Anon thinks about Google

Pixel phones are a joke? They've been the best phones I've owned.
- Yeah I like them the most as well and funnily enough they are the easiest phone to degoogle
  
  GrapheneOS FTW
  
  So to name a few issues:
  pixel 1: headphone jack issue so bad they needed to issue a recall, audio would just FULLY stop working, loud speaker as well.
  pixels 2, 3 (and theorized 4 and 5): using cheap ram that literally just died within 3 years. They refused to issue a recall claiming that was "fine for the expected life span of the phone"
  Pixels 1-4: if you let them discharge long enough, they don't charge anymore, ever!
  Pixel 4/a and 5/a: lemon units. Bad ram, bad flash storage, things like that. Some would be very slow and others would be fine. My pixel 5a died in 7 months.
  During this period of time from the 4 though 6 lines they were notorious for trying to deny your warranty replacement any way they could. It took me 5 months to get a new pixel 5a.
  Pixel 6: buzzing coming from loud speakers (not sure if recall issued)
  Pixel 6 and 7: first 2 tensor chips, known for draining battery too quickly and overheating.
  Pixel 8: OLED issues, I think random lines showing up on the display. They have issued a recall tho.
  So in sum:
  In the older pixels there were some shitty cost cutting measures they used in order to recoup cost of development of the phones.
  their warranty service around this time was also piss poor
  QC issues with just about every pixel phone released.
  Where we stand today:
  their warranty replacements are much better I've heard.
  There are significantly less glaring issue with the pixels, and they're still reasonably priced
  So, back in the day, if you got lucky you got a decent phone for a good price, if you got unlucky you got a shit phone and they probably wouldn't replace it. Now, you'll probably get a good phone, with some semi useful AI features and a decent warranty.
  
  So you’re saying they’re the best phones to remove the products of this software company from? It’s like saying Internet explorer is the best browser to download other browsers.
- Yeah, Nexus phones were great, but Pixel phones are also good. And Android is definitely not "getting worse".
  Agree with the rest though.
  
  Android is getting weird. It's not bad but some UI choices just don't make sense. They're making everything super large, and required so many swipes and clicks for certain settings. They've lost the plot a bit. Also, having used both iOS and Android, iOS gestures are leaps and bounds ahead of Android. Genuinely, it's no contest.
  All this being said I prefer Android, I just wish they put more thought about ease of use and feature refinement rather than changing for changes sake. Like we are JUST NOW getting an update to the gesture controls. They've been basically unchanged since Android 11/12 they have had ample time to refine them a bit.
- my 6a has been nothing but shit. You cant charge it and run the GPS at the same time or it overheats. Thats just one of the many issues ive had with it.
  
  Was considering the 6a until I saw the charge speed and screen to body ratio.
  
  My friends 6a and his wife's both have a display issue where the screen just randomly turns green. Restarting fixes it, but what the hell!
  
  I have the same problem, but only when I run the GPS under sunlight in a car. I wonder if other phones have the same problem under those conditions? Can anyone else chip in?
- I enjoyed my pixel up until the day they put a backup button on photos that would pop up right when I'm swiping. So I had to go through my Google backup and delete/disable it (which can only be done from the computer) just so that I could use my Gmail again.
  Now I'm considering switching manufacturers on my next upgrade.
- They lost me right there, lol
  Tbf a lot of Google is shite but i will never deny the pixel
- Same here. Have had Nokia and Iphones before and have my Pixel 3a right now for about 4 years and still happy with it.
- Pixel 5, refusing to die.
  I just cleaned out all storage and man it's still zippy
  
  Pixel 5 is my new phone, lol. I had the original Pixel, now the 5. One of my kids used the original one for a few months after I upgraded too.
  I do miss headphone jack :(
  
  No disassemble!
- Yeah, I'm on a non pixel phone right now and I want to get back to pixel they're great
- The newer ones are nice, but as an owner of the first 4 because I need unbloated OSes, they were a complete joke in hardware support and failures. Can't count the number of times I've lost data to my pixel 1 randomly resetting, had bluetooth issues with 1-4, and had a smattering of other nonsense issues with everything up to the 6. Eventually I gave up and hopped over to iOS.
  
