Over the last year I’ve taken a lot of little steps to de-Google my life. I won’t be able to escape Google completely for a long time, but some little shifts have been helpful. So far, it’s been three main things:
- Shifted my main browser from Chrome to Brave
- Started using ProtonMail for some of my email
- Shifted my default search engine away from Google and onto Perplexity and DuckDuckGo
In the past few weeks, I’ve just made two more big shifts.
Google TV –> Roku
This was a pretty easy change to make. I’ve been needing to update our Google TV (Chromecast) devices for a while now, so instead of getting newer devices from Google we purchased some Roku Ultra players to use in the house.
Setting them up is always a bit of a pain (logging in to all of those streaming apps again), but they’ve ultimately worked out great!
Android –> iPhone
The biggest shift for me was moving back to iPhone again. While Apple is still a huge company that shouldn’t be trusted too much, they are much more privacy and user-focused than the other big tech firms (Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta). In recent weeks, two things happened that pushed me a bit more toward Apple and it was finally time to make the leap.
- Google snuck an app onto everyone’s phone.
- Apple’s shareholders voted not to scrap their DEI efforts.
Google’s isn’t as bad as it seems, and Apple’s isn’t as good as it seems, but both are nudges to push me further from Google and more toward Apple, so I made the move.
I won’t bore you with all of the pros and cons of Android versus iPhone, but here is a bit of what I’ve found.
- The Apple Messages app is fine, but without a Macbook (I’m still using Windows), it’s not as helpful. In fact, it’s a bit worse for me because I can no longer get my text messages inside of Beeper (though Beeper is still an amazing app).
- The Pixel Watch was great, but the Apple Watch is far superior. Better experience, more features, smoother performance.
- The lack of a folding device is a bummer (I’ve had the last two Pixel Fold devices), but it’s not a huge deal. The ability to unfold was nice for reading if I didn’t have my Kindle and for browsing large photos, but there wasn’t a whole lot beyond that.
- The AirPods Pro aren’t as good as the Pixel Buds Pro, largely for the ability to tap them. Apple’s require a more focused and firm touch to change songs, pause, adjust volume, etc, whereas Google’s would respond to any glancing touch as if by magic.
- iPhone’s homescreen use, particularly for badges and widgets, is much smoother than Android.
- In the car, Android Auto has a notable better user experience than Apple CarPlay, though they’re quite similar.
- Everything else it the same. App parity is real, and 99% of my apps are indistinguishable from their Android counterparts.
All in all, I’m pleased with both moves and I feel good about giving Google a bit less money and personal information. Neither Roku or iPhone is perfect, but they’re at least as good as what I had before.
I’ll continue to work to whittle out Google services from my life. Next on the chopping block is likely YouTube TV, but other tools (such as Google Workspace for our business) are unlikely to get touched for years. We’ll see.
Have you de-Googled much lately? What moves have you made?
