I'm consdering a phone but

I am excited about the thought of a privacy phone, but concerned that some of my apps wont work as I rely extensively on my phone.

The apps are

  • Nationwide banking

-Xero

-Starling bank

-WhatsApp

-Outlook

-Authenicator

There are other minor ones such as Ryanair but the main ones are above. Can anyone adive is they will work?

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Well, first of all, Fairphone is NOT a privacy phone by default. You can make it a privacy phone by installing a custom ROM with respective privacy features, but you can do that with nearly every other phone as well. And second - WhatsApp and privacy? Youā€™re kidding, arenā€™t you?

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I didnt say WhatsApp was private, I said I use it extensivelyā€¦
To install a ROM requires jailbreaking the device and potentially bricking it - hence my interest.

If you dont have an aswer thats fine, but log on to troll, reallyā€¦

Sorry if I took you wrong, but my understanding of your question was, that you want to use Fairphone as a privacy phone. So my post was intended as an answer to this. And yes, I really think that using WhatsApp on a privacy phone isnā€™t a good idea. Trolling wasnā€™t ever my intention.

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Unfortunately because of my work and travel and have few other options other than to use WhatsApp as it is the ā€˜go toā€™ for many.
That aside, the comms are more secure than 95% of the market, but I believe it tracks you on an ongoing basis and the backup isnt encrypted leaving the entire contents machine readable.
This is a dumb Q, but are there any other phones you know of that allow ā€˜semi-normalā€™ functionality and offer an escape from the Google ecosystem?

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I checked your list with Aurora Store, an alternative Play Store Client which tells right away whether Apps are dependent on Google services to work.

You didnā€™t say which authenticator exactly, and I didnā€™t see the Nationwide App (might be region-specific), but banking Apps donā€™t like to run without Google services as a rule of thumb.

Minding this disclaimer, everything you list is dependent on Google services to work.

If these Apps would be a nice to have for you, Fairphone have a partnership with the e foundation, which brings their /e/ OS to the table. Itā€™s focussed on getting Google stuff off the phone, while still being Android and providing an Open Source component mimicking Google Services to let many Google-dependent Apps work, but thereā€™s no guarantee for 100% of the time or at all.

If you really rely on Google-dependent Apps to work 100% you might want to look into a Custom ROM like LineageOS in connection with Google services installers like Open GApps (letting you limit the amount of Google services and Apps on the phone at least), and Googleā€™s device registration for the use of Google Apps and services on non-certified Android OSes (to not endanger your Google account with violating TOS) ā€¦ https://www.google.com/android/uncertified/

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Fantastic - thank you very much for your help!

The ones above are key to my work (I think I might be able to change WhatsApp for open source - will need to check), especially the banking apps as I rarely use online services when not working (I live behind a laptop so try to avoid it when not working).
Google - yuk! Hence why Iā€™m looking for other options

Iā€™ll look into Lineage OS, although I suspect it may be a little immature yet. It is so difficulkt for new players to get into the market and the big boys have every turn blocked so if I can find a way to support them I will!

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A ā€œprivacy phoneā€ and using WhatsApp is a contradiction in itself.

Best wishes,
Thomas

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yeah I know but sometimesā€¦

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The Fairphone 3 ships with Google Play Services and Android 10 so all these apps should work just fine. It is just a regular Google-approved Android OS, after all.

There is the custom ROM /e/OS which instead uses microG, which is an Open Source partial reimplementation of Google Play Services. I assume you are talking about this because you are talking about a privacy phone and worried some apps wonā€™t work. Fairphone supports installing different OSses and isnā€™t locked up to prevent that so thereā€™s no jailbreaking involved: https://doc.e.foundation/devices/FP3/

On /e/OS, I can confirm WhatsApp works fine. The rest I havenā€™t tried. I do think however you would be better off asking about this on the /e/OS forum if you want to use /e/OS.

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I use the app Shelter on my phone to keep the app whatsapp away from the rest of the phone, as I canā€™t persuade the family to go to Signal.
Downloading through the Aurora Store, Shelter or through F-Droid.

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Good idea ā€“ unless you need the work profile for work.

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I think I understand your intention. You want get away from the big players and so of course google. My advice to you would be to go with https://e.foundation/ for the start, if it can cover your needs. And then you should also read more about security, privacyā€¦ I can see a lack of knowledge, what isnā€™t something bad!

I can understand the others getting excited about whatsapp + privacy but it is really bad to just offend someone who may really donā€™t know that much. No one is born as techi.

For messaging I recommend you


Good luck and success :slight_smile:

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It doesnā€™t ā€¦

The Apps which are key to @tosh124ā€™s work might even work on /e/ at first, but due to the genuine Google services replaced with microG they might also fail to work at any given time due to changes in Google services.
And all /e/ can do about this then is shrugging their shoulders and update microG, how ever long this might take then.

This is no mere theory or fear-mongering, Iā€™ve seen Google-dependent Apps fail for a while because of microG having to catch up with changes on Googleā€™s side. Websites might be a workaround then, but not every App has a corresponding website usable on a smartphone, especially when it comes to banking.

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Thanks very much for your help folks.

I have gone with /e/ and spent yesterday rooting an s7 edge and Iā€™m now trying to load it - keeps failing with error 7, which is seemingly something to do with an ā€˜Assertsā€™ statement.
I have removed it and TWRP doesnt like the the recreated zip fileā€¦

In summary I am dipping my toe into the water to see if I can use the OS on a day-to-day basis, it may be 100% and whilst I can compromise in some areas there are others I cannot - so the proof of the pudding is in the eating - well it is if I get the OS loaded :smiley:

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Well, I wish you the best of luck then, and may Google long refrain from breaking microG functions important for your work stuff :wink: .

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Thanks very much :slight_smile:

If it does so be it - Iā€™ll use the phone as a second device - if I get lucky and the compromise isnt too great Iā€™ll use it for my daily, either way its a win-win at the moment.

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Are we talking about this app (which is simply called ā€˜Authenticatorā€™ when installed) or a different Authenticator?

There are multiple TOTP apps available on F-Droid which should work as a replacement for this app.

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Thanks Albert I found those :slight_smile:

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