  My pixel 1 was and is fine. Pixel 3 was an excellent phone. The only bad phone I recall from Google was the Nexus 5x which was made by LG
- This is going to be unpopular, but even the default google firmware is nice, it's clean and bloat free. Obviously people should flash a custom ROM to do google.
- I got a Pixel 6 last year after owning a Samsung Galaxy 7 for 6 years. I have a notes page with 49 complaints.
- Disagree. I owned flagship Androids from the G1 until last fall.
  Android is a privacy nightmare, and serves no technical advantage over an iPhone. So I got an iPhone. It's 100% as adequate of a black rectangle that runs apps as any Pixel.
  
  Until an iPhone can fold and send pictures/videos to people who aren't using the same phone that don't look like diarrhea I honestly don't care about anything Apple does.
  
  iPhone still can't report the RSSI of a wireless network. Until they make that work, anyone who works in it/tech has to carry a different device to test wireless networks.
  The wireless hardware is in the phone. Just let me use it.

I hate Google and try not use it anymore but there's still one thing I can't do without : Google Maps.
- Have you tried open street maps? I suggest organic street maps for your phone
  
  Organic Maps are great, however if you're looking for shops and restaurants (or rather their reviews) Google Maps are second to none.
  
  I can never stick with those alternatives, the traffic conditions feature is simply too good to miss
  
  OSM is great in some places. But outside of the more techy areas, it's a barren land. I something do my part with streetcomplete, but anyway, it's not there yet (in most places)
  
  I have tried using it for a while but a few updates ago the search functionality was kinda messed up (and still is) so I had to switch back to gmaps :(
  
  I tried it but in my area it doesn't have a lot of places on it. Especially the satellite view being so old it's hard for me to figure out how to contribute
- Like everything else, advertising pressure has ruined it. You can still search, but just zoom in and look over an area to see what is there? So many businesses missing, because they don’t pay Google to advertise. Apple Maps shows them all, because they don’t make money from advertising.
  Open Street Maps are ok, but my area has a lot of businesses missing. If you know the address you need to go to, then it’s great for routing.
  My personal hobby horse with Google killing things is Reader.
  
  I feel dumb using Google Maps and seeing all the ads. Should’ve known from day one that was the game plan.
  Pray Apple keeps their hardware sales up.
- Docs is good too
  
  That copy & paste block thou, never again for me
- OSMAnd beats out Google Maps, if you are a trail climber etc. Google's entries are so lacking, whereas OSM content has near exact coordinates and paths for sooooo many routes.

Hate it like you want, but the effing pixels are still the best phones. Not by os, not by spec, but simply by being the most open android of them all. The easiest to de-google. Sounds stupid, but is not.
I hate google with all my heart (since they dropped their slogan "don't be evil" and went... Well.... Evil). But i will buy their fucking phones until a viable alternative comes along.
- 100%. I just bought a Pixel 8 so I could install Graphene OS. It was so damn easy too. I was amazed. This phone is great minus the lack of headphone jack and SD card slot.
  
  same here. bought one 2 months ago
  
  Calyx pixel gang over here
  
  Oh man, the lack of a headphone jack is still a killer for me. It's one of the reasons why I stayed on OnePlus 6 for so long, and to be blunt, I don't see the Pixel 8 as a huge jump outside of power and bullshit like AI photos. My kingdom for a high-end phone with a headphone jack and stock-ish Android!
- It's a real shame that OnePlus just became an Oppo rebranding, because the OP1 was a phenomenal phone, and up until OP6 they were both cheap and had a relatively clean Android install. To date, features like gestures are still better than what you get on the Pixel, and most of their stuff is less invasive than Google's.
  The Android market nowadays, especially for high end, is "which manufacturer is the least shit", and that's a real shame.
  
  My 7t was the best phone I ever had when it was on Oxygen OS 10, but every upgrade was a downgrade. Features were dropped, ui got uglier, bloat was added. I have an 8t now, but I won't be getting another OnePlus. Really sad
  
  I desperately want fair phone (and it's parts) to be sold in my country. 8-10 years of android support for a self repairable phone? Yes please.
  
