this post was submitted on 05 May 2026
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A fully de-goggled Android won't be able to run some apps. For example banking apps tend to be really picky about these things. Either the app runs on a vanilla Android or it won't run at all. Sure, you can get rid of Google, but you'll be making some sacrifices. Another option is to use iOS, but it comes with some messed up sacrifices too.
A third option is to use a Linux phone, but I haven't got any personal experience with that. Looks promising, but apparently many basic necessities aren't available yet.
If you don't really need anything more than email, SMS and phone calls, a de-googled android and Linux phones should be fine. If you want to be more compatible with the rest of the modern world, iOS is the least bad option here. Still, pretty awful but at least you can guarantee that all the modern mobile things work. Sure, you'll be living without Google, but you'll be living with Apple now so... Is that a win? Probably not.
Either way, Linux phones look very promising. Remember to check back in 5 about years to see if the situation has improved. Some EU countries are currently severing their ties with American spyware companies, and this move could result in developing the mobile Linux ecosystem to a more usable state. If that happens, I'm probably going to recommend ditching your iPhone and Switching to a mobile Linux phone.
I use Ubuntu touch as a personal device, which has zero support for banking apps, meaning I have to have a backup Android device. My work phone is a pixel 6 running graphene OS, which manages to run all of my banking apps just fine. (Though admittedly I 'got lucky' in the sense that my banks are supported by graphene OS)
Graphene, or any other alternative to the big 2, aren't perfect and don't cover all banks, but graphene is by far the frontrunner for a viable alternative. If you haven't toyed around with it and get the opportunity, id definitely recommend it.
I really hope we do see further Linux phone development, but without buy-in from the banks themselves, they will not be supported for the same reason Graphene isn't. The only difference is Graphene allows sandboxing play integrity to navigate the "Google has to say it's okay" nonsense. It's a rock and a hard place problem; the banks won't support without mass adoption, and mass adoption won't happen due to lack of banking support.
I think sailfish OS has a similar integrity sandboxing concept, though I haven't tried that personally, so can't comment on how well it works.
That “Google has to say it’s ok” type of thing used to be a total dealbreaker. So many things either required fragile workarounds or straight up didn’t work at all.
When I saw the posts about the new Jolla phone, I nearly bought one. Unfortunately, I still have some special hardware that requires android or iOS to work properly, and getting rid of them would feel like jumping back to 2010. That’s the primary reason I don’t think I could get rid of a mainstream mobile device.
However, I’m still tempted to get that phone and try it out as a secondary phone. That way, I would find out where the bottlenecks are these days.