I know, I know, it’s a borderline blasphemous statement to say, but it’s something I’ve been considering for a little while, and today is one of those days when I remember I have a site dedicated to my thoughts. Who knew.
Over the last six months or so, I have comprehensively stripped Google and other Big Tech products out of my life as much as I could — photos, email, search, messaging, note-taking and storage, navigation, DNS, passwords, and more besides. As I went through, a pattern became visible, which was that I would delete a Google service, and then realise I needed to replicate their services. So I looked for other, more privacy-conscious providers. If I couldn’t find a suitable one that combined security and convenience adequately, I’d end up hosting the solution myself on my own server. Now, I’m at the stage where a lot of the apps on my phone or computer are entirely interchangeable; they all just read the protocols coming from my server. Which leads me now to this question: do I start using Google apps again, but this time with me in control, not the Googleplex.
So let’s get into the details, and it starts with my contacts. Google Contacts was the first victim of my de-Googling, and was replaced by Fossify Contacts and at first, on-device storage, and then later a CardDAV sync to my phone. The Fossify client is functional, the UI is modern and doesn’t come from the early 2010s, and it nicely integrates with the Android operating system. Well, almost integrates well… There’s just one issue.
I can’t add images to contacts, unless I go through the Fossify Contacts app. If I use the native image picker, or another gallery app, it doesn’t interact and the picker fails, stating “no compatible app found.”
It’s a very petty issue, really, and the solution is simple: use Fossify Gallery alongside Contacts. The Gallery app is just as good as most others, on a utility front as well as privacy. But to me, this shows exactly the same issue as I have with Google — not privacy, but lock-in. Google Photos, Contacts, and other services made me use the Google hosted provider, and made it quite hard to stop that. Fossify may be private, but is it worth it at the expense of having my software once again dictated to me?
So this morning, I was looking for other client apps for Android that do contacts management. Normally, anything with Google in the title is excluded automatically, on a kind of tribalistic “Google = bad” kind of standpoint. But knowing that regardless of whichever client I use, my .vcf files themselves are stored on my own hardware, no one else’s. So does Google re-enter contention on its merit as a client app, not a hosted provider?
The answer is yes, and no. On the face of it, GContacts is a easy, reliable app built by the world’s most powerful company. It boasts unique features like contact categories, notifications for important dates, and contact de-duplication and merging. If I could hook up my existing CardDAV sync to be picked up by GContacts, I could benefit from thousands of engineers-worth of updates and features, without surrendering my address book to the world’s most prevalent data-mongerers.
A bit of research later, it seems feasible, but with caveats. GContacts does accept CardDAV sync, but they push for their own hosted provider and alternative address books don’t show up unless you explicitely allow them and don’t sign in with a Google account (which I’m assuming they also make quite frictional).
Then, the “Your Info” section, tagged contacts, notification reminders, are all Google additions not present in generic vCards. I’m also not too big a fan of Material 3 designs, and especially Expressive — I find them quite tacky to permeate across an entire operating system. Personal preference.
So really, Google Contacts is just another contacts app that would present me with my vCard contacts. There are a few little nuances with permission management and sync intervals, but for the most part no real change. The thing that would matter to me would be how hard does Google push their own services, when you consciously decline to use them? I predict it would be pretty hard, which is putting me off somewhat. The only thing worse than being told what to use is being recommended what to use over and over again. 😂
So will I use Google Contacts? Probably not — it’s interesting how my understanding of digital privacy has evolved to the point where I can consider all alternatives, but Google specifically? Aside from feeling a bit counter-instinctual, the only thing you get from a multi-product provider is requirements for their other products. Fossify proved that.
If you have something to say about this topic, you can reach out to me at jamesyblutooth.bsky.social.