If you can afford it, make your next phone a Google Pixel and put GrapheneOS on it. Despite the phone being google, all the google crap will be removed by the OS.
Nextcloud self-hosted to replace Google Drive.
Install as many apps as possible from F-Droid and the rest via Aurora Store.
Nextcloud. You can set up a self-hosted instance, put it in a cloud provider's environment, or use their Enterprise offering, depending on your level of expertise/budget.
Second this, especially if you are even remotely tech savy. You can use it for calendar, drive, contacts sync, notes, RSS feeds, and more. Also want to give a shutout to syncthing(FOSS peer to peer file sync).
Now where do I start lol, I've been on this journey for a few years, and I'd say, take it one service at a time!! I'll try and list most of my apps/services etc.
Phone running grapheneos
Browser - vanadium (graphenes hardened browser)
Maps - organic maps
Mail - protonmai
Calender - protonmail
Notes - standard notes
YouTube - newpipe
App store -F-Droid
Messaging - signal and threema
File sync - syncthing
Password managing - bitwarden
Gallery - simple gallery
Camera - stock grapheneos camera
Ad blocking - 2 piholes setup
And one of the hardest was google photos..... Overcame that with self hosting photoprism..... I have syncthing sync my camera roll to a hard drive attached to one of my raspberry pi..... 3am it rsyncs to a permanent location, than rsync to another hard drive, than have a script that adds it to the photoprism library an hour later, sounds hectic but perfect once setup....
And if you want to go even deeper and not use google or any other provider as your DNS, if you have a pi or any other computer running 24/7 can run your own recursive DNS resolver with unbound..... Hope this helps some people, may have missed a few 😂
If you don’t have the time/interest in setting up NextCloud, CryptPad replicates a lot of the functionality of Google Docs/Drive, though to get more 1GB of storage you will have to subscribe.
If you're on Android, that's probably the most important thing to consider first. Just using a phone with Google Play Services gives up a great deal of privacy, even if you think you've turned all that off.
So, consider either an iPhone or if you're really serious about this shit, GrapheneOS. The iPhone is easier for average people, but GrapheneOS is more private and you have more control. Both are better than Googled Android.
For a Google Drive alternative, that's simple. If you're already using Proton, get ProtonDrive.
For Google Docs alternative, that's a bit more challenging. There aren't any direct competitors with full end-to-end encryption that are any good and also cross-platform.
Worse device depends on the user. In my mid-30s, I loved all the tweaks and options my Android phone gave me. Now, as I push 50, I find I want my phone to just work. iOS does that for me. I have a dozen other devices I can hack around on.
The paid plans for Proton mail have Proton Drive which is pretty good so far.
Nextcloud self-hosted if you have the technical know-how is also pretty nice. You could also set up a NAS and then use a VPN to access it from your phone/remote location.
Do you still use Android? I don't feel like I can genuinely be off of Google until I find a way not to have them in my phone. Apple isn't much better, especially for the featureset sacrifice
i like my pixel features a bit too much lol. i have tried graphene os, an os build specifically for pixels, but there's just so much stuff that google has in the software. it's like the main reason i got a pixel
Yeah, its hard to give it up for sure. I did it back in 2019 but it took me like 6 months to replace everything and learn new habbits. I still catch myself looking something up on google maps every so often. I still use youtube but only through newpipe
I switched from kagi to searxng and haven't really looked back yet. The only feature I miss is pinning search results from sites, but other than that... Nothing. It's been a while since I switched though, so maybe they've added some compelling features
I did the same thing recently. I went over to the iOS MacOS dark side. I paid for the proton product suite (awesome apps). The only google thing I haven't replaced is YouTube since there's no real alternative at the moment.
For the drive I use nextcloud, not selfhosted yet, and filen. The second is based in Germay and gives you 10GB free and was offering 100GB with a payment una tantum. I don't know if you can get this last option right now
My only reccommendation for a replacement for google drive would be to encrypt the files you save their using Veracrypt. No external server is safe to store data on.
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