Re: Why does Thunderbird on Windows NOT create a Google Account but Oauth2 on Android does?

[Andy Burnelli]

Dirk T. Verbeek wrote:

>> Essentially, your Android phone works _better_ without the Google Account.
>
> Interesting, thanks.

Since I care that people get good technical actionable responses, I'll add
more to that response so that others can benefit from my years of
experience operating an Android phone without a mothership tracking
account.

For many years and many Android phones and Android versions I've _not_ had
a Google Account on my phone, and my phone works just fine without it.

In the very beginning, when I was rooted on a Samsung Galaxy S3, I
_removed_ the Google Account; but now I simply set up any new phone by
_skipping_ the Account-Creation step.

The phone works fine without a Google Account set up on the phone, even if
you happen to use a Google email address.

Most Google apps don't need a login, e.g., Chrome & the Phone & Messenger
apps, but each of those already has perfectly suitable 1:1 replacements.

For example, I disable the default Chrome browser & use ungoogled chromium:
<https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium-android/>
And, in that case, there's no ill effect whatsoever not using Chrome.

But not having a Google Account on the phone does necessitate substitution
of some of the Google Apps with suitable 1:1 non-Google replacements since
some apps _create_ a mothership tracking account the instant you log into
them!

For example, the GMail app _creates_ the mothership-tracking account the
instant you log into it; so you simply need to select a non-Google MUA
replacement app (of which there are plenty).
<https://f-droid.org/en/packages/eu.faircode.email/>
Which you can use with an number of 2SV/2FA/MSV/MFA authentication methods.

As another example, logging into Google Play Store also _creates_ a
mothership tracking account on the phone; but luckily, the FOSS Google Play
Store client is everything that the Google Play Store app is, and more.
<https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.aurora.store/>

There are _plenty_ of Google apps that do NOT require a login to work
though, such as the Google Maps app, although they have recently removed
the offline maps functionality from that Google Maps app if you don't log
into it (which isn't a big deal given the plethora of offline nav apps).
<https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.osmand.plus/>

As with Google Maps though, some Google apps have more functionality if you
log into them, such as YouTube (where you can subscribe if you log into
them); but the FOSS YouTube clients (e.g., NewPipe) allow you to do that
with an anonymous account that works just fine for me.
<https://newpipe.net/>
<https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.schabi.newpipe/>

There is at least one Google app which requires a login for its main
functionality, _and_ which has no 1:1 replacement... which is Google Voice,
but some of what Google Voice does can be replaced with other VOIP apps.
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.googlevoice>

But other than Google Voice, it's easy to find 1:1 replacements for any
Google app which requires a mothership account for its main functionality.
--
Posted out of the goodness of my heart to disseminate useful information.