I have been slowly degoogling my life by reducing my use of Google apps and switching to FOSS alternatives. I recently created a Proton account and tried to keep it completely isolated from my default Google account so as to not let it know what my Proton mail identity is. I have finished my transition in my desktop to the best of my ability and am planning to start the same with my mobile. The only thing I have done in my Android phone related to Proton is having downloaded ProtonVPN and signed into my account within the app. However I fear by downloading ProtonMail and signing into it, my Android phone would identify the email account, which could make this entire transition useless. Is there a way to avoid this situation or has the damage already been done. What does Google know about my Proton account, if at all?
I’m sorry, but I do not have the time, experience or knowledge to set up custom ROMs in my device at the moment.
Then it’s literally impossible because you can’t compleatly degoogle your phone without custom rom. Else they know which apps you have installed and for how long you use them and even have access to notifications.
you can degoogle without a custom rom
Then my friend you can’t remove Google from your device. Only vanilla roms without any google shenanigans is your way to go.
Doesn’t even vanilla AOSP or what it’s called still phone home to Google for time, internet-check, cage-checks etc? I think you’d need Graphene (only available on Google hardware (Pixel) 👌) or another custom ROM (or do a lot of firewalling on vanilla / Lineage etc) to really be free of Google (if that’s even possible).
A easy workaround might be to use work profile using Island. But I don’t know how effective it is.
Island has been deprecated by Insular, with Shelter as another option (that people say is better).