Fear not, privacy-conscious wired readers, there are alternatives for Android. Technically speaking, most alternative mobile operating systems are based on Android, not alternatives to it, but these various projects remove Google and Google-related services (to varying degrees) from the system. Usually this means that all Google services have been removed and replaced with some alternative code (usually a Micro G project), which is then sandboxed in some way to isolate it and restrict its access. The result is a phone that is less dependent on Google, less intrusive of your privacy, and can sometimes provide a more secure experience. However, at the core, all of them are still based on Android.
If you want a Truth There are some alternatives for Android. I’m sad to say, free software fans, the best and most functional alternative to Android is still iOS. However, most people looking for Android alternatives aren’t thinking of switching to an Apple device. There are some Linux-based phone systems, notably SailfishOS, that can run Android apps (I’ll test that next), but in my testing, no Linux-based operating system is ready to become your everyday device.
Why de-Google your phone?
First of all, you don’t need to delete Google. There are plenty of people who happily run Google services on LineageOS just because they want to tinker with the system and expand the capabilities of their phone. This is a good reason to delve into the world of Android alternatives.
Still, you don’t need to have a good tinfoil hat to know that Google’s privacy record is ridiculous. De-Googleing your phone is one way to enjoy the convenience of having a smartphone without having to share everything you own with Google and every app that takes advantage of its APIs. Do you want to be able to participate in the tech world without having to trade your privacy to do so? I think so, and that’s why I’ve used the Android alternative, GrapheneOS, for more than five years.
What is Android open source project?
Google’s Android mobile operating system is open source, meaning anyone can, theoretically, create their own mobile operating system based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). However, AOSP only provides one base. There’s more to a mobile operating system than just the underlying code.
Android’s operating system may be open source, but it runs device-specific drivers and Google’s various Play Services application programming interfaces (APIs) along with a suite of built-in apps for basic functionality. All these things are just another layer on top of the Android operating system, and it is it Layer that is very difficult to reproduce for other projects. It’s not hard to run AOSP code for projects, but it’s harder to create a great mobile user experience on top of it, which is why the list of good de-Googled Android alternatives is short.
What is the bootloader and why is it locked?
The bootloader is a piece of code that allows you to change what software will boot on your phone. The manufacturer of your phone puts a cryptographic key, a public read-only key, on the phone. When an update is released, the manufacturer signs the update, and when the phone gets the update, it checks to make sure the signature matches the key. If it does, it applies the update, and not if it doesn’t match. This is basic security and protects your device, but it also prevents you from loading another operating system, so the first thing you’ll do when installing one of these de-Googled operating systems is unlock the bootloader.
Then you install the OS you want to install and then… You probably won’t lock the bootloader again because most of the time it won’t work. This is why Pixel phones are popular among people who like to tinker and customize, because you can re-lock the bootloader on the Pixel (and some others), but most people using alternative OSes just stick with the unlocked bootloader. This is not ideal, it is a security vulnerability, but there is no good solution other than getting the pixel.
Apple’s iOS offers more privacy features than stock Android. In my experience, it’s a good operating system, but it’s still very strongly tied to Apple. Sure, you can avoid iCloud, run your own syncing software, and not use Apple’s various tools, but doing that requires you to fight the phone every step of the way. If iOS works for you, that’s great, but for many of us, it’s easier and more convenient to use a de-Googled Android phone.
Best preinstalled phone: Fairphone 6 with /e/OS
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Photograph: Scott Gilbertson
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Photograph: Scott Gilbertson
Fairphone
Fairphone (6th generation, /e/OS)
The best de-Google phone experience for most people will be the Fairphone 6’s version of Murena. Not only does it offer the full /e/OS experience out of the box, with a strong focus on privacy and blocking apps from tracking you, but the Fairphone hardware is repairable, the battery is replaceable, and the bootloader is locked. If you’re in the United States, the problem is that the Fairphone 6 only works with T-Mobile and its MVNO. Somewhat ironically, it worked very well on GoogleFi when editor Julian Chocattu tested it last year. I tested it using T-Mobile’s prepaid plan as well as RedPocket’s T-Mobile-based service, and there were no issues with either.
The Fairphone 6 gets even better when you put /e/OS on it. Thanks to the privacy-first design of /e/OS, apps no longer track you, but they still work 99 percent of the time, which is often not the case with some apps on alternative OSes (looking at you, banking apps).
The core of the privacy features in /e/OS revolves around advanced privacy apps and widgets. Here you can block (or choose to allow) in-app trackers, and there are other features too such as hiding your IP address or geolocation when you feel like it. IP and geo-spoofing are good for limited use cases, but the main privacy feature for most of us is the ability to block trackers in apps – and it turns out there are a lot of them.
Murena also ships /e/OS with a very nice custom app store, App Lounge. It is similar to the Play Store, but with additional information about each app, such as privacy information. Under each list in the App Lounge you’ll see a grade from 1 to 10, where 1 is terrible for privacy and 10 generally means no trackers. App Lounge also grades apps according to the permissions they require. The fewer permissions (like access to your photos or geodata), the higher the rating.
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