[GUIDE] DeGoogle any device and install MicroG (2023)

Hritwik said:

This guide explains how to deGoogle any android by removing most of google invasive crap. (yes, GPlay services is also removed). ​

(Video) Living the DeGoogle Life: How to Install microG-supported Custom Android ROM

Play store, Google app and other crap is also removed from system, so if you want to use them, install them as user app. The installation for play store is different, and it is explained below.

Check my Post on reddit for more up to date info and clear instructions HERE

When we remove Gplay services, many apps and services stop working . Many apps will give error but still work (like maps and telegram and whatsapp). Play store will definitely not work and many apps that use push notification through Gplay services (most of them) will not be able to do so. In my case Uber, ola or any other ride app was also not working and was crashing constantly. Paytm will also not work without play services. And on top of that many apps that use location might not behave properly.

Whoosh! those are a lot of problems for uninstalling play services. So, why would anyone want to do that?
Simply put it, Google is an Advertising company. No it is not a company that sells product, i mean yes it sells products and earns from them BUT more than 60% of their revenue comes from Ads that they serve you. And yes, google is the biggest Ad company in the world with more than 80% of ad share (i may be wrong about the %, feel free to search yourself). So obviously they want ta make money out of your data (by selling it) and to do that what better way than to install spyware on world's largest mobile OS.
Google play services record your every action, tracking every app that you opened and everything you do. That data remains with google and they sell it to 3rd parties (and you agreed to it when you made Google account and setup your android device. Remember Clicking on "I AGREE"?).

See Also

Email Blacklist: How to Know if You're on It (And What to Do)7 Best Constant Contact Alternatives For 202220 Cold Calling Scripts To Change Your Sales Game - UpLead15 surefire ways to avoid spam filters and reach the email inbox - MailerLite

Here i will not discuss how invasive it is. A simple Web search with "google play services tracking" will give you much more information. (and please do search it, i beg you) (Pro Tip: reddit has best answers, so explore reddit links from search)
Here is a good one explaining things
And Gplay services Eat a LOT of battery by constantly Running in background. So if you want better battery, remove it

So you have decided to degoogle your phone (and debloat it). What to do about all those errors after removing play services?

Here Comes MicroG. microG is an Open Source replacement for Google Play Services.

"MicroG is a free-as-in-freedom re-implementation of Google’s proprietary Android user space apps and libraries.
The linux-based open-source mobile operating system Android is not only the most popular mobile operating system in the world, it’s also on the way to becoming a proprietary operating system. How is that?
While the core operating system is still released as part of the Android Open Source Project, the majority of core apps are not. It gets worse: More and more libraries and APIs are only available on phones that run various Google apps pre-installed, effectively locking third-party apps to the Google ecosystem. For these reasons Android is described as being a “look but don’t touch” kind of open.
At this point, several popular open-source applications already require some of Google’s proprietary libraries to be installed. Increasing demand in the free software community in addition to severe problems in Google’s proprietary software discovered by the Android modding community, have led to the development of a free software clone of Google’s proprietary core libraries and applications - the microG Project was born.
Although most microG components are far from complete, users are amazed by the results. Free software users got extended application support, privacy-caring users can reduce or monitor data that is sent to Google and especially older phones can expect some battery life improvements."

(So it basically removes all those errors. Great!)

So, Lets start Degoogling!

Warning: bootloader needs to be unlocked, magisk should be there and twrp should be installed.
NOTE: MAKE FULL NANDROID BACKUP OF YOUR DEVICE BEFORE PROCEEDING BY GOING TO TWRP -> BACKUP -> SELECT ALL . store it in PC or somewhere safe​

Removing google crap

• Flash TWRP and install magisk.
• We need Signature spoofing in the ROM. Download SmaliPatcher from here and tick all patches, (We are interested in the "signature spoofing" one but all of them are useful) and follow the instructions on its page to install that module. Now your system supports signature spoofing. (I recommend SmaliPatcher even if your rom supports Signature Spoofing so that no issue arises)
  Other ways for signature spoofing are given in MicroG wiki here

  (IF YOU ARE ON STOCK ROM)

• In case you had the Google Play Services previously installed (which Users having stock ROM have), remove all updates and the packages in /system/priv-app of the Google Services (you can use TWRP file manager or any root explorer to delete below packages, just delete the apk files in respective folders):
  • GmsCore (PrebuiltGmsCore, PrebuiltGmsCorePi, PrebuiltGmsCorePix)
  • GoogleBackupTransport
  • GoogleFeedback
  • GoogleLoginService
  • GoogleOneTimeInitializer
  • GooglePartnerSetup
  • GoogleServicesFramework
  • Phonesky
  • SetupWizard
  • Velvet.
• In case you forgot to remove the GmsCore updates, you can manually remove these using adb uninstall com.google.android.gms.
• After that, reboot your android device - all privileged GAPPS should be removed. (a bootloop may be caused, but dont worry, just boot into TWRP and follow below steps.)

