Alternative Apps(tores): Living without Google (FP1)

Hi there,
I didn’t read through all postings, but still this thread already helped me a lot. I do not trust Google so I also tried living without the Playstore. I was fine for the last month, but now I would like to download some apps I was used to on my old phone (like the app from the “Deutsche Bahn” or Duolingo). As I did not like to download some apks from some I-don’t-know-Websites and also favor the opportunity to keep them updated I decided on installing 1mobile beside f-droid (although some here warned that it might not be safe).
I have XPrivacy and AFWall installed to keep some apps from spying. For the new market I allowed the internet connection and even disabled the blocking with XPrivacy after the 1mobile market showed right after the start a “no connection” problem. Well, unfortunately I still couldn’t solve the problem. Even a new installation (after a reset) did not help. Has anyone an idea what I maybe did wrong?
Thanks in advance!

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I don’t know specifically 1mobile market, but maybe you need to register there first?

Hi Jutschet,
I use 1mobileMarket, although I’d like not to need it. I had a similiar Problem with 1mobileMarket because of an Adblocker I use. I had to put “www.1mobile.com” on the whitelist of my Adblocker, then It worked again.
But for updating/installing some apps 1mobileMarket doesn’t work anyway, Duolingo being one of them.

No registration is required for 1mobile market. That is why I used it at first.

@Jutschet of course the app of your national railway company is more convenient than their mobile site, but this is only because companies do not lay effort in mobile websites. Still I am sure the website is enough for being on the go.

There is a great Google Play Downloader here
https://codingteam.net/project/googleplaydownloader

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Finally the installation of UnifiedNlp in FairPhoneOS is very simple

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Hey @paulakreuzer,

thanks for your great post above. Great recommendations! Still, If have said it before and i say it again, i do not have a great feeling regarding 1Mobile. That an app is on Google Play and on 1Mobile and that these require the same permissions or are the same version is no guarantee that they are not modified and safe. Even more so, Google’s introduced a some kind of app verification which checks for malicious apps from outside the Play Store that only works if you use Google Play services installed.
On mobile systems like Android it is crucial for your security to only install apps from trusted sources. No, everybody should be able to install from wherever he/she likes, but is still do not recommend 1Mobile for anybody concerned with device security and privacy.
It is perfectly fine to stay away from Google and i understand all the reasons to do so. But by installing apps from such sources, i believe you but your privacy at risk more. And privacy is the reason to avoid Google in the first place for many.

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Thanks for your concern @ben
You are right, I probably shouldn’t have recommended 1Mobile Market.
I’m using it on my own risk, but I would advise anybody who doesn’t know how to distinguish between trustworthy and risky apps NOT to use it.
For me, like I said I only download Apps that are available on Google Play too and I also make sure they are released by the right developer. For example I don’t think its risky(er) to download Angry Birds by Rovio Ltd. from 1Mobile (than from GPlay), but downloading Pokemon by Animirai Studio is probably neither safe nor legal.

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It think it is still the big difference between the iOS/Windows Phone vs Android world: That this is even possible. For people who know what they are doing, this is a great thing.

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I would also strongly advise against using 1Mobile Market, there is absolutely NO reason to trust them and I believe they even use root privileges, which is something to be very careful of in any case. I use F-Droid exclusively and have learnt to live without the apps that aren’t on there. I have found that almost anything i NEED (so not stuff that is just nice to have) I find (an alternative for) on F-Droid.

If you do need to install an app that can only be found on the Google Store, I feel http://apps.evozi.com/apk-downloader/ is a safer bet then 1Mobile Market as at least they get your apk directly from Google and you don’t install a potentially unsafe app on your phone.

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Somebody started this thread yet?

Here it is:

If you are on a desktop, you could have found the link next to @Herve5’s post. :wink:

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Just wanted to share my experience of living without GAPPS, because I’m to lazy flashing the phone and I don’t have any copy of windows laying around anyway where this mediatek thing is working with.

So far everything is good, because most of the apps I need I had already installed or I find them on 1 Mobile Market. http://market.1mobile.com/

For the thing with locationing the phone I followed the link from @paulakreuzer to the fdroid app, which provides locations via Mozilla or other backends: https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/com.google.android.location for this I installed busy box (1 mobile market) and system/app/mover (fdroid)

There are apps, which needs Google Services, these are mostly apps for sharing Bikes (Call a bike, Nextbike), or Cars (Multicity). Or apps like Mobility Map. As far as I tried it, they do not work without the googel Apps thing. There are other ways of getting to know where the next bike or car stands, but this is a little bit annoying.

For my calendar I use Sunrise.am, it works with google caledar, but you do not need GAPPS for this. I choose this calendar, because it connects with the reminders of Evernote, what makes my life much more easier. My Contacts I sync with DavDroid, what you can find via fdroid (https://davdroid.bitfire.at/what-is-davdroid). They are not at Google, but at posteo, so I never needed GAPPS here anyway.

So beside the annoying location thing (I havent really understand the underlying procedure here yet) living without GAPPS is possible and makes you fell freer than before :wink:

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Hi Fairphone community!

First, I’m so grateful to find people concerned with fair trade and ethical electronics building practices. It makes me feel less alone in my values.

I am not a fan of Google knowing everything I do on my phone. Are there alternatives to Google OS for the Fairphone?

Thanks!

Jonathan

Hi @Jonnydark
I moved your post here because this thread deals with alternatives to google.

First off, if you have installed gapps you can only fully get rid of them by re-installing the OS (and ignoring the re-install google message)
Next step is to get F-Droid and app store for free software.
On F-Droid you’ll find apps for pretty much everything you’ll need (including an alternative to google’s location provider with numerous databases to choose from.)
If you still need apps that are not free software (but are free as in free beer) you can download them via evozi. (We don’t recommend 1MobileMarket anymore)

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Don’t worry about Google if you don’t install the Google Play store offered by the Fairphone Installer and the like. Android is not Google OS, but is open source and Fairphone delivers it without the Google Framework unlike most vendors do.

As @paulakreuzer has said in the post right before, when you have already done so you would need to re-install the Fairphone OS.

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Oh wonderful! Thank you for the help! Now I’ll buy one!

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Oh so you don’t have a Fairphone yet? I didn’t get that.
Well atm you can only buy FP1(U)s second hand. (here is a little guide)
The FP2 will come “after this summer” (whatever that means exactly). We don’t know much about the FP2 yet but you might be able to install other operating systems than android. (Here is what we know so far)

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Thank you so much Paulkreuzer… You’re the best.

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10 posts were split to a new topic: Voice Input without Google Services