> as long as they don't depend on the Google services
A surprising and hilarious number of things, including some of Google's own apps, show "X won't work unless you enable Google Play Services" popups and then continue working just fine. (I'm guessing they link against some client library that shows that on all function calls, but then doesn't throw an exception.)
> Pretty much. Google Play services runs as like a root process that can (among other things) bypass all the security checks that the OS usually has.
Unnecessarily mind you, GrapheneOs proved that you can get the vast majority of GMS functionality without it needing to run as root.
Even Gpay would work if google allowed it.
> That includes those annoying update confirmation dialogs which make it impossible to install updates automatically without user interaction.
This has changed with android 12, third-party sources can now auto update an app after a user accepts the initial prompt go install it.
> SO many Android apps require the google play services
It depends on definition of 'require'. Almost all apps 'require' it in app manifest file. But very many of them actually works perfectly fine with an absense of Google Play Services on device.
Many of them will show "X requires Google Play Services" warnings and then... continue working fine anyway. It's always the same wording, so I assume it's just a thing that the app-side libraries do when it tries to talk to the service and it isn't there.
> You cant actually stop the os on mobile from using its default browser for most of it's tasks.
On Android, the only thing that the default browser ever opens for is captive portal detection. Otherwise, all links from apps like Signal or OSMAnd open in Firefox. Granted, I am running Lineage OS. Does a phone with Google Play Services installed override Firefox for Android to use the preinstalled web browser instead?
> Without it, your device would become Kindle-like, and all the apps that do not run on Kindle (or other, Google-less Android versions) would not run on yours too.
I take issue with this statement. Many apps which "depend" on play services work fine on my Google-free android. Some examples are tutanota, duo lingo, and some games. Though it's not an easy path, I wouldn't consider my cellphone experience "kindle-like".
'google play services' is software package (app) that sits between the os (android) and the (other) apps. it provides a lot of middleware like maps and push-notifications. it has grown in power to the point that an android phone without them is pretty much pointless, hence micro-g tries to substitute.
Question about this - my blackberry q10 had an android vm on it but the limitation of "no google services" meant that unless the app used none of those APIs it would not run. Surprisingly this was very limiting - have you had a similar experience?
"...I rely on a small handful of others installed from the Aurora, Google Play is a requirement for some of those."
Later thought. I also occasionally install Play Store apps via Aurora Store and it's worth noting that some state that they require Google Play Services but in fact they do work without it (I normally have GPS/Google Play disabled or uninstalled).
I've not bothered to research why but I presume it's the reporting mechanism that's not working, the core operation of these programs being independent of GPS (presumably this would simplify programming if the programmer is also coding the program for iPhone).
I'd be most interested if you or anyone else has more info about this.
> Most of those DEPEND on some proprietary google app that's not part of AOSP.
Do you have something to support this ?
Many apps use Play Services (I guess that's what you are referring to but can usually also work fine without it.
For example on the app I work on, we are integrated with chromecast if you have play services available, if not, we just never display the icon.
>Play Services is a closed source app owned by Google and licensed as part of the Google Apps package. Any feature you see move from "normal" Android to Google Play Services is also moving from open source to closed source. This app pulls off the neat trick of not only enticing users with exclusive, closed source features, but locking in third-party developers with Google's proprietary APIs as well.
> it would still be crippled on modern versions of Android, because it would not be able to receive push notifications
My understanding is that this is not an effect of side loading, but an app not using Google Cloud Messaging, which is not available when play services are not installed.
I'm not sure I totally understand your Google Play Services comment but they do allow you to enable it and it's "sandboxed" whatever that means. Do you have specific gripes about their implementation?
> They'll have theirs default and most people won't bother changing it.
Except in order to have Google services and the Play store you need to agree to a license with Google, which can easily mandate you not replace their stock apps with your own (or rather, not default to your own, unless the user indicates otherwise).
Now, you could ship a phone without Google Play Services, but that's very unusual in the west (less so in China et al).
A surprising and hilarious number of things, including some of Google's own apps, show "X won't work unless you enable Google Play Services" popups and then continue working just fine. (I'm guessing they link against some client library that shows that on all function calls, but then doesn't throw an exception.)
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