  Totally. First thing i check is "can i debloat and root this piece of shit which is technically awesome but ruined software-side". Which i most likely can't as the hurdles became more and more annoying each year up to the point where i gave up and went google.
  If they'd do the same with PCs, noone would buy that shit. Unless it's a crapple...
- The call screener is a godsend and it's the absolute most used feature I rely on. Many evenings I wake up for work and see that my phone stopped 5-10 spam calls that would have ruined my sleep.
  
  Hehe, i have an awesome solution for that. I simply block everyone except wifey and friends. The rest of the world doesn't need to reach me. I call back when i want to, or simply don't 😁
  Just because i CAN be reached mobile doesn't mean i have to. Wasn't before Smartphones and won't be with..
  But yes, the call-screening is cool. If you disregard privacy and the percentage of non tech-savy people who are totally overwhelmed by that.

What exactly does Google have left that people like? Gmail?
Shhhh! Dammit. Now they are definitely going to realize they haven't ruined it yet.
- The way Gmail orders conversations/email chains makes it SO hard to figure who's reply to what and what the latest email is. Each email in the chain contains the entire chain before it and you end up reading everything twice just to work out what the hell is going on.
  
  I keep forgetting that Gmail is a website and not just an IMAP server.
  
  I just sent a reply to an email I forwarded instead of the original email and it's entirely the fault of how Gmail orders emails on Android. Unironically.
  No further questions!
- Gmail is already shit for anyone who wants to configure their own mail server.
  
  Great for forwarding my mail server to my gmail
- Too late. The promotions tab in the app is infested with ads. I use fairmail on my phone and do important stuff on my computer where I have adguard

Maps. There's still unfortunately nothing better.
- And they've been neglecting that. There are a couple of street names that they have wrong, and I've been using the edit feature fruitlessly for over 8 years. I've included links to local business web sites with the new name of one, links to municipal web sites with the new name, geo-tagged photos of the street signs, and even links to the municipal ordinance that changed the names in 2003. It all goes into the same black hole.
- Helping to contribute to OpenStreetMap using Street Complete has the potential to change that.
- Yeah. I tried using OpenStreetMap for five minutes until I realised most of my city doesn't have the house numbers mapped out.
  
  In my experience, google maps has the same issues in some areas,e.g. Tanger. OSM was way more reliable there. You could help fix those issues by contributing. I think it's fun and you'll get to know your neighborhood better
- Maps was crowdsourced like wikipedia. Still is.
  It will turn to shit as crowds migrate. And the crowds are migrating.
- Maps also has gone to shit. Complex routing including public transport is pretty much the only thing it still is useful for. For using maps as maps openstreetmap has been better for a long time, even before Google decided to dumb down their maps. For bicycle routing osm also is better nowadays as Google is missing most of the small paths.
- I’m going to spend an hour happily contributing to openstreetmaps in response :P
- On iOS I find Apple Maps to be better in general. I don’t think Google maps is as much of a monopoly as it once was
  
  That may be, but then you're in the unfortunate position of owning an Apple device.

I mean, a lot of the points are valid, but the Pixel phones are pretty great, Android is pretty great and getting better, and the Chromebook gamble is playing a really long term game where they could end up uprooting Microsoft if they play their cards right. From my understanding, US kids now on average know Chromebook OS better than Windows by far, and will probably prefer to continue using it if they could. If Google makes the OS more viable for professional use and flexible and play their cards right, they'd have a really good chance at uppending Microsoft's dominance, especially since Microsoft is seemingly trying to shoot itself in the foot with Windows.
- Don't worry. They won't play their cards right.
- I own a Pixel 7 and although not ideal, it's certainly better than most of the phones out there for me. The only downsides of daily driving a Pixel are battery drain and overheating. Granted, I live in a rather cold climate so I imagine it being not the most useful piece of tech for the folks near the equator...
  It's been confirmed that Pixel 10 will finally get a non-exynos chip, so perhaps it can indeed become the pinnacle of Android smartphones, who knows.
  This scenario still requires Google to play their cards right, however, but there's hope.
  
  I went from a Galaxy S20 to a Pixel 8 and frankly I miss the S20. Build quality sucks. My screen creaks and I hate the camera ridge especially. Whole thing feels cheap and it's not even very root friendly anymore like Nexus phones, which is the whole reason I got it.
- I'm still rocking my Pixel 2 and am perfectly happy with it
  
  I only replaced my Pixel 2 with a Pixel 6a because the screen broke. Took it to a repair place and the screen stopped working after replacement.
  I had that phone for ~8 years and I hope to get similar mileage out of my 6a.
- US kids now on average know Chromebook OS better than Windows
  Source? I would like to read about that ropic.
  
