Hello. I have been trying to DeGoogle for about one month, migrating from Google to other services. But the biggest obstacle is Android, which is deeply embedded with Google services and, of course, trackers. It's really, really hard to replace it with alternatives. There are no alternatives I know that are compatible with my phone. Maybe I will have to buy a new phone, or look for even more alternatives, or code my own operating system (OS) (but I can't code!). I don't know whether I can De- this Android. Hmmm...
Is there any good way to De- this Android? If I can't, is there any way to improve privacy and minimize the ability and impact of Google on this "failed to DeGoogle" phone? Thanks for any advice.
Try these two apps out. They'll help you remove deeply integrated stuff. If you don't need the Google Play store you can outright firewall it from internet access.
Universal Android Debloater. It'll guide you through removing whatever extra stuff the manufacturer put on that
you don't want. It's great.
Netguard. This will let you see all the apps and services that are making calls out, and what they are calling. Then you can simply block what you want and deny access to the internet for any proprietary app.
FOSS is a two sided coin: it's awesome that anyone with an interest can continue a project when the original maintainers disperse, but man you have to watch your software carefully for the most actively maintained forks. Thats happened to me on a bunch of apps: Breezy Weather, Paperless-ngx, Cromite, Ironfox, Simple Calendar and on and on 😂. It takes time, but it's worth it.