What I like about Signal, is I can give a “username” instead of an email or phone number. As for end to end encryption and auto delete, one can configure WhatsApp to cover everything. WhatsApp is used everywhere and still my goto.
T. From: David Nikkel <[email protected]> On Behalf Of David Nikkel via linux Sent: January 28, 2026 3:55 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [linux] Using de-googled android and Linux mobile devices Attention : courriel externe | external email Hi Lucas, You don't mention needing/wanting a chat app but that's the app I've recently moved away from Google. My family and I were big users of Google Chat, really our main way of communicating. We've moved to Signal and it's been working great so far. The native app for Linux makes it very handy for Linux users. For Linux focused phones, you might want to review this article<https://itsfoss.com/linux-phones/> from itsfoss.com<http://itsfoss.com/>. Dave On Wed, Jan 28, 2026 at 1:14 PM Lucas Fryzek via linux <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Hello All, I'm curious if anyone in the OCLUG has tried using de-googled android or linux based phone OS like PMOS? How has your experience been? I'm interested in switching especially with the current political climate to try and use tech that doesn't depend on US companies. I've been doing a test to try and use f-droid for most of my apps on my pixel (haven't fully migrated to a fully de-googled ROM), but my experience trying to use FOSS apps that don't depend on google servers: * E-mail - K9 mail works great for anything I need * Web - I've been using firefox on android forever and fennec in fdroid works great, you can use unified push for notifications as well so you don't even depend on google's notification serers * Files, notes, and pictures - I've setup nextcloud on my personal server and it works okay for file storage. - Image sync is not as great. All my images get auto uploaded but viewing them on the server can be quite laggy. I've heard better things about immich for images but I really like the nextcloud ecosystem besides these problems - Quilpad is a really great notes app, and can use nextcloud/webdav for sync. Supports things like markdown formatting as well * Contacts & Calendar - With nextcloud I have caldav and carddav for calendar in contacts and I can use them on Android using DAVx5. I'm still using the default calendar and contacts app on my pixel phone but the data is coming from my server * Passwords - I have a Keepass password DB I keep synced between devices using nextcloud and then I use KeepassDX on android to access it. Works great for me * Authenticator - I use Aegis for TOTP, and it works great * Notifications - I have unified push setup with Nextpush which can use a nextcloud server as a Webpush endpoint. This works great for any apps that support unified push, and allows you to have push notifications without depending on google's Firebase cloud messaging platform. - There are other unified push distributors that I tried like ntfy.sh & sunup that also work, but like I mentioned before I'm a bit sucked into the nextcloud ecosystem. * Maps - This is the biggest pain point. OSMAnd I've found really annoying to use. Co-maps/Organic maps are nice to use but don't support public transit. I recently found out about the e-foundation Cardinal map app which works alright. Navigation for driving isn't as good as co- maps/organic maps but it does support public transit through transitous which has OC transpo data. - There is also Bimba, a dedicated public transit app that can use transitous for public transit routing. It works okay, but I find the UI a bit off putting. I'm curious about other people's experience, have you been able to use a de-googled phone? I'm especially interested if anyone is running post market os or some other linux phone. What device do you use, how's the experience for receiving calls, get notifications, battery life, etc. I'm interested in buying a device that has decent linux support to try out a dedicated linux phone device. So if others have experience I'm keen to here it. Thanks & Regards, Lucas
