Staying a hundred percent away from Google apps and services is next to impossible. But there are some excellent alternatives for most Google products. And this guide will help if you want to stop using Google apps and services on your iPhone for any reason, be it privacy concerns or personal preference.
Google Account
Google will soon enroll you in its two-factor authentication process by default
Google will soon start enrolling users in its new two-factor authentication (2FA) process, a change that will require that you tap a Google prompt on your device to confirm your identity.
How to download your Google Maps data
If you’ve been using Google Maps for some time now, you might want to have an export of your data. Maybe you’d like to keep a copy of it as a backup or use it with a different app. Google makes it pretty easy for you to choose the data you want and get your hands on it for use elsewhere.
Here, we’ll show you how to export and download your Google Maps data both on the web and in the Google Maps app on iPhone and iPad.
Google’s My Account webpage rolls out Find My iPhone-like features
Apple has Find My iPhone and now Google has something called Find Your phone. As announced in a blog post Wednesday, the new feature can be used to find lost devices.
In addition to locating your device directly from Google's recently redesigned My Account page, you can now simply say in the mobile Google app, “OK Google, show me my Google Account”. Soon, you'll also be able to search Google for “I lost my phone”.
How to delete your Google account
Deleting an account on Google is a pretty complex multi-step process. You cannot just delete it on a whim before doing some housekeeping because that's where crucial records of everything you do with Google services like Gmail, Maps and YouTube are being stored.
Depending on your interactions with Google, the data associated with your account may include everything from your personal files to your vacation images to stored bookmarks, web searches, locations, purchased apps, media and much more.
Therefore, it is absolutely crucial that you download all your important data, past searches and purchased media, as well as update other services that use your Google account, before you actually delete it.
We have created this tutorial with these precautions in mind: using our cheat sheet and following detailed step-by-step instructions in this guide, you will safely dispose of your Google account in a manner that won't ruin your experience on other websites, delete your personal data without giving you a chance to download it beforehand or otherwise ruin your online life.
Complete security checkup for your Google Account to earn 2GB of free Drive space
Google is celebrating the Safer Internet Day with various promotions and related announcements. The Gmail team, for instance, launched a feature that'll warn users before sending and receiving emails from insecure addresses.
The company's Drive team has made an announcement of its own, offering two gigabytes of free additional cloud storage to those who complete a two-minute security checkup for their Google Account.
Check your Google Account security and get 2 GB of permanent Drive storage bump
Today is the Safer Internet Day. In joining the Internet to celebrate the occasion, the search giant Google today announced an initiative that invites you to run a 30-second check on your Google Account in exchange for an additional two gigabytes of extra Google Drive storage.
As a quick reminder, Google Drive offers fifteen gigabytes of free storage to share across Google Drive, Gmail and Google+ Photos, or thirty gigs per account if you use Google Apps at work or school.
So, if you spare two minutes of your precious time and complete a simple security checkup on your Google Account by next Tuesday, February 17, Google will treat you to an additional 2 GB of Drive storage by the month's end for a total of 17 GB of storage allowance.