4 ms·

Where do you get the apps from? Google's App Store?

robmusial 1y ago
F-Droid app store. https://f-droid.org https://f-droid.org
morserer 1y ago
Aurora Store on F-Droid is a FOSS frontend for the Google Play Store that is a seamless drop-in. Requires no Play Services, nor an account.
- bboygravity 1y ago
  But than the apps you download (your banking app) require play services right? So then what's the point of having a Play Store without Google Play services?
  - ThePowerOfFuet 1y ago
    Many apps claim to require Play Services, but all my (several) bank apps work perfectly on GrapheneOS. No notifications because they rely on Google, but that is more feature than bug in my books. Signal brings its own notifications, so they work perfectly. The only app which was broken to the point of unusability was Too Good To Go, which demands that you pick locations on a map which relies on Play Services; the manual city entry is broken. I use Google Maps only in Firefox Focus, but I've heard that builds of Google Maps up to about a year or so ago didn't rely on Play Services, and with Aurora Store you can manually enter a build number to install. tl;dr: 10/10, fabulous experience.
    - anthk 1y ago
      Uh GF uses TooGoodToGo, I might try if it works with MicroG and the companion app which appears at FDroid (can't recall now the name, but it appeared with Droidify and some repos). It must be a Play Services API placeholder out there too. Install Droidify, enable the repos, and install "microG Services" and "microG Companion".
      - ThePowerOfFuet 1y ago
        >Install Droidify, enable the repos, and install "microG Services" and "microG Companion". No thanks; I choose to forego Too Good To Go instead of that. They are the only truly broken app I have found.
    - easyKL 1y ago
      Need the Maps data, the satellite picture, or StreetView? All these past years this WebView wrapper have been working like a charm https://f-droid.org/packages/us.spotco.maps https://f-droid.org/packages/us.spotco.maps
  - gf000 1y ago
    GrapheneOS managed to make Google play services into normal android services, without higher privileges that they have on other android systems. I am personally more than okay with using the official, proprietary GP services from time to time if they abide by the same rules, especially that I can make these rules as strict as I want.
  - unethical_ban 1y ago
    Not all apps on play store require play services. And even if you install Google play on your graphene phone, it is still more isolated by default. Add that to the concept of storage scopes and more permissions control (apps have to ask for access to the network) and you have a more secure platform.
- homebrewer 1y ago
  It doesn't work for everything; one of the banks I'm forced to use checks for how it was installed, and Android for some incomprehensible reason is happy to report that to any application that asks (along with lots of other information like bootloader status and developer mode — you really have fewer rights to 'your' device than random applications). After opening the application, it complains about being installed through an "insecure method", and bails. Reinstalling through Google Play magically fixes that. These "security checks" are spreading like measles, so expect to see this sooner or later.
  - mschuster91 1y ago
    > one of the banks I'm forced to use checks for how it was installed, and Android for some incomprehensible reason is happy to report that to any application that asks That's because apps that aren't published just on the Play Store but also on other stores or for direct sideloads (for users running Huawei for example which doesn't have Play Store) need to be able to detect the installation method to do updates on their own if there is no backing store.
    - const_cast 1y ago
      The use case makes some amount of sense, but I think once an API becomes predominantly used for fingerprinting and the real use case becomes a side effect you should just nuke the API. It's the responsible thing to do. Apple has done it a few times.
mikae1 1y ago
Obtanium[1], F-Droid[2], Aurora Store[3] and FFUpdater[4] are some options. Signal self updates from the APK download[6]. I recommend putting proprietary Play Store apps grabbed with Aurora Store in the work profile with Shelter[5]. [1] https://obtainium.imranr.dev/ https://obtainium.imranr.dev/ [2] https://f-droid.org/ https://f-droid.org/ [3] https://f-droid.org/packages/com.aurora.store/ https://f-droid.org/packages/com.aurora.store/ [4] https://f-droid.org/packages/de.marmaro.krt.ffupdater/ https://f-droid.org/packages/de.marmaro.krt.ffupdater/ [5] https://f-droid.org/packages/net.typeblog.shelter/ https://f-droid.org/packages/net.typeblog.shelter/ [6] https://signal.org/android/apk/ https://signal.org/android/apk/
- tkel 1y ago
  Work profiles are inferior to separate user profiles, which are built-in to GrapheneOS. Also "private space" is now available with Android 15 and can provide the same separation within a single user profile.
  - Unroasted6154 1y ago
    Don't you have user profiles in Pixels? I can create another user an switch. Just not super convient. Work profiles are actually pretty good good... For work.
  - piaste 1y ago
    > Work profiles are inferior to separate user profiles, which are built-in to GrapheneOS. Different use cases. User profiles are only active when you manually switch to them, while work profiles are active _alongside_ your main profile. So for untrusted apps that you only use occasionally and on-demand (like the myriads of travel / shopping / random services apps), user profiles are great. For apps that you want to keep in the background, such as the proprietary messaging apps that all your friends use, a work profile is much nicer.
    - strcat 1y ago
      Private Space is very similar to a user profile but nested inside of another user. GrapheneOS adds shared clipboard control for Private Space which was the main disadvantage compared to a secondary user. GrapheneOS supports having a Private Space in secondary users instead of only a single one in Owner. Supporting multiple Private Spaces per user is a planned feature at which point work profiles will be fully obsolete. The remaining use case for work profiles is to have both a Private Space and work profile in the Owner user.

