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diff --git a/static/faq.html b/static/faq.html index c4362a7f..ac46e92b 100644 --- a/static/faq.html +++ b/static/faq.html @@ -1151,12 +1151,14 @@ <article id="google-services"> <h2><a href="#google-services">Will GrapheneOS include support for Google services?</a></h2> - <p>GrapheneOS will never include either Google Play services or another - implementation of Google services like microG. Those are not included in the - Android Open Source Project and are not required for baseline Android - compatibility. Apps designed to run on Android rather than only Android with - bundled Google apps and services already work on GrapheneOS, so a huge number of - both open and closed source apps are already available for it.</p> + <p>Like the Android Open Source Project, GrapheneOS doesn't include Google apps + and services. They won't ever be bundled with the OS. GrapheneOS includes an + experimental sandboxed Play services compatibility layer to make user installed + Play services apps able to run as fully sandboxed, unprivileged apps. This is + <a href="https://grapheneos.org/usage#sandboxed-play-services">documented as part + of the usage guide</a>. Many apps work perfectly without Play services and many + others only depend on it for a subset of their functionality. Users can choose to + install Play services in specific profile(s) to control which apps can use it.</p> <p>AOSP APIs not tied to Google but that are typically provided via Play services will continue to be implemented using open source providers like the Seedvault @@ -1166,35 +1168,12 @@ be implementing these via a Google service compatibility layer because these APIs are in no way inherently tied to Google services.</p> - <p>We're developing a minimal Play services compatibility layer as a regular app - without any special privileges. The app will provide a stub implementation of the - entire Play services API pretending the servers are down and the functionality is - unavailable. It will always be disabled by default since apps will detect Play - services is available and will try to use it rather than alternatives. As an - example, Signal would try to use a non-functional FCM implementation rather than - their own server push implementation. The intention is that users will only enable - this in profiles dedicated to running apps with an unnecessary hard dependency on - Play services. We'll likely prevent enabling it in the owner profile to help users - avoid those kinds of pitfalls.</p> - - <p>Our Play services app won't have any special privileges or whitelisting in the - OS like Play services or microG. There will be no support for bypassing arbitrary - signature checks like the microG signature spoofing patch since it substantially - compromises the OS security model and breaks other security features like verified - boot. Instead, our app will be signed with a GrapheneOS Play services key and the - only OS support for the app will be presenting the GrapheneOS Play services key as - the Google Play services key.</p> - <p>Ideally, Google themselves would support installing the official Play services - as a regular Android app, rather than taking the monopolistic approach of forcing - it to be bundled into the OS in a deeply integrated way with special privileged - permissions and capabilities unavailable to other service providers competing with - them. Even though we would never include it in GrapheneOS, it would be great if - users did have the option to install Play services as a regular app in specific - profiles. It's unfortunate that the approach taken to it is so deeply integrated - and anti-competitive. GrapheneOS users can still choose to use Google services if - they choose, but largely only via a browser. A few of their apps like Google Maps - do work with reduced functionality without Play services but most won't.</p> + as regular apps rather than taking the monopolistic approach of forcing it to be + bundled into the OS in a deeply integrated way with special privileged permissions + and capabilities unavailable to other service providers competing with them. Until + that happens, if ever, GrapheneOS can continue teaching it to function that way to + the extent possible without any special privileges.</p> </article> <article id="features"> |