[Q] Transliteration on Gtab? - Galaxy Tab General

Have you tried transliteration on Grab? Google offers tools to do this for example in Gmail or in Google services, but it doesn't seem to work, the window opens and I can choose the language yet the keyboard doesn't come up. It would be useful to make this possible. For example when I type namaste, it outputs नमस्ते. Any workarounds?

Related

[Q] App using Google Maps need overlay help

Hey there I am currently on a team creating an application that will be using Google Maps. We are new to Android as well. One of the key features of our app is being able to see markers on the map that are populated from a database. Such as when you go into the actual Maps app and search 'hotels' or 'gas stations'.
We used this to get started: http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/views/hello-mapview.html
However both our group and another separate group (school project) that are using google maps are having a problem with this code on that page. When ever either of us go to "touch" the marker in the emulator, instead of the dialog box coming up, the app just crashes.
We used this code exactly how it was written.
How can we get this dialog box to come up when the marker is touched?
Also how can we get it to load a page when the dialog box is touched (such as when you search 'hotels' and then touch the marker, then touch the box and it loads an information page)
Bump. We would really like to know what is up with this seemingly simple task.

[HOW TO] Install Google TTS (Text To Speech) Software Noob (Simple) Version

In this Noob series we will look at How to: Install Google Voice Search with Speech Recognition Software Noob (Simple) Edition.
If you have already followed our [HOW TO] Install ICS Google Applications and Google Voice Noob (Simple) Version
then you already have Google Voice Search with Speech Recognition Software. It was included with the google_apps package. You may ignore this tutorial.
Prerequisites:
1. How To: 7" Kindle Fire HD Root - Noob (Simple) Version http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2069117
Speech Recognition Step 1: Downloaded the correct package here: VoiceSearch
Speech Recognition Step 2: Extract VoiceSearch.zip to VoiceSearch on your Desktop
Speech Recognition Step 3: Copy libvoicesearch.so, UniversalSearch.apk and VoiceSearch.apk from the folder VoiceSearch to the Download folder on your Kindle Internal Drive
Speech Recognition Step 4: Using Root Explorer or ES File Explorer, copy /sdcard/download/libvoicesearch.so to /system/lib/libvoicesearch.so change the libvoicesearch.so permissions to Owner: Read Write Group: Read Others: Read
Speech Recognition Step 5: Using Root Explorer or ES File Explorer, copy /sdcard/UniversalSearch.apk to /system/app change the UniversalSearch.apk permissions to Owner: Read Write Group: Read Others: Read
Speech Recognition Step 6: Using Root Explorer, copy /sdcard/VoiceSearch.apk to /system/app change the VoiceSearch.apk permissions to Owner: Read Write Group: Read Others: Read
Speech Recognition Step 7: Reboot the Kindle
Speech Recognition Step 8: Now go into Apps, you will see a new Icon named Search. Launch Search, then click on the little Microphone, speak clearly (I used the word Test).
Speech Recognition Step 9: The application will next ask you which browser do you want to use to display the results (I use Opera).
Speech Recognition Step 10: Next Open up Google Play Store, Search for "AVC (Alice)", here is the link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=yourapp24.android.tools.alice_lite&hl=en
Speech Recognition Step 11: Choose to Install AVC (Alice), Google Play Store will then Download and Install AVC (Alice). This is a full blown Speech Recognition Software, it will even have a conversation with you!
Speech Recognition Step 12: After you test the features we highly recommend that you upgrade to AVC (Alice) Pro, here is a link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=yourapp24.android.tools.aivc
Speech Recognition Step 13: Finally, using Google Play Search for Alarm Clock Plus, here is the link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vp.alarmClockPlusDock
Speech Recognition Step 14: Choose to install Alarm Clock Plus, Google Play Store will then Download and Install Alarm Clock Plus
Then just like that, your new journey begins!
AVC (Alice) Pro Notes:
Alice is your personal assistant. Alice can help you do things quickly and easily.
With Alice, Android users get a helpful assistant at hand, which understands more than just commands.
You can have a conversation with Alice, give her instructions or ask for general terms of information.
Currently Alice can assist you with following functions:
Call, SMS, Email, Translation, Navigation, Alarm, Timer, App Launcher, Calculator, Facebook, Websearch, Weather, Search images.. and many many more.
You can also define your own commands with Alice and you have the opportunity to control devices which are accessible via a web interface.
Additional to the lite version: Calendar, Play Music / Videos and Receiver Control for Enigma2, Dialog-Mode, Listen in Background.
Alice knows a lot and is constantly learning new things, some examples:
- Do I need Sunglasses?
- How far is it from New York to San Fransisco?
- Director of Inception
- Zap to CNN
- Set up a meeting on monday at 12 o'clock coffee with Megan
- How does my day look on friday?
- Play Whitney Houston - Step by step
- Show me my pictures
- How's the weather?
- Call John Smith
- Send a message to John i'm coming later
