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Is gmail the easiest Google service to replace or what? (bookwormstory.social)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Gmail is an email service. Like the fediverse, email is federated.

By changing your email provider, do you really lose anything? You can still contact your friends, contacts and even various customer suports. You also can recieve emails from popular social media apps. If you degoogle from atleast one Google app, maybe Gmail could be the easiest and least life changing one.

While, Youtube could easilly be one of the most difficult to degoogle from. Not like literally but emotionally. Like deep down you know you can find mostly all you might need on something like Peertube but not all the entertainment media like on Youtube. You will also become a social outcast if peertube is the only app you use. You might not understand channels people mention in day to day talk from youtube or references.

If you use exclusively fediverse apps and sites, Chrome could be almost just as easy to replace as gmail, longterm. However If you use Youtube it won't surprise me that Youtube downgrades your performance and user experience in what ever means neccesary on competing browsers.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Gmail is just one interface in the Google ecosystem. Docs, Photos, Drive, Calendar, etc. etc. are all integrated into Gmail.

Also if you haven't tried to change your email in 2023, it's a fucking giant pain in the ass. Companies simply dont even consider that anyone will want to do that.

I have had companies that refuse to change it. I've had companies where I change it and some emails go to the new address and some to the old, with no apparent way to update it. I've had people continue to send it to the old address despite being reminded several times and also asking them repeatedly to delete it. I've had companies outright refuse to change my email address to the extent that I had to cancel my account and create a new one.

Youtube could easilly be one of the most difficult to degoogle from

Hard disagree. That's the easiest. Just switch to LibreTube, FreeTube and/or or GrayJay. Boom, done.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And you don't need an account on YouTube to watch content there. NewPipe works just fine for me without an account, so not only do I not get ads, I also get no tracking and still get the content I want.

Changing my email on the dozens of services I use is a giant pain in the butt. I'm planning to ditch my Gmail account, but it'll involve a transition period where I set up a bunch of forwards so I don't miss stuff.

The most difficult one for me is Google Docs because I use a lot of Google-specific spreadsheet stuff, like Tiller integration (I don't use Excel) and stock price lookups.

So other than Google Sheets and Gmail, I honestly don't use my Google account for anything important.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

There is a way to create a Google account with an external email address. If you don't have anything tied to your Google original account, it could be a way to access Google tools.

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