[Lansing2002]

But the person that steals my identity, steals that also. [And with your individuality and freedom] .. they score a trifecta

You can get back your credit card with a new card. And replace - with some pain - any other physical item whether it be a Laptop or phone or whatever. It may take weeks (or months) to replace everything, but for the most part, almost everything can be replaced.

Freedom is somewhat difficult to get back, and that swing of the pendulum takes more than weeks or months.

Individuality - once it's out there - there's no turning that clock back. The best you can hope for, is to fool or slow down future oversight.
.

[johnb_xp]

You can use Yalp store instead of Play Store to get apks from Play Store without Play Services. Also, All F-Droid apps don't require Play Services.

[mvsalvino]

For anyone still trying to de-google, or re-create the BB10 experience, I just discovered a new app: Dragon Assistant.

The Google assistant is terrible in my opinion - the assistant on BB10 was much better. You could simply tell it to do things and it would do it. Call somebody, send a text and dictate message, get directions, etc. Simple.

The Dragon assistant is almost identical to the BB10 assistant in functionality. And it works with your apps of choice rather than forcing Google apps on you. For example, I use Yaata sms and Here maps, and it works great with both.

[CharlesBirch15]

Where be dragons. I have been looking for something to take the place of the excellent BlackBerry butler for ages where is dragon assistant available.

[mvsalvino]

Where be dragons. I have been looking for something to take the place of the excellent BlackBerry butler for ages where is dragon assistant available.

Google play store. It is produced by Nuance, which I think is the same company that powered BB10 assistant.

[chetmanley]

Heads up Oreo users: Looks like google is forcing the use of Google Play Services in order to display your gps position in google maps.

Was surprised to find my Key2 wasn't showing my position in Google Maps, but was fine in Here Maps.

Tracked it down to Google Play Services. The second I re-enabled it, and restarted google maps, my gps position popped right up.

Very Very disappointing.

That said, Netguard can still be used to block all Google Play Service traffic - and there is alot. Sadly, this means decreased battery life because not only is Google Play working to get that connection, netguard now has to block it.

[Drg84]

Have you considered installing an older APK of Google maps? I did that on my passport and it works fine.

[chetmanley]

@Drg84

Affirm, no change. In fact, I have the exact same version running on my Priv and Key1 (both without google play services) and there is no issue.

This leads me to believe its Oreo and I'm worried the same limitation will appear on the Key1 once it gets Oreo also.

[johnsliderbb]

@Drg84

Affirm, no change. In fact, I have the exact same version running on my Priv and Key1 (both without google play services) and there is no issue.

This leads me to believe its Oreo and I'm worried the same limitation will appear on the Key1 once it gets Oreo also.

Which version are you running? Just curious as both on Priv and K1black is doesnt run well for me.

[mvsalvino]

Heads up Oreo users: Looks like google is forcing the use of Google Play Services in order to display your gps position in google maps.

Was surprised to find my Key2 wasn't showing my position in Google Maps, but was fine in Here Maps.

Tracked it down to Google Play Services. The second I re-enabled it, and restarted google maps, my gps position popped right up.

Very Very disappointing.

That said, Netguard can still be used to block all Google Play Service traffic - and there is alot. Sadly, this means decreased battery life because not only is Google Play working to get that connection, netguard now has to block it.

Solution is to use Here maps I have been using it for at least 6 months and it works much better than Google maps if your primary use is navigation.

[chetmanley]

Which version are you running? Just curious as both on Priv and K1black is doesnt run well for me.

I keep them updated with the latest version. Seems to run okay for me on those devices.

[Tim-ANC]

Solution is to use Here maps I have been using it for at least 6 months and it works much better than Google maps if your primary use is navigation.

I use Genius Maps which is based on Here. Can't beat it for offline content. I don't think I've ever used gmaps.

[chetmanley]

Looks like this is a Key2 issue only.

Just installed Oreo on my Bell Keyone. Google Maps has no issue getting a location with all other Google Apps disabled.

I'm noticing a number of subtle differences between Oreo on the Key1 and 2 in terms of system apps and services.

[chetmanley]

Key2 is running Google Play Services version 12.6.89 while Key1 Oreo is running 12.5.29.

Not sure if this difference in google play services software is the culprit.

Edit: Ran a test by updating both the key1 and the key2 to the latest version of Google Play Services.

No change. Key2 still wont show GPS position in google maps, but the Key1 does, regardless of version.

Both are running the same version of Google Maps, so something else is going on.

[Tim-ANC]

Key2 is running Google Play Services version 12.6.89 while Key1 Oreo is running 12.5.29.