- Wake me up in half an hour
- What is 5 + 7 * 3
- How many contacts do I have?
- How many songs do I have?
- Set Timer for 20 seconds
- What's the definition of aspirin
- Translate into german hello how are you
- Start WhatsApp
- What is 5 meters in miles
- Do you know Barack Obama
- Navigate me to the next McDonald's
- Make the light on
- Show me New York on the map
- How many contacts do i have?
- Post on Facebook what's up?
- Search for pizzeria in New York
- Who is Angela Merkel?
- Mute / Silent
- Navigate to New York
- What is the capital of Germany
- How many people live in Berlin?
- How old is Rihanna?
- When is her birthday?
- Show me a picture of Michael Jackson
- etc...
Many options! Design, voice, App2SD and more. Button Animation with Alpha!
Like us on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/YourApp24
Requirements: Google voice search (available in android market for free) or Vlingo recognition
Currently supported languages are German and English.
If you have problems with setting the alarm, you can download Alarm Clock Plus in the Market for free.
The Online-TTS is powered by iSpeech®
How do I use text-to-speech (“read to me”) feature on Kindle?
Kindle can read text to you. In books and periodicals where text-to-speech is enabled (publishers may opt-out of the feature) you can start, stop and pause either by going to the text settings screen by pressing “Aa” button or by using the hotkeys: Shift-Sym to start/stop and once it’s running – spacebar to pause/resume. In the text settings screen you can also configure speech speed and switch between male and female voice. To start reading from specific location, select the location with 5-way controller and start text-to-speech.
Awesome man, can text and call as well with GV?
Sent from my ADR6400L using xda premium
Google Voice Search
DNak206 said:
Awesome man, can text and call as well with GV?
Sent from my ADR6400L using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That depends if the application calls to the VoiceSearch.apk module. Yes, it should work if the application was designed around the GV Module. Since we left everything intact, there is nothing to stop another application from calling and using the VoiceSearch.apk module. This is where people like you come in: Install it, then test applications that were design to work with Google Voice and reply back with the results.
If the application was not designed around the VoiceSearch.apk, there is little chance it will work. So, if you have a friend with an Android, ask them what applications use Google Voice. For example, I know Google Voice works with the VoiceSearch.apk module when you search in Google Voice.
Keep me posted, I will be interested in your feedback.
DNak206 said:
Awesome man, can text and call as well with GV?
Sent from my ADR6400L using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe there's confusion around what is being talked about here... This thread will help install voice enabled google search. Google Voice is a completely different product. See: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&sqi=2&ved=0CDQQFjAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fplay.google.com%2Fstore%2Fapps%2Fdetails%3Fid%3Dcom.google.android.apps.googlevoice%26hl%3Den&ei=s7zeUIyOHuSviAKQj4DgBg&usg=AFQjCNFBqz0CSZ3-2SmgeVYgLuK6o5DyBA&sig2=AVh3iLZEvXgi9ik3LwPd2g
Google Voice Search
helix4u said:
I believe there's confusion around what is being talked about here... This thread will help install voice enabled google search. Google Voice is a completely different product. See: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&sqi=2&ved=0CDQQFjAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fplay.google.com%2Fstore%2Fapps%2Fdetails%3Fid%3Dcom.google.android.apps.googlevoice%26hl%3Den&ei=s7zeUIyOHuSviAKQj4DgBg&usg=AFQjCNFBqz0CSZ3-2SmgeVYgLuK6o5DyBA&sig2=AVh3iLZEvXgi9ik3LwPd2g
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are correct, there can be a bit of confusion. In our How to: Install
ICS Google Applications with Google Voice Search Noob (Easy) Version
we actually use the Talk.apk which Google Voice. The problem is that we
have not found a way (yet), to pip this over to applications like Voice Chatting. Although we are
working on it and should have this functional by February 2013. Either way, this step will be
a Prerequisite in getting the entire package to work properly. Start here, give us feedback.
Speech Recognition Software
To All,
We just ported over, AVC Alice, which is used like an assistant.
We will be adding the install notes in the next 30 minutes.
great!
Great Tutorial. I've got it installed and it works great. It crashes on my KFTT when I ask it to make a note for me. It tries to attach a file and fails to find an app I think.
AVIC (Artificial Intelligent Voice Control) (Alice) - Missing App
bbanghyung said:
Great Tutorial. I've got it installed and it works great. It crashes on my KFTT when I ask it to make a note for me. It tries to attach a file and fails to find an app I think.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bbanghyung,
Wow, I am sorry. I know I responded to this Thread 8 plus hours ago but my response never made it
into the XDA Thread. Hmmmm. Anyway, you nailed it on the head! The problem when you tell AVC Alice
to "Open Note", she should respond with her intended action. Now what she wants depends on the Launcher used.
In my case, I use Go Launcher EX and HD, she detects this and knows to call up "Go Note Widget", so this
