Is my phone really really De-Googled?

Is there a program or app that can run tests and then tell me that my cell phone has been successfully De-Googled after I flash it? that would be so so helpful.

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Since you set the category to “General Linux Discussion”, I am confused if the OS is Android, AOSP(Android Open Source Project)-based OS like /e/OS or LineageOS, a Linux distribution like Ubuntu Touch or or an OS like Sailfish OS.

Since the subject “de-googling” is most likely related to Android, I assume that you are concerned with an AOSP-based OS, in which you can install .apk files.

I currently don’t have an Android (or its based) phone, so this may be unclear, but I try to make it clear.

If the OS is Android-based

The two apps I know which are capable of logging IP calls are NoRoot Firewall and NetGuard. I haven’t used NetGuard much, but it is likely to work the same way.

I think your OS does not contain Play Store (since it is de-googled), so I recommend downloading this app from APK Mirror or APK Pure (I don’t know if it would be the safe, but since both the sites are well known and since DuckDuckGo has !bang search support for them, I assume that they are likely to be safe.


Guide with NoRoot Firewall

After installing NoRoot Firewall, by default, it blocks all the apps and IPs (in other words, the internet connection) and logs the IP addresses that were attempted to connect with.

The easier way is enabling internet access app-by-app and check the logs (green-colored and checked) for IPs pinged.

Now it’s difficult to check which IP is owned by Google and which isn’t or which IP’s owner shares data with google and which not. Not every IP needs to be owned by google, even those not owned by Google can share data to third parties. This is where trust comes.

At least, what you can try is that getting some information including the approximate location of the IPs in IP looking websites like https://ipleak.net. You would not get the owner name of the IP there, but you can at least get the approximate location of the IP and verify if you are pinging to a wrong location.


Guide with router:

Many routers support logging the IPs that were attempted to be connected. If your router is one of them, you can try connecting it only to your phone, or connecting another device just to lively monitor. This way is better than the firewall one I mentioned above, because in case if your OS tries to connect to an IP before the firewall starts, you can get it logged here.

This is what I know and tried, I shared. I hope it helps.

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Hi.
What do you mean by the term “de-googled”?
Just the fact, that there are no Google rlated apps or deamons running?
As a LineageOs user myself, I’m pretty sure there are no Google-ish things on my phone, but with the asked question, I think that I just try out one or all of the suggestions by @SameExpert just to be (more) sure.
The fact, that no single apk which depends on any Google service I tried on my (other experimental) S5 did run (sometimes not even install) makes me very confident, that at least with LineageOS you’re pretty “safe”.
But as we IT-Tinfoilhats use to say… “You never really know…” :wink:

There are a couple ways of indirectly double-checking, if the phone is De-Googled.

  1. The first and simplest test is trying to install e.g. Google Play. If the device has no Google Play Services, you simply won’t be able to install Google Play. No way.
  2. More advanced ways are based on using apps, which analyse the Android you are using.
    • Intent Intercept → Check which apps are accessing others.
    • De-Bloater → Lists all apps, including system apps, that are on your Android and you can bulk-remove most of them.
    • NotificationLog → See what notifications are detected. Google apps love to send notifications.
    • eXtended Permission Manager → Manage permissions for installed apps. If you see an app having a lot of permissions, which seem like the app does not need it, then it’s perhaps a Google app.
    • I think I forgot a good app. Will add it, once I will find it, again.
  3. When you used all the suggestions above, you are Google free. The only way that something still could be left is when there is something completely malicious hidden somewhere, almost undetectable. This you simply cannot detect with simple tools. You would need to be an Android expert for that.

All that said, the term De-Googled is a term for marketing, rather than an actual technical term, because technically you do not use a De-Googled base OS, but one that didn’t have Google stuff put on, in the first place.
Therefore, there is nothing to De-Google, when Google stuff wasn’t on it.

The base OS is, as @SameExpert mentioned, AOSP. By default, this does not have any Google stuff installed on it. It just gets added later on, as people usually need that.

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When I flashed my Nexus 6P with the custom /e/project rom my phone should have then been a de-Googled phone but on every boot I was getting a “Vendor Mismatch” error which indicated I needed to flash with a later version, which I downloaded and did. I flashed to crDroid Ver 4.7.2 (Angler) which is Build # OPM7.181205.001 / Android ver 8.1.0. My “Launcher” changed to Pixel and now I have Google Play Store and services??? Under “Running Services” I now see Google Play Services!! The logo in my Task Bar is the crDroid icon so I still have lineage OS but mingled with Google stuff, even though System Info Droid says that Google Apis is “Inactive”. I have the Aurora Store but now also have the Google Play Store and so … I now have a compromise build it seems. So I’m now in a holding pattern trying to decide what’s next.

You should talk to the experts:

Geeeeezz … I thought I was!

Android is an entirely different eco-system. It only has rudimentary Linux features left. Everything else is specific to Android. That’s why this isn’t the place for topics absolutely specific to Android.

Besides, even if we knew Android well enough, there are way more and better people over at XDA. It’s the most renowned Android forum in the entire world.

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Maybe try /e/ if your phone supports it. It is a degoogled fork of Lineage OS with some improvements and a great comunity