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by _bxg1 2898 days ago
Exactly. They actually go one step further than that with the Google Services API's. Things like notifications and location can now go through the proprietary API's instead of the system ones, with special perks. This means that if you don't have Google Services, then even if you get your hands on a third-party APK without using the Play Store (hard enough as it is), things will sometimes just randomly break because API's are missing.