needs to be installed and setup. Just take your time, go into Settings, you will see there is a lot to AVC.
So far how do you like AVC? Fun stuff and really helpful once it has been setup.
Anyone find a way to access the voice in/out settings? I have a couple of Ivona TTS voices I'd like to try on Alice.
TTS EXTENDED looked promising, but it either forced closed or froze. There might be a trick to it. Anyone?
Alice is great. I still can't get notes to work, it just says an error has occurred. I'll take a look at it again later though. Also alarm clock plus crashes every time I attempt to access it's settings. I have moved it to my system folder and restarted and still same problem occurs.
Sent from my KFTT using xda app-developers app
All Alice is giving me today is "an error has occurred." And just like a woman, she won't tell me what's wrong. And I apologised and everything...
Edit- It may have been the FB reader tts (deleted) or just low memory (I deleted some deadwood), but Alice & I seem to be on speaking terms again. Still hoping someone knows a way to access the tts-picking menus. I'd love to experiment w/voices. I tried several things last night, but no joy.
AVIC (Artificial Intelligent Voice Control) (Alice) - Settings
BELASCO said:
All Alice is giving me today is "an error has occurred." And just like a woman, she won't tell me what's wrong. And I apologised and everything...
Edit- It may have been the FB reader tts (deleted) or just low memory (I deleted some deadwood), but Alice & I seem to be on speaking terms again. Still hoping someone knows a way to access the tts-picking menus. I'd love to experiment w/voices. I tried several things last night, but no joy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
BELASCO,
Yes AVIC Alice requires her space (memory) and if you do not give her space, she can become
snappy, kind of like PMS I guess. The message "an error has occurred" can be memory issues,
missing application (like if you say "Open Note", she requires Go Note), application conflict, etc.
We included this package since it is by far the best in the industry, like Dragon Naturally Speaking
is the best for a PC. I an excited to hear you are interested in experimenting with the voices. This
is exactly my goal, to improve the Kindle and spark enough interest to have others involved with
the development. Please send us responses as you work with AVC, we will be really interested
in your work. We have a few developers on site, so send me a reply with the details of your
interests with AVC and I will forward the request to my Senior Developers.
I was looking to change the KFHD's voice (and Alice's) to Ivona's Gwynneth or Amy, but found the usual Android menu lacking on the Kindle. Know of any way to get at it?
Menu Missing
BELASCO said:
I was looking to change the KFHD's voice (and Alice's) to Ivona's Gwynneth or Amy, but found the usual Android menu lacking on the Kindle. Know of any way to get at it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
BELASCO,
When you have AVIC Alice opened, look down at the home task bar, between the < arrow and the Magnifying Glass (Search) is a
upside down U with 3 lines through it. When AVC is open, press on this upside down U with 3 lines through it and you should
see a menu pop up. Do you see the menu options - Help - Text Input - Manager - Settings?
The choices see on my KFHD are "male, female & system" in settings.
AVIC (Artificial Intelligent Voice Control) (Alice) - Settings
BELASCO said:
The choices see on my KFHD are "male, female & system" in settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
BELASCO,
Yes, of course, you have the free version which is limited in the options. It is worth it, upgrade to Pro Version
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=yourapp24.android.tools.aivc
it costs a whopping $2.36 and adds an enormous number of features and options, including everything you
want to do. Play with voices, custom responses, etc. Over 100 options added to Pro. The Basic Free
Version is meant for testing and simple development to integrate AVIC Alice into other application, then
it is meant to be upgraded. Do the Upgrade, you will love it.
I HAVE the pro version. What menu items am I missing?
AVIC (Artificial Intelligent Voice Control) (Alice) - Settings
BELASCO said:
I HAVE the pro version. What menu items am I missing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
BELASCO,
Go back to Google Play Store, search for AVC (Alice) Pro. Then click on the AVC (Alice) Pro Edition.
Does it show Installed? If yes, uninstall, reboot and reinstall. You are missing a lot:
Help > Help System
Text Input > Place to make Custom Voice Commands
Manager > Place to Manage Commands and Alias's to Contacts
Settings > Here you have about 80 Options inside of Settings
If you click on Settings > About us it will advise you of the Version.
Version 2.8. I did as you suggested reboot it all but it's made no difference in my menu. And it is the pro version. There are only 3 menu choices under voices.
AVIC (Artificial Intelligent Voice Control) (Alice) - Voice Settings
BELASCO said:
Version 2.8. I did as you suggested reboot it all but it's made no difference in my menu. And it is the pro version. There are only 3 menu choices under voices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
BELASCO,
I am sorry, I misunderstood you, I thought you were saying the only options
you had were 3. My mistake. You are fine, I am wrong. Maybe if you go
to the developer site http://www.yourapp24.com/ they
may offer other voices. You may also email them at [email protected]