IF YOU ARE ON CUSTOM ROM-> after flashing rom zip, do not reboot and follow below (DONT FLASH ANY GAPPS)SIZE]

Make full backup of your device if not made till now​

Installing MicroG

• Download Latest "MinMicroG-Standard-XXX.zip" from here
• Add "system-" to start of package name (thus making it like "system-MinMicroG-Standard-XXX.zip" ) and copy it in sdcard or internal storage of phone. Now boot into TWRP
• flash "system-MinMicroG-Standard-XXX.zip".

OLD METHOD, USE THIS IF ABOVE WONT WORK

(Video) MicroG on De-Googled Phones - How it Makes the Phone Functional. Is it Safe?

Configuring MicroG
You need to setup microG , go into microG settings (in app drawer or in settings) and set up everything like:

• check results in Self-Check, grant all the missing permissions (by tapping on them)
  
  • especially the Battery Optimization item
  • if Phonesky (= Fake Store or Play Store) lacks signature spoofing permissions head to Settings / Apps / Permissions / Signature Spoofing and grant it
• enable Google device registration
• enable Google Cloud Messaging (only if you want to receive push messages from your applications)
• enable Google SafetyNet, required for applications that utilize SafetyNet, for example Pokémon GO (Currently Broken)
• in UnifiedNlp Settings choose all (whichever you've choosen to be installed)
  
  • Déjà Vu, Mozilla, Apple, and others (like GSM and WiFi Location Service)
  • Nominatim as Address lockup backend
• after everything is done, reboot
• if you installed Play Store open it, setup account and install your apps

Make sure you have all options ticked in self-check of microG settings (except maybe for last one). if not web search it or post it here.
Congratulations, you have successfully removed Gplay services.

ONLY IF YOU HAVE USED OLD METHOD (USING NANODROID)

Huge thanks to the below members for the tools.
@FriendlyNeighborhoodShane for MinMicroG
@MaR-V-iN for microG (thank you sir!)
@Setialpha for nanodroid

and other ones whom i forgot to add

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

This is gold. Haven't tried yet but will be donating to the MicroG project if this works.

Hritwik said:

(Video) How To DeGoogle An Android Device

This guide explains how to deGoogle any android by removing most of google invasive crap. (yes, GPlay services is also removed). ​

Play store, Google app and other crap is also removed from system, so if you want to use them, install them as user app. The installation for play store is different, and it is explained below.

Check my Post on reddit for more up to date info and clear instructions HERE

When we remove Gplay services, many apps and services stop working . Many apps will give error but still work (like maps and telegram and whatsapp). Play store will definitely not work and many apps that use push notification through Gplay services (most of them) will not be able to do so. In my case Uber, ola or any other ride app was also not working and was crashing constantly. Paytm will also not work without play services. And on top of that many apps that use location might not behave properly.

Whoosh! those are a lot of problems for uninstalling play services. So, why would anyone want to do that?
Simply put it, Google is an Advertising company. No it is not a company that sells product, i mean yes it sells products and earns from them BUT more than 60% of their revenue comes from Ads that they serve you. And yes, google is the biggest Ad company in the world with more than 80% of ad share (i may be wrong about the %, feel free to search yourself). So obviously they want ta make money out of your data (by selling it) and to do that what better way than to install spyware on world's largest mobile OS.
Google play services record your every action, tracking every app that you opened and everything you do. That data remains with google and they sell it to 3rd parties (and you agreed to it when you made Google account and setup your android device. Remember Clicking on "I AGREE"?).

Here i will not discuss how invasive it is. A simple Web search with "google play services tracking" will give you much more information. (and please do search it, i beg you) (Pro Tip: reddit has best answers, so explore reddit links from search)
Here is a good one explaining things
And Gplay services Eat a LOT of battery by constantly Running in background. So if you want better battery, remove it

So you have decided to degoogle your phone (and debloat it). What to do about all those errors after removing play services?

Here Comes MicroG. microG is an Open Source replacement for Google Play Services.

