Joe Mark / Android Authority
I just wanted to send the file from my Android phone to my Windows 11 PC. It should have been easier, but I had finished my life, and suddenly, I was stuck. Immediately ended. Google Drive was no option. The documents and the cape were also out of the picture. My new setup relied on a handful of indiole tools, and they were not cooperating. Microsoft’s phone link was not working (again), and my Canadian cloud service was as slow.
This was when I realized that I felt the big tech just like the theory. This exercise proved to be much more difficult than that. Here I learned to live a big tech -free life, and I am still pieces.
Have you tried to de Google your digital life?
30 votes
Yes, I use most indi apps
27 %
I have tried, but went back to Big Tech
20 %
Not right now, but I have thought about it
27 %
No, big tech just works for me
27 %
My third -party app setup to replace Google
Andy Walker / Android Authority
I am tired of handing my data to a lot of monopolies that treat me as a product. Google reads my emails, Facebook tracks me all over the Internet, and Amazon is always spying on me.
I didn’t want it anymore. I wanted to help independent developers who, think, build meaningful software. I didn’t want to be part of the algorithm or data scraping scheme for AI. So I have set some ground rules for my new digital life.
I was looking for apps that were not owned by us or Chinese. If there was an app in the United States that I needed exactly, it should be unbeaten as Firefox. If it was Canada, the turf in my house jumped at the top, but Australian and European apps were fine. The Big Tech was a quick number.
What I used is here:
- Compatible instead of Google Drive
- Instead of keeping obsidian
- Todoast instead of tasks
- Chats instead of elephant
- Cobo instead of burning
- Vlc instead of YouTube music
- Firefox instead of Chrome
- Ecosia instead of Google Search
- Fast mail instead of gmail
I didn’t expect perfection, but I hope I can build a modern, and private, workflow that worked 90 % of the work I used to do. What I finished was a scattered, rubbing experience that costs a lot of money and valuable time for me.
How did my alternative apps work
Edgar Survints / Android Authority
I went with a fast mail to replace Gmail. This is a fast and clean email service from Australia. It is private, it also handles Gmail along with email, and it comes with a suit of tools included at a fee of $ 50 annually. I ended love with the fast mail, and it has completely changed all the other emails of my life. I wish I could say the same for sync. It is a Canadian cloud storage service that has strong encryption and has no tracking. It felt morally good, but in practice, I found it slow and complicated. The file uploads from my Android took forever to appear on my computer, and the mobile app appears in history.
I replaced YouTube music for my MP3 and FLAC files locally stored on my phone. It was nice to return to the old iPod days, and the VLC has a solid music player that can handle any music file. I owned thousands of tracks for the old days, and it was free to stop renting my music from Big Tech. This was the same as my switch to Kobo, though now I was buying my e -box from Canada’s largest bookstore shop, Indigo, instead of Amazon.
It was free to stop renting my music from Big Tech.Nathan Dreasher
Osidian caps and documents became my alternative, and it was not fun. Osidian is powerful on the desktop, but is slow on mobile. I never liked how it looks or feels. When it was done, something was always missing. I tried the plugin, read the forums, and watched the videos, but in the end, I never used it. On the other hand, the toodost has always been happy to use it, and I will continue to use it until they take my Android from my hands.
Bogadan Petrovan / Android Authority
I loved Firefox. After that, its owners decided to change the terms and declared ownership of what I did in the app. I made a shopping around for alternatives and, despite the hesitation, settled on the Voldy. Finally, chromium has Google’s hands, finally.
The biggest failure was messaging. I tested the element made with the Matrix Protocol, a विकेंद्रीकृत, encrypted platform. It looked like an excellent idea, but setting it is a pain. Finally, it is impossible for someone else to get to get used to it. Fortunately my mother describes the protocol. That’s fine with Messenger.
Indi will cost more than a sticking price with a platform
Andy Walker / Android Authority
Everything felt unpleasant without a united ecosystem. Information was delayed, or did not reach at all. I will create a task in Todoast but it will not appear in my fast mail calendar. Saving the file for the Fast Mail synchronization means to manually download the file first, then upload it. No drag and drop, no auto sink. Even in an email, copying the link from Osidian felt as if it should be more work.
Only financial costs proved to be confused. I submitted to Todoast, Fast Mail, Osidian Synchronization, and Syncc.com. No one was provocative on his own, but everyone increased. I was still paying a lot, and for a tragic experience.
He said, I gained some privacy and I am able to help the companies I believe. But this smooth, invisible infrastructure that makes the tools feel that my brain expansion is missing, and it was not cheap.
What actually the big tech gets ok
Edgar Survints / Android Authority
Big Tech gets one thing indefinitely: integration. Everything its flaws, everything just works. You often do not see how easily files file in the devices, emails are directly connected to calendars, and messages flow to their recipient. Work appears on calendars, while attachments can directly save Google Drive or One note. This facility is hidden until it is finished.
There is also a kind of academic relief that is used to use the environmental system designed to maintain your entire digital life. Whenever you change the tasks, you don’t need to juggling the tools or regenerating your mind. Google, Apple, and Microsoft have just done the same in the year -long construction system that expects what you will need next. This is an experience in which most indi apps may not match.
What am I keeping, and what I have learned
Edgar Survints / Android Authority
I’m not getting away from everything. Fast mail is living, as is Todoast. These are two solid apps that are worth each money. I am sticking to Wavalid for now, using Ecosia as my search engine. I am also sticking to local music files, and even setting up a PLAX server from my PC to stream videos and music on my Apple TV 4K. It just works. I will keep the cobo for now. I dug everything else and crawled back to Google. The cap is amazing, and Google is not equal to the drive.
What I have learned is that there is no such thing as a clean interval while going to the Indi. I know that Proton is creating its own ecosystem with a simple single fee. I can try it after that. In the meantime, it is difficult to defeat how good the Big Tech ecosystem feels everything.
