For a long time, I have had GrapheneOS on my Google Pixel 7 - which I don’t use anymore as my main phone, but it’s almost always on. It has some apps, but mainly, a constant connection to my email. No SIM card, connected via Wi-Fi.

I’ve always noticed a battery drain of about 4-5% overnight, sometimes even more, despite not having notifications and not using it.

Last night, I decided to remove Google Services. In 24 hours (and a few minutes of usage), it consumed 2% of the battery.

I’m trying to understand how much I need Google Services for my needs. The main messaging systems I currently use are bridged with Matrix, and on Element, I have notifications via ntfy (unified push).

In the coming days, I will try to see if it’s possible for me to do without them.

#GooglePixel #Pixel7 #Android #GrapheneOS #OwnYourData #MobileExperience

  • BearOfaTime
    2·
    7 days ago

    Yea, it’s been known forever that GServices is problematic, and it’s supposed to help battery life by being a single comm channel for notifications (so apps don’t run their own).

    Every phone I’ve rooted and disabled GServices has had much better battery life, like down from 10%+ per hour to as little as 2%, and this was 10 years ago.

    It’s gotten better since then, but on a recently flashed phone with no GServices I’m seeing a few percent consumption, per day. Latest check, 0.7% per hour over the last 24 hours, with MicroG services and a handful of apps (including Syncthing keeping some stuff in sync), a Jabber/XMPP client, Telegram, Google Maps and a couple other apps.

  • Sohrab Behdani@mastodon.bsd.cafe
    1·
    6 days ago

    @stefano
    The 8 elite processor is mainline i assume, you can port some linux to your phone like Pmos .
    im using postmarket on my pocophone for about a year or so, its good for me :)

    Also you can Always use #microG instead of Google Services, the Push Notification also works well.

    • Stefano Marinelli@mastodon.bsd.cafeOP
      1·
      6 days ago

      @sohrab@bsd.cafe Unfortunately, I don’t have time to port an entire OS to my Pixel 🙂
      I’d love to use another OS on it, but I can’t find anything (only very old Pixels are supported)

  • Sir Dude Named Ben Onymous@noauthority.social
    1·
    7 days ago

    @stefano@bsd.cafe
    I use LineageOS on my MotoG7 phone without Google services and get along just fine. FDroid has plenty of FOSS apps you can install but if you must access the Google Play store for an app there’s always the Aurora Store, which can open a temorary anonymous connection to Google for you.

  • Raven@mastodon.bsd.cafe
    1·
    7 days ago

    @stefano@bsd.cafe You could try out the new private space feature which creates a private folder with completely own apps and you can access it from the launcher locked with an authentication method. I haven’t tried it now but it sounds not bad

  • Pavel Korytov :emacs:☮️@mastodon.bsd.cafe
    1·
    7 days ago

    @stefano@bsd.cafe I’ve never installed Google Services and managed just fine. Aurora Store and F-Droid work for Google Play, MS Outlook for Gmail (via IMAP) and Exchange. Apps such as Google Maps and Google Translate also work without their services.

  • Doerk@nrw.social
    1·
    7 days ago

    @stefano@bsd.cafe I would say two percent are totally fine. But like you, I suspect that Google is the power drainer. To be honest, I’m not surprised. Please let me know about the results of your research. I am really tempted to get a Pixel and run Graphene on it. Knowing that everything works as expected would make the decision much easier.

  • aCiReP@mastodon.bsd.cafe
    1·
    7 days ago

    @stefano@bsd.cafe very interesting! Thanks for sharing and I hope you will notice some improvement in battery life.

    • BearOfaTime
      1·
      7 days ago

      Good video, but just reading the transcript belies an utter ignorance about the world.

      There’s simply no way today for most people to operate without a SIM.

      Ubiquitous wifi coverage? Hahaha, sounds like a coastie who’s never ventured away from the coast at all. Hell, if I leave my suburb (of a major US city), I barely have cell coverage, let alone wifi, until I’m half way to work. And yes, that matters.

      My boss would just love me being dependent on wifi (I can think of numerous times I’ve been on a support call for hours, while traveling.) And my family, for whom I’m IT support.

      I’m sure he knows what he’s talking about, and I don’t disagree that SIMs are very problematic (saw that as an issue when I learned how the cell system worked in about 1996, I knew then it would be a massive tracking system).

      If he wants people to listen, he’s gotta be less absolutist. I’ve read all I need to not want to listen to him, and SIMs aren’t going away. What we need is to figure out practical ways to mitigate the privacy issues.

      He needs to remember that perfect is the enemy of good.