I’ll be taking this journey some time soon as well. Never had an android in my life but I very badly want Graphene. I already downloaded and have been trying out SimpleX as a messenger and have reached out to a few friends about using it when I ditch my iphone and they thankfully are open to it. Right now my only set back is saving up for a secondhand pixel while also trying to save for multiple other things that are a higher priority in the midst of things becoming more expensive. But thanks for this post. Glad to see another iphone user make the jump and hear what your experience has been.

For me, yeah, it sucks knowing if you send an email to a gmail user then your message is in google still. But, I take comfort in knowing I’m not signing into or using google myself. Just be aware your emails aren’t protected at all. I agree with the other commenter - use whatever is convenient. Emails are never a very private communication form, either way. I also use proton but have been a bit conflicted since they continue pushing AI integration and I’m not pleased knowing my money is helping fund that for them.

Kind of like how a lot of the same people who were screaming and going crazy about the Patriot Act 20 years ago are the same ones who want to defend Flock cameras.

In what way(s)? There are a lot of things I like about it from the research I did. I only didn’t get one because of e/OS and the battery life.

Graphene already has a partnership with Motorola now so the assumption is some time (I’ve seen 2027 speculated) we may get a Graphene Phone from Motorola. Mixed feelings about them partnering with a company like that but we’ll see how it goes. I still keep thinking about finally getting a secondhand pixel 10 so I can switch to Graphene from apple.

A Fairphone with GrapheneOS would be the tops

I had not heard of delta.chat so, thanks for suggesting it. It seems promising. I have been keeping my eyes out for a good alternate messenger for when I eventually get a new non-iphone (prob something from Murena) and have been dreading the loss of imessenger. May try to give that one a shot before paying for Threema.

Is there a good blog or website or thread anyone knows of that is specifically dedicated to app/website/software alternatives that do NOT implement AI?

That’s specifically what has prevented me from using Mallvad so far. There is so much advertising from them that it seems fishy to me.

Literally in the same position you were in before! I’ve only ever bought mac but I currently have a mini pc in my cart ready to purchase along with a usb drive with multiple Linux options. My mac is still running okay, I just hate how they are built to last seemingly not a really long time, so you can buy the next one which will cost even more yet also have fewer needed plug-ins so that they cal also try to sell you a separate thing that has the plug ins you needed. I really hate apple at this point, to be honest. Excited to get something other than an iphone as my next phone when the time comes too.

I hope you post about this every 3 days for the rest of your life!

It wonderfully does! And as the other reply states, it also can automatically skip over paid promotional segments and “remember to like, comment and subscribe” stuff. It’s wonderful. You can also customize those settings and skip or not skip whatever bits you want. For example, I turned off a setting that would skip “non-music portion” of music videos. That was a tad annoying to me. But it’s the only form of youtube I would use on my tvs. I can’t stand constant ad interruptions on youtube.

I have been using LibreWolf since they recently put out a statement about no AI implementation and I adore it and wish I had started using it sooner. I spent longer than I needed trying out different browsers and never quite finding one I like a lot.

My reply definitely seems more rude than I meant it, upon re-reading. Apologies! To each their own. I think the thought of having 800+ contacts just seems overwhelming and cluttered to me. I’d go crazy if I had that many lol

“Here’s my email” isn’t any kind of a relationship though. 800+ contacts means you need to go through and delete unnecessary/unused contacts. Of which there are hundreds.