I switched to indie apps for privacy, and now my workflow is a mess

I simply needed to ship a file from my Android phone to my Home windows 11 PC. It ought to have been straightforward, however I had de-Googled my life, and abruptly, I used to be caught. Fast Share was gone. Google Drive wasn’t an possibility. Docs and Maintain have been additionally out of the image. My new setup relied on a handful of indie instruments, and so they weren’t cooperating. Microsoft’s Phone Link wasn’t working (once more), and my Canadian cloud service was as gradual as molasses.

It was at that second I noticed escaping Large Tech solely sounds good in concept. The apply turned out to be rather more tough than it ought to have been. Right here’s what I discovered attempting to stay a Large Tech-free life, and why I’m nonetheless selecting up the items.

I’ve grown uninterested in handing over my knowledge to monumental monopolies that deal with me like a product. Google reads my emails, Fb tracks me throughout the web, and Amazon is at all times spying on me.

I didn’t need that anymore. I needed to assist impartial builders constructing considerate, purposeful software program. I didn’t wish to be a part of an algorithm or a data-scraping scheme for AI. So I set some floor guidelines for my new digital life.

I used to be on the lookout for apps that weren’t US or Chinese language-owned. If there was an app within the US that I completely wanted, then it ought to be a nonprofit, like Firefox. If it was Canadian, my dwelling turf, it jumped to the highest of the listing, however Australian and European apps have been high-quality. Large Tech was an instantaneous no.

Right here’s what I ended up utilizing:

• Sync as an alternative of Google Drive
• Obsidian as an alternative of Maintain
• ToDoist as an alternative of Duties
• Elemental as an alternative of chats
• Kobo as an alternative of Kindle
• VLC as an alternative of YouTube Music
• Firefox as an alternative of Chrome
• Ecosia as an alternative of Google Search
• Fastmail as an alternative of Gmail

I didn’t count on perfection, however I hoped I might construct a contemporary, and personal, workflow that did 90% of what I used to do. What I ended up with was a fragmented, friction-filled expertise that price me some huge cash and precious time.

I went with Fastmail to exchange Gmail. This can be a quick and clear e mail service from Australia. It’s personal, it handles e mail in addition to Gmail, and it comes with a collection of instruments included within the annual $50 charge. I ended up falling in love with Fastmail, and it has fully changed all different emails in my life. I want I might say the identical for Sync. This can be a Canadian cloud storage service with robust encryption and no monitoring. It felt good ethically, however virtually, I discovered it gradual and clunky. File uploads from my Android took perpetually to seem on my PC, and the cell app seems dated.

I swapped out YouTube Music for my very own MP3 and FLAC information, saved regionally on my telephone. It felt good to return to the previous iPod days, and VLC has a stable music participant that may deal with just about any music file. I personal 1000’s of tracks from the previous days, and it felt liberating to cease renting my music from Large Tech. My change to Kobo was comparable, though now I used to be shopping for my ebooks from Indigo, Canada’s largest bookstore, as an alternative of Amazon.

Obsidian grew to become my substitute for Keep and Docs, and it was not enjoyable. Obsidian is highly effective on desktop, however gradual on cell. I by no means favored the way it appeared or felt. Whereas it received the job accomplished, there was at all times one thing lacking. I attempted the plugins, learn the boards, and watched the movies, however in the long run, I ended up by no means utilizing it. ToDoist, then again, has at all times been a pleasure to make use of, and I’ll proceed utilizing it till the day they take my Android from my palms.

I ended up falling in love with Firefox. Then, its house owners determined to alter the phrases and declared possession over every part I did within the app. I shopped round for a substitute and settled on Vivaldi, albeit reluctantly. Chromium nonetheless has Google’s palms throughout it, in any case.

The largest failure was messaging. I experimented with Ingredient, a decentralized, encrypted platform constructed with the Matrix protocol. It appeared like an awesome concept, however setting it up is a ache. In the end, getting anybody else to make use of it’s unattainable. Good luck explaining decentralized protocols to my mother. She’s high-quality with Messenger.

Every thing felt disjointed and not using a unified ecosystem. Notifications have been delayed, or didn’t arrive in any respect. I’d create a job in ToDoist nevertheless it wouldn’t present up in my Fastmail calendar. Saving a file from Fastmail to Sync meant first manually downloading the file, then re-uploading it. No drag-and-drop, no auto-sync. Even copying a hyperlink from Obsidian into an e mail felt like extra work than it ought to be.

The monetary price alone proved to be complicated. I subbed to ToDoist, Fastmail, Obsidian sync, and Sync.com. None have been outrageous on their very own, however each added up. I used to be nonetheless paying a lot, and for a messier expertise.

That mentioned, I did acquire some privateness and was in a position to assist firms I believed in. However that easy, invisible infrastructure that makes instruments really feel like extensions of my mind was lacking, and it wasn’t any cheaper.

Large tech will get one factor undeniably proper: integration. For all its flaws, every part simply works. You don’t typically discover how easily information sync throughout gadgets, emails hyperlink on to calendars, and messages movement to their recipient. Duties seem on calendars whereas attachments can save on to Google Drive or OneNote. This comfort is invisible till it’s gone.

There’s additionally a form of cognitive reduction that comes from utilizing an ecosystem designed to carry your complete digital life. You don’t need to juggle instruments or rewire your mind each time you turn duties. Google, Apple, and Microsoft have spent years constructing methods that anticipate what you’ll want subsequent. It’s an expertise most indie apps simply can’t match.

I’m not strolling away from every part. Fastmail is staying, as is ToDoist. These are two stable apps price each penny. I’m sticking with Vivaldi for now, utilizing Ecosia as my search engine. I’m additionally sticking with native music information, and even arrange a Plex server to stream movies and music from my PC to my Apple TV 4K. It simply works. I’ll preserve Kobo, for now. I ditched every part else and went crawling again to Google. Maintain is great, and Google Drive has no equal.

What I’ve discovered is there is no such thing as a such factor as a clear break when going indie. I do know Proton is constructing its personal ecosystem, with a easy single charge. I could attempt it subsequent. Within the meantime, it’s arduous to beat how good the large tech ecosystems makes every part really feel.