  As a parent, my kids are issued Chromebooks by the school for "e-learning days". I imagine mainly because of cost and ability to be managed remotely.
- Pixel phones are garbage compared to Nexus line at the time. Android is garbage now too, like the OP said. Chromebook is gonna have to turn itself into a real platform with powerful machines and software to ever be relevant beyond disposal classroom computers. Frankly I think SteamOS has a better chance at making a comeback, and that's a long shot.
- My Pixel 6 is not "great".
  
  Mine was, as is my P7, especially compared to a lot of competing devices from Samsung etc

Theres much much more.. Smaller kills sometimes are the most effective. Think about Google RSS Reader the best rss reader to ever exist…
- What did it do better than other RSS readers?
  
  Yeah same thing I was wondering. There are still a lot of great RSS readers. Arguably even better than Google Reader was.
  
  The UI imo
  
  Fast, and easy to edit. It was a fantastic start page.
  
  For me it was that all my friends used it. So we share and comment posts a lot there. Now we do not have an alternative.
- What is a good RSS reader? I keep meaning to get into RSS at some point and make myself a feed. Is there a good guide or preferred software or however it works?
  
  I ended up on Inoreader after Google Reader shut down. I've never needed more than the free tier and it works pretty well.
  
  Bookmarking this as I'm in the same position, godspeed my brother.
  
  Depends on what you are looking for. I like Akregator but it's quite old-school.
- Theoldreader.com is a good clone

Android worse every year? How? Every update I've received (on a Samsung, mind you) has made my experience better.
- Android 12 took up 700MB RAM, leaving some space for non-sytem apps on lower end smartphones.
  Android 13 takes up easily 1.2GB, leaving almost nothing at the benefit of having a somewhat "snappier" interface
  
  Lower end phones usually already have 8 GB RAM (example: Galaxy A54 5G, 300€ new).
- There used to be tons of customization options which have been removed/limited under the guise of "personalization". For example you used to be able to do things like choose system colors that weren't from a selection of 5 pastel themes. For some reason Google believes that pastels and pastels alone accurately reflect the "personality" of every user and that users wasn't their "personality" reflected.
  There's a ton of settings that have been removed over the years, volume button behavior changed, various privacy settings reset to default with random updates, privacy settings removed...
  It's still fairly functional but if it weren't for certain apps i need i would be trying out graphene or whatever.
  
  You could never officially choose system colors in AOSP. It was always white with teal accent. If you're thinking of Substratum, that was kinda an unintended exploit when Google was working on adding native theming for OEMs.
  Volume buttons are being made more customizable in Android 15, which is launching on Pixels soon.
  Privacy settings have never been reset for me, maybe you're confusing it with Windows 11.
- More bloated and inefficient every release. That would be fine for Android but sadly, it affects the core and thus every custom ROM too.
- Lots of proprietary google crap. Much harder to run a custom ROM with decent support and apps
- OP technically isn't wrong, there are many UI changes that have made android worse over the years.
  
  Like what?
- lol...last update (like every other update) on my Samsung I have to restart to get it to charge, and now videos lag horribly (try watching anything live? nope.)
  Worst phone ive ever had, hands down.
- Latest Samsung updates removed classic swipe controls for navigation. I had to do a hacky workaround including finding 2 random APKs just to preserve functionality. (S21U)
  
  Really? D: That sucks, I use swipe navigation for everything. Not sure if it's classic or not but losing an option is a bummer.

the chromebook keyboard layout is stupid, especially if you like tiling wms
they removed capslock and moved super to where it would normally be, and renamed it to "search"
they put nonsensical function keys that don't exist like "refresh" and "fullscreen"
and then the keys are mushy too
- Even my 8yr old complains about how backwards the chromebooks at his school are.
- I hate the capslock thing. I sometimes feel like I’m the only person who regularly uses capslock (for C macro names and SQL when programming, but also for typing acronyms).
  I don’t mind the function key thing. Even from memory I can say that in a browser F5 = refresh and F11 = fullscreen. But kids probably are less likely to know those these days so a label could be helpful.
  
  YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY PERSON WHO USES CAPSLOCK!
- CapsLock is vital for my muscle memory when configured to act as an extra Ctrl key. I have other shit configured to my Super key so that sort of kb would definitely require a major config overhaul to be usable.

I think the general rule is anything google acquired was good and anything they built themselves was bad and ended up getting killed.
There are exceptions but some of the only decent parts of google; maps, YouTube, AdWords were all acquisitions. I think they even just got HTC to build the pixel exclusively for them
- They used to have a nice clean usable web search back in 2000 or so.
  
  And now they have a financial sheet with billions in the black.
- What pisses me off is the fitfit app requiring i turn on my location to sync my flex 2 mere weeks after google buys them out.
  It doesn't even have a screen, why do you need a location?

I’m an iPhone person because of reasons, but I honestly think Pixel phones are the best Android devices I’ve ever seen.

Android is still great. The Pixel phone is the best Android phone by several metrics. Usability and Camera come to mind. Android TV is by far the best TV interface. Just because it's sideloadable and decently usable. Low bar, but here we are.
Gboard is good. The pixel launcher is good enough to not bother switching off. The Google Home certainly turns my lights on and off. And as soon as Google opens RCS, I'm leaving Google Messages.
But that's the only Google stuff I use. And I'm thinking of switching to Graphene OS.
- Google won’t open it but Apple are working with GSMA to add the things Google made as proprietary extensions to RCS part of the RCS standard (such as encryption which isn’t in the standard).
- I like my Pixel phones, so I dunno what about it is supposed to be a joke?
  My 3a still works. Wish they wouldn't have removed the headphone jack from later models but the 7a has been fine.
  
  Yeah the pixel hardware is the only thing they make that I think is any good and I run graphene on mine
- I still miss swype. Gboard is usable but it doesn't compare for me.
- I'm imagining that I'd just use whatever grapheneos keyboard, or Florisboard, which I prefer for peck typing over Gboard.
  My only problem is finding a time to switch. I need my phone for work, so I need to sit down, backup my data, install GOS and restore, then spend like 5 hours learning the new systems. Things like sandboxing Google are nice until I'm lost in BFE without Google Maps or OSMand+ because I didn't properly set up.

Chromebooks are insanely locked down at schools. I got one on eBay for $40, installed linux, and now it can play Minecraft Java at 60 fps so that’s something.
- I really don't get the Chromebook complaint. It just needs to browse the internet, and a Chromebook is damn solid at that at a super reasonable price and are rugged as hell. Yeah I wish schools didn't hook into the g suite but like what, you want em on a windows machine to do the same things as on chrome os?
  
  My chromebook was so bloated with the schools proctoring software that it lagged on a Google doc
  Which is like half of the things purpose

- Wow, Gmail has ads? I never knew, because I have adblock. It's free, you know
- Hey
  Don't kink shame

Aside from Pixels, they've pretty much ruined all their products.
It sucks, because I actually like Google products, minus the gross privacy violations and ads. I used to pay for YT Premium.
- YouTube music/premium never grew on me. It simply wasn't as good as google play music. ( in my honest opinion )
  
  It's ok, and getting better. My big problem with it is (like you) that Google Play Music was incredible, so good, and they discontinued it in favor of the much worse and awkwardly named YouTube Music.
  Whoever convinced them to give up the branding of "Play Store, Play Music, Play Movies" should be drawn and quartered.
  
  I liked it but the fact that they stole our google play music purchases to replace it with a sub only service soured the experience quite a bit.
  
  I never really used it for YT Music. I don't like YT Music.
  I liked no ads + background playback on iOS and Android without having to go through hoops like using NewPipe/Revanced.
- Visual voicemail is broken on my Pixel, but that might be my carrier (Mint)
  BTW if anyone has a fix or a recommended app for visual voicemail please let me know
  
  Do what a normal person does. Let it fill up and you won't have to worry about it anymore.
  
  I remember Visual Voicemail being broken for me back when I used to use Mint as well.
  I switched to US Mobile on Verizon's network and it works perfectly fine.

They're the #1 in streaming. More people watch youtube on their TV's than Netflix
- Doesn't Youtube famously bleed money?
  
