this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2026

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DeGoogle Yourself

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Degoogling continues - Muerna Teracube 2s (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by Ripley_Tripley@lemmus.org to c/degoogle@lemmy.ml

24 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I have all my apps that I'm using, along with moving everything over from my other phone with an SD card. Pretty close to being done.

I'm using most of the default apps to save on storage. But here are them listed:

Episteme oss -> this is just a PDF reader for any documents, including books and comics.

Anytime Player -> this is a Podcast app I'm using to replace Podcast Addict, another podcast app that is riddled with ads.

FM radio -> default app

Trebel Music -> Musify: I'm moving all my music from Trebel to Musify to listen to them completely offline and not having to deal with ads.

Pixelfed -> Instagram Alternative

Blorp -> Lemmy

Bookworm -> this is not BookWyrm(which is part of the fediverse) but its a cute, small community alternative to GoodReads. Its an app for book lovers wanting to talk about books.

Google Messages -> Quik and default texting app

All of the utility apps are default: calculator, clock, files, recorder, notes, tasks, music.

Gmail -> Tuta Mail along with the default mail app for all other imported email addresses.

Google Calander -> Tuta Calander

My bank apps: Chase and Bask Bank. They both work well, surprisingly, without Google Play Services.

Maps: I'm using MapQuest to replace Google Maps but I also use CoMaps mostly for hiking and the phone comes with a default map app.

Browser: This is default (Muerna) with your different search engines available, like DuckDuck Go, DuckDuck Go Lite, Qwant or Mojeek.

Gallery: Gallery is default but using Ente Photos for "cloud" storage to replace google photos.

Travel: Grab and Trip Plans: these two are apps from Aurora store that I'll be using soon when traveling. Grab is a Southeast Asia version of Uber. Trip Plans is a app used when planning/organizing trips with a travel advisor (private between you and/or the group with the advisor only)Aurora store mentions they don't work well without the play store but so far I haven't had issues running the apps.

App stores: I have these just to try them out besides the default App Lounge:

Komi Store, F-Droid, Aurora Store, Neo Store, Repo Store, Droid-ify.

Camera is default

Privacy Scanner (I believe its from Droid-ify or NeoStore) an app use to simply check if all of your system and installed apps are actually "private" sometimes it gets paranoid and it'll say that an app is not private because you let one use a feature like "access to Gallery" but it gives a nice visualization of what is running on your phone.

FreeDictionary: Open source dictionary app, not riddled with ads.

Quotes.app : just an app from Aurora store to read inspirational, motivating quotes when needed.

top 24 comments

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[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Why would you buy this and then use google messages? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?

[–] Ripley_Tripley@lemmus.org 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

That's not google messages(I'm working on moving away from that) ; that message app is Muerna's default message app, which is literally their version of Quik SMS (im not gonna use Quik either) I'm changing it out for something else. I was just showing what apps I currently have, at that time.

[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Cool. I tried Fossify messages but had issues with group texts. Fossify phone app is solid so far though.

[–] Ripley_Tripley@lemmus.org 1 points 1 day ago

I've used a couple of their apps as well. Phone on my end was pretty good too, everything for them worked fine except for their launcher. It sucks and its very laggy.

For texting I did look up something call Right Messages, which gives you the UI of Apple's messaging app. Thinking of trying it out.

[–] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I hope Murena's browser gets back on track. Right now it's a fork of Cromite, which is on a bit of a hiatus development wise. developer hasn't abandoned it as far as I'm aware, but has said that he'll be too busy for the next while to keep it updated.

[–] Ripley_Tripley@lemmus.org 1 points 6 days ago

I've been curious if anything was gon a happen with the browser. Thanks for that update. Currently, its super slow on DuckDuckGo (DDG). It runs okay with Mojeek and the DDG lite version. Its not a bad browser and I hope it dosent get abandoned

[–] bloogoose@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Do you mind telling what each app replaces?

