On Android, it is practically impossible to escape from Google’s monitoring. Not only does your Android phone share your location with Google constantly, but it continues to do so even when it’s idle, compared to iOS, You send 20 times more data to Google. Since Google trackers are deeply ingrained in Android, toggling the built-in privacy options doesn’t do you much good either. But what if you could “remove Google” from your Android phone?
A French startup called iodé wants to give you the following: a more private “de-Googled” alternative to the Android phones you’re used to. Refurbished phones in Europe that run on Google’s special version of Android – iodéOS – sell less.
Android experience less than Google
iodéOS takes the open source Android platform and removes any trace of Google from it. It’s a familiar story, but what sets iodé apart from similar projects is that it doesn’t leave you with the daunting task of making Google’s least software work like any other standard Android phone.
Google allows anyone to download and use a bare copy of Android to create their own operating system. However, it lacks several critical modules that power everything from the notifications you receive to step-by-step navigation and even the Play Store.
The Android version of iodé comes with alternatives to all of these services out of the box so you feel right at home when you first launch it – except for Google claims of course. You can install Android apps as you normally would, and use Google services like Maps and Business. Central to it, however, is a pre-installed tool that automatically prevents suspicious trackers from spying on you and lets you control every bit of data that leaves and enters your phone.
I’ve been living with a Samsung Galaxy S10 running iodéOS, on loan from iodé, for weeks now, and I can barely distinguish between its experience and Google’s Android. So should iodéOS be on your shortlist for your next smartphone? Here’s what it’s like to use a “de-Googled” Android phone.
An Android phone that you can customize from scratch
The presence of iodéOS was evident as soon as I started setting it up. Gone are the endless screens where Google asks for permission to collect data for diagnostics, location services, etc. During the iodéOS initialization process, I didn’t have to log into anything or give it any data access, and it allowed me to choose the apps I wanted to use my phone by default.
Since iodéOS phones don’t have the core Google suite of apps like Phone, Maps, Camera, and Messages, iodé preinstalls open source alternatives, but you can choose to get rid of them and start from scratch. It feels like a rare amount of fresh air compared to Android phones I’ve configured in the past, with every step feeling like a privacy landmine. You miss deselecting one option, and your personal information is exposed.
iodéOS features a clean Google Pixel-like Android look and home screen — a far cry from the highly customized OneUI look that Samsung bundles on its phones. No bloatware, no ads, no annoying reminders to update built-in apps, no popups for subscriptions to custom services, nada.
How does iodéOS solve the problem of the application?
What’s also missing are any standard apps you might be familiar with, like YoutubeOr Play Store or Google Maps. This is where the two mainstays of making iodéOS work for everyone and it doesn’t seem like something a hacker would indulge in handy: the Aurora Store and microG services.
With the Aurora Store, you can easily access the vast app catalog in the Play Store on your non-Google phone. In addition, iodéOS comes with F-Droid, which is a one-stop shop for open source apps that you won’t even find in the Play Store. Although the process is smooth, and I had no trouble installing all my apps on iodéOS, there are downsides to not having a Play Store on your Android phone.
Since Aurora Store is an unofficial Play Store client, it does not have all the licenses to host and sell apps and basically violates Google’s terms. So if you are logged into the Aurora Store with your primary Google account, where you have likely purchased all your apps, there is a chance that it will be blocked. But if you don’t have any paid apps to download, you can log into the Aurora Store using an anonymous profile that is automatically generated.
On the other hand, MicroG services enable apps to access all the Google APIs they need to function, such as push notifications. The entire setup works remarkably well to ensure you don’t feel the absence of official Google components as if you’re using, say, Huawei phones and I haven’t had any issues with the normal workflow of Android.
Prevent harmful trackers from spying on you
Another iodéOS feature is the iodé app. It monitors who your apps share your data with and automatically blocks the channel if it is detected in the list of suspicious trackers. You can also monitor your apps’ network traffic and manually add an address to the block list.
I was surprised to learn that most apps work just fine even after I’ve blocked paths to the dozens of servers they actively share my information with. Instagram, for example, collects data on every little step you take on its app. But when I blocked this tracker from iodé, it didn’t stop working. When I compared the iodéOS Galaxy S10’s online packet traffic to a regular Google Pixel 3, I found that the latter carried nearly three times as much data, with most of it going to Google.
However, I hope that in subsequent updates iodé will release a more intuitive interface for its app of the same name. At the moment, it only presents you with lists of trackers that installed apps talk to without actionable information about their reputation and purpose. It’s easy for someone to shut down a tracker they don’t understand and inadvertently end up disabling an app.
Better performance and endurance on non-Google Android devices
Since your Galaxy S10 running iodéOS isn’t bogged down by native bloatware and needless Samsung services running in the background, it’s also smoother to run and lasts longer on a single charge. The quality of an alternative camera app like the one offered by Samsung is not improved, but it gets the job done. If you want more, you can always go around the web and grab GCam, an app that replicates the unparalleled quality of Google Photos.
Another benefit of open source Android is that it will continue to receive software updates for years, unlike the standard Galaxy S10, which just got its latest update. At the time of testing, iodéOS was running on older Android 11 and the latest security patch. However, you have the option to go back to OneUI as long as you endure a few technical steps.
The refurbished Galaxy S10 I’ve been using costs €399 ($433)—about the same as the Galaxy S10 headphones, regular iodé bundles, and an adapter in the box. If you are technically inclined and already have one of the compatible phones, you can install iodéOS for free.
For privacy-conscious users, there is no better solution than iodéOS, and unlike other alternatives, it takes on all the challenges of “de-Googling” Android out of the box. On an Android phone, even if you manage to cover all of your trackers, the software is still owned by an ad giant, and eventually will find a way to track you like it did in the past. So if you are looking for a new phone on the market and don’t want the latest hardware, iodéOS is worth a try.