  No clue, but the question was what do they have that people like. People really really like youtube
  
  Not anymore lol. It used to, but they make a lot of money on youtube now.
- But they didn't invent that. They bought YouTube after it was already popular. The only thing they've done to the platform is put in more ads.
  
  YouTube launched in 2005 and was bought by Google in 2006. It has been a Google service for 95% of its existence. I'm pretty sure Google did other stuff in that 18 years than "put in more ads."
  
  Was that a qualifier? "What exactly does google have left that people like?" Youtube, they have youtube
  
  And destroying the rating system from points based, to thumps up and down relation, to thumps up only.

Google search is still better than bing, somehow. Gmail is good for signing up to stuff I don't want mailing my protonmail. Google maps is still genuinely useful. Youtube is, for now, still better than any alternative I know about. I don't see what's wrong with Pixel phones.
Don't get me wrong, google is evil now and I don't like it. But I don't know any better alternatives for those things. Mm, except gmail, I could replace that I guess but it's such a pain.
- Google Docs, Sheets, and Forms should also get a mention. People forget that before that the only way to work together on documents was a shared drive with file locking while 1 person can work on a file at a time, complicated and unpractical. There are still no massively adopted replacements for these (Or they're made by Microsoft, lol)

If/when they screw up gmail, I’m blacklisting Google for good, that’s gonna be such a goddamn pain to disentangle myself from.
- You should start now.
  
  Proton Mail FTW, until they are successful, then we move on.
- Email hosting is pretty cheap. Ive paid for email for a couple years now and use gmail for almost nothing except junkier things.
  
  It’s about the thousands of things you have your old gmail tied to. Yes I use forwarding to my new proton mail but sometimes it doesn’t work cause it went into spam or smh and I must open gmail.
  Sometimes also the icloud aliases stuff stops working and I don’t want my proton mail to be associated with too much ads so I again type the old mail…
  To be honest I was supposed to use proton but I use apple icloud aliases stuff most of the time because I don’t want to disclose my most important and secure email address on some trashy sites. So yeah that google switch didn’t work out all that good I guess I just changed the tech overlord. At least the new one didn’t want to monopolize the internet I guess

The UI for GMail is awful. Can't even follow conversations on my phone app. Just put that shit in order like Outlook does. Fuck.
- I dunno that Outlook redesign is fucking awful
  
  You know what I don't want when I search for an email Microsoft? I don't want your fucking suggestions about what I'm looking for.

The timeline got fucked when they killed Google Reader. That was Google's Harambe incident.
- Yeah Google never wanted RSS feeds to really be a thing.
  Edit: fixed link my bad
  
  Broken link
  
  Interesting read.. Ty

Honestly Google Drive works great as free storage (Though for large storage there's no guarantee they won't accidentally delete it, it's happened before).
And Google Suite is good enough if you can't be bothered to get Microsoft Office. Though they're forcing AI into it and have some weird quirks like being unable to copypaste external text with rightclick.
- Microsoft has free storage options too. As does Dropbox, et al.
  G Suite is actually pretty good all things considered but MS won the Office / Outlook / Excel wars ages ago. All big enterprises are running windows. That fight is over so long as MS doesn't bungle Windows11 too badly.
  
  Gmail and Google drive are far easier to use than Outlook and OneDrive. Not saying they’re good things for the world but those products haven’t been fried yet.
- May I ask what Google Drive has that other free cloud storage things don't? As in what makes it work great?
  
  I'd say convenience and shareability. I come across far more dead Dropbox links than dead Google Drive links.
  And Onedrive is further down in enshittification than Drive. Like windows relentlessly trying to reenable and reinstall without permission.
  Overall I like it cause it's just there and works. But I wholeheartedly would not recommend it for business applications (without backups at least). There have been instances of companies data just getting deleted or randomly banned from their google account.
  In essence, I would not pay for upgraded storage.
- I think the reason they're hostile to copy past I g is so that it doesn't work on mobile.
- They will enshitify it by forcing you to watch adds on YouTube to get an access code to retrieve your files

Google has become Microsoft 2.0 where everything (consumer facing) they touch turns into shit.
- The problem is how microsoft doesn't want to lose the title as shittiest software company, that shit about copilot is absolute distopian nightmare fuel.
  Even orwell would be like; "wow wow wow, thats to far". At least we could say we were in a "happy world", now this shit (USA, EU) is north korea ccp edition 2.0, redux.

