The long quest to produce a competitive, viable phone/phone OS alternative to Big Tech’s Apple/Google duopoly, that above all meets the needs of privacy and security-oriented users, continues.

A new effort in this direction comes in the shape of collaboration between Apostrophy OS (AphyOS) – an Android Open Source Project (AOSP) -based mobile operating system – with end-to-end encrypted messaging app Threema.

Operating systems building on AOSP are also known as “de-Googled” Android – that which out the gate lacks the Google Mobile Services (GMS) package, the heart of Google’s grip on your phone’s data.

But this also means the absence of handy features like easily accessing apps on Play Store – and this is one of the reasons Google works so hard to keep third-party stores out, and also, a major obstacle to overcome by the said privacy-first operating systems.

By entering into a partnership with Treema, Apostrophy is clearly trying to make its OS a more attractive proposition by building in an end-to-end encrypted messenger, that is, the “Libre” (a reference to free software) version that does not rely on closed-source, proprietary libraries.

To those running Apostrophy on a select number of phones that are fully compatible with the OS, this open version of Treema is available for “free, as in beer” – i.e., without the need to purchase a license.

(For anybody interested in using this version of Treema on another OS/device, it can be found in the free and open source alternative to Play Store, F-Droid).

Meanwhile, Apostrophy, that is marketing its endeavors as, “privacy meets usability,” comes pre-installed and tested for compatibility on a number of phones, notably Punkt MC02.

To mark its partnership with Apostrophy, Treema said it was giving away ten of these devices.

All three companies are based in Switzerland, stressing a minimalist approach to both hardware and software, which helps delivers on the usability and privacy promise, combined with Apostrophy’s stress on privacy.

Beside excluding Google Mobile Services, the OS also offers a built-in VPN, and what it says is a “unique and intuitive” way for users to grant permissions to apps, called “Data Ledger.”