From 53f55776e61540e04cce3f1442745192fbafdc9d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Daniel Micay Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2021 08:48:00 -0400 Subject: move detailed Google services info to FAQ --- static/index.html | 46 +++------------------------------------------- 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 43 deletions(-) (limited to 'static/index.html') diff --git a/static/index.html b/static/index.html index 84a37924..78be424e 100644 --- a/static/index.html +++ b/static/index.html @@ -86,49 +86,9 @@

No Google apps or services

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.

- -

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 - backup app. Text-to-speech, speech-to-text, geocoding, accessibility services, - etc. are examples of other open Android APIs where we need to develop/bundle an - implementation based on existing open source projects. GrapheneOS is not going to - be implementing these via a Google service compatibility layer because these APIs - are in no way inherently tied to Google services.

- -

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.

- -

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.

- -

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.

+ implementation of Google services like microG. See + the FAQ section for more details on our plans + for filling in the gaps from not shipping Play services and Google apps.

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