The end of the Googleverse

thehatfox@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 388 points –
The end of the Googleverse
theverge.com
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The only thing I still use from Google is their Pixel phones, and then I immediately flash them with GrapheneOS. That, and Google maps which I can't find a good replacement. I've tried every single OSM app and none of them remotely compare.

Google Maps was painful enough to me (on GrapheneOS) that I bought a Garmin - a dedicated physical navigation device.

I thought it would be a compromise, but I'm hooked on Garmin now. It's much nicer than Google maps.

The only thing I miss is the real-time traffic updates along my route.

For me it's mostly for looking of businesses. I can pull them up, see pictures, check their website, even check their menu if it's a restaurant, and also their phone number. Also with my gym I can see how busy they are on average at different times of the day so I know when to go when it's less busy.

Yeah. I still do most of that through Google Maps in a browser. Google's solutions to those are really nice.

If Google blocks those services behind an app, I'll stop using them, because the (if experience so far continues) app likely won't work in the GrapheneOS privacy sandbox.

I use GrapheneOS and can confirm it works. It even works if you don't have sandboxed play services installed. If you do install it, I'd set the battery usage to restricted, and disable background data in network settings.