this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2024
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Privacy
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Quite a lot of apps cease to provide real-time notifications/messages, if they work at all, when Google Play components are not installed under GOS. At the very least, Google Services Framework is required for many mainstream apps.
That's what the Google Play Sandbox is for.
Other ROMs don't have Sandbox.
You do not need the "sandbox" since you can control Google packages permissions using AppOps mechanism. It is the gist of kdrag0n's Sandboxed Play Services. You can manipulate any Android package in any way you want using a privileged AppOps permission controller and firewall with HOSTS or custom domain blocking.
What is Sandboxed Play Services? I've searched for it but I seem to find contradictory information. Looks like a feature that needs to be added explicitly to a ROM by its devs? It seems to have originated with GrapheneOS but there's no mainstream support, in LineageOS for example.
It originated in kdrag0n's Proton AOSP custom ROM. GrapheneOS just took it and rebranded it as their own invention, like Apple does.
Sandboxed Play Services merely restricts app permissions of Google Play related packages using AppOps mechanism, and probably restricts their networking a little bit. All this can be achieved on any Android phone without rooting or unlocking via ADB/Shizuku and a firewall.
Oh that's interesting. So basically it's just Google apps running in userspace as opposed to system apps, and subject to any restriction you can throw at user apps? I imagine that Xprivacy would work too in that case.
Pretty much, you understood. This is the kinds of justification I have for fancy custom ROMs like GrapheneOS being the equivalent of snake oil. Some bad actors try to twist it as me being malicious, even though I am just telling the facts about how things really are. They do not make life easier, they do not make privacy easy to attain, they make it harder or impossible to use everyday apps, and they forbid you to question their product or motives. FUCK THAT NOISE.
All I know is that its a feature of GrapheneOS, and is the main reason why I switched over to it.