Android Alternatives

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

I am just thinking, is there a better way to go than with just Android/Google?

 

Or just use a custom ROM, that's still Android, but not linked to google?

 

I read about several, but each have their own pros and cons.

 

Anyone have experience with this?

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

There are not a lot of other options available, but Tizen, Sailfish and Ubuntu Touch come to mind.  You might have trouble finding devices that run these, and support is likely to be more developer than consumer-focused, at least for the latter two.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

Looking at your profile you have an Android device, so I think you need to ask yourself what you don't like about your device at the moment which might be improved with a custom rom, or without the device running any Google services.

 

I can tell you that Android without Google is pretty barebones with a lot of apps relying on Googles libaries and API's in one way or another, even if its just for push notifications. You can flash LineageOS for a totally Google free Android experience though. You also might want to look in to microG, a re-implementation of Google’s proprietary Android user space apps and libraries.

 

Personally for the last 6+ years i've always flashed LineageOS on my device with the "nano" Open GApps package, this basically gets you all the libaries, API's and Google Play store to use your phone as normal, without it been bloated with loads of Google Apps you will never use.

 

The only Google apps i install from the play store are:

• Chrome
• Maps
• Pay
• YouTube

As for why I use LineageOS, its basically stock Android with actual useful improvements and tweaks.

 

I find the control you can have over the notification light incredibly useful, you can get the colour / duration the light is on for on a per app basis.

 

The privacy guard feature is also excellent, you can deny all apps from accessing any of your personal information / files unless you give it explicit permission to do so. With so many apps leaking information and wanting access to your contacts, location and so on I do think this is a very useful addition.

 

Depending on what you do with your device you might find Android without Google is fine, however I personally think Android with Google is better, I just control how much Google I have.