My main internet account is my Domain Apps account from 2007. It provides me with all the standard Google tools (Mail, Calendar, Docs etc.) and basically enterprise Google for a custom domain, free of charge. The service isn't going away completely - there is an "upgrade to paid" option - but the use of a custom domain on free services is. Whilst all good things come to an end, this one is going to be particularly painful for me.

The G Suite legacy free edition will no longer be available starting July 1, 2022.

My "legacy Google Domain Apps" account has been my primary account for ~15 years

I moved my personal domain onto Google Domain Apps around November 2007 - it is by far one of the longest running internet accounts I have. The only service I have that predates it is the domain registration itself (which is still on my Dad's account as it was my 11th birthday present!)

I always knew this could happen, so I tried to minimise my usage of "sign in with Google" and other more complex service offerings, but with apparently limited success. I still haven't figured out the full impact: I need to verify what happens with my contacts, calendar events, subscriptions, channels, music, playlists, TV & films, apps, files, documents, spreadsheets and the myriad of other features my Google account has acquired over the decades.

Since these types of accounts were only available up until 2012, anyone in this position is going to be having to unpick 10+ years of usage - you are not alone.

I read about this from Arstechnica before Google

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news if you're impacted by this and this is the first you're reading of it. The first I read of it was from this Reddit post. This article talks about how Google notified people a week ago, and has had a lot of push back, so is relenting somewhat:

This is the first e-mail I have to my Google hosted e-mail explaining the changes:

The e-mail was sent after the follow-up article on the change. From the comments, I wasn't the only one to hear late.

This is probably happening for agility and money

Any nerd with one of these accounts over the past few years probably has a tale or 2 of not being able to use particular services because of weird legacy domain account quirks. The intent and implementation of these accounts has changed over the decades as Google morphed Google Domain Apps into GSuite and then into Workspace. Maintaining backwards compatibility can be hard, and pre-2012 accounts have inevitably gotten a little messy and consequently expensive.

It would be interesting to know if Google's increase in popularity and revenue over 20 year has outpaced the increase in upkeep costs of these accounts.

Regardless, an obsessive focus on always trying to make the latest and greatest things often requires some of the not so latest and not so greatest things to be put out of their misery. "Very Agile" some say, pivot, fail fast etc. Cynically: this is because they're not making enough money, but in reality, I clearly benefit from Google's new products, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten so locked-in. So it's probably both agility and money, and I benefitted from that, until I didn't.

Google do this a lot, normally to less popular things I don't use

Not only is there a wiki page section on discontinued services but an entire Wikipedia category on discontinued Google services. This says to me that I've been incredibly lucky to have not been hugely inconvenienced by Google discontinuations so far.

I should remember not to not get too comfortable with Google services, or any service that isn't mine. If I can't choose when the service stops, then then it's not mine and in an ideal world, I shouldn't make it part of my core infrastructure.

Moving forward: a blessing in disguise, an opportunity to diversify and selfhost more.

I really enjoy self-hosting my own software and services where possible. I enjoy the learning, and the independence, and the warm fuzzy productivity feelings. I wish I could go onto say how I'm going to replace all of my Google dependencies with self-hosted alternatives. However, hosting services that involve other people is different for me - that turns it from a fun hobby into another obligation. E-mail in particular, falls into that category.

Regardless, this can still be seen as an opportunity to diversify: the situation is so much more challenging and stressful because my Google account has become a single point of failure for multiple services. It's been worrying and useful to be forced to think about how much of my daily online life is through Google.

Some alternatives needed for calendar, app store and paid content.

For e-mail, I'll most likely look for an alternative e-mail provider. I don't expect my e-mail for free (keeping up with modern anti spam technologies needed to keep e-mail flowing deserves recognition!) but I'd rather not pay Google for it. I have no good reason for this want-to-not-pay-Google, other than hurt feelings. I will also try and do better avoiding using my e-mail provider as my identity provider (so no more "Sign in with Google".)

For file management, I already make heavy use of syncthing, so I'll move any existing storage (including camera backup) over to that. I've already got that configured also with an incremental offsite backup with Restic and B2.

I'll also look into calendar options, as well a degoogled mobile phone options with my next phone upgrade. I don't know yet if switching to alternative app stores would solve content lock in completely, but FOSS oriented alternatives like F-Droid look like they should. There's also de-googled android options to consider too, like /e/ and LineageOS.

DuckDuckGo has improved!

I haven't given DuckDuckGo a try in about 5 years either, but in a totally-not-bitter-response-to-being-asked-to-pay, I've installed the DDG browser extension and switched my default search provider.

Last time I tried this, I lasted a few days before getting frustrated that DuckDuckGo wasn't able to read my thoughts like Google. This time, however, I've not really noticed a real drop in search quality. Although I do miss Google's cached page link alongside search results. DuckDuckGo's solution is a !cache bang which is just a slightly less convenient way to get to the same (Google powered ¬_¬) thing.

Credit where credit's due, Google is pretty good.

As hard done by and personally attacked as this Google decision has made me feel, that's because they've provided such fundamental services to me. I've tried other e-mail providers for various reasons, and few have come close to gmail in terms of speed, accessibility, antispam, convenience and integration. The frustration in this post is a testament to the comfort and convenience that the Google ecosystem has provided me.

Their services have typically been cutting edge, resilient, convenient and generally free, so thanks for that.

Realistically, I will probably not be able to fully Degoogle, but I could be less dependent

The only thing I can think of now without obvious non-Google options is my paid content associated with my account. Although my Google account has been such a core part of my life for 15 years, I will be surprised if I manage to get rid of it completely - I'm certain I will have overlooked something.

However, I will be looking to be less dependent on Google. I think it is a realistic target to be in a position where I don't need to be logged into a Google account 24/7 for a convenient personal tech life.

This means I will ultimately switch onto a free gsuite account, whilst self hosting some more services, or taking on one or two new regular online services where self-hosting is neither feasible nor fun.

Conclusion

I'm grumpy that a great free thing I've had for 15 years is effectively holding itself ransom. I shouldn't be surprised though, Google discontinue services a lot. Whilst there's going to be some short term inconvenience, it's a nice opportunity to explore some alternatives and change approach to avoid single points of failure. Google has been good to me, but is definitely being less good to everyone compared to early 00's Google. I guess now it's time for me to try ween myself off it, and onto some more open things.