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How Do I Remove Google from my phone?

F

Freedroid

Lurker
I want to completely delete Google from my phone. I don't want any Google apps to run on my phone in the background.

Unfortunately since I have a Verizon Samsung Galaxy S7 the bootloader is locked, so I cant root it.

Is there any other way I can accomplish this?

EDIT: I was able to root my phone! Yay! Anyway to completely get rid of google. For some reason Google Play Services still notifies me that I should activate them. Even though I deleted everything by Google.

Any idea why? Is Google still in my phone?
 
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Freedroid said:
I want to completely delete Google from my phone. I don't want any Google apps to run on my phone in the background.

Unfortunately since I have a Verizon Samsung Galaxy S7 the bootloader is locked, so I cant root it.

Is there any other way I can accomplish this?
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If your phone can't be rooted, quite frankly I don't think you can. You can try to disable them though, if that's possible. If you're stuck with Verizon, AFAICT probably your only options for a non-Google device, would be an Apple iPhone or a Windows Phone, neither of which is Android of course.
 
EDIT: I was able to root my phone! Yay! Anyway to completely get rid of google. For some reason Google Play Services still notifies me that I should activate them. Even though I deleted everything by Google.

Any idea why? Is Google still in my phone?
 
Well you clearly have Google Play Services still, so to that extent there is still Google in your phone. Which things is it prompting you to activate?

Remember that if you completely remove all Google services you may break other apps, e.g. some apps may be using Google services for location access. I'd certainly recommend disabling rather than deleting, at least initially.

If you want to go really Google-free then you could go the whole hog and install something like Lineage OS and not install the optional Google apps package. That would also be Samsung-free (no Samsung apps or services, and a more standard Android UI rather than the Samsung UI), so may not be what you want, just adding this for completeness.
 
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That is the message I get for all apps. But the apps are working flawlessly.

I want to get rid of Google from my phone because I want a Google free life, and unfortunately the only phone I have is this phone.

May sound crazy, but I'm boycotting Google. ;)

I'll look into lineage os.
 
Hey Freedroid, good for you!! I did the same thing as you. I have a very old Android 4.1 mobile phone with 512k RAM and limited memory. Google Services was just hogging up the phone leaving it practically disabled to run any apps. This was one reason I wanted to get rid of google services. Just like you, every now and then, I get messages from apps (like Skype) that it needs google services but I just ignore these messages and all the apps run fine.

The second reason for desiring a google free life is that google products are just spyware. They invade your privacy and sell the information they collect on you to the highest bidder. I could live without that!!

Hadron, it seems LineageOS works with a limited number of devices. Is there an easy way to find out if it will work with my phone (ZTE V790) and Android Box (Minix X6)?
 
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You could go to the Lineage website and find out whether your device is officially supported. Or if not to developer forums like XDA to see whether anyone has produced an unofficial build for that device. I'd think the phone is more likely than the TV box, but couldn't tell you whether it exists for either.
 
svim said:
But seriously, buying an Android device and hating Google is a contradiction to say the least, it's time to move on to an iPhone.
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I like iphone tech so I would use iPhones were they not soooooo overpriced!! I would feel like a real idiot/sucker fortifying Apple's huge profit margins. Besides, these days, iPhones are merely a status symbol of the vain and I certainly don't want to be in THAT tribe.

I would rather put in some work to disable google's privacy intrusion and use the more economical Android.

Ideally, I am for open systems. For example, on my computers, I use Ubuntu. So I am interested in Lineage that Hadron suggested.
 
OK, so iPhones do tend to be pricier but at the same time there countless, and very opaque costs, we 'pay' as Android users. With Apple you'll be paying up front to be a part of an inclusive, consumerist, curated platform, which also includes a much more advanced backup/restore technology (there is nothing even close to universal equivalent in Android) and a network of Apple stores where tech support is done by staff trained in Apple services, device hardware basics, and customer support (in complete contrast to say, Geek Squad, where you might get an experienced contractor, or a high school or college kid working part time, all depending where you live and on the time of day or season).
The bottom line being, with Android, we may pay less for our phones but from that point onward we're continuing to 'pay' with all the background data mining that's inherent to the Android platform, and tech support that is an unreliable variable, or DIY. It's a matter of perspective, some of us do prefer the Android platform, but there are a lot of consumers who are willing to just buy a phone they just use and don't need to fiddle with.
 
svim said:
With Apple you'll be paying up front to be a part of an inclusive, consumerist, curated platform, which also includes a much more advanced backup/restore technology.........

.......some of us do prefer the Android platform, but there are a lot of consumers who are willing to just buy a phone they just use and don't need to fiddle with.
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First, Apple is an NOT an inclusive platform, it is EXCLUSIVE. Second, I am a minimalist, not a consumerist. Third, being tech savvy, I do not need to be nannied by a curated platform. So, iPhones are probably good for the tech unsavvy, who "[want to] buy a phone they just use and don't need to fiddle with"; but for those like me who are comfortable with command line prompts, fiddling is part of the fun.

