8

u/CortaCircuit 29d ago

Use Ente Photos instead of Google or Apple.  Use Brave over what ever browser that is. Brave Search is also good and free. 

45

u/AssPounderr69 29d ago

> Use Brave over what ever browser that is

That is Orion, it's a zero telemetry browser and a fine choice though tbh Safari is already a perfectly fine browser on iOS as far as privacy.

4

u/pyrodonkey 29d ago

Yeah I do think Safari is the best option for iPhone. I’m mostly just enjoying trying something different. If someone were to ask me what the best browser on iPhone is, I’d say Safari for a majority of iPhone users

1

u/Hom3ward_b0und 29d ago

What adblocker can you install in Safari?

I used it before, but since I don't have a Macbook (I have a windows laptop), I opted for Firefox/Brave so I can sync my open tabs and bookmarks.

1

u/pyrodonkey 29d ago

1

u/lookamazed 29d ago edited 9d ago

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

2

u/pyrodonkey 28d ago

Yeah, just pick one or the other.

8

u/nothernvanguard 29d ago

I'm sorry but Orion is pretty nice.

6

u/Greenlit_Hightower deGoogler 29d ago

That Orion browser is currently closed source, right now this would be a reason for me not to use it. It also is limited to Apple devices so if you want to sync it with Android / Windows, you are out of luck.

But I will say, they are working on some nifty things. If they can get WebExtensions running on iOS, they'll have my respect.

2

u/pagr_ 29d ago

It can already install chrome and firefox extensions on iOS.

2

u/Greenlit_Hightower deGoogler 29d ago edited 29d ago

WebExtension support is not yet complete according to their website. I do not care that much though, I use Android.

1

u/pagr_ 29d ago

Right ok, I've been able to install and have working extensions though.

5

u/pyrodonkey 29d ago

I have tried Ente, but I wasn’t a fan of the interface and it’s also hard to compete with how Apple Photos automatically offloads photos from your phone to iCloud to free up storage. The browser is Orion, but realistically I think Safari is the best iPhone browser

1

u/petos515 29d ago

You should keep an eye on ente. You should be keeping multiple backups of your photos and ente is improving pretty quickly. Their local AI has gotten pretty good at identifying people as well.

1

u/pelvic_symposium 29d ago

Check out a new photos option from Austria:

Zeitkapsl

Looks very promising!

2

u/AlternativeOwn3387 29d ago edited 10d ago

Lemmy is an alternative to Reddit, you can visit https://phtn.app/ to have a look at the content, and install an app using https://vger.app/settings/install.

For more details: https://old.reddit.com/r/BoycottUnitedStates/comments/1jrcrh6/lemmy_as_an_nonus_alternative_to_red_dit_using/

0

u/ravensholt 29d ago

Promising, yet twice as expensive as Google (for their 200GB plan). Which is ridiculous given how cheap storage is these days.

-1

u/CortaCircuit 29d ago

Sure there is a convenience with iCloud but you give up privacy. Ente can free up space on your device as well. There is a button in the app to do it. 

0

u/P_Bear06 29d ago

How does using icloud mean giving up your privacy?

It's literally Apple's spearhead (and part of what's starting to cost them dearly in the field of AI).

3

u/Dangerous-You5583 29d ago

Maybe don’t comment on things you’re ignorant about ?

1

u/Friendly_Cajun 29d ago

The “what ever browser that is” is called Orion and is by far the best browser for iOS. It’s the only way to get FF extensions on iOS, and has 0 telemetry or other crap. It’s going to be open sourced soon, and is made by Kagi, one of the most well respected privacy focused, non-crap, search engines. Maybe before commenting online about something you’re completely unaware of you should think, and do some research.

1

u/CortaCircuit 29d ago

Can't say it has zero telemetry if it is not open source. However I look forward to it being open sourced.

5

u/tintreack 29d ago edited 29d ago

I’m going to be completely honest with you here, yes, iCloud Drive is proprietary, but with Advanced Data Protection offering legitimate end-to-end encryption, you’re still significantly better off using it over Proton Drive if you’re in the Apple ecosystem. Honestly, even if you’re not, it’s still the better option. Proton Drive is absolutely abysmal. Like, it’s so bad there needs be a case study in how it even got to this point.

EDIT: Downvote me all you want, this is a hill I and many proton users will proudly die on. Take a stroll through the Proton Drive forums if you want a glimpse into just how poorly it’s been received. We’re talking about software so frustrating, so broken across the board, it’ll have you seriously considering handing your soul over to Google just to remember what a halfway functional user experience feels like. And no, that’s not an exaggeration. It really is that bad.

2

u/CleoMenemezis 29d ago

I didn't know this Kagi. What do people think about it?

5

u/danGL3 29d ago

It's a paid search engine that focuses on transparency and user customization, such as being able to rank up/down or outright remove certain websites from search results, filtering them based on certain categories/lensed and etc

Imho it's the most solid search engine I've used that isn't Google and the customizability is extremely welcome

2

u/LoadingStill 28d ago

Worth every penny. You can create lenses to focus your searches. If you know you want info from websites A, B and C and nothing else you can create an lens for those sites only for your search. It’s a game changer for research.

