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Leaving Gmail for Mailbox.org

(giuliomagnifico.blog)
351 points giuliomagnifico | 14 comments | 22 Aug 25 17:41 UTC | HN request time: 0.796s | source | bottom
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TranquilMarmot ◴[22 Aug 25 18:30 UTC] No.44988014[source]▶
I spent the past month "de-Googling" my life after I saw a notice in my Gmail inbox that it was 20 years old. I took a step back and realized just how invested into the Google ecosystem I was. Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Drive, Maps, Keep, Photos, YouTube, FitBit, Android. Basically my entire digital life. My goal was more diversifying than security/privacy, but security/privacy is a really nice bonus.

I ended up going with Proton because they had a good solution for mail, calendar, and drive which I was looking to replace. I set up my custom domain to point to it and have my Gmail forwarding to it - any time I get an email to the old Gmail address I go change it on the website or delete the account altogether.

For Google Docs / Keep, I switched over to Obsidian and pay for the sync there. It's a great replacement for my main use case of Docs / Keep which is just a dumping ground for ideas.

For Google Photos, I now self-host Immich in Hetzner on a VPS with a 1TB storage box mounted via SSHFS. I use Tailscale to connect to it. It took a few days to use Google Takeout + immich-go to upload all the photos (~300GB of data) but it's working really well now. Only costs $10/mo for the VPS and 1TB of storage.

Android I think I'll be stuck on - I have a Pixel 8 Pro that technically supports Graphene but there are too many trade-offs there. Next time I need a new phone I'll take a serious look at Fairphone but I think the Pixel 8 Pro should last a few more years.

My FitBit Versa is really old and starting to die - I ordered one of the new Pebble watches and am patiently waiting for it to ship!

YouTube I'm stuck on because that's where the content is. I have yet to find a suitable replacement for Google Maps - OpenStreetMap is still really hard to use and gives bad directions.

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palata ◴[22 Aug 25 22:01 UTC] No.44990388[source]▶
> supports Graphene but there are too many trade-offs there

What are the tradeoffs? I have been following GrapheneOS for a while, and it doesn't seem like there are many tradeoffs.

> OpenStreetMap is still really hard to use and gives bad directions.

OpenStreetMap is a database, and most commercial services that are not Google use it. E.g. Uber or Lyft.

You just need to find an app that you like. CoMaps is nice, OSMAnd has a lot of feature but the UX is harder. And of course you can contribute to OSM and make it even better than it is! You'll see it's a great community!

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1. nine_k ◴[22 Aug 25 22:22 UTC] No.44990590[source]▶
Can you use GrapheneOS with your bank app? With a digital wallet for NFC cards? With Uber or Lyft? (Asking seriously, not rhetorically.)
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2. octo888 ◴[22 Aug 25 22:51 UTC] No.44990884[source]▶
Contactless payments is the the big one that doesn't work and probably won't. You can do in app payments via Google pay though

Many banking apps work fine though not all.

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3. callahad ◴[22 Aug 25 22:51 UTC] No.44990889[source]▶
My understanding from looking into this two years ago is that it's hit or miss for banks (depending on if they opt into device attestation stuff), no for NFC / Google Wallet, and yes for Uber / Lyft.

Apparently the common workaround for the Google Wallet stuff is to pair a GrapheneOS phone with a stock Android smartwatch.

Edit: Here's some additional information on banking apps: https://privsec.dev/posts/android/banking-applications-compa...

Apparently the common recommendation these days is to use Curve Pay as a virtual card provider on GrapheneOS, which can then route to arbitrary underlying cards. And evidently Google Wallet does work for things that aren't payment cards (airline tickets, transit passes, etc.) on GrapheneOS.

4. BeetleB ◴[22 Aug 25 22:55 UTC] No.44990926[source]▶
Yes, these would be my concerns as well. In the past, I would install custom ROMs. Then I stopped doing that and would only root my device. But of late, way, way too many apps refuse to work if rooted (apps that used to be fine with it before).

Now I just accept life as it is.

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5. jackthetab ◴[22 Aug 25 22:56 UTC] No.44990938[source]▶
This is a question that I rarely see answered but would love to know as well.
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6. litmus-pit-git ◴[23 Aug 25 03:26 UTC] No.44992858[source]▶
My friend uses a pretty hardened (as per him; I didn't indulge him when he wanted to give me the gory details) Graphene setup on his few years old Pixel.

Bank apps - as per him none work. Uber (no Lyft here; other taxi apps) work flawless. Payment apps, he said is a coin toss. On his phone even WhatsApp doesn't work. He anyway prefers Signal (which prob. nobody else uses in his circle except maybe me who has it installed on a secondary phone) or plain SMS. Basically most of the "normal" apps that add integrity checks don't work but he is fine with that.

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7. hexfish ◴[23 Aug 25 09:44 UTC] No.44994688[source]▶
Re: the bank apps: that really depends on the bank and the country. I live in a eu-west country and there are afaik no apps that do not run on Graphene (which did suprise me I must admit).

Whatsapp can work if you use sandboxed Google Play (I still use a Google account, I just don't want gplay to have effectively root on my device).

Depending on the level of integrity check your app might just work. Gory details: https://grapheneos.org/articles/attestation-compatibility-gu...

And like others said: no contactless payment, but I dont use that personally anyway.

8. amaccuish ◴[23 Aug 25 10:01 UTC] No.44994774[source]▶
Luckily my German bank (Volksbank) has its own NFC app on Android. Much maligned years ago when it was announced (why can't they just let me use Google Pay??), I at least have come to the conclusion that it has granted me a freedom that Google does not.
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9. mlry ◴[23 Aug 25 10:34 UTC] No.44994924[source]▶
I use Graphene but with Google play store app. Here in Europe my banking apps and 2fa apps (SecureGo) work flawlessly. NFC cards work with PassAndroid and FOSSwallet, both from Fdroid. I've had issues installing rather new games via the play store, but most often it takes a couple of tries or a waiting period to work in the end.
10. snapplebobapple ◴[23 Aug 25 12:11 UTC] No.44995398[source]▶
I use it with my bank app ymmv
11. fak3r ◴[23 Aug 25 15:09 UTC] No.44996543[source]▶
I've been running GrapheneOS for over a year and have had zero issues with 3 different banks, and all credit cards. I'm sure there are issues with some banks, but I've never seen them. I don't use Google Wallet, and never wanted to so if that's a consideration...
12. palata ◴[23 Aug 25 20:31 UTC] No.44998898[source]▶
Using GrapheneOS is not the same thing as rooting, though.
13. palata ◴[23 Aug 25 20:33 UTC] No.44998910[source]▶
Nice answer (not by me) here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44990889
14. wkat4242 ◴[26 Aug 25 05:13 UTC] No.45022501{3}[source]▶
And it doesn't let Google snoop on your every transaction. I don't understand how so many people are ok with this.

Unfortunately every EU bank card uses Mastercard or visa so the Americans still get to snoop. Time for that to be changed too.