According to MakeUseOf, a writer recently conducted a one-week experiment to use their Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra without any Google services. They completely removed Gmail, Google Maps, Chrome, Google Drive, Google Calendar, and even the Play Store from their daily routine. Instead, they turned to privacy-focused alternatives like DuckDuckGo for browsing, Organic Maps and HERE WeGo for navigation, Proton Mail for email, and F-Droid as their app store. The experiment revealed both surprising benefits like reduced notifications and increased privacy awareness, along with significant challenges including missing the convenience of single sign-on and struggling to find good app alternatives.
The surprising upsides
Here’s the thing that really stood out: the writer’s phone became noticeably quieter. Without Google‘s constant stream of notifications – YouTube recommendations, Play Store suggestions, personalized ads – they found themselves less distracted and more focused. That’s a pretty big deal in our attention-starved world. And there was another benefit that’s harder to quantify but equally important: the psychological relief of knowing you’re not being tracked everywhere you go. Basically, they traded convenience for peace of mind, and for at least some aspects of digital life, that felt like a pretty good deal.
Where it fell short
But let’s be real – there were some real pain points. The “Sign in with Google” feature was sorely missed, forcing them back to the old-school method of manually entering email and password for every service. And F-Droid, while great for privacy-focused apps, just doesn’t have the selection or polish of the Play Store. Finding good alternatives for things like food delivery apps proved nearly impossible. So while the writer discovered some solid replacements for core functions, the ecosystem gap became pretty apparent. When you’re used to everything working seamlessly together, piecing together alternatives feels like going back to the stone age.
The bigger picture
What’s really interesting here is that this experiment highlights a fundamental tension in modern tech. We all want privacy and control over our data, but we’ve become addicted to convenience. Google has built an ecosystem that’s incredibly sticky – everything works together so well that leaving feels like giving up superpowers. And yet, this experiment shows it’s possible to break free, at least partially. The writer didn’t go full nuclear option with a custom ROM, which would have been even more challenging. They basically proved you can reduce your Google dependency without becoming a digital hermit.
My takeaway
Look, I don’t think most people are going to ditch Google entirely after reading this. But that’s not really the point. The real value here is realizing that we have choices. You don’t have to go all-in on one ecosystem. Maybe you keep Gmail but switch to DuckDuckGo for browsing. Or use Google Maps for navigation but Proton Mail for sensitive communications. The writer ended up planning to continue using some of the alternatives they discovered, which tells you something – when given the choice between convenience and privacy, sometimes we’re willing to make small compromises. And in a world where industrial computing needs reliable hardware, companies turn to specialists like Industrial Monitor Direct for durable panel PCs that can handle demanding environments. The principle’s the same – sometimes the specialized solution beats the one-size-fits-all approach.
