Ask HN: Alternative to Google Services?

12 points by gonvaled 7 years ago | 17 comments

I am heavily invested in Google Services, both on desktop and mobile.

The current restrictions placed on Android devices have made clear that this reliance is very risky. I do not like being played as a pawn on third parties conflicts.

I would like to replace my use of Google services with alternatives. Specifically, by order of importance:

- GMail

- Google Maps

- Youtube

- Play Store

What are my options?

For mobile, I would consider continuing to use Android as base OS, since it seems restricting use of it wouldn't be feasible.

Replacing Google as search engine was very easy in Chrome: https://duckduckgo.com/install?t=h_

I will try the same on my Android phone later.

duiker101 7 years ago |

GMail -> Fastmail

Google Maps -> Here Maps or OSM

Youtube -> Depends on your needs. There aren't really that many alternatives to watching videos on youtube but you don't need an account for that. If you need to host videos you can use Vimeo or checkout something like verond.com but this kind of services tend to come and go a bit too fast.

Play Store -> F-Droid or amazon store.

If you want to change your browser too, I strongly suggest Vivaldi.

Extra:

Photos -> Canon Irista

Drive -> Mega.nz

Analytics -> self hosted Matomo (shockingly easy!)

Artemix 7 years ago | |

GMail -> FastMail -> With the latest shitty AU laws, I'd advise against this provider (speaking as an old customer who really liked the service). https://privacytools.io/ provides a decent e-mail service list

Browser -> Firefox? So you completely drop the Chromium rendering engine (plus, firefox is awesome)

Photos -> what is your need, exactly?

stephenr 7 years ago | | |

The laws are shitty but have zero effect on FastMail - they don’t provide an E2E solution so they already have your email unencrypted, no backdoors required.

duiker101 6 years ago | | |

FastMail, I don't think those laws affect FM and anyhow I do no need the extreme privacy, just not selling my data. And since I do actually pay for it, I am less worried about that.

Firefox is... ok. I tried using it a few times but I find it a bit clunky for some reason and I do love Vivaldi absolute flexibility.

Photos, what I need is not being Google. Really. And it's so damn hard to find a decent service that is not Google. I am not in the Apple ecosystem so that's out, and all the other services have a bit crappy apps. I tried owncloud but the Android app is really not good enough.

The problem I have with Google is that I occasionally make Android Apps and I already had a strike on my account for an old app, if I were to have more strikes I would risk losing EVERYTHING, photos, emails etc... and that's not something that I am down for.

jaden 6 years ago | | |

Here's FastMail's official statement regarding the Australian laws: https://fastmail.blog/2018/09/10/access-and-assistance-bill/

tl;dr They're fighting it, but they don't see this bill having any additional consequences for our customers.

rochak 7 years ago | |

+1 for Vivaldi

klingonopera 7 years ago |

Most alternatives have already been listed by others, here are a few I can also add:

Chrome browser -> Iridium browser

Play Store -> F-Droid, standalone APKs

I particularly like installing APKs. It's like installing software with an .exe in Windows. Some software vendors even provide you with an APK, i.e. WhatsApp. Some APKs need to be retrieved from 3rd party sites, which is a security downside though.

Apparently there's an app, extension, that will allow you to extract an APK from Google's Play Store? Anyone know something?

gcells 7 years ago |

Play Store -> F-droid, yalp

yalp is a wrapper around google playstore. Handy if you need to install apps not available on F-Droid and not install from apk.

Dduuggrr 7 years ago |

For email I'm using s default email program on my phone (5 different emails) and Protonmail App for Protonmail email address. I changed Chrome with DuckDuckGo and Brave. YouTube... I really don't know yet what to do. Google maps... Im trying Here Maps... Signal Instead Fb Messenger, Google, WhatsApp.

hieloz 7 years ago |

FYI:Alternatives to Google Products – the Complete List https://restoreprivacy.com/google-alternatives/

aitchnyu 7 years ago |

Are there other email services that separate into Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates and Forums like Gmail does? Thats the showstopper for me and marketing pages don't provide evidence of this feature.

rando444 7 years ago |

Why are you still using Chrome? (given your goal)

I'm actually going through the same process as you, but after chrome's change to default auto-login, it was the first thing I changed.

You might want to consider the same.

IloveHN84 7 years ago |

- GMail -> Protonmail - GMaps -> Here Maps - Google Search -> DuckDuckGo - GCalendar -> Zoho - GDocs -> Zoho, Microsoft - GDrive -> OneDrive, Dropbox - YouTube -> Vimeo, twitch

codegladiator 7 years ago | |

- GMail -> Protonmail

- GMaps -> Here Maps

- Google Search -> DuckDuckGo

- GCalendar -> Zoho

- GDocs -> Zoho, Microsoft

- GDrive -> OneDrive, Dropbox

- YouTube -> Vimeo, twitch

*with extra newlines :p

IloveHN84 7 years ago | |

PlayStore -> Fdroid

kouh 6 years ago |

Gmail -> Protonmail (500MB free no ads, but calendar functionality is painfully nonexistent)