What custom ROM is on your phone?
Since we don't yet have a specific community for custom phone ROMs, let's discuss them here. Are you running a custom ROM? Which one? On what hardware? How is it?
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Since we don't yet have a specific community for custom phone ROMs, let's discuss them here. Are you running a custom ROM? Which one? On what hardware? How is it?
LineageOS seems fine for your use case (and it has official support), but Pixel users are honestly spoilt for choice on custom ROMs so you could try out a few. Maybe Pixel Experience if you want to keep the Google "look", or crdroid for another AOSP rom.
I'd actually like to move away from Google's aesthetic. I took the demise of Windows Phone/Mobile pretty hard, specifically the live tiles that meant all I usually needed to do at any moment to get the info I wanted was wake my phone. The number of notifications I have on an app is never a question I've found myself asking; the content it denotes is what I'm interested in. Why give me irrelevant information and require further interaction to get that relevance?
Honestly AOSP (stock Android) isn't that different to Google's look, just more minimalistic and most roms will be based on AOSP with some minor tweaks. You could look into custom launchers, although not really an area I'm familiar with.
Agreed on notifications, I like to block the majority of them, which you can mostly do with modern Android versions. You might like to use F-Droid if you haven't already, since all apps are open source and not monetary focused, so tend to have less obnoxiousness to them as well.
I've been through a lot of launchers, to the point where I'm not even certain what I'm currently using. It's all cartoonish and absolutely against my design aesthetic. I turned notifications off months ago for anything but direct communication from my contacts and set the phone to go straight to voicemail for anyone else, and it's been bliss. I have a few F-Droid apps, but I've found that I prefer the desktop experience for most use cases through that store ... rarely do I have a pressing need to check my RSS feed where I can't read links on a full monitor.
I get into work and back home in a far better mood by playing a casual game and listening to music on my commute, and there's nothing I miss about slavishly checking my phone.
Stock android ROM(s) sound like a good fit since you seem to like a minimal experience.
GrapheneOS would probably suit you too and has improved privacy and security, but it's Pixel only so I've never got to try it myself.