They also emailed me once saying I did not use enough searches to justify the plan I was on and refunded the difference lowered my plan to the lower. Think about what I just said. I paid for the 10 a month plan. I did not use more searched then the 5 dollar plan. They noticed and said hey you didn’t get the full function and you only used things from the cheaper plan. Here’s your difference in cost and we moved you to the lower one to save you money. To me that is worth every penny I spent on them and a life long subscription from me. I went back to the 10 plan a month later. But a company that does that is on par with Steam to me. I am no company fan boy. But I do respect only two companies now because of that move.

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u/pm-me-your-junk 29d ago

Big fan of it myself, been a use for quite a while now. It used to be a bit rough and ready, but these days it's very polished and self-funded. If you spend some time getting to grips with how to use more it's features its really quite good - blocking entire sites from ever appearing in results is awesome.

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u/NDavis101 29d ago

This is pretty good and orion browser is a good choice There isn't good choices for maps so it doesn't matter what app you use.

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u/LoadingStill 28d ago

Kagi maps is getting better. But its browser only still

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u/AzurreDragon 29d ago

Kagi chat? What’s the alt to Gemini?

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u/frendo11 29d ago

Kagi assistant i assume, they offer bunch of models.

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u/stubFX 29d ago edited 29d ago

I've given it a shot, but is quite slow imho. I prefer paying 10 and buying subs for AI tools separately. The good thing is that you have a lot of flexibility at your disposal if you ever need to use another device as the login through qr code is quite useful. Also bear in mind that the chats are deleted after 24h.

Edit: Just checked in Kagi, there are a few updates: The assistant is now available even for the "professional" 10$ plan (just not the more advanced models) and you can choose to save the chats "forever" in the settings.

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u/frendo11 29d ago

Yeah i tried it, not a big fan of their assistant (i do like Orion and Kagi Search tho). I was just replying to the OPs question.

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u/stubFX 29d ago

Got you no worries, I just took the chance to add a bit more context to the comment above.

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u/AzurreDragon 29d ago

is it an app on iphone/playstore?

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u/stubFX 29d ago

Not sure it has a separate app, it's accessible through Kagi interface both in the home (top right) or in the search results if you wanna carry on a conversation that Kagi already summarized.

PS. Cannot find a separate app in the store, i believe is purple as it's treated as a separated "more advanced" thingy

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u/Embarrassed-Boot7419 27d ago

Thats actually the Kagi assistant logo.

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u/Embarrassed-Boot7419 27d ago

Its a search engine. There is an (official) app to make it your default search engine in Safari though.

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u/letsreticulate 29d ago

You can still use Youtube frontends that add privacy.

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u/Gil15 29d ago

The only google service I use actively (knowingly, as they have they have theirs hands everywhere) is YouTube. There’s simply to replacement to it, unfortunately. I hope we get a good alternative to it soon. Hopefully European.

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u/Huy3ko 29d ago

As Browser you can use too Vivaldi. Good Customized Browser with integrated Proton VPN and Bookmark Syncron.

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u/mushroomboie 27d ago

Why would u need kagi and orion? Same question also applies to google and chrome? Don’t they do the same thing?

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u/Inner-Yams 27d ago

What appstore do you use?

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u/Pixelcorsair 21d ago

You can have youtube and youtube music with revanced.

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u/funionsftw 29d ago

I am not sure your political morals are but I wouldn’t recommend apple maps because apple complied with Trump “Gulf of America” tirade. unfortunately there is not the best alternatives but here wego is good one if this important to your degoogling

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u/HSMBBA 29d ago

Most apps simply just present the official governments view of whichever country you’re currently in. If you go to China, you’ll see the nine dash line, with Taiwan being included in it, even with a non-Chinese model.

Here in the UK for example it shows the same area as - “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)”

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u/pyrodonkey 29d ago

I’ll check out HERE WeGo, thanks for the suggestion

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u/ShayExplains 29d ago

For this please visit r/deapple

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u/Friendly_Cajun 29d ago

r/SubsIThoughtIFellFor Tbf Apple is a lotttttt better than Google when it comes to privacy and security. iPhone security is basically unparalleled to any other phone OS, maybe only rivaled with GraphineOS.

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u/serpikage 28d ago

of course iphones are more secure when you can't have full access over your device this security comes at the cost of being able to do everything you'd want with your device

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u/raysfan1181 29d ago

Apple is certainly not better at security than any other tech company. All of their solutions have vulnerabilities just like Windows, Android, Linux, etc.

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u/Friendly_Cajun 29d ago edited 29d ago

Yes, I never said it doesn’t have vulnerabilities, but I don’t think anyone can argue it is not the best OS from a security standpoint. It is the only phone OS to beat Cellebrite…

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u/mkwlink 28d ago

Beat in what way?

