Ask Jerry: Can you use an Android phone without Google?

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Can I use an Android phone without a Google account?

Anonymous asks:

Can I use an Android phone without signing into a Google account? Does everything work?

Thanks

Hey, there anon! That's a great question that I've seen people ask from time to time because whenever you turn on a new (or new to you ) phone the first thing you'll see is a tech company asking you to sign in. Apple and Google do this, and if you bought a phone from a company like Samsung , it too may ask you to create or log into an account.

The good news is that you don't have to do any of it. But you might want to anyway.

I like to give a concise answer at the beginning of an article for people who want quick info, so as mentioned above no you do not have to sign into a Google account to use an Android phone . Not everything is going to work as expected though, including some really important features.

Any app or service from Google is, of course, not going to work properly without access to a Google account. Chrome, for example, will browse the web just fine but you won't have any syncing tools for access to saved bookmarks or across devices.

Other apps like Google Calendar or Google's Contacts app won't work at all because they depend on information sorted in the cloud under a Google account. The most important feature that isn't going to work correctly is the tool used to find a lost phone . It requires you to sign into the same account as used on the phone to work to "prove" that you are the actual owner. Without access, you can't locate — or more importantly — lock and erase — a lost or stolen phone.

The same goes for things like Samsung's apps . You need a Samsung account to properly use them, just like you need a Microsoft or Apple account to use their services.

The good news is that the basics will work just fine. You can use the phone for calling and texting, apps can be installed and used as long as they don't need any of Google's underlying services , and millions of people use phones like this every day.

For most people, I wouldn't recommend it. I can understand if you're not keen on sharing your personal life with a faceless giant tech company, but I suggest you read Google's terms of service and understand the privacy and data deletion tools at your disposal before you make any decisions.

Besides, it's easy to make a "fake" Google account and manage it in a way that most of the data isn't really about you.