Everyone outside of the US uses whatsapp.

I found settings for it in my phone's settings menu, so yeah, no standalone app you can disable or remove. They baked it into the OS.

I have Android 16 on a Pixel 8 but no Gemini. Is it not installed if I chose "No thanks" when I got the info screens about it?

Apple absolutely does collect huge amounts of data from the users. The difference is they don't directly 'sell' that data to advertisers. Instead they get paid to personalize the ads themselves and wear that as a badge for 'advocating privacy'.
Stock Android is horrendous compared to what Apple does, yes. However you usually have the option to ditch it for a more privacy respecting Android.

Viber is more popular in eastern europe

Kinda, but the thing this time is that they will change it f unilaterally rom their side, even if you specifically disabled this connectivity on your phone. So they want that data reallyyyyy badly. So even more important to not give it to them.

Sure , in 2010.

In Norway we use Facebook Messenger, which is worse. Wattsapp's at least usable as a messaging platform for more than 1-to-1 communication

It's only on Android 9 and up. So, definitely not absolutely there.

These instructions are awful. There's no Gemini listed in my apps, and Settings > Apps doesn't show it either. But if I search for "Gemini" in settings, THEN it shows up, but doesn't have access to anything the article says to do.

However, from that screen, I was able to apparently turn off its access to everything, and switch back to assistant, which appears to have turned it off completely, but who knows if it's still lurking in the background.

Open settings, and search for"Gemini" from the search bar. That's the only way I was able to get to anything Gemini related. I turned off it's access to everything from there, then the last setting was to switch back to assistant which appears to have turned Gemini off, but who knows (hence disabling it's access to everything anyway).

I also don't have a Gemini app but if you search for Gemini in the Settings main menu, it shows up.

Nop. Disable it in the settings/apps

With search there's only a single "Gemini Settings" that is found. That opens a wizard for me. On the second page, after scrolling all the way down, I can select "No thanks". That's what I was referring to. I was wondering if that's enough.

Still is. At least in my country its probably more popular than the rest of them combined.

Thank you. We had actually already checked this but had not found Gemini in the settings.

Turns out typing "gem" in the settings search is not enough. Only typing "Gemini" returned a result.

Sneaky, aren't they?

I cannot find it as an app in the app listing.

I find it only through search in settings, and it opens a screen - asking to activate it.

It seems weird.

The article we are commenting on, along with the countless others that call out Google/android for snooping in your data and selling it off is my proof.

I really tired of lemmy users that think because one thing is bad- ALL things similar are bad.

Is almost like nuance is just something kids don’t seem to understand anymore.

That ain’t proof.