“My life is nearly Google free even though I have an Android phone.”
How did you get google off your phone? Lineage OS or did you use some other strategy?
I got a smartphone a while back and installed Lineage OS. It has it’s quirks, but overall it seems to work pretty well. I’ve been playing around with it, but frankly I have never really been a cell phone person let alone a smartphone person, so I don’t carry it day to day.
I do email, web browsing, voice calls, a little SMS and very rarely take a pic. Occasionally, I use the calculator and I use the clock/stopwatch/timer/alarm app. I don't do social media. I don't need GPS location services. I either know how where I am going or a I read a map. I try to do everything out of my Knox secure folder, which is completely Google free. The unsecure part of the phone I use for voice calls and SMS. My text messages generally read, "What time are you getting home from work?" "I don't know."
I've been to the Google Play store, I think that is what it called, only to download my VPN Client, FreeOTP, ProtonMail client, and Brave. No reason in the foreseeable future to go there again.
There are somethings Google on the phone that I can't get rid of. I just don't use them. So my strategy is delete as much as possible, segregate to a secure folder, and don't touch the useless stuff that I can't delete. The only Google service that I don't avoid is YouTube and that is generally for videos posted on FR. I don't use the app to go there and I never sign-in. So that makes me nearly Google free. I would be a pretty happy guy if I had a rotary phone.