WebKey & Google Play on FTV2

So, I have a PM a while back about Webkey app on FTV. Here it is
@clembo100 said:
Hi there, I have just installed webkey on my Amazon TV Firestick in order to remote access Kodi installation configs etc.
When starting the app on the browser I can connect but get a plain replica of a phone on the screen with a small android icon on it but no actual way of viewing the screen or controlling anything. The mouse pointer changes when over some of the edges of the screen as though to do something but nothing seems to be working correctly. I wondered if you had come across this or can help with a fix? Thanks for reading this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same problem on my FTV2 running version 3.2.6. The new version is not as feature rich (no terminal, no file transfers, no file system navigation, no way to input text easily) as the old one. Alas, you cannot run the older version on FTV2, it will refuse to start, either manually or auto-boot.
But, I have playing around with it and found that you can navigate menus using the keyboard arrow keys. Certain menu items can be invoked using mouse clicks as well (eg, if you go to Applications and open an app., you get different choices like "Run App" or "Clear Data". You can click on them and it seems to work). Also, usually once you are within an app, you can point and click using your mouse. So, even though it is crippled, it does work, though not as seamlessly as the older version. You can get the latest one at http://webkey.cc/ and there is a link for direct apk download.
One of the best uses I have for it right now is to interact with Google Play (system app). I have frozen my GPlay app at 5.6.8. As others have indicated, the mouse does not work (using K400) in the app. But, I can point and click in the GPlay app using Webkey and it makes it easy. Tip, if you need to click on the rectangle formed by 3 horizontal lines at the top of the page to get into your settings, click on the top left corner of that rectangle (of just those 3 lines) and the menu should pop down.
An interesting thing I found, if you install GPlay (5.6.8) as a user app, the mouse works, but it stops working when GPlay (same version) is installed as a system app. Of course as a user app, you get the error (976?) that won't allow you to install apps from within GPlay.

Default app and notification settings being ignored

Color OS v.6
Been wrestling with some really infuriating problems with this phone since i bought it 4 months ago.
Default apps are ignored when clicking links via Chrome or Google search - if I select Waze as open by default for maps, and select DO NOT OPEN for Google maps, it will always open Google maps when I click a map or directions. If I select do not open for YouTube and either always open or always ask for newpipe or YouTube vanced, it will always open YouTube links in YouTube. It just completely ignores the settings
Opening via Firefox will work sort of, but for some reason FF have added a little 'open in app' button step so you have to load the web page for YouTube then select the android button for it to bring up the select app dialog, so it's rubbish and frankly a deal breaker. Also this doesn't work for directions, neither Maps or Waze are options for directions, bizarrely.
Another thing thats frustrating is that it forgets notification settings. If I set a notification as unimportant, like a battery usage alert or WhatsApp web is open, it will appear again an hour later.
Does anyone else get these issues? You could argue the first one is a chrome/google issue, but i have never had this problem on other androids. My OnePlus works fine for example
If anyone has a solution to these, I would be grateful for hear it. At the moment I am done with Color OS weirdness and considering a custom rom (if one exists)
Edit: Actually I can't get it to open any app via chrome. Everything opens in chrome. Tried resetting everything but it won't work.

