If you're interested in cutting out Google, it's probably because you don't want to give the company so much information. You'll be fine unless you start hunting around for APKs on the web. Despite this, you can presumably get by with whatever you find on Amazon or in alternative markets where Google apps aren't available. Unfortunately, the apps that need Google Play Services aren't clearly marked.Īs it turned out, my solution was to exclusively use software I could find in F-Droid. This means doing without some excellent third-party apps like Pushbullet. I went with the latter approach.Įven after you do this, some apps require Google Play Services to run. The second is to replace your phone's default OS with a custom ROM. The least invasive option is to root your phone, which will let you delete software you can't otherwise remove. YouTube Music only plays files stored locally.

The camera app take photos, but it doesn't offer to automatically back them up to Google Photos. Even if you remove all the apps that require a Google account to function, you will still lose some features in the apps that remain.įor example, the dialer app still works fine, but it doesn't automatically pull down contacts, and you can only pull up numbers that are saved to your device. On a Pixel device, the situation is a bit more challenging, since these phones come loaded with Google software. These apps will continue to work without syncing your phone to a Google account. Samsung devices come with a number of pre-installed apps you'll only find on each company's devices. How functional your phone will be out of the box depends on the manufacturer. You can turn your Android phone into an advanced dumbphone and stop there. This is already more than what feature phones can do, and let's be real, millions of people are still carrying one of those around without it having a negative effect on their lives.

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