Is there a petition for antitrust charges against Google somewhere? I'm over the duopoly. Both options suck.
this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2025
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This reminds me that i wanted to unlicl my bootloader on my phone...
I just went into my settings after reading this article (and getting a bit frustrated that it was a wall of text with no clear instructions right up front).
I did a search in settings for "gemini" and found the Gemini settings. There's no clear 'off' switch. But there's is an option to switch back to Google Assistant. So I did that. And not when I search for Gemini in settings it urges me to enable Gemini.
I'm taking that as a good sign that I've disabled it permanently. Thought I'd post this info in case it helps someone else. Or so if I'm incorrect somebody else can correct me.
I mean there were no instructions up front because literally Google is refusing to give them, basically.
No more choice just the company force feeding the user and saying it's good for them.
Nowhere in the email or any of the Support pages did Google say how to remove all Gemini integrations from my phone.
I then emailed Google PR and... I asked if someone could provide actionable guidance for my readers who want to ensure Gemini integrations are completely disabled. Instead of answering the question, the person responding to my email wrote, in part: “This update is good for users: they can now use Gemini to complete daily tasks on their mobile devices like send messages, initiate phone calls, and set timers while Gemini Apps Activity is turned off. With Gemini Apps Activity turned off, their Gemini chats are not being reviewed or used to improve our AI models.”
Literally that reads like you can't turn it off and they just scrape less of your data on a technicality.
I just spent half an hour yesterday uninstalling all apps, registry entries and in-program options for Copilot in Windows and MS Office... but I still can't get rid of the Copilot button in Outlook. Searching for answers I ended up at the Microsoft support forums and clicked a link to office dot com... and realized there that the entire ecosystem is now called MS365 Copilot App (formerly known as Office)... so I suspect there will be NO way to remove this stuff in the future, and probably that MS365 Copilot will eventually replace Windows itself.
AICore under all apps. Disable and delete files. Done.
While I wouldn't assume anything is permanent these days, I'd agree for the moment. I had already uninstalled Gemini on my phone (2ish months ago) and just verified I still see Google listed as the default assistant.
Hey Folks, we have "AI" for you and you will use it, whether you want it or not...
Gemini? I don't have Gemini in my pixel 8a, stock
Laughs in Graphene
Google: Laughs in "Everybody else you communicate with who has that shit enabled"
Sadly true in any situation that requires talking to anyone else.
Is it just me or does it seem slightly sus that GrapheneOS is only available for Google hardware...
There are many technical reasons why: https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices
Every Android phone (besides Pixel) fails to meet the high technical requirements of the project.
Sounds like they're intentionally setting the barriers to entry too high for anyone other than Google...
Ok. Which ones, and why?
Edit: I can see the 5 and 7 year support, but what about the rest of the list?
Mainly just that one mean it will never be available on any other hardware...
All the others seem like nice to haves rather than requirements to me(the first one is half required , half nice to have "...including full hardware security functionality"), but I guess I might change my mind when I get around to building a Linux phone when I have time to do that when I'm dead... 😅
Building a linux phone: do you mean from scratch, or just installing one of the Linux phone OS's that already exist?
I've been following Ubuntu Touch for several years now and, while they have made a lot of progress, its main hurdles have the same thing in common: mobile hardware is incredibly locked down. For example, Ubuntu Touch uses proprietary Android drivers for many low level functions. Even then, there's some features that aren't stable across all devices, like VOLTE.
It sucks, I really want to use Ubuntu Touch (or any of the Linux alternatives) but I can't make phone calls or text in the US without VOLTE support. There are a few phones that support VOLTE, but the feature is either in beta, the phone is expensive, or the phone is not sold in the US.
Anyways bringing that back to Graphene: In my case, I'm using this as a stopgap until Linux phones take off (assuming they ever do). For now I guess the best thing is to just be skeptic, keep things minimal, and bloat-free.
Not a day goes by that I don't regret installing that on my phone.
This... Except for contactless payment.
I used graphene for a month. It was lovely. Even things like banking apps worked.
I don't care about absolute privacy, but I do care about controlling my privacy. Grapheme gave me that.
I had only 1 issue.
Contactless payment.
It's extremely convenient to me, from public transport to groceries. I just bop my phone.
The fact that Google has that locked down surely violates some EU laws. But I'm sure they wave away the laws because of "financial security" or some other bullshit.
As if bank card NFC/contactless doesn't suffer exactly the same issues.
I looked into some "graphene contactless payment" type systems or workarounds, and I couldn't find anything that would fill the gap.
Try Curve Pay. Just learned about it yesterday. I added my credit card and it just works. Couldn't be happier.
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This may seem like a silly solution but maybe pop your debit card inside your phone case. It should bop through it.
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So you regret it every day? GOS is amazing in my opinion. What's your gripe with it?
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I believe /e/OS supports a broader range of devices, and it's also pretty great in my experience. The focus is on getting rid of google (replacing all services with MicroG and nextcloud integration) and blocking trackers while providing a smooth user experience, so it's security features are not as over the top as Graphene. It's still a huge freaking improvement over stock Android though, and I find it to be a joy to use.
On devices supported by the online installer it can be up an running in like 30 minutes, no technical skills required. :)
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so jealous, wish it or lineage os worked on any of my phones
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My experience with Gemini:
Hey Google, set a timer for 5 minutes.
Gemini: I'm sorry, I don't understand.
WTF is the point of it then?
Imagine taking away the only useful feature of a voice assistant 💀
My recent experience with my phone is I tell it to set a 5 minute timer and it sets one in the fucking Google search browser, and if I page away I lose the timer.
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Your chats are saved in your account for up to 72 hours, whether Gemini Apps Activity is on or off.
https://myactivity.google.com/product/gemini
I wonder how long before AI services are added to ad blockers and VPN privacy controls.
up to 72 hours
(then we permanently add them to our private fingerprint folder based on any google-related link or api you've ever interacted with)
The time limits on their spyware might as well be ignored.
Bwahahahah
I locked that shit out fucking day one. Fuck Gemini.
Doesnt Apple also do this with Siri and basically every app unless the user untoggles it?
Yes, for the amount of hate Google gets... Which I think it is fair to be critical of any product that compromises privacy... I recently tried helping my mom clean up her iPhone, and seriously like 100x worse. Almost everything you do on Apple demands you have another Apple device. One of the worst experiences I've ever dealt with.
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Yes and you have to untoggle it for each and every app individually
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I switched Gemini language to an unsupported language.
Anyone know if this is happening outside the US and if it is whether it's happening inside the EU?
Yeah, this seems like an easy lawsuit in the EU tbh
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