Thank you for your answers, guys.
Hey, long time since my last time here. Bartender, one coke zero, please.
I profit to be here to ask one question about smartphone.
Today, I have a OnePlus Nord since mostly two years, and I am almost satisfied. I have Android smartphones since about ten years today, and I change my phone almost every two years. I want to keep my current phone longer, this time (for ecological reason). My first problem is the software update (with security fixes) seems to be over in one year, and I don't like to have a phone without security fixes. My second problem is I try to remove maximum Google usage in my (personal) life, and I am not sure if that to keep a "standard" Android phone is a good thing here.
For the moment, I had these solutions for my next phone:
I am not in the rush here, like I said before I am almost satisfied with my current phone, and it is OK until I have security support.
Maybe, guys, you have advices on my issue and have another solutions.
Thank you.
In the same line as what tatterdemalion is saying, in case you go on the custom ROM route, be aware of the importance of Google Play. A lot of application will not work if Google play is not installed on your phone (Signal, among others). Been there, been beaten. Didn't know about GrapheneOS, though.
I didn't know Signal needed Google Play? I use Molly-FOSS so that it is 100% free and open source.
MollySignal needs GSF (Google Services Framework) for push notifications. But the fake GSF in MicroG works fine, as well.
Yep, I know, I know. I don't know if I want to manage with custom ROM again and lost functionalities on my phone.
Hello, I have used a fairphone2 with LineageOS without microG. I have used it as a phone (voice, short messages) and satnav (Osmand+, I cannot confirm what tatterdemalion writes, so it might be somewhat dependant, on where you are, and what quality the openstreetmap data has). I had installed a few apps from fdroid, but I never really used this stuff much. When it broke on me, I went back to a stone age flip phone. If I need navigation, I'm probably driving in a car, so a small notebook works well for me.
I second LineageOS. Running it on a Pixel 3a with no Google Services. Works well, I'd say about 80% of the services I want on a smart phone are available via FDroid or an APK package site. Sadly of all things I miss is listening to baseball games. I have a junk Android phone i use for work (mobile development) that doesn't have a sim, just use wifi and a junk Google account so i installed the app there.
The most compatible solution, the one that gives you the best privacy without costing you functionality, would be to get a phone that will run GrapheneOS (presently, that means a Pixel). GrapheneOS runs real Google Play Services in a sandbox separated from the rest of the OS and applications. However, they only support these devices for as long as Google does (3-5 years) because of the inability to update kernel code and firmware blobs independently. But they do take privacy extremely seriously (sometimes to the point of security nihilism).
What I'm currently doing is using a phone supported by LineageOS for MicroG. MicroG replaces Google Play Services for most purposes. It comes with F-Droid integrated as a system app, but you can install proprietary apps with Aurora Store. I have not found any proprietary apps that didn't work except for some Google apps I wanted to install in the "work profile" sandbox. The only problems I've found is that all of the free mapping/routing software (like OSMAnd+) do not look up addresses and occasionally provide weird routing; and there are no decent Free Software voice synthesis engines (I installed Google speech services, but forbid them network access).
What you're currently doing is what I did until recently — have Google Play Services installed, but uninstall all of their user-facing apps except for Maps.
GrapheneOSMeh. Buy a Google phone to not use Google ecosystem, I found this counterintuitive and hypocrite, but maybe is the best solution here, I don't know. 🤔
I want to buy, for my next phone, a phone I can keep for a long time with security support.
Like I said before, I don't know if I really want to use custom ROM any more on my main phone, lost functionalities, manage issues, etc… My main concern here is I want to remove maximum of the Google services of my (personal) life, but I don't want to sacrifice stability, functionality, and usability. 😅
Correct me if I'm wrong here, and apologies if I got it twisted, but wasn't there found to be a backdoor secretly implemented in a model of the OnePlus? Also, i might be misconceiving it for a different "Privacy conscious" smartphone, but wasn't it notorious for being used on cracking down on shady types? Am I thinking of a diff smartphone?
Yep, I do a little search and I found the article linked by tatterdemalion. It seems old stuff and I hope this issue was fixed.