They are the IMO most supported Single-Sign-On provider. I think Facebook, which I don't even have, was mostly for games, and then apple also isn't an option, and that's just it besides using firefox' built in password manager for another email/password combination. What's your opinion on log in providers?
- The era of random apps trying to post on my wall made me never use Facebook for sign on. Well that, and Facebook

My latest day-job employer has made the switch from Apples (and s20fe) to pixels. The staff - mainly nerds - is actually generally pleased with the switch.
If the embarrassment that is Purolator (our national postal service offshoot courier 'service') was adequate last week, not only would they break a 20-year streak but also I'd've had my shiny company pixel by now and could pepsi-challenge it against my wife's shiny new company iphone.
- Yeah pixels are awesome. Call screening is my favorite feature. Someone calls and my robot assistant asks why they're calling, and then I get a real time transcript of who they are and why they're calling and I get to decide whether or not I pick up.
  
  Pixels are awesome. Mostly cuz i can remove google from them.
  
  I hate call screening. I never activate it on purpose, the phone's screen decides to wake up while it's still in my pocket and let my thigh press the button for some reason. Then I pull the phone out of my pocket, look at the caller ID, and see that a robot is screening an important call from my boss, and the button to actually answer the call is greyed out until the robot is done harassing my boss. Or my doctor, or my therapist, or my bank. I've had important people I was expecting a call from hang up because they reached a robot instead of me and assumed it was a wrong number. It's a terrible first impression to make when I've applied for a job and this robot decides to harass my potential new boss.
  If they made the call screening button a slider, it would reduce the butt presses by 90%

Kind of like Microsoft then. They buy up or spend money trying to break into all kinds of different areas but consistently take bad L's and get pushed back to their core business time and again after face-planting and alienating those who gave them a shot.

Mate, I haven't forgiven them for google reader.
They killed my boy.
- Inbox for me. I still manage my email the way that Inbox taught me to do it, but it just isn’t the same.

https://xkcd.com/1361/
't was just a matter of time.
- Even that's being toppled by 1.1.1.1

Bring back Google Wave, goddammit!
- That thing was killer. I used it throughout university with my classmates to build the best notebook covering all our lectures, tutorials, etc. We had a habit of dropping in polls for distant sections so we could decide which notes were best to keep etc or needed more work, etc.
  Docs is so weak in comparison.

Not even gmail.. They turned that to shit years ago.
- All it should be is a goddamn mailbox. Instead it's now an ad-fueling chunk of spyware that has fucking social media bullshit built into it. I started paying for Proton and have been emptying my Google crap
- I still miss inbox :(

What have Google developed inhouse that’s good since Gmail?
Android and YouTube were both acquisitions.
- Hm, 8.8.8.8? That was 5 years after Gmail.
  Docs, Sheets, and Slides were all acquisitions. I guess Drive and Forms are good.
  
  1.1.1.1 gang represent.
- Once upon a time, search. Those days are long past.

Google has one of the biggest data/ad empires on the planet and is doing just fine lol
- I think that's part of the reason they tend to fail in other areas: it's just not important enough to them except for the data it generates for thier ads.
  
  Honestly I think they just have so much money they can run projects that most companies wouldn't take the risk on.
- Not only that, all these failed/terminated google services collected huge amounts of data. They were able to analyze that data and make ridiculous conclusions about human behavior. Whether those services are functioning or not anymore, they still learned what they learned. For companies and governments that want to manipulate populations, that is the most valuable product that exists.

I don't feel like Chromebooks are all that bad. Especially if the other option is limited capacity computer rooms. I imagine the restrictions of a Chromebook would be similar to the limitations imposed by the IT department.
- It's good if you need to protect and restrict a large group of computer illiterate people with low needs for applications or power.
- I agree, rather than a few of us having it good, we should all have it shit

I've been using Google voice for almost 20 years it's wonderful
- Mine kept deleting my numbers and I gave up at some point. It was great, a decade ago
  
  Personally I've had the same number for years and it's the one I give out, but as an IT professional I definitely know individual experiences vary. The main issue has been the few texting stuff that doesn't support it. Like ubereats, which I guess doesn't matter since I stopped using them a while ago, but there are others.