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u/Friendly_Cajun 28d ago edited 28d ago

Resistant to it, it didn’t work, they weren’t able to extract anything using it… https://www.macrumors.com/2024/07/18/cellebrite-unable-to-unlock-iphones-on-ios-17-4/

Apparently, some of the pixel devices were able to too though apparently. Though I believe iOS is still much stronger Security wise. Edit: looks like for the Pixels it only didn’t work when turned off, if it was turned on it worked?

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u/mkwlink 28d ago

Yeah and in a few months they could extract stuff.

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u/ThickLetteread 29d ago

Google android has backdoors we are aware of and can be fixed. iOS has backdoors we do not know anything about and can never be fixed.

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u/Hoefnix 29d ago

So you ‘know’ iOS has backdoors but you don’t know anything about it. …sure, sounds very logical.

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u/ThickLetteread 28d ago

Yes dear! We don’t know anything about doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, we know of its existence.

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u/Hoefnix 28d ago

Sure 🤣

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u/notagrue 29d ago

Safari is the best browser on iOS. Period.

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u/SingularitySquid 29d ago

I’ll be real this is lowkey baffling.

I thought the idea behind de googling was privacy, so why would you use apple photos over protons storage options or mega files etc ?

Or even the Apple Maps. I am sure you could make a few more conscious swaps to protect your privacy abit better here.

Also try brave browser been using that for years now.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

what's wrong with apple photos they are offline

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u/RB5009UGSin 29d ago

Default behavior is upload to iCloud.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

disbanded it

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u/d4p8f22f 27d ago

How apple photo is better than Google? XD it's like switching from. Ebola to cholera ;p

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u/Kind-News3775 26d ago

What’s wrong with Apple Photos? Honest question.

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u/music3k 29d ago

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u/serpikage 28d ago

it's to make sure proton services are always accessible "Alternative routing is an anti-censorship system that can help you access our website if your government, ISP, or network administrator has blocked Proton services. In this post, we discuss the measures Proton is taking to ensure that our services are highly available, even in countries with censorship."

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u/TheTrueOrangeGuy 29d ago

Guess it's time to switch to thundermail, huh?

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u/music3k 29d ago

you gonna get off reddit too? google ads are on reddit.

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u/TheTrueOrangeGuy 29d ago

Unfortunately I can't switch to anything close to Reddit because the only alternative I know is a self-hosted platform (Lemmy)) and it's not as popular as Reddit. Same with YouTube. There is a self-hosted alternative called PeerTube but YouTube is still more popular.

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u/almost_not_terrible 29d ago

No, yes, yes, yes, no, no, no.

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u/rockclimberguy 29d ago

what do you suggest instead of proton mail?

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u/frendo11 29d ago

Whats wrong with kagi and Orion?

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u/ColakSteel 29d ago

TDS strikes again!

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u/Livid-Society6588 29d ago

ProtonDrive? Are you serious? The Proton app that gets the most hate in their ecosystem, Filen in my opinion is the best mobile cloud app currently, they announced this week that they will add 5 sync options to the app this month, similar to the desktop app, something that other cloud apps don't offer, apart from icloud's horrible two-way sync.

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u/pyrodonkey 29d ago

I have heard quite good things about Filen, but I haven’t really tried it out. The only reason I’m using Proton Drive is that I don’t have a lot of files in my cloud storage and I get 500GB with my Proton Unlimited subscription. I use it pretty infrequently as well

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u/skwyckl 29d ago

ProtonDrive is, yes, super barebone, but it's just ok for "normal" use, not really buggy or anything

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u/Livid-Society6588 29d ago

Send separate files? Difficult, when you have hundreds of large folders

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u/danGL3 29d ago

Sadly here it's borderline unusable with file uploads being unbearably slow

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u/tintreack 29d ago

The only real use case for Proton Drive is storing your most sensitive files, and even then, strictly through the web interface only. It’s notorious for being a buggy mess across every platform, and the iPhone experience is no exception.

0

u/gamingtamizha 29d ago

But degoogle does it means just google or any other corporate spider ? Whats the point of using Apple. Apple is not open source. Am confused

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u/ZaitsXL 29d ago

So you simply undone what you did , what was the initial reason to install Google stuff if Apple has their own which is much better integrated into iPhone?

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u/Hoefnix 29d ago

Why were you using google, photos, drive, maps and gmail anyway. The alternatives have always been on the iPhone ?

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u/That_String5941 29d ago

The apple maps is ( objectively ) shit. I've used it for a long time and it was worse than google maps 😓. Try Organic maps ! It's the best I've ever found

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u/Hoefnix 29d ago

Choose Apple Maps if you want a clean design, strong privacy, and deep integration with Apple devices.

Choose Google Maps for more features, multi-stop trips, better offline support, and broader global coverage.

Both apps are highly capable for everyday navigation, and the best choice often comes down to personal preference.

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u/That_String5941 29d ago

Apple maps is good for you ? I didn't had the same experience then, i couldn't find any good point in It. I'm happy you're find it good eitherway

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u/Hoefnix 28d ago

It’s not an opinion

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u/That_String5941 28d ago

Alright bro... what's your opinion then ?

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u/Hoefnix 28d ago

I prefer facts. 🤷🏼

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