It comes with an Android compatibility layer, which I imagine is similar to running Android without Play Services. I've tried that in the past, and it worked q

It comes with an Android compatibility layer, which I imagine is similar to running Android without Play Services. I've tried that in the past, and it worked quite well. There are a lot of good apps on F-Droid, then you can get access to others through APKMirror, or methods of downloading from the Play Store. Of those, I'd say about half work without complaint (including Whatsapp), a quarter complain and still work, and a quarter don't work. I also used (and still use) a few web apps for things like weather.