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Android, but without Google, does it work?

2/16/2026

Android, but without Google, does it work?

We often talk about digital sovereignty, privacy, transparency. But with a computer in the pocket with hundreds of apps held by billion dollars companies, all this remains a vague concept.

I know there are people working on Google-free Android OS, Linux based OS… But nothing I could really get my hands on. The main reason for that is that I don’t want to buy any device without being able to get back to the full-fledged Android experience. Let’s be honnest: modern Android phone or iPhones are very confortable.

With that said, I’ll stick to my phone, I’ll keep Android installed, and see where it gets me!

The experiment

So I have a Xiaomi 11T phone. That comes with at least two little spys sitting peacefully in my phone. Google, and Xiaomi. And it adds up to the long list of apps from Meta, Strava, Microsoft, and so on…

My goals are the following:

There is something very important you should know: this journey comes with sacrifices I am ready to make, and not everyone can or is willing to do. So here is a disclaimer: this will not work for the non tech-savvy users.

How it went

After weeks with no Google and Xiaomi apps, my phone usage has changed a lot and have become inconvinient for some parts. But I am happy with the results and will keep my phone like this for the next months! It works!

I know for sure that no apps know where I am, no apps knows about my conversations, no apps track me, and almost no data is leaving my phone toward the US or China anymore. I spend way less time on my phone, think more and search more by myself.

You want to know how I achieved it? Keep reading!

Off to a good start

The very good news is that this topic had caught my attention years ago, meaning I already have good basics in place: I already store my documents like photos, videos and files at home on a storage server. My Google Drive is empty, so is my Google Photos for example. I don’t use Gmail, I use Proton Mail. Although I use Gmail for work, but I’ll explain later on how I worked my way around.

The easiest part is obviously to get rid of all the apps you don’t use frequently: online marketplaces, some transit apps I used while travelling, games I never play with… Easily lost 30% of the apps I had.

Second step is to review the permissions of the remaining apps: if a game is asking for your location, revoke it immediately, it’s inappropriate. An app is asking for microphone access? Ask yourself why! Don’t stress out, if you have any doubt, just revoke the permission: most apps will just ask again permission once they need it. In this process it is also good to mention permissions in Android have become more and more granular. You don’t necessarily need to share all your files to upload a picture, you don’t need permanent location access to let your GPS app guide you.

After several days with less apps and fine-tuned permissions, I already started to understand where my dependencies were. I realized many apps are easily replaced with a website visit. And you automatically reduce your screen time. It’s blessing already.

Dealing with emails

I personnaly use Proton Mail for my personnal usage, as I mentionned, but for business and non-profit activities, I have Gmail accounts and I need to get live notifications. What many people forget is that Gmail is just like any other mail service, it uses SMTP and IMAP protocols. I downloaded Thunderbird for Android and set up my two Gmail account as IMAP/SMTP services, and uninstalled Gmail.

Reduce Google apps usage down to almost zero

Proton is now offering a very complete productivity suite I am happy with, so I can happily replace the Google apps like Calendar, Gmail, Drive… all gone!

Remember when I told you about sacrifices you need to make. Now remove Youtube… Yes, it takes time to get used to it. Remove Maps… and install something OpenStreetMaps based like Organic Maps… I told you, it’s hard.

At one point, there will be only one Google app left: Google Play. The game is getting harder.

Get rid of bloatwares

Disclaimer: from this paragraph on, the procedures become dangerous and may harm your phone. Keep your hand off the keyboard and read only if you are not experienced.

On many devices, there are apps you can’t uninstall in the settings, sometimes it’s vendor apps, sometimes Google apps… They are protected by their “system app” status. They have this privilege but often doesn’t deserve it.

I discovered there is one way to delete them: the fantastic ADB, Android Debug Bridge. If you’re not a mobile developer like me or a hacker, you probably have no idea what I’m talking about. Let me explain: the Android Debug Bridge is a command line tools for developers to communicate with an Android device via USB (or wireless). It’s very sensitive, because it gives the computer connected total access to your device, can execute code, pull/push files to the device, take screenshots… It’s perfect for hackers. So if you’re not familiar with this, don’t try it. But this bridge has a superpower, it permits remote installation and uninstallation. And it has no mercy even for those so-called “system apps”.

adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.android.package

This command uninstalls com.android.package (the bundle identifier) app from the phone connected. Notice the --user 0, it removes the app only for the current user, and not globally, you would need rooting your phone for this. Anyway you are likely to be the unique user of your smartphone.

Now you can remove all bloatwares, from Samsung, Xiaomi… Yeah we see you manufacturers.

The very dangerous surprise

Here is one thing you need to know before removing the OEM phone app: the emergency call Android activity is a special one and is, to my knowledge, not implemented in most third-party apps. This means there will be no graphical interface when making emergency calls!. I strongly recommend not doing it and just revoke the abusive permissions granted to the phone app.

Bye Google Account and Google Play

Now I have to take the hard step: remove my Google account and delete Google Play using the technique above. New apps sources need to be found, new alternatives have to be discovered. I found many open-source apps to replace the native Google ones, like a contact app, a phone app, a message app. I will give you a list of awesome open-source apps in another article.

Stay tuned!

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