SM-G975F on Canadian Networks and Best ROM

Hi everyone. I am getting an SM-G975F with the Exynos chipset. I was planning on flashing LineageOS on it but now I have stumbled upon MicroG for LineageOS and been doing a little reading up on it. Now I am not clear what the best choice would be from a privacy perspective.
My intention with LineageOS was to *not* install GApps and see how much I can make do with the default apps (i.e. the stock mail app, etc.). If that is my intention, then am I better off with LineageOS? or MicroG?
I don't really care about Google Apps. The only thing I can see myself struggling without is without some kind of semi-decent mapping application like Google Maps. Is there a decent alternative? Do I need MicroG for that? If I do cave and find I need Google Maps, then would I be better off with MicroG or LineageOS?
Also, is there a way to get Office apps (Word, Excel, etc.) on LineageOS? Or is that undesirable from a privacy perspective?
Lastly, is there a way to enable LTE bands 29, 30, and 46 on the SM-G975F model? These are enabled on the SM-G975W (Canadian) model, and I will be using the phone in Canada on Bell Mobility.
If these questions have been asked/answered elsewhere, can you please just drop a link?
Thanks,
The Fish
Your post does not qualify for Development. Please read the stickies before posting!
Moved to Questions and Answers.
Hi XDA’ers
I thought I would provide an update on my experience thus far with LineageOS 19.1 on my Exynos SM-G975F and answer some of my own questions which I asked above. Maybe some of this is obvious stuff or maybe not. Maybe it will be helpful for others in the future.
The operating system​I installed LineageOS from the official lineageos.org website. I did not install GApps so I am operating without the Google Play Services.
While Android itself is open source, the “Google Play Services” are not. They are a proprietary library from Google that are included with most (all?) Android devices and provide a number of services, APIs, etc. to apps running on Android. It's not part of the operating system per se, but lots of apps require it. So, I am operating with LineageOS only without the Google Play Services.
As a side note, there is an open-source re-implementation of Google Play Services called microG. MicroG cannot be installed as an app but needs to be installed as part of the OS. There are basically two flavors of LineageOS that include microG. They are “LineageOS for microG” and /e/OS. Both of these include microG. Pure LineageOS on its own however includes neither Google Play Services (unless you install GApps bundle) nor microG.
I was surprised how small the download file was for LineageOS. It weighs in at just 777 MB. I am used to Samsung firmware that weighs in at about 6 GB. So, this seemed really small to me.
Upon first boot up I was impressed with how clean the operating system was. Not only is there no bloatware but there is basically almost nothing at all. There is a dialer app, an SMS app, a camera app, a calculator, and a mini browser. There is also a local-only address book (no link to cloud services) and a local calendar app. The browser is fairly limited but gets the job done. Notably there isn’t a mail app (although I understand that there used to be one on previous versions of LineageOS). So, I set about seeing what I could do.
Apps​I installed the F-Droid app store but there are not any mainstream apps in there. Some of the apps in there might be good (I still need to explore it more) but I needed a solid email app. My company is on Office 365 so Outlook would be my first choice.
I stumbled upon APKPure and APKMirror. Both are very ad-filled spammy looking website that seems to be a web-based front end to the Google Play Store. Using these sites website, you can download official APKs for mainstream apps like Outlook, Word, Excel, etc. Be very careful where you click. Lots of the ads on the site include "Download Now" type buttons that you can click on thinking you are downloading an APK but instead are clicking on a spammy ad. So, navigate carefully on these sites.
I was able to install Word, Excel, OneDrive and Outlook. This was huge because I needed a decent mail app. Being able to install OneDrive meant I could now sync my camera with OneDrive. All the Microsoft apps worked flawlessly on LineageOS even without Google Play Services. The one thing I noticed however is that Outlook does not give me notifications when I get a new email. I have to go into Outlook and swipe down to refresh. I believe this is due to the lack of Google Play Services. Maybe using microG would eliminate this problem (not sure). I can live with this for now but would obviously like a way to resolve it.
Installing Outlook synced the local Calendar and Contacts apps with my Outlook contacts and calendar so that worked great.
