De-Googling My Life
Purpose
I have an Android phone right now (Pixel 8 Pro). It kinda sucks. I have a Windows gaming laptop. It has alright power but the battery completely sucks and I can't even use it for gaming off of a charger. I have a gaming desktop, but Windows kinda sucks at integrating with both Google and Apple ecosystems, and I sure aint using Microsoft's ecosystem.
I realized that I don't really care about the "privacy" implications of using Google, because there is really no way to completely detach yourself from it. Basically every site uses Google analytics, there is no alternative to YouTube, and almost all ads are served by Google so 
My main goal is to improve my life by having a cohesive ecosystem, and Apple solves all but one of my problems: ecosystem of "laptop that works great on battery", headphones, cell phone, and services. The only part that Apple doesn't really work for right now is syncing well with my Windows gaming pc, but that's alright because Google doesn't very well anyway. It also wont cost any more than what I am paying right now.
Why I kinda hate Android, and what prompted all of this
I have jumped between Android and iOS since my first phone, and what I have found is that each time I get an iPhone, I get "bored" by the end of it, usually miffed by one or two small issues. On the 13 Pro Max it was because Apple maps uses Yelp, so I had to use Google for everything anyway, and because FaceTime had some weird visuals that kinda broke the experience. Super minor, right? But also the need to sideload some apps I used and other things.
Whenever I swap to Android, by the end of the 2 years and I am SO FED UP with the trash experience and horrible degradation, low battery life, and awful performance of old Android phones. iPhones, in my experience, never really had this problem. Not to mention that iPhones hold their value MUCH better, AppleCare works much better, the iPhone has better performance, and the iPhone to iPhone experience (even disregarding blue bubbles) is WONDERFUL what with everything described in this section so I really decided that I want to just have a better overall experience.
Things that I cannot get rid of Google for
YouTube
There is no other video platform that has the sheer quantity of high quality videos that YouTube has. FloatPlane may get there someday, bur it currently isn't.
Search Console & Analytics
No comparison in search analytics, because while I won't be using Google anymore, they do have like 80% or more market share. Plus Google Analytics is just good.
Backup Search Engine
The only search engine nearly everyone uses is Google, so I can always use it as my "backup" so that if DuckDuckGo doesn't work, I can use a "google" bang in the address bar and still get results.
Photos
Things I don't use Google for, but kinda wanna try moving to Apple for consistency's sake
Apple Music
My girlfriend uses Apple Music, and I use Spotify. I originally only had spotify because its deep discord integration, but I realized that I really don't care that much about people seeing what I am listening to on discord but rather if I were to move to Apple music, me and my lady can share playlists and add songs to the queue together while driving. Also, it is part of Apple One, which, for $40/mo we can get 2TB of storage, Apple News (something else I want to try), Apple Music, and Arcade (which may matter if Apple starts getting it's gaming thing together as it seems it is), and we are going to go halvsies on it (EDIT: She gets it for free through her phone plan, so I guess I'm flying solo), which will be great. And, if I ever decide I don't want to use Apple News, I can drop to the much cheaper plan and add extra storage, which solves basically the same issue.
AppleOne criticism: I truly could not care less about Apple TV, AppleFitness+, and AppleArcade. Can I get Music, 2TB storage, and News for like $20?
Tools Used:
- Google Takeout: For exporting photos
- IMAP Sync or IMAP Size, or perhaps iCloud's own "sync" tool
Things I have already done
This section is in order of importance to me, and subsequently, the order of which I think this is going to be hardest to replace and/or most compromises, and then will share my thoughts.
Things I am in the process of doing
Windows Web Browser + Password and Bookmark Sync to iOS
Probably Firefox, but it doesn't have native password sync. There is a third party thing to do passwords and bookmarks with iCloud, but the answer may well end up being a third party tool like bitwarden or having all of the passwords stored in firefox and then have firefox on iPhone. The whole reason I don't want to use firefox on iPhone primarily is because 1) vertical integration, and 2) ad blocking.
I will probably end up using a combination of the Apple keychain and Apple passwords app for Windows and iOS, and also using Firefox password sync on the side.
Really thinking about keeping chrome because of Chrome Remote Desktop. I have been driving Parsec recently and it is SO MUCH BETTER than Chrome.
Remote Desktop
I used to use TeamViewer, but I really didn't like how slow and awful and bloated it was, and the iPhone app sucked. I recently moved to Google Remote Desktop, and it has been FANTASTIC except for the fact that they suddenly want you to use the browser on mobile instead of an app. YUCK!
I am thinking of moving to Parsec. It looks like all of the benefits of Google Remote Desktop (uses "video" instead of "bit streaming" like TeamViewer, lower latency, P2P and encrypted but doesnt require port forwarding and supports 2FA so keeps the network secure)
I did move to Parsec, as it has all of the benefits of Google Remote Desktop (uses "video" instead of "bit streaming" like TeamViewer, lower latency, P2P and encrypted but doesnt require port forwarding and supports 2FA so keeps the network secure) and doesnt require a poopy web interface. Love it! The only thing I don't like is the mouse emulation (Chrome and Teamviewer have a 'trackpad' like mode which I prefer over touch to click.) but that is fairly small because it works great on PC and is servicable on mobile. It has controller passthrough as well as KBM passthrough on Android (not sure if iOS has KBM or not, but it does have controller 
).
JUST KIDDING! Parsec does not have an iOS app. 
Stay tuned for a suitable replacement, if necessary.
