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by at-fates-hands 996 days ago
>> GrapheneOS enables more security for those who need it, but less Android apps will work as normal.

I can attest this is pretty accurate.

A lot of the Android apps you find in the F-Droid or Aurora store can be installed, but won't work since most require you to have Google Play services enabled which Graphene sandboxes by default:

https://grapheneos.org/usage#sandboxed-google-play

A perfect example is when I was looking for a weather app and most of the popular weather apps were a no-go simply because they required Google Play services. I ended using Weawow Weather instead of several other options like Weather Underground, Accuweather or WeatherBug.

EDIT: I'm currently using Graphene OS on a Pixel 4XL

3 comments

> but won't work since most require you to have Google Play services enabled which Graphene sandboxes by default:

I might be understanding this wrong, but note that GrapheneOS providing Google Play services as regular sandboxed apps should not have anything to do with whether an app requires play services.

So, if you want to use an app that does require them, you would need to install the sandboxed-play-services from GrapheneOS's Apps store then install the (Weather) app you need. GrapheneOS doesn't preinstall any Google (stuff by default), so there is an extra step.

F-Droid apps do not require Google Play services (that's part of its raison d'ĂȘtre) and will work fine on Graphene OS. Aurora Store, on the other hand, depends on the app in question. If it's a paid app that requires Google Pay, then it won't be compatible.