Bible Apps​Both the Olive Tree Bible Reader app and the ESV Bible app installed no problem from APKPure. Both of these are offline Bible apps (they download the whole Bible and can be used offline). I like Olive Tree because I have several translations (including the SBLGNT) and Olive Tree lets me switch between them. The ESV app is great because they have recordings and so you can hear Kristyn Getty or David Cochran Heath read the Bible to you in natural non-synthetic voices.
Signal​I installed Signal directly from their website (they offer the APK directly on their website). Signal detects that it is being installed on a device without Google Play Services and so registers itself as a service and consequently I do get notifications for new Signal messages (unlike Outlook). I wonder if there is some way to make Outlook run the same way. I tried installing Microsoft Teams which we use at work but don't get any notifications when people send me messages. So that makes Teams pretty useless.
Browser​The build-in default browser renders HTML/CSS just fine but is very limited in terms of features. When you install a progressive web app as an app on the home screen it works but launches in the full browser with the address bar visible which breaks the app-like experiance which is really the whole point of a PWA. So I set about trying to fix this. To my surprise I was able to install Microsoft Edge without ANY issues whatsoever. It works great and web apps pin to the home screen the way they should (and open as apps). So I made Edge my default browser.
Keyboards​The default keyboard in LineageOS does not have stickers or GIFs. That is as it should be I think for a default built-in keyboard. But it does not support swipe typing either. This surprised me. It seemed like a huge step backwards to have to tap out every letter with my thumbs. Do people still type like that on their phones?!?! Oh, the humanity!
There is a microphone icon at the top of the keyboard for speech-to-text transcription. I used this all the time before on my Samsung S8+. But tapping it did nothing. Apparently I am missing a speech-to-text engine. This surprised be because Outlook has dictation built-in using Microsoft's engines and works well. But it only works in Outlook and not universally throughout the phone as it would if it was built-in on the keyboard.
I installed the Microsoft SwiftKey keyboard and that gave me stickers, GIFs and... swipe typing! Woo Hoo! But I was really hoping it would give me speech-to-text since I dictate almost all of my text messages. I figured it would use Microsoft's engine like Outlook does since it was a Microsoft app. But tapping the microphone on the SwiftKey keyboard promptly tells me that I need to download "Google Voice Search".
Microsoft Authenticator​I installed the Microsoft Authenticator app for 2FA and it installed just fine. But it was impossible to add any accounts by scanning the QR codes. I think this is due to notifications not working properly, probably also due to the lack of Google Play Services or microG.
Outstanding Issues​So, the outstanding issues I have right now are:
Microsoft Authenticator is non-usable. This is a huge issue for me
No speech-to-text transcription from keyboard
No notifications in Microsoft Teams
No notifications in Microsoft Outlook (this I can live with).
What I Like​What I like about LineageOS is the clean, minimalistic design of the operating system. I am not pushed into any particular "ecosystem" be it Google, Samsung, Microsoft or Apple. I can decide which ecosystem I want to participate in and to which extent. For example, I could download Outlook without downloading Edge and I don't need to backup my photos to OneDrive unless I want to. You can do this, to some extent, with OEM versions of Android, but it requires ignoring and disabling things. Come to think of it, that is really what an operating system should be - a platform for running apps, not an on-ramp into an ecosystem.
What irritates me is that not all apps work as they should. It seems like Google Play Services is an important part of the mix and many apps fail to function properly without it. Signal seems like one exception. It detects that you are not using Google Play Services and adapts the functioning the app accordingly.
Just a minor update. I tried several diffrent TTS engines (Pico TTS, Flite TTS, RHVoice) and none of these gave me text typing.
I ended up installing Speech Services by Google and it worked. I was surprised that it worked considering I do not have GApps (and thus no Google Play Services) and no microG on my phone.
So, I guess I can live with a little Google on my phone, but I would have preferred to find an open-source alternative or, barring that, a Microsoft alternative.

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