Google account registration now requires sending an SMS via phone instead of receiving an SMS

plus-subzero:

I haven’t been able to create a Google Account with the usual SMS flow from within the Play Store on GrapheneOS, though.

I never tried that, and I never will.

I had not picked up on the fact that @unseen created their Google account on an Android phone. I have never done that. My attempts to create an anonymous Google account have always been on desktop. Creating one on a phone might increase your chances of success, but your phone will reveal your location to the degree that Google can detect where it was manufactured.

They know if your Samsung phone was made for Korea vs. Canada. This is why I prefer to create my account on desktop, because I want my Google account to contradict the information that my phone will reveal.

If I live in Australia and bought my phone there, I want my Google account to be linked to a different country and a different phone number. Just to make it harder for them to determine my actual ties.

@useen Did you use a VPN when creating your account?

If not, that could also explain why you had an easier time. I always use a VPN.

Ideally, I would create a Google account on desktop (Mullvad) with an American VPN IP and a Swedish phone number for a phone made for Australia.

It’s my understanding that the hardest part is getting a phone number that works. Because if you have a real phone number from Sweden, Google likely won’t care that you are using an American IP and that your phone was bought in Australia. If they recognize the phone number as real and unique, you should be good to go. But getting a real phone number not linked to an ID is hard if you live in a country that requires ID.