I had recently installed Grapheneos on my pixel, with a goal is determining what was responsible for all the senseless Google domains that a pixel normally contacts.
To my surprise disabling Network for the Google Services Framework and Play Services killed all of the nonsense. The only downside was that GSF has the push mechanism in it also, that many apps use for push notifications.
If only there were an alternate for push notifications that all apps would use.
Anyway, Grapheneos runs way cooler than Google’s Malware version.
I get all my push notifications, apps etc without any actual Google services on my phone. Remote google servers are still used, but in a more (though not fully) anonymous manner.
I’m not really the one to ask as I don’t buy a smart phone for a camera. However, it looks good to me and I have a picky eye. And from what I’ve seen, you can use Google Camera on Grapheneos and get the same quality pictures and video.
I was very disappointed with the (default) Camera after switching to Graphene, luckily you can just download the Pixel Camera (including all the Pixel optimizations) from Play Store on Graphene OS or download it as an APK bundle from some other sites (downloading the normal APK won’t work, it has to be the bundle).
I had recently installed Grapheneos on my pixel, with a goal is determining what was responsible for all the senseless Google domains that a pixel normally contacts.
To my surprise disabling Network for the Google Services Framework and Play Services killed all of the nonsense. The only downside was that GSF has the push mechanism in it also, that many apps use for push notifications.
If only there were an alternate for push notifications that all apps would use.
Anyway, Grapheneos runs way cooler than Google’s Malware version.
I use ntfy for notifications, even on my vanilla Pixel.
The less google services apps you use the less google services needs to run.
That looks nice, but apps that use GSF for push won’t use that. Or am I missing something on their website?
Correct, an app has to be built without GSF. That’s why I still use Vanilla Pixel for Google Maps and Android Auto.
You can still use sand boxed play services in grapheneos for that.
No, not for Android Auto
It is mentioned in their app store with instructions on how to activate it. Is it broken atm?
That’s incorrect, Graphene OS has Android Auto support.
oh they fixed it, cool thanks
I use Osmand for maps.
Check out microG: https://microg.org/
I get all my push notifications, apps etc without any actual Google services on my phone. Remote google servers are still used, but in a more (though not fully) anonymous manner.
TIL that MicroG is used for more than just getting my Google account to work in YouTube ReVanced.
Are you using Grapheneos or another ROM?
I’m using CalyxOS, it comes with microG. I wish graphene supported microG, but they don’t.
With Graphene OS there is no Google services at all correct? No android auto?
They made it where you could sandbox all of the Google stuff, and Android Auto works fine too.
Huh…neat!
It’s sandboxed, but still there. Most stuff should work as normal.
How’s the picture quality after the switch
I’m not really the one to ask as I don’t buy a smart phone for a camera. However, it looks good to me and I have a picky eye. And from what I’ve seen, you can use Google Camera on Grapheneos and get the same quality pictures and video.
I was very disappointed with the (default) Camera after switching to Graphene, luckily you can just download the Pixel Camera (including all the Pixel optimizations) from Play Store on Graphene OS or download it as an APK bundle from some other sites (downloading the normal APK won’t work, it has to be the bundle).
No surprise, Play Services is Googles tracking framework on mobile too.