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What are the must-do changes that you've made to your Pixel? (lemmy.world)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by AlmightySnoo@lemmy.world to c/googlepixel@lemmy.world

31 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Physical changes are also welcome, so things like skins, cases, screen protections etc... are fine to discuss.

For me, in this order:

Wi-Fi calling: it was very surprising that this was not on by default, and enabling it helped a bit with the battery life on my Pixel 7a;
Try custom launchers: I was happy with the phone but the very first annoying thing is the damn Google search bar and how there was no way to just hide it like any other widget. So I ended up installing KISS Launcher (it's FOSS and still maintained);
Bite the bullet and install GrapheneOS: you get more security, sandboxed Play Services, a more fine-grained permissions system and you can still install the default Pixel apps from the Play Store while cutting off their internet access, and most importantly you get rid of the Google bar (also enabled Wi-Fi calling as previously done).

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[–] wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 12 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Use Insular to create distinct personal and work environments.

Install Silence from f-droid to screen phone calls, and completely stop spam calls in their tracks.

[–] kib48@lemm.ee 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I do the first thing but with Shelter instead, does Insular do anything better/different?

[–] wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 10 months ago

Honestly not sure. I do know Insular is a fork of Island. Not sure if Shelter shares that lineage.

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

not sure if this table is up to date but it has a comparison: https://secure-system.gitlab.io/Insular/faq.html

[–] kib48@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

oh thank you

[–] AlmightySnoo@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Silence seems cool but it looks like it hasn't gotten an update since August 2019?

[–] wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 10 months ago

I don't think there's much to update, to be honest. It just works, and has a solid set of basic features. The UI leaves a little to be desired, but isn't a deal breaker for me, because you basically set it and forget it.