"MicroG is a free-as-in-freedom re-implementation of Google’s proprietary Android user space apps and libraries.
The linux-based open-source mobile operating system Android is not only the most popular mobile operating system in the world, it’s also on the way to becoming a proprietary operating system. How is that?
While the core operating system is still released as part of the Android Open Source Project, the majority of core apps are not. It gets worse: More and more libraries and APIs are only available on phones that run various Google apps pre-installed, effectively locking third-party apps to the Google ecosystem. For these reasons Android is described as being a “look but don’t touch” kind of open.
At this point, several popular open-source applications already require some of Google’s proprietary libraries to be installed. Increasing demand in the free software community in addition to severe problems in Google’s proprietary software discovered by the Android modding community, have led to the development of a free software clone of Google’s proprietary core libraries and applications - the microG Project was born.
Although most microG components are far from complete, users are amazed by the results. Free software users got extended application support, privacy-caring users can reduce or monitor data that is sent to Google and especially older phones can expect some battery life improvements."

(So it basically removes all those errors. Great!)

So, Lets start Degoogling!

Warning: bootloader needs to be unlocked, magisk should be there and twrp should be installed.
NOTE: MAKE FULL NANDROID BACKUP OF YOUR DEVICE BEFORE PROCEEDING BY GOING TO TWRP -> BACKUP -> SELECT ALL . store it in PC or somewhere safe​

Removing google crap

• Flash TWRP and install magisk.
• We need Signature spoofing in the ROM. Download SmaliPatcher from here and tick all patches, (We are interested in the "signature spoofing" one but all of them are useful) and follow the instructions on its page to install that module. Now your system supports signature spoofing. (I recommend SmaliPatcher even if your rom supports Signature Spoofing so that no issue arises)
  Other ways for signature spoofing are given in MicroG wiki here

  (IF YOU ARE ON STOCK ROM)

• In case you had the Google Play Services previously installed (which Users having stock ROM have), remove all updates and the packages in /system/priv-app of the Google Services (you can use TWRP file manager or any root explorer to delete below packages, just delete the apk files in respective folders):
  • GmsCore (PrebuiltGmsCore, PrebuiltGmsCorePi, PrebuiltGmsCorePix)
  • GoogleBackupTransport
  • GoogleFeedback
  • GoogleLoginService
  • GoogleOneTimeInitializer
  • GooglePartnerSetup
  • GoogleServicesFramework
  • Phonesky
  • SetupWizard
  • Velvet.
• In case you forgot to remove the GmsCore updates, you can manually remove these using adb uninstall com.google.android.gms.
• After that, reboot your android device - all privileged GAPPS should be removed. (a bootloop may be caused, but dont worry, just boot into TWRP and follow below steps.)

IF YOU ARE ON CUSTOM ROM-> after flashing rom zip, do not reboot and follow below (DONT FLASH ANY GAPPS)SIZE]

(Video) How to De-Google LineageOS

Make full backup of your device if not made till now​

Installing MicroG

• Download Latest "MinMicroG-Standard-XXX.zip" from here
• Add "system-" to start of package name (thus making it like "system-MinMicroG-Standard-XXX.zip" ) and copy it in sdcard or internal storage of phone. Now boot into TWRP
• flash "system-MinMicroG-Standard-XXX.zip".

OLD METHOD, USE THIS IF ABOVE WONT WORK

Configuring MicroG
You need to setup microG , go into microG settings (in app drawer or in settings) and set up everything like:

• check results in Self-Check, grant all the missing permissions (by tapping on them)
  
  • especially the Battery Optimization item
  • if Phonesky (= Fake Store or Play Store) lacks signature spoofing permissions head to Settings / Apps / Permissions / Signature Spoofing and grant it
• enable Google device registration
• enable Google Cloud Messaging (only if you want to receive push messages from your applications)
• enable Google SafetyNet, required for applications that utilize SafetyNet, for example Pokémon GO (Currently Broken)
• in UnifiedNlp Settings choose all (whichever you've choosen to be installed)
  
  • Déjà Vu, Mozilla, Apple, and others (like GSM and WiFi Location Service)
  • Nominatim as Address lockup backend
• after everything is done, reboot
• if you installed Play Store open it, setup account and install your apps

Make sure you have all options ticked in self-check of microG settings (except maybe for last one). if not web search it or post it here.
Congratulations, you have successfully removed Gplay services.

ONLY IF YOU HAVE USED OLD METHOD (USING NANODROID)

Huge thanks to the below members for the tools.
@FriendlyNeighborhoodShane for MinMicroG
@MaR-V-iN for microG (thank you sir!)
@Setialpha for nanodroid

and other ones whom i forgot to add

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

(Video) How to Install MicroG | Android 11 | Root Only | With or Without Play Store

This is gold. Thank you. Will be donating to the MicroG project if they accept donations, worth every penny.