Comment by lucideer 4 days ago
Android doesn't do this. Everything is opt-in.
Granted they require you to opt-in in order for the photos app to be usable & if you go out of your way to avoid opting in they make your photo-browsing life miserable with prompts & notifications. But you do still have to opt-in.
> Google loves doing this.
Tech companies love doing this. Apple does the same, so does Microsoft.
If you know some choice isn't right for you (now or forever), the company is feeling extra beautiful today, and you're in luck, you'll get a "Do this now, or I'll remind you later" choice. But then sometimes they just decide that "This is how things are now".
I've had this happen in every environment except Linux, where I get to shoot myself in the foot whenever I want, and sometimes a bit more.
It says it's "opt in" but as someone who hasn't opted in, I still get the notifications and I can see a split second preview of all the stuff they're not supposed to have computed before it asks me to opt in. So there's DEFINITELY shenanigans ocurring.
A number of good third-party photo-browsing apps make it non-miserable, even if you never open Google Photos or even uninstall it.
I've seen a lot of people saying this generally but no specific recommendations.
I've used Simple Gallery Pro before but it's not very good.
Currently using Immich but that's not really a general photo app - it's got a narrow use case - so I still use the Google Photos app alongside it quite often.
Specific alternative recommendations that aren't malware welcome.
you might want to look into fossify.org as simple tools(of which simple gallery pro was a part of) has been sold to an israeli adware company.
see: https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/General-Discussion/issu...
I'm really happy with Immich & not looking for a replacement. Evaluated it vs Ente in the past & went with it instead - as far as I could tell their apps have the same features & limitations (focus on remote backup & display rather than on local on-device photo management & basic markup/editing).
If (like me) you don't need e2e I can highly recommend Immich for its use-case though.
i use aves[1] which has many features. especially useful if you travel and take pictures a lot.
Google loves doing this.
If you dare turn off Play Protect for example, you will be asked to turn it on every time you install or update anything. Never mind that you said no the last thousand times it asked.