Not sure if this difference in google play services software is the culprit.

Edit: Ran a test by updating both the key1 and the key2 to the latest version of Google Play Services.

No change. Key2 still wont show GPS position in google maps, but the Key1 does, regardless of version.

Both are running the same version of Google Maps, so something else is going on.

Possibly a problem with your GPS reception on your K2. Can you get a fix on other map apps with mobile and WiFi reception off?

[chetmanley]

Possibly a problem with your GPS reception on your K2. Can you get a fix on other map apps with mobile and WiFi reception off?

I wish that were the case, and a replacement device would fix it. But I've confirmed that location works fine in Here Maps, and the second Google Play Services is re-activated, and google maps is restarted, the location appears.

So there is definitely something going on between Google Play Services and Google Maps behind the scenes on the Key2.

But for some reason, this is not happening on the Key1 with Oreo.

The only difference I see is that the pre-loaded version of Google Play Services is different between the phones. So maybe when Google Maps is looking for Google Play Services, it has been programmed to deny location if it finds a certain (newer) version of Google Play that has been disabled.

If Blackberry can release an update to the Key2 that rolls back the default Google Play Services version to the same or lower as the Key1, then we can find out for sure.


Also, if someone else can try this on their Key2 to confirm the issue, that would be great to know.

[skkayman]

On KE2LE I cannot even disable Google Play Services .

[chetmanley]

On KE2LE I cannot even disable Google Play Services .

Did you deactivate google's 'Find my Device' device administrator first? If you dont, you cant disable google play services.

[skkayman]

Did you deactivate google's 'Find my Device' device administrator first? If you dont, you cant disable google play services.

I did now, still cannot disable it. Everything with Google name is disable, but GPS cannot be disabled. There must be something holding it like 'Find my Device'..

EDIT: I just disabled GPS! I deactivated wrong Find my device .

[chileverde]

Many thanks to chetmanley, gorv harsh, and others who have posted here. Good to know how I can use my new KEYone with minimal "phoning home" to Google. (I expect it's impossible to eliminate all data mining by Google.)

[wiz9]

That's all very interesting. Although, what are you going to do about the latest BB app updates, such as Calendar, Hub, BB Launcher, etc? Can you get those from other sources as well?

I understand your reason for doing this. I almost did something similar, but did not go as far. I setup my K1 with a non-gmail account - something that many people are not aware is possible. Secondly, I dove into every Google privacy option I could find and disabled it.

They "seem" to be getting better at transparency. You can now see the information they store about you and make decisions regarding what data you allow them to collect. Do I believe it all? Of course not, but I did whatever I could.

I knew it was possible to not usre a gmail... however what is the difference and/or benefit?

[chileverde]

I have discovered that, unfortunately, some apps I want to run require having Google Play Store installed in order to run. I purchased a Family Pack license for OfficeSuite. I purchased it on the Mobisystems website, not on GPS. I downloaded it from Yalp Store. But on one of the phones I was not able to upgrade from the free version to premium, even though I had created an OfficeSuite account for that user and logged in. Tech support sent an activation code, but whenever I tried typing it in, the activation process hung. I tried various other fixes: I finally discovered on my own that the problem was that I had disabled Google Play Store and Services on the phone. Once I reinstalled them, I had not problem activating the Premium version.

It's too bad that so many companies require either paying through GPS or having GPS installed in order to use their aps. I tried the Amazon App Store in a few cases, but I have found instances (including the OfficeSuite Font Pack) where the version available on Amazon is older than what is available on GPS or Yalp Store. (I still see Web articles suggesting Amazon as an alternative to GPS, and none has mentioned the issue of old versions. Of course, Amazon is another Big Data company, so it is not much of a solution, anyway.)

[Rootbrian]

Curious if the key2/LE was de-googled? Five days battery life?

Submitted via blackberry passport on freedom mobile HSPA+ or LTE

[chetmanley]

Curious if the key2/LE was de-googled? Five days battery life?

Submitted via blackberry passport on freedom mobile HSPA+ or LTE

10 at least.

Thus far one of the largest battery draws I have is due to Signal Messenger. Without Google Play Services to take care of message retrieval, it runs its own background service which draws a lot of power.

[danfrancisco]

I've been lurking in this thread and I think I'm gonna give this a shot. I'll try it with my KEYone Bronze Edition to see how it goes.

Just to clarify (and sorry if this has already been addressed in the thread), pictures that I take will not get synced to my Google Photos account right? Is there a way to sync them without Google Services short of manually transferring files from the SD card?