New phone has finally been set up. Calls and texts work effortlessly. (after some slight issues transferring over from Verizon😮‍💨) But everything is functional.

This phone is running degoogled e/OS with some slight debloating( used Canta and Shizuku). Current set up so far:

Mobile Provider: Metro PCS (Metro by T-Mobile)

Launcher: Bliss Launcher -> Yagni Launcher (via debloating)

Email/Calander: Gmail - > Tuta Mail and Tuta Calander

Notes: Default app

Reader for PDFs and Books: Episteme

Maps: Google Maps - > Map Quest

Podcast Reader: Anytime Player

Phone/Contacts/Messages: Default/Default/ Right Messages (SMS and MMS support, No RCS)

Camera, Clock, Calculator and OpenKeyChain are Default.

Music: Trebel Music (for now)

Bookworm(NOT BookWyrm; this app is not apart of the Fediverse) a small community based app to talk about everything books.

Fediverse: Blorp (Lemmy)

The app with the umbrella is Travelers Insurance ( my car insurance)

App Stores: Aurora Store and App Lounge (default) along with the MicroG Compactibility if wanting to use that.

Keyboard: FUTO Keyboard

Browser: Startpage

Apps/Systems that I have removed via debloating: Blisslauncher, Blissweather, Mail (Default), Browser, Calander, FindMyDevice, Magic Earth (Maps), Tasks, Parental Control, Music, MJ PDF, Message (Default), Android Easter Egg.

This phone started running so much faster when debloating it. I cant believe it’s not already an option to begin with. 😑

I decided to give it a try and both are working flawlessly. I’ve removed so far, Browser, Calander, Message, Task app and Mail and no problems at all. All are default apps preinstalled in the Teracube 2s. ( I still haven’t tried connecting to a mobile carrier, I’ve been so busy, but that will come soon).

So overall, good news, debloating this phone is possible.

Like what the title states, just want to give a heads up that this app completely doesn’t work when I try to play my offline music. I can download, scroll and look for songs, but once I get to the menu were all my music is listed and try to play them, this screen appears every time.

I currently had this app as an alternative to Trebel Music, but looks like I’ll have to keep looking elsewhere.

I have all my apps that I’m using, along with moving everything over from my other phone with an SD card. Pretty close to being done.

I’m using most of the default apps to save on storage. But here are them listed:

Episteme oss -> this is just a PDF reader for any documents, including books and comics.

Anytime Player -> this is a Podcast app I’m using to replace Podcast Addict, another podcast app that is riddled with ads.

FM radio -> default app

Trebel Music -> Musify: I’m moving all my music from Trebel to Musify to listen to them completely offline and not having to deal with ads.

Pixelfed -> Instagram Alternative

Blorp -> Lemmy

Bookworm -> this is not BookWyrm(which is part of the fediverse) but its a cute, small community alternative to GoodReads. Its an app for book lovers wanting to talk about books.

Google Messages -> Quik and default texting app

All of the utility apps are default: calculator, clock, files, recorder, notes, tasks, music.

Gmail -> Tuta Mail along with the default mail app for all other imported email addresses.

Google Calander -> Tuta Calander

My bank apps: Chase and Bask Bank. They both work well, surprisingly, without Google Play Services.

Maps: I’m using MapQuest to replace Google Maps but I also use CoMaps mostly for hiking and the phone comes with a default map app.

Browser: This is default (Muerna) with your different search engines available, like DuckDuck Go, DuckDuck Go Lite, Qwant or Mojeek.

Gallery: Gallery is default but using Ente Photos for “cloud” storage to replace google photos.

Travel: Grab and Trip Plans: these two are apps from Aurora store that I’ll be using soon when traveling. Grab is a Southeast Asia version of Uber. Trip Plans is a app used when planning/organizing trips with a travel advisor (private between you and/or the group with the advisor only)Aurora store mentions they don’t work well without the play store but so far I haven’t had issues running the apps.

App stores: I have these just to try them out besides the default App Lounge:

Komi Store, F-Droid, Aurora Store, Neo Store, Repo Store, Droid-ify.

Camera is default

Privacy Scanner (I believe its from Droid-ify or NeoStore) an app use to simply check if all of your system and installed apps are actually “private” sometimes it gets paranoid and it’ll say that an app is not private because you let one use a feature like “access to Gallery” but it gives a nice visualization of what is running on your phone.

FreeDictionary: Open source dictionary app, not riddled with ads.

Quotes.app : just an app from Aurora store to read inspirational, motivating quotes when needed.

Like the question implies, I really want too get off of instagram. Its not the same space anymore, especially with the consistent push from Meta to use AI. Ive even made my profile private so those features don’t automatically turn on. Its gotten crazy there.