[–] Little1Lost@gehirneimer.de 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I know the first: Episteme oss is for PDFs and EPUBs. I reccomend it
I guess the next 4 are for music.
Pixelfed to Bookworm are Fediverse.
Except Quik i guess all other big apps are default.
It the folders are a lot of default apps but i can recognise CoMaps

[–] Ripley_Tripley@lemmus.org 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

One thing though, from looking it up Bookworm (also called Bookworm Reads on Aurora Store) is not the same as BookWyrm. Worm is its own separate social reading app. Wyrm is with the fediverse.

[–] Little1Lost@gehirneimer.de 2 points 1 week ago

good to know and also oopsie

[–] reallyzen@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I just ordered a fairphone last Saturday, with /e/OS.

How's life so far? How's the available mobile network working for you?

[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Been using it for months. No issues except slow support last I checked and I think they might be in a different continent and time zone. (In N. America)

[–] reallyzen@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

Fairphone is in the Netherlands, Murena in France but that doesn't say where their support service is subcontracted. Tho I'd rather think it's due to them being relatively small outfits.

[–] Ripley_Tripley@lemmus.org 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I haven't switched over yet to try it but once I do, ill definitely give my comments.

[–] reallyzen@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 days ago (2 children)

First day: this thing is bulky and heavy. e/OS has stupid unremoveable apps like "tasks", "notes" and other calendar etc that you can't get a list of and much less uninstall, feels like ...android.

[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The only thing that bothered me is Magic Earth. Apparently, it's the best maps app they could get that allows traffic monitoring, but I'm not comfortable using that feature so I never have. I'll be removing it for comaps soon.

[–] reallyzen@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

I use Open Street Map out if being ...a rather old dude who contributed quite a lot to it at it's beginning. Didn't try the included one. I honestly don't think you can beat google maps, and so I don't care if I struggle a bit (or a lot) more.

I'll check comaps tho. It's not much traffic that bothers me, more roadworks and other perturbations.

[–] Ripley_Tripley@lemmus.org 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

There are old forums out there saying you can use ADB to uninstall them but since this phone is gonna be my daily driver soon, I really don't wanna risk that.

I'm going through all of the them to see what I honestly use and just gonna keep it to the bare minimum, while putting everything on the SD card.

[–] reallyzen@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Yeah, I had this initial knee-jerk reaction but since you don't need as much foss apps to cover basic stuff full of shit (hello Oppo File Manager with ads displaying inside your file list), it's probably less a worry and more about functionality.

I don't need a calendar, I use proton. For notes taking I had an other with tons of notes on it, so I don't want to use the og one. But I also had a gallery, a file manager, a PDF reader which I don't need anymore. Should I persist with Open Street Maps? I haven't tried the included one. Knee-jerk I said. I need to check them. Maybe the music app is better than vlc? The browser could be set to permanent incognito mode & I don't need Firefox Focus.

That said, I'll never get rid of ~~Accu~~BreezyWeather or the KISS Launcher.

Tell us how it goes for you!

[–] Ripley_Tripley@lemmus.org 1 points 1 day ago

Oh I will absolutely. I'm gonna put all of it in a final post of everything I've done, including debloating the phone. I decided to give it a try and use Canta and Shizuku. There are some system stuff you can get rid of to improve functionality.

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

thanks for keeping us updated; i'm about to take a step like this so i helps learning from the people who already tried it.

Blorp -> Lemmy

what does blorp get/give you that firefox can't?

[–] Ripley_Tripley@lemmus.org 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Easier to run and view on a phone like a social media app.I like Blorp cause its a slow but updated media page. Plus, I'm not on my computer like that unless I have to be.

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Plus, I’m not on my computer like that unless I have to be.

i use lemmy through firefox on my phone and that's what i was asking about.

i've tried other apps like voyager and they don't seem to offer anything better what firefox on android already give me; that's why i asked.

[–] Ripley_Tripley@lemmus.org 2 points 6 days ago

Oh, my apologies. I completely misinterpreted that. Well... Best way I can explain Blorp is that of a slowed down Twitter. Very easy to look up and join other instances. The comment system is a little weird when commenting but everything else is pretty straightforward.