Tux Machines

Replace Android System Apps With Open Source Alternatives

Posted by Rianne Schestowitz on Jun 11, 2024

Quoting: Replace Android System Apps With Open Source Alternatives —

Android is a fantastic smartphone system, many parts of it are open source, and it is not vendor-locked-in like iOS from Apple. However, almost all Android smartphones come with Google apps by default, which are proprietary and contain ads and data-collection mechanisms.

Apps like phone calls, SMS messages, file manager, gallery, calculator… etc are all Google’s making, and they are a suitable target for whatever initiative they design at any time, especially in the age of AI.

Some 3rd-party Android distributions remove these apps from the system and ship a fully open-source OS, like LineageOS and others. But the process of installing these distributions on your smartphone can remove the warranty of your smartphone and cause side issues sometimes.

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