If you want to stay with a smartphone, get a device that supports one of the followin OS versions of Androis without Google underlying services and with extra hardening, privacy features and a separate firewall to allow / deny access to your data and the Internet on per app basis :
Another alternative is to get a Chinese Huawei HarmonyOS phone that is also w/o Google backbone for spying. In reality you will just get Chinese buying backbone on those phones instead.
With all of the above OS versions of Android, you can still run most (not all) Android apps (sans banking, sans Google's and some other special apps). You will just need to download the apps from f-droid, apkmirror.com or some other guaranteed 3rd party app stores (not google play store).
For private messaging I recommend Matrix Element (even above Signal or Telegram) , if you can convince your friends to use it too.
You cannot escape big tech if you want a cell phone. All you can do is switch which big tech company you are dealing with. I just got rid of Apple and got an Android. "Nord Oneplus". Had never heard of the manufacturer, but it was cheap. $299.
If U want to stay with a smartphone, see Copphead/Rattlesnake/LineageOS hardened Android variants (w/o Google Mobile Services) detailed above in my other post.
If you want to stay with a smartphone, get a device that supports one of the followin OS versions of Androis without Google underlying services and with extra hardening, privacy features and a separate firewall to allow / deny access to your data and the Internet on per app basis :
LineageOS https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/
CopperheadOS or RattlesnakeOS (only for Pixel phones)
https://github.com/dan-v/rattlesnakeos-stack https://copperhead.co/android/
Another alternative is to get a Chinese Huawei HarmonyOS phone that is also w/o Google backbone for spying. In reality you will just get Chinese buying backbone on those phones instead.
https://www.huaweicentral.com/harmonyos-eligible-devices/
With all of the above OS versions of Android, you can still run most (not all) Android apps (sans banking, sans Google's and some other special apps). You will just need to download the apps from f-droid, apkmirror.com or some other guaranteed 3rd party app stores (not google play store).
For private messaging I recommend Matrix Element (even above Signal or Telegram) , if you can convince your friends to use it too.
Look up pinephone, intended to let you have full control of the phone.
I miss the days of the Motorola flip phone where all you did is make phone calls.
Nokia flip phone or some de-Googled Android. As long as you don't download any Google applications, it works well for calling, texting, and music.
Phone not being smartphone.
You cannot escape big tech if you want a cell phone. All you can do is switch which big tech company you are dealing with. I just got rid of Apple and got an Android. "Nord Oneplus". Had never heard of the manufacturer, but it was cheap. $299.
While you cannot escape it, you can lessen it.
With a smartphone they track everything.
With a dumb phone only your approx network location, SMS and calls.
The privacy intrusion with a smartphone is an order of magnitude worse.
I assumed we were talking about smartphones. Of course you could get a Jitterbug if that works for you.
If U want to stay with a smartphone, see Copphead/Rattlesnake/LineageOS hardened Android variants (w/o Google Mobile Services) detailed above in my other post.