Best Alternatives to Google’s Android Operating System (2026), Tested and Reviewed Leave a comment
Need Google out of your life? It is fairly straightforward to search out various search, e mail, and picture storage suppliers, but it surely’s a lot tougher to provide you with a cellular working system that is freed from Google. The plain reply is an iPhone, however in order for you Google out of your life, you most likely do not wish to instantly substitute it with Apple. Whereas a bit of higher from a privateness standpoint, Apple continues to be not nice.
Concern not, privacy-conscious WIRED reader, there are alternate options to Android. Technically talking, most various cellular working programs are primarily based on Android, not alternate options to it, however these varied initiatives all take away Google and Google-related companies (to various levels) from the system. Sometimes meaning all of the Google companies are stripped out and changed with some various code (normally the micro g challenge), which is then sandboxed not directly to isolate it and limit what it has entry to. The result’s a telephone that’s much less depending on Google, pries much less into your privateness, and generally may provide a safer expertise. Nonetheless, at their core, these are all nonetheless primarily based on Android.
If you would like a true various to Android, there are a couple of. I’m sorry to say, free software program followers, one of the best and most purposeful various to Android continues to be iOS. Most individuals in search of Android alternate options usually are not, nevertheless, trying to swap to an Apple gadget. There are a few Linux-based telephone programs on the market, most notably SailfishOS, which might run Android apps (I will probably be testing this subsequent), however in my testing, not one of the Linux-based working programs are able to be your on a regular basis gadget.
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Why De-Google Your Telephone?
First off, you do not have to take away Google. There are many individuals fortunately operating Google Companies on LineageOS simply because they wish to tinker with the system and increase the capabilities of their telephones. That is a high quality cause to dive into the world of Android alternate options.
Nonetheless, you do not have to have a pleasant tinfoil hat to know that Google’s privateness document is laughable. De-Googling your telephone is a means of having fun with the comfort of getting a smartphone with out sharing every little thing you do with Google and each app that takes benefit of its APIs. Do you have to have the ability to take part within the technological world with out buying and selling your privateness to take action? I believe so, and that is why I’ve used an Android various, GrapheneOS, for greater than 5 years.
What Is the Android Open Supply Mission?
Google’s Android cellular working system is open supply, which implies anybody can, in idea, construct their very own cellular working system primarily based on the Android Open Supply Mission (AOSP). The AOSP simply supplies a base, although. There may be rather more to a cellular working system than simply the underlying code.
Android’s working system could also be open supply, but it surely runs device-specific drivers and Google’s varied Play Companies software programming interfaces (APIs) with a set of built-in apps for fundamental performance. All of these items is one other layer atop the Android working system, and it is this layer that is very tough for different initiatives to breed. It isn’t arduous for initiatives to get the AOSP code operating, but it surely’s tough to create an awesome cellular consumer expertise on prime, which is why the checklist of fine de-Googled Android alternate options is brief.
What Is the Bootloader and Why Is It Locked?
The bootloader is a bit of code that lets you change which software program boots up in your telephone. The producer of your telephone places a cryptographic key on the telephone, the general public read-only key. When an replace is launched, the producer indicators the replace, and when the telephone will get the replace, it checks to ensure the signature matches the important thing. If it does, it applies the replace, and if it would not match it would not. That is fundamental safety and protects your gadget, but it surely additionally prevents you from loading one other working system, so one of many first stuff you’ll do when putting in one in all these de-Googled working programs is unlock the bootloader.
Then you definately set up the OS you wish to set up after which … you most likely do not relock the bootloader as a result of more often than not that will not work. This is the reason Pixel telephones are in style with individuals who wish to tinker and customise, as a result of you may relock the bootloader on Pixels (and a handful of others), however by and enormous most individuals utilizing various OSes simply reside with an unlocked bootloader. It isn’t best, it is a safety vulnerability, however there’s additionally not a superb resolution apart from saying, get a Pixel.
Apple’s iOS does provide extra privateness options than inventory Android. In my expertise, it is a high quality working system, however it’s nonetheless very tightly coupled to Apple. Certain, you may keep away from iCloud, run your individual syncing software program, and never use Apple’s varied instruments, however to try this you may be combating the telephone each step of the best way. If iOS works for you, that is nice, however for lots of us, a de-Googled Android telephone is simply simpler to make use of and extra handy.
Finest Preinstalled Telephone: Fairphone 6 With /e/OS
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{Photograph}: Scott Gilbertson
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{Photograph}: Scott Gilbertson
Fairphone
Fairphone (sixth Gen, /e/OS)
The most effective de-Googled telephone expertise for most individuals goes to be Murena’s /e/OS model of the Fairphone 6. Not solely does it provide the complete /e/OS expertise out of the field, with a powerful deal with privateness and blocking apps from monitoring you, however the Fairphone {hardware} is repairable, the battery replaceable, and the bootloader is locked. The catch, in the event you’re in the US, is that the Fairphone 6 solely works with T-Cellular and its MVNOs. Considerably sarcastically, it labored nice on GoogleFi when editor Julian Chokkattu examined it final yr. I examined it utilizing T-Cellular’s pay as you go plan, in addition to RedPocket’s T-Cellular-based service, and had no points with both.
The Fairphone 6 will get even higher once you put /e/OS on it. Because of the privacy-first design of /e/OS, apps now not observe you, however they do nonetheless work 99 p.c of the time, which is usually not the case with some apps on alternate OSes (taking a look at you, banking apps).
The core of the privateness options in /e/OS revolve across the Superior Privateness app and widget. Right here you may block (or selected to permit) in-app trackers, and there are different options resembling hiding your IP tackle or geolocation once you really feel prefer it. The IP and geo-spoofing are good for limited-use instances, however the primary privateness characteristic for many of us is the flexibility to dam trackers in apps—and it turns on the market are a number of these.
Murena additionally ships /e/OS with a really good customized app retailer, the App Lounge. It is just like the Play Retailer, however with extras like privateness details about every app. Beneath every itemizing within the App Lounge you may see a grade from 1 to 10, the place 1 is horrible for privateness and 10 typically means no trackers. The App Lounge additionally grades apps in response to which permissions they require. The less permissions (like entry to your images or geodata), the upper the ranking.
