[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Harsher:
Hello

So I wake up from a long sleep away from the world of custom roms, and I started to wonder about a few topics.

The first one being, is it worth it to change my actual phone, an old i9506. I came with this answer; maybe, when I won't be on budget.

Truth is for now, it is sufficient for my needs, except it sometimes runs out of RAM, out of memory (when I use my SD too much like an USB, 32Go is not sufficient), and lags a little in sms conversations that I don't want to delete (good or practical memories should be accessible without having to "flash" a backup, that's not possible with most sms backup application I know) but it is mostly OK.

My other options would be to buy a modular phone, as I am not one who change his phone every six months (as you can expect by reading that I still have the S4).

But ARA (https://atap.google.com/ara/), and other that you can see here (https://phonebloks.com/development) are not ready yet.

And G5 and moto Z are not modular as I expect it to be.

So I'll stick to my S4, with it's removable SD and battery, which are things I won't surrender for any flagship (and again, the G5 might have this, but it's not really something I would trade my S4 for, as it is pretty poor for a flagship, from reviews).

My second current is privacy and security. Back in the days I was really in touch with ROM/App news, I tried to get more control over my phone and tested a lot of solutions but I came to the following conclusions:

-I don't want to buy one of those silentwhispers or zenith/copperhead/whatever phones that you can't install anything on, I am careful choosing my apps, and sometimes, you can need to install the app of a shop or a friend, and you won't have much to fear from these (or you have, but I mean, sometimes you have to be flexible, so even being careful using approved app and checking permissions and so on, you have to be able to do it).

-You can't depend on stock roms which contains hardware and software bugs that never get corrected (Samsung and its SD card reading problems that drain battery forever; security flaws that took many android editions to be corrected when they should be corrected even in the current one, instead of changing only latest version to force you to change hardware if you feel concerned...).

So you have to go for alternate projects. AOSP, Cyanogen or Lineage, AOKP, you name it. Some would say now CM is not trustful anymore, I'll let it to expectation.

-App control apps are usually not holding their promises. Even with root and apps for rooted deviced, Things that say they will prevent the huge pain in the ass of those damn apps that wake up when not asked for miserably fails, antiviruses from great companies that say they will shut down apps display animations mimicking them doing it, but you can see in the task manager the apps are well alive (and you still have to get into the interface to force close them one by one), firewalls may work (it was my only not disappointing experience) but they take time to set up and usually you have to pay for that granularity that make things usable on a day to day basis; and I am not sure anyway that google and so on have no means of circumventing this because of integrated "pathways"; things that control permissions are pain to use and break applications most of the time (and while I don't want something like Gmaps to read my external storage, I need the function to move, and I don't know of real alternatives), and attempts to get some advanced software to have functions on board instead of communications/processing within the cloud don't impair the app capacity to store data to transmit it to its masters once you use internet.

-I only sticks to Gapps because I can't find alternative that are good enough but I am pissed of by the data mining that you can't opt out, and i'm not from the tinfoil hat brigade out there, but I think that gives too much power to people that might become ill intended (or whose commercial practices end up including data they should not have access to, think insurance and so on), or that might lose data to ill intended persons like hackers (think Yahoo and so on).

I was tempted by a project like Replicant, but it doesn't support my device and building it is out of my reach, I have no experience in rom modding or programming, so while I can code a little, the process seems too complex for me not breaking my device (and even if something doesn't go wrong, i will still have to code some alternate firmware and that's clearly beyond my Java level without spending it enough time for my device to break from old age)

So, good fellows of XDA, what are your thoughts?

-I never tested the xposed framework and xprivacy, but is it really working (considering what I said about app permission management)?

-Is there other apps in this framework or independent from it which would make me able to reach or approach my goal of having better control on my device? (especially for automatic wake up apps, permissions and firewall. heard of lighting wall but not sure it is the best I could find)

-What are good alternatives to Google apps (especially for maps, translation, vocal commands)?

-What are the other ROM projects oriented toward privacy that I would have missed and that might be compatible with S4? Or at least, a rom including some security, privacy features, and good patches (I know CM had stagefright corrected... not sure about others).

-What can be an alternative for S4 that have removable battery and additional storage (and RAM/camera and screen at S4 level, not expecting much more), can receive custom roms and may be compatible to such projects?

-What would be your advices?

Final note: I am not in the idea of having a "secret agent phone" with unsoldered mic and camera and so on, I want something practical, but I am fed up with the fact that I can't control what apps are doing, which is abnormal in my view. If I buy a game or utility, I want it to play/work with, not stealing my data not related to the game (it is ok to measure players/workers performance, not to look at what they read, browse on the net, listen and so on, or even more serious, reading their messages and collecting these!). I even wondered if programming a system alternative to android would be a solution, but let's say it, I have not the time, ressource and knowledge for it (even if It would end making me a hero for some people out there), and the third is the most lacking (as stated above, I can't even start to build something a little special on my phone).

Thanks a lot for your help