I De-Googled My Life for 3 Weeks — Here’s What Survived

Summary of the video’s main points

Motivation / critique of Google

The creator argues that Google has aggressively expanded into privacy-invasive practices, such as:

• Selling user data
• Embedding AI “overviews” into search
• Integrating Gemini directly into Google Search

They describe Google as becoming “the most hated name in privacy” and claim there’s little meaningful resistance for users.

Self-imposed 3-week “de-Googling” challenge

To test realistic alternatives, they cut Google out of daily use for three weeks, replacing common Google services with other options:

• Search: Switch to Brave’s built-in search (or DuckDuckGo if not using Brave)
• Email: Replace Gmail with ProtonMail
• Storage (Drive): Avoid Google Drive mostly; rely on external drives and local storage (with plans to build a NAS later)
• Maps: Use Apple Maps (on iPhone)
• Docs: Use LibreOffice (instead of Google Docs)
• YouTube: Test FreeTube (a privacy-focused YouTube client)

Key findings by service

Gmail → ProtonMail transition is the biggest challenge

• They’ve used Gmail since 2013 for nearly everything, so switching required updating many accounts and subscriptions.
• ProtonMail supports importing existing email accounts, but they prefer creating a new ProtonMail address.
• They report ProtonMail notifications were far less cluttered with promotions than Gmail (they saw many promotional emails when Gmail was connected to ProtonMail).

Apple Maps appears better than expected

• Early testing suggests Apple Maps isn’t causing the “getting lost” behavior they previously experienced.
• They like Apple’s promise that data is kept on-device.
• They still emphasize they need real-world route testing, especially for GPS-based scenarios.

DuckDuckGo / Brave search has tradeoffs

• They dislike AI-generated search summaries (“AI overview nonsense”) on both DuckDuckGo and Brave, suggesting extensions may be needed to disable such features.
• They note that DuckDuckGo relies on Bing, and because Microsoft is often viewed as similar to Google in privacy, it may not be a clear privacy win—though DuckDuckGo’s privacy features are implemented differently.

LibreOffice works, but loses some mobile workflow convenience

• For their immediate needs (script writing and video production), LibreOffice is sufficient and feature-comparable to typical word processing.
• They miss the convenience of working on scripts in Google Docs on mobile and then continuing on desktop.

FreeTube didn’t stick

• They like the concept: local storage of user data, privacy-focused tracking avoidance, and the ability to import subscriptions.
• They encountered buffering issues (not attributed to their Ethernet connection), especially for 4K playback.
• They also used FreeTube less on their phone because there’s no app, and their “muscle memory” for the YouTube app remained strong.

Final “what survived” conclusions

They ended up keeping:

• ProtonMail (mostly), despite frustration with features locked behind a subscription (e.g., promotional filtering and multiple aliases)
• Brave search, even with AI overviews (with the expectation that extensions could disable them)
• LibreOffice as their docs replacement
• Apple Maps, with ongoing testing planned for locally important routes

And not keeping:

• FreeTube, mainly due to playback buffering and limited phone usability

Future plans

• Build and/or use a NAS for self-hosting and a more local alternative to Google Drive
• Consider trying Apple Pages in the future as another Docs option
• Potentially cover NAS or deeper iWork-related setup in later videos

Presenters / contributors

• Video creator / presenter: The channel’s narrator (not explicitly named in the subtitles)