F-Droid app store. https://f-droid.org https://f-droid.org

Aurora Store on F-Droid is a FOSS frontend for the Google Play Store that is a seamless drop-in. Requires no Play Services, nor an account.

bboygravity 1y ago
But than the apps you download (your banking app) require play services right? So then what's the point of having a Play Store without Google Play services?
- ThePowerOfFuet 1y ago
  Many apps claim to require Play Services, but all my (several) bank apps work perfectly on GrapheneOS. No notifications because they rely on Google, but that is more feature than bug in my books. Signal brings its own notifications, so they work perfectly. The only app which was broken to the point of unusability was Too Good To Go, which demands that you pick locations on a map which relies on Play Services; the manual city entry is broken. I use Google Maps only in Firefox Focus, but I've heard that builds of Google Maps up to about a year or so ago didn't rely on Play Services, and with Aurora Store you can manually enter a build number to install. tl;dr: 10/10, fabulous experience.
  - anthk 1y ago
    Uh GF uses TooGoodToGo, I might try if it works with MicroG and the companion app which appears at FDroid (can't recall now the name, but it appeared with Droidify and some repos). It must be a Play Services API placeholder out there too. Install Droidify, enable the repos, and install "microG Services" and "microG Companion".
    - ThePowerOfFuet 1y ago
      >Install Droidify, enable the repos, and install "microG Services" and "microG Companion". No thanks; I choose to forego Too Good To Go instead of that. They are the only truly broken app I have found.
  - easyKL 1y ago
    Need the Maps data, the satellite picture, or StreetView? All these past years this WebView wrapper have been working like a charm https://f-droid.org/packages/us.spotco.maps https://f-droid.org/packages/us.spotco.maps
- gf000 1y ago
  GrapheneOS managed to make Google play services into normal android services, without higher privileges that they have on other android systems. I am personally more than okay with using the official, proprietary GP services from time to time if they abide by the same rules, especially that I can make these rules as strict as I want.
- unethical_ban 1y ago
  Not all apps on play store require play services. And even if you install Google play on your graphene phone, it is still more isolated by default. Add that to the concept of storage scopes and more permissions control (apps have to ask for access to the network) and you have a more secure platform.
homebrewer 1y ago
It doesn't work for everything; one of the banks I'm forced to use checks for how it was installed, and Android for some incomprehensible reason is happy to report that to any application that asks (along with lots of other information like bootloader status and developer mode — you really have fewer rights to 'your' device than random applications). After opening the application, it complains about being installed through an "insecure method", and bails. Reinstalling through Google Play magically fixes that. These "security checks" are spreading like measles, so expect to see this sooner or later.
- mschuster91 1y ago
  > one of the banks I'm forced to use checks for how it was installed, and Android for some incomprehensible reason is happy to report that to any application that asks That's because apps that aren't published just on the Play Store but also on other stores or for direct sideloads (for users running Huawei for example which doesn't have Play Store) need to be able to detect the installation method to do updates on their own if there is no backing store.
  - const_cast 1y ago
    The use case makes some amount of sense, but I think once an API becomes predominantly used for fingerprinting and the real use case becomes a side effect you should just nuke the API. It's the responsible thing to do. Apple has done it a few times.

mikae1 1y ago

Obtanium[1], F-Droid[2], Aurora Store[3] and FFUpdater[4] are some options. Signal self updates from the APK download[6]. I recommend putting proprietary Play Store apps grabbed with Aurora Store in the work profile with Shelter[5]. [1] https://obtainium.imranr.dev/ https://obtainium.imranr.dev/ [2] https://f-droid.org/ https://f-droid.org/ [3] https://f-droid.org/packages/com.aurora.store/ https://f-droid.org/packages/com.aurora.store/ [4] https://f-droid.org/packages/de.marmaro.krt.ffupdater/ https://f-droid.org/packages/de.marmaro.krt.ffupdater/ [5] https://f-droid.org/packages/net.typeblog.shelter/ https://f-droid.org/packages/net.typeblog.shelter/ [6] https://signal.org/android/apk/ https://signal.org/android/apk/

tkel 1y ago
Work profiles are inferior to separate user profiles, which are built-in to GrapheneOS. Also "private space" is now available with Android 15 and can provide the same separation within a single user profile.
- Unroasted6154 1y ago
  Don't you have user profiles in Pixels? I can create another user an switch. Just not super convient. Work profiles are actually pretty good good... For work.
- piaste 1y ago
  > Work profiles are inferior to separate user profiles, which are built-in to GrapheneOS. Different use cases. User profiles are only active when you manually switch to them, while work profiles are active _alongside_ your main profile. So for untrusted apps that you only use occasionally and on-demand (like the myriads of travel / shopping / random services apps), user profiles are great. For apps that you want to keep in the background, such as the proprietary messaging apps that all your friends use, a work profile is much nicer.
  - strcat 1y ago
    Private Space is very similar to a user profile but nested inside of another user. GrapheneOS adds shared clipboard control for Private Space which was the main disadvantage compared to a secondary user. GrapheneOS supports having a Private Space in secondary users instead of only a single one in Owner. Supporting multiple Private Spaces per user is a planned feature at which point work profiles will be fully obsolete. The remaining use case for work profiles is to have both a Private Space and work profile in the Owner user.