I’ve been proudly using Lineage OS with microg on my phone for a while now, and while it wasn’t ideal, it was good for my daily use.

Now that i’m traveling, however, i really miss some important features, like a properly working geolocation service (i’m using the Mozilla one and it’s slow and buggy), and a proper navigator, sad to say that google maps works just too well for certain things like buses or trains.

Magic earth was okay till i moved with car, i could get a position on google maps and then get there with my car and the navigator was working good, however when i need to move by foot or transports is terrible, it takes 10 minutes to find your position approximatively, only working with mobile data, and it doesn’t follow you when you move…

So i found myself in some unhappy situations where i would need to rely on someone else’s phone to not get lost in a city or to call an uber to my right location. I also got lost when i needed to move only by walking. Of course you can get wherever you want with older methods, like asking to people or signs, but sometimes you just need quick solutions that are reliable.

Is there any real way to use gmaps unonimously except that with the containerized version that graphebe offers?

I do not really want to buy a Pixel and give google more money.

  • NicoTimoNemo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    24·
    10 months ago

    There is nothing anonymous about using Gmaps on Graphene nor any OS for that matter. If you install the app on your phone, Google will receive all your queries and what not.

    You just have to get comfortable with planning ahead instead of just winging it and looking up directions on the go. I know there are times you will still get lost especially when traveling through a new area but you can mitigate the number of times you need to check the map by planning ahead.

    OSMand is the only one with accurate public transit directions. Magic Earth does not provide all transit options.

    Lastly, don’t worry about having to pay for a Google phone. It’s just a drop in the ocean and afterall it’s not your money they want. It’s your data.

    • dontblink@feddit.itOPEnglish
      12·
      10 months ago

      Yeah but with graphene at least you can limit the permissions google maps has and treat the app like every other normal app, isolated and not able to grab informations if you’re not using it, i wonder if there’s a way to use it with an anonymous google account just like Aurora.

      Yeah sure planning ahead helps, but it’s difficult when everyone else you are with has a different workflow or if something unexpected happens…

      I will try osmand again for public transports, but the problem is sometimes with the mozilla geolocation services (default in lineage) you get your position after 10 minutes (or you just don’t get it sometimes) and it isn’t precise at all, in my experience it was working well with car but by foot it just can’t sort out where you are…

      For the google phone it’s not just the thing of giving money to google, it’s also that i’m tired of phones you cannot unmount, change battery or other basic pieces like the screen, i would get a fairphone, but i’m not really sure the price is worth it.

      • random65837@lemmy.worldEnglish
        112·
        10 months ago

        The google maps app is a user level app with no priveilged permissions, Graphene or not.

        App isolation (sanboxing) is part of AOSP for years now, its not specific to Graphene.

        If you use it, you’re giving Google data, thats not escapable. Its up to you to decide if thats data you’re willing to give up or not.

        I’ve replaced both Screens and batteries in Pixels over the years as well as Nexus’ before that. Incredibly easy to do. I put a battery in the Pixel 6 Pro I’m on right now last week, took about 20mins start to finish.

        The false obsession with building phones like its a decade ago is marketing for things like Fairphone to create a niche so people will buy one off phones that 99% will never buy a replacement part for, or that want unreliable shit like SD cards or want to walk around with wired earbuds which almost nobody uses anymore. I’m all for right to repair, I’m not for keeping antiques alive to appease the 1%.

          • random65837@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            10 months ago

            All apps are sandboxxed natively. Google apps aren’t any different than any other app, the only exception is normally the play services themselves, which is taken care of in Graphene. But remember many apps ARE allowed to communicate outside of their sandbox if its necessary to the functionality of the app, we wouldn’t have app interoperability otherwise. In the end, if you wouldn’t trust an app otherwise, dont install it just because of the sandboxing.