Given the recent news about Google’s hardening of sideloaded apps, I need to speed up my efforts to get rid of Google services.

However, there are a few apps/infrastructures that I’m really struggling to find a replacement for, because I happen to be in a long distance relationship with my girlfriend and I often travel to South-East Asia.

Banking

Maybe the easier part is the banking: currently I use ING, Revolut and Wise.

  • ING is my main account that I trust. Employers in Germany sometimes require a German bank account, it’s not enough to simply have a German IBAN. For this, I’ve been thinking of N26. It seems like they have a full-featured web interface, so the app is probably not mandatory. Does anyone have any experience with them?
  • Revolut’s web interface is not complete, so I cannot use it in the future.
  • Wise does have a full-featured web interface, but I still need to experiment whether I can actually transfer money to Asian bank accounts.

“Asian infrastructure”

Now this is the real headache. In South-East Asian countries, people only know WhatsApp. It’s considered as a must-have. If anyone wants to contact you, it’s either WhatsApp or it’s not happening. And the other thing is Grab for an Uber-like service plus for food delivery, as well as groceries. Since in many of these countries it’s simply not an option to walk, this is an important app. I’d be interested in some insights from locals, how do they manage to live there without Grab and WhatsApp.

Thanks in advance!

Edit: typo

  • helmet91@lemmy.worldOP
    4·
    2 days ago

    Thank you for your advice. I haven’t heard of the Aurora Store, but I know there’s something similar to that for /e/OS (maybe it’s actually Aurora Store itself?) Sure, the source is the Play store, but I’m worried that the banking apps wouldn’t run if the phone is rooted and/or there are no proper Google services. And even if they happen to be working, are they still gonna work in a year? I need a future-proof solution.

    As for Chinese phones - well, I don’t trust them. And out of them, Huawei would be the least trustworthy, which is known to be a spying company. My problem in the first place isn’t that it’s Google who’s intruding my privacy. My problem is that someone is intruding my privacy.

    Besides that, while I know some Chinese phones are actually working pretty well, I once bought a very expensive flagship Xiaomi, and it broke within less than a year. Even while I used it, it was lagging a tiny little bit. Sometimes. Then I got my Pixel 6a, a mid-range phone for half as much money, and I’m pretty impressed with the hardware, it’s butter smooth. But alas the battery is now a fire hazard.

    Ironically, I’ll have to get my Xiaomi fixed and revert to that one until I get a trustworthy phone. I’m planning to get a Fairphone with /e/OS on the long term.