Gmail is ass. Dump it.
- For what?
  
  Proton’s got a whole suite including mail.
  It’s been getting prettier and better. Encourage those with disposable income to give them a little money (for some bells and whistles) - privacy, good-for-tech/world, & vibes are all there.
  
  Proton Mail
- What do you recommend? Genuine question. I tried hosting my own email and eventually its just... It's too much. Like everything rejects you out of hand because your email servers aren't known. I could do more research and maybe figure that hurdle out but there does end up being an upper bar of effort.
  I tried proton mail, but it's not great. How is Yahoo or other large email providers?
  
  Take a look at Port87. They have an interesting system. https://port87.com/

Don't tell them about Gmail, they forgot ruining it. Don't wake sleeping dogs.
- I don't want to advertise but I am on Tutanota and their plans seem fair. If you're not the product then you have to pay something etc.
  Don't know if this is bulletproof but I just need a regular email provider with no bull shit. The end to end stuff is not even that important for me on a daily basis.
- They are too busy reading every email to profile you for ads and authoritarian purposes to do that.
- Its already ruined! Time to move to Protonmail.

Have you not seen the corpse that is Google hangouts still attached to Gmail? Google died with inbox and I hope they go under after just barely giving back to open source projects they profited off of.
- RIP Inbox. Shortwave just isn't the same.

Wasn't it Garfield mail a long time ago? Anyways don't forget to back your stuff up
- Yeah, but that was over 20 years ago
  
  Yea, I've had mine since I was 4, I'm 26 now

Let's not pretend like google does not have a monopoly on search engines, maps, and shortform video content. Also, their cloud ecosystem might be second behind AWS, but it's still fucking enormous and makes them truckloads of money.
- Third. It goes AWS, with about 50% of the market, Azure with around 40%, and then GCP
  
  Given that Amazon, Microsoft, and Google together only account for 64% of global cloud hosting, I'm going to say those numbers don't add up. But you are right that Google is third behind the other two.
- As someone who routinely argues that Steam has a de facto monopoly... Google does not have a monopoly on search. Bing / DuckDuckGo works just fine. Especially now that Google's completely fucked their own results.
  
  Google does not have a monopoly on search. Bing / DuckDuckGo works just fine.
  Around 82% of search engine requests are issued through Google. Bing around 10%. I don't know if we just have differing definitions of "monopoly," but Google is the default on all Android devices, almost every non-Microsoft browser, and probably on Apple products as well. And most users don't know enough or care enough to ever change from that.
  
  Also, a huge chunk of shortform videos on YouTube are just reposted Tiktok videos, so Google doesn't have that either
- It's actually 3rd. I think you're forgetting about how massive azure is

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification

Don’t forget the investment into Israel despite the protests of the workers

How has Fitbit been killed?
- Recent sauce: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/06/googles-abuse-of-fitbit-continues-with-web-app-shutdown/
  TL:DR they shut down the far more powerful web app to force everyone into the phone app which is buggy as heck and missing many features compared to the web app
- I'm curious about this too. I really don't like the material redesign of the app but it didn't kill fitbit for me.
  
  I never had it before the redesign, so I can't comment on that. I will say that I know they ditched the coach guided programs, which seems like a terrible change, and the main reason I'm not keeping Premium. But it's still a very useful fitness tracker.

Any info on the SEO lying point? I haven't heard about that.
- https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/29/24167407/google-search-algorithm-documents-leak-confirmation

wait Fitbit was killed off?

As discussed. [Gamers Nexus/Level1 re Google]

Ads appearing as messages in the inbox? Pretty sure Gmail is on the way out too.

Hmm. People still use yahoo mail, so maybe you are on to something here.

It's not a question of liking, but not having a choice.
- Luckily, there is a choice! All google services have a FOSS alternative. If you want to completely degoogle yourself, it's a long process that takes dedication, but any amount is liberating. You are literally taking back your freedom!

What exactly does Google have left that people like? Gmail?
Nope, not GMail either, even GMail has ads now.
- Yeah I've been migrating away steadily. And what a shame! Now Google don't get to use my emails to train their shit AI.