Should the app Google Play Services be installed?

Applications Android Apps
1

I wonder if the app “Google Play Services” should be installed, or if MicroG is the only thing that should be installed when running Android apps?

2

MicroG is a play services alternative.
Either way you should install them only if the apps you want to use depend on them. Not all apps need play services.

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3

You only “need” AAS for most Andy apps. You don’t always even need MicroG. I don’t. Let alone GplayServices.

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4

There is no real “should” and regarding Google Play Services it is more like a big “shouldn’t do that at all costs” if you ask me. I do not have Google Play Services and not even MicroG installed, but it depends on what you need to do and why ou want to use.

I assume you are a new user – then this might be helpful for you:

If you are like a video guy, there is this you might want to have a look at too:

…and maybe this is helpful too:

Best regards
Fuchur

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5

But what’s the reason for not installing Google Play Services? What does it do wrong if my apps don’t need it / don’t use it?

6

Wel the whole premise of Sailfish is to move away from the two big data harvesters - Google and iOS.
Adding Google Play would seems to invalidate the purpose of Sailfish altogether, no?
Technically there is no issue running it.

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7

U allow Google onto a system you do not want to be Google infected (otherwise… there are a lot of Google Infected systems out there much easier to find and work with if you do not care about privacy at all)? Depending on what happens your AAS will then have Google in there and that is more or less what we want to avoid because you never know what your next Android app will use or do. And of cause it still is Android, so who knows what it does inside.

Many Android apps will us it for toast messages and more and that will open up several possibilities to harvest your data.

Certainly it is better then having a fully infected Android, but why take the risk? Just don’t install and you are fine. If you really need to, use MicroG. PlayServices will call home and your privacy is compromised.

Best regards
Fuchur

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8

Let’s say my bank app requires Google Play Services, so I have no other choice than installing it. If the trouble is serious, shouldn’t we ask Jolla for a specific switch that enables the visibility of Play Services app by app?

9

What is the consequence if you think it through to the end? No app will feel the need to consider not using Google in the first place and they will become more and mroe strict sooner or later on what is possible anyway.

In addition Google has policies about this kind of stuff too and Jolla can not isolate Google in an Google system like Android anyway neighter. If you let it in, it will do stuff you do not want it to do.

The only way around that would be 50 (or whatever app count you have running on your system) containers running in SFOS simultanously all having seperated AAS in them. What would that do to your performance, memory usage and disc space usage on the system?

Best regards
Fuchur

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10

Two concurrent AppSupport containers would be a good start. We’d be able to install the particular app that needs Google Play in a separate environment.

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11

And are you sure MicroG is not enough? In the last ~12 years I never needed Google Play Services over MicroG.

The only use case would be SafetyNet which MicroG cannot ever pass, but Jolla with Play Services won’t pass it either.

If an app complains that it needs to be installed from the Play Store, that’s a different problem altogether.

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12

Aurora Store lets you subscribe anonymously. This way you can get all non-paid apps. Each app has mentions about ads, G services, paid for or none of these. You can also see what trackers the apps have. The choice is yours. If you want apps with G service you can permit Micro G in your phone’s settings under Android support.
Most of the time you don’t need G services.
I would always try without first.

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13

Don’t worry, I was only making a rhetorical argument.

14

I have now removed Google Play Services, which also removed some components of MicroG. So I assume that having both of them installed can cause conflicts. After uninstalling Google Play Services, I then followed the steps for reinstalling and setting up MicroG without problem.

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15

Sure, but better would be 3, so that GApp 1 can run without GApp 2 in there… oh and if I think about it… GApp 3 would be nice not to share data with GApp 1 too, so another one… oh and now that I think about it… GApp 4 isnt supposed to talk to neighter of the other once… no problem… one more… oh, but now I lost track about what Container 1-4 already have in there… so lets make Container 5… (you get what I want to say…)

It gets complicated, it would still support the usage of GApps which we should not do anyway and so on. And as Riku already said: I use it for several years now too and never needed GApps. It is very much possible, especially since it does not help much with bank apps because they check for rooted phones and G Security and so on.

Short answer: Try to live without it and add what you really need step by step, if you really need it, at the moment you need it – dont put one of the reasons you likely are using SFOS for in the first place in your system just in case you might need it in 2 years for that one app that might (but likely doesn’t) work with it then from the get go.

Best regards
Fuchur

PS: My answer is not “rhetoric” but practically based on my experiences. They may differ for you, but it is what I think is the best way. Feel free to find your own answer to this approaches.

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16

I am very much a beginner at this, just having used Sailfish for eight or nine days. So far I try to see what I use on my iPhone, and then if I can do the same thing on Sailfish. First I look for a solution in the Jolla app store, many good basic apps are there, but if no solution is found there I then look in Aurora. When I encounter an app that does not work properly, I then try to find a solution, if there is any, or if it simply is not supported. On that path MicroG is one approach in investigating Sailfish. So far MicroG has not solved any of the problems I have encountered, the apps won’t work anyway. In the end I might end up disabling MicroG, but at this point I am playing around, well aware that I can not expect everything that I have on iPhone to this day to work. But from the information from Jolla’s newsletters things are really moving forward fast, so I feel very confident about what the future will bring.

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17

Don’t forget Chum (use Chum GUI application) and Openrepos (use Storeman application) for more native applications.

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18

You are doing it pretty much the right way I would say. :slight_smile:

If you have a look at the website, I describe the different stores and how I do it:

My order of stores is:

  • Jolla Store
  • Chum
  • OpenRepos / Storeman
  • Auroa Store

Best regards
Fuchur

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19

I don’t think Jolla can even legally preinstall Google Mobile Services (GMS).

As far as I know, google only allows installing its services on phones that satisfy some mandatory requirements like installing a number of Google apps, and placing the Google search bar on the homescreen.

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20

I don’t mean Jolla should pre-install Google services, I mean if the user chooses to install it as a way to make one critical application work, this should not waste the entire privacy policy. I suggest there should be a way to hide Play services from the rest of the applications, or ideally a switch in each application to decide if it sees it or not.

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