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by Abishek_Muthian 1274 days ago
For absolute Privacy (If that's even possible without going off-grid), Then yes.

But if you need to use apps which you trust but it depends upon proprietary Google bits then microG is the best alternative now.

microG > Open Gapps > Gapps

e.g. Signal needs GCM to send notifications, If it doesn't find one it will revert to pull notifications. Pull notifications are unreliable and are subject to being killed by battery management due to power consumption. Not to mention missing notifications during emergencies could be dangerous.

microG is totally configurable, You don't need a Google account to use it. So even if Google knows about your device, It would require parallel construction to identify you personally. I think that's even better than using any Google app on iOS.
2 comments
GekkePrutser 1274 days ago
One thing that not many people know: you don't need to have a Google account to use GCM/FCM even with official Gapps. You can simply not sign in to Google play and push will still work.

It's still running tons of spyware yes but it's an alternative on phones where MicroG is not an option. Eg Samsung phones with Knox enabled.

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geokon 1274 days ago
Okay, I was just checking. I thought maybe they run their own servers and thought it'd be worth trying

Yeah, I'm not a privacy fanatic, but literally having all my notifications funneled through one ad company .. that's on the far end of creepy/dystopian .. Thanks but no-thanks

I keep hearing this myth about how notifications can't work seemlessly without GCM. I don't believe it :)

I currently have GooglePlay disabled and I've never had issues with Signal notifications. However Instagram doesn't work at all. And Messenger is very inconsistent

If apps like WeChat do it then I don't believe it's impossible

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Abishek_Muthian 1274 days ago
> I thought maybe they run their own servers and thought it'd be worth trying

Unless the app you're using use the alternate push notification system e.g.Unified Push, There's no point in microG having their own servers. Demand your favorite app publisher to release a Non-GCM version of their app on F-Droid.

> I currently have GooglePlay disabled and I've never had issues with Signal notifications

Good for you, As I said its pull notification. In simple terms a scheduled local service asks the app's server whether you have new messages. The service needs to be active all the time consuming power, You'd probably seeing a pinned notification for it; Every pull notification app needs its own such service.

> I keep hearing this myth about how notifications can't work seemlessly without GCM. I don't believe it :)

Nothing to do with myth (or) belief system. Push (or) Pull is the technical fact w.r.t notifications.

[1] https://unifiedpush.org/

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