Google Authenticator
Might go into the "have to keep using" section depending on how good the Apple Keychain version is. See here
Cloud Backup
Google Drive to iCloud is gonna be a huge change because I store some PHAT files. I may need to change that realistically by only backing up the actually important files or even buying a used Mac just to help with the big file transfers. The problem I had when I originally tried to do this was that the uploads started timing out after some time, so I, in essence, could not upload anything to iCloud larger than like 1 or 2GB, which is kinda wild because they market it as a solution for things live big ol phat videos for creators, but it simply doesn't work with the Windows client. Perhaps getting an old Macbook would solve that issue.
Search
DuckDuckGo or Kagi, just make sure to delete your data. When I originally tried to do this with ProtonMail, DuckDuckGo kinda sucked. It seems to be a lot better now, and if you cannot stand DuckDuckGo after trialing for a while, Kagi, from my testing, is almost EXACTLY THE SAME as Google Search. Kagi does cost money, but it isn't very much and their business model is clear. Very cool. Also, I feel like Google Search may be one of the only products that Google makes that may be worth keeping even if you are trying to "De-Google". The only reason I am dropping it, in honesty, is the fact that I kinda hate how shoehorned AI is recently. Like, I love the idea of AI and using it in an environment like ChatGPT, but I really don't like the "AI scanned this article and told you to mix glue into your pasta" or "AI says you should eat one small rock a day". Just dumb.
This is going to the the hardest for me. I have an MSN email I keep for legacy purposes, a Gmail account I also keep for legacy purposes (also because it is my Google account email), my main email domain, and my secondary email domains. Ideally, I want to get one iCloud email address (thenathe.me), and then "alternate senders" for my other domains. I can also just log into MSN and Gmail separately for legacy purposes. I originally moved to Google because of their automatic email categorization. But now that iCloud offers that natively, and also because I have wholesale decided to stop receiving emails I don't really care about, I don't really need "Google's" version of the sorting anymore. I also decided that I really want to drill down on what emails I receive, and I feel like all of the emails getting shoved into alternate folders doesn't really support that, especially now that Google's folders arent the best. Forums? Are people posting on forums with email notifications constantly these days? Promotions, great. But updates? What constitutes an update? A product update could be a promotion or an update, but a bill could also be an update. I feel like it really kinda defeats the purpose. Apple's screenshot of iOS 18 said "Receipts, Notifications, Alerts" and then per sender categorization which is like MIND BLOWING 
The main thing I really care about is making sure to get all of my historic emails over. As you can tell from some of my other posts in my musings section, I really love and miss my father, Timber Tom. I have a TON of emails from him about things he liked, videos, stuff, the works, as well as some other important conversations and receipts. I need to be able to keep these. I am still working on figuring out the best way to import emails
Messages
For me, as stated above, historic text messages are very important. I have backups of these texts if I ever lose them (via an XML file and a folder with attachments) but I would much rather be able to actually view them on my phone at will. Transferring texts should be easy with the move tool, and between iPhone and iPhone or Android and Android is very easy, just between the two is tough. But, as long as I got around 10gb I know I got them with their attachments and all is good. Nothing particularly private is said, so I don't really care if it goes and/or stays in the cloud, but it is of some concern if readers of this guide are deciding to make the move strictly for privacy concerns.
News Aggregator
Thinking of going to Apple News, will update when I actually get iOS and test it out.
Photos
Easy, just transfer to iCloud.
This site gives a really easy way to automagically move the data over. I still have to verify the below, but I haven't done so yet. Even then, if the "
Once all of the photos are transferred to iCloud using the above nifty method, do the following:
-
Determine if locked folder/screenshots will upload to iCloud, and, see if they will reupload to Google for "double backup" etc.
-
Determine if metadata stays (would be sad if it didn't, but oh well.)
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Determine if the images are duplicated. I have used iCloud before and I am wanting to see if the images that already existed were transferred again
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Set it so Google Photos still uploads a backup of all important photos as a "free low quality" version so it doesn't cost money but I can still interface with people that use Google Photos, and can still look at old shared albums.
Calendar
Easy, just transfer to iCloud.
Contacts
Easy, just transfer to iCloud.
Notes/Voice Recorder
Easy, just transfer to iCloud.
Unrelated things about iOS that I want to figure out or get because I use them on Android
Gameboy emulator
Apparently you can do this now. Neat.
Wi-fi scanner
NFC Tag Writer
Apparently you can do this now too, neat.
Code that can update my website (mobile VSCode)
Might use the VSCode web interface for this if I can figure out how to set up RDP. Seems like it isn't just "connect" like on the desktop version. Might swap to a different app. Needs to be an IDE with visual FTP and Terminal access over SSH.
Other Apple ecosystem benefits that I care about
Find My and location tracking, as well as "advanced sharing"
My girlfriend is on Apple, and can share with me things like her location, her heart rate, her meds schedule and status, her period calendar, as well as just share in an advanced way basically everything else, which is really cool honestly. I love how integrated it is.
Airpods and maybe the Apple Watch
Syncing to a Mac (if Mac gaming takes off)
I really want Mac to take off. I love ARM, I love the idea of a single company making such waves that they essentially shake up the whole PC market (also looking at you, Raspberry Pi 
), and I really want a speedy, long battery life, light gaming capable, high quality laptop. I love the benefits of the ecosystem, and basically I would love it even more if I am using all Apple stuff and services. The only "thing" is that if I am going to spend 5k on a laptop (or a monthly service plan kinda thing which they offer now), I want to be able to replace my gaming desktop. I could basically already do this because I have a steamdeck, and that can play basically every game besides League and Tarkov that I care about, but there are some games that I would like to play on a "PC like" formfactor and with more performance. I want Tarkov, I want League, I want Grey Zone, I want the promise that a Mac will be able to play all of these games.