Much as I value privacy and whine about search and social media companies invading it, I readily understand their business model and if I must use their products, I will try and mitigate loss of privacy by sharing as little as I can and/or using alternatives (Ubuntu vs Winows, duckduckgo vs google search, maps.here.com vs google maps, LibreOffice vs MS Office, Tor vs IE browser, etc.).

Like you say, it's a matter of perspective - to each his own.
 
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Personally I view iDevices' main asset as being a comparatively long software support lifetime (though updates can sometimes be problematic, and features are left out that the hardware can perfectly well support). If you use that to justify keeping them a long time then you can view it as somewhat offsetting the high prices. But let's be honest, the prices have become ridiculous lately, and the fact that some Android manufacturers have taken this as a cue to raise theirs almost as high does not make that better.

But I find them too constricting myself. We have an old iPad Mini in the family, which is well made and works fine for what little it's used for, but Android would have to seriously piss me off before I considered switching (if nothing else I can't look at screen after screen full of icons and nothing else without thinking that I'm back to using a 1990s PDA ;)).
 
jragusa said:
First, Apple is an NOT an inclusive platform, it is EXCLUSIVE. Second, I am a minimalist, not a consumerist. Third, being tech savvy, I do not need to be nannied by a curated platform.
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But a lot of people create postings here because they're NOT tech savvy. If this online help forum was just about you, your skill set, and your beliefs than yeah, nothing else matters and the other people's problems are irrelevant. But the fact is every single one of us have different strengths and weaknesses, and just because something works for you may or may not apply at all to someone else.
My comments are loosely directed to the thread, not you personally.
 
Hadron said:
But let's be honest, the prices have become ridiculous lately
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Indeed.

Hadron said:
and the fact that some Android manufacturers have taken this as a cue to raise theirs almost as high does not make that better.
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"Some" being the operative word. For Xmas, I "had" to purchase an iPhone X for my daughter (peer pressure, the in crowd, vanity) for 1000 Euros ($1200) (on sale!!). For my wife, I purchased some Chinese brand phone (Vernee) with mightier specs (octacore, 4 GB RAM) for 100 Euros (40% off). Aesthetically and functionally, they are equally adequate, for what little they are use for:rolleyes:. I see no conceivable circs (except a teenagers shit fits) that would lure me to pay even 2x, let alone 10x for an iPhone. 10x is a lot to pay for "a comparatively long software support lifetime". Take the 8 year old ZTE V790 I am using now (single core:(, 512k, Android 4.1, $70) - still works....without support.......just some tweaking.....loaded with apps I need (whatsapp, Skype, GPS, etc.). Only problem is that the screen is so physically bruised and cracked that them old eyes need to squint really hard to view it, even with glasses on. But, I think I can squeeze another couple of years out of it.:D

PDA's..........oh man, that takes me back..............heh.
 
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svim said:
But a lot of people create postings here because they're NOT tech savvy. If this online help forum was just about you, your skill set, and your beliefs than yeah, nothing else matters and the other people's problems are irrelevant. But the fact is every single one of us have different strengths and weaknesses, and just because something works for you may or may not apply at all to someone else.
My comments are loosely directed to the thread, not you personally.
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Indeed, svim. No argument there. As both of us agreed, "to each his own". Accordingly, everything I whine about, ridicule or applaud (rarely).......is strictly my POV. And I certainly would not hold you back from expressing your POV.....express away. As I mentioned, much as I criticize iPhones, I had to buy one for my own daughter.
 
Getting back to the topic of this thread, I still contend the OP shouldn't be using an Android device given his/her dislike of Google. Apple being the only viable alternative at this point, that was my suggestion they should switch to. While it's possible to cleanse an Android phone of Google's oversight, it's not going to be a hassle-free sacrifice, and will involve periodic interventions to remain sans-Google. I still don't know just why your hatred of Apple is going to be beneficial to the OP.
 
jragusa said:
The second reason for desiring a google free life is that google products are just spyware. They invade your privacy and sell the information they collect on you to the highest bidder.
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Today's Google products have extensive privacy settings, the only problem being that you have to plod through each app's settings individually. For example, you can enable "do not track" in Chrome, but it has no effect in any other Google product.
 
MoodyBlues said:
Today's Google products have extensive privacy settings, the only problem being that you have to plod through each app's settings individually. For example, you can enable "do not track" in Chrome, but it has no effect in any other Google product.
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And we know that some of them are deliberately obfuscated, i.e. you can explicitly turn things off in one place but similar data are collected in other ways and the setting that would change that has a name that you would be unlikely to associate with the purpose. The business of how Google keeps a history of your location when "location history" is disabled (by using the "app history" to keep a record of the locations where you used different apps) got some publicity last year, but I'm sure there are others that most people haven't discovered, and there are likely some that only company insiders know.

The real problem is that it's not just Google for whom "surveillance capitalism" is the core of their business model. Pretty much any "tech" company has some involvement in that, and you need to do more than just remove Google apps from a phone, or switch OS, to escape it.
 
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