Carson writes...

Hey Chris and Alex,

Regarding that de-Googlifying challenge posed on the show last week, I've been without Google services (except YouTube) for about 4-5 years now. Like Brent, most of it is powered by Nextcloud (calendar, contacts, file sync, etc.) but I'm writing to tell you about what I found works best for me in the maps category, since that seemed to be what you guys were struggling with the most.

I have an Android phone, so Apple Maps wasn't an option for me. I also run LineageOS without any sort of GApps package (I'm a masochist, I know), so I can't even cheat and use Google Maps. I've given OsmAnd~ (https://osmand.net/) a shot in the past, and while it's a free and open source option that uses the incredible OpenStreetMap, it was very hard to find anything by typing in an actual address (searching by name worked okay though, which seems backwards to me), and the navigation experience was less than ideal, mainly because I couldn't get TTS to work.

What I settled on and have been using for years is HERE Maps (https://wego.here.com). It was originally developed by Nokia, but has since been sold off and is owned by some German automotive company consortium. It's not open source, but it's a nice free option that does what I need it to. I can enter addresses or search for locations by name, the navigation experience does what I need it to do, and the maps are fairly accurate and complete, with regular updates. It also one-ups Google Maps by allowing you to download whole regions (states, countries, or even entire continents, if you have the space) for offline use, and as a Ting customer (thanks for the recommendation BTW, been on it since ~2014), that makes me very happy since I don't have to use data while navigating. I think Google Maps can also allow for offline use, but last time I tried it out you could just download a certain on-screen area at a certain zoom level. You can also opt-out of traffic tracking in HERE maps, so you can go 100% offline, for the truly privacy-conscious.

Their app is available for both on iOS (https://apps.apple.com/app/id955837609) and Android (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.here.app.maps) (I get mine through Aurora Store, another great tool for de-Googling if you go that far).

I hope that helps out! Keep up the great content, and good luck with your de-Googlification! Brent was spot on about feeling more liberated; it's really nice to be able to just plug my stuff in anywhere, and know that it's all on my own hardware and storage.