Opinion: I swapped Google Photos, Drive, Gemini for Fossify, Nextcloud, Gemma 4
The author tested open‑source Android apps as replacements for Google Photos, Drive, and Gemini. Fossify Gallery served as a local‑only photo manager, offering browsing, folder organization, basic edits, search, theming, biometric protection and a Material You design, but it does not provide cloud backup.
Key points
- Fossify Gallery provides a local‑only photo manager with basic edit, search, and biometric protection, but no cloud backup.
- Nextcloud replaces Google Drive with self‑hosted storage, offering file sync, automatic media upload, and share links protected by passwords and expiration dates.
- Gemma 4 runs locally via Google AI Edge Gallery, with two models—E2B for phones with 8GB RAM and E4B for devices with 12GB or more—multimodal offline.
Nextcloud was set up as a self‑hosted cloud storage solution, handling file sync across Windows, Mac, Linux and Android, automatic media uploads, and share links that can be password‑protected and set to expire. The initial self‑hosting effort is higher than using Google Drive, yet the author values the control over storage.
Gemma 4 runs on‑device via Google AI Edge Gallery, allowing offline summarization, brainstorming, rewriting, and multimodal tasks. Two models are offered: E2B for phones with 8GB RAM and E4B for devices with 12GB or more. While it lacks some deep Android integration of Gemini, the offline capability and privacy are seen as major benefits.
I replaced Google Photos, Drive, and Gemini with free open source alternatives; now I can't go back
androidpolice.com · 20 October 2026
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This text was published by androidpolice.com and written by Parth Shah. It is reproduced here with attribution so you can read it in full; the rights remain with the publisher. Read it at the source ↗
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