This is my first post, so hope to get some good replies here .
Lots of Android users complain about a few issues related to Google Play.
a) country restrictions
b) access to paid apps
c) access to "device-specific" apps
For me, I'm really curious about how the Google Play app is creating these restrictions. I've noticed that Deeco7 and xinfinityoO have created mods to the stock APK in order to help people get around these restrictions and access more apps.
But how is Google Play specifically running its restrictions? I know one small part of device authentication comes from build.prop's ro.build.fingerprint. But does anybody have a good explanation for the overall restriction/authentication process? What is it about apps like MarketEnabler that allow (or not be able to allow) devices to circumvent Google Play restrictions?
Officially, manufacturer firmware builds need to pass Google CTS tests in order to get a "license" to use Google Play. Not sure if anyone knows whether or not an authentication key is signed for a particular device once it passes CTS, and if that plays a role in granting specific Google Play app access.
Look forward to any helpful facts.
Related
Hey guys! I used to download apps from google play using this tool apify
but it seems to always be broken, maybe too many people using it. Does anyone know of a similar tool that uses the same functionality, but doe snot encrypt the end result links/downloads? Basically, i am looking for a API tool that can download apps from google play without a PIN ID or email address
I'm using a Nexus 4 and trying to get rid of all the Google tracking services and their built-in Android background communications with Google servers. I have already searched the internet and found a few articles about this, however most of them were outdated or didn't answer my questions.
I do like the look and feel of stock Android, which is why I would probably go for CyanogenMod for this. In an optimal world, it would retain its current look and feel, but without communicating with Google.
My questions that I currently have pretty much are as follows (when using CyanogenMod):
- is it possible to keep using SOME Play store / stock apps but taking their permission to send information to Google? For example, I still want to use whatsapp and I doubt I can find it in the F-Droid store, or perhaps i like the Google camera app, and so on
- is it possible to turn off all Google tracking services (obvious things such as Google Now, but also the less obvious, like the constant hidden communications with Google servers) using CyanogenMod?
my question is as above in the title
btw i saw about replucant on gnu's website
thoughts about it?
how would it protect my privacy
and i have been told that even if i start using repulcant google service will be another privacy threat
i want to know also how google services can be privacy threat do they have malicious code made by like other trackers (like windows trackers ...websites... etc..)
The most basic thing you should do:
do not grant various apps on your phone the permission to access your album, contact, sms or email, location and so on, unless you really need to use their functions that require such permission.
finalvagas said:
The most basic thing you should do:
do not grant various apps on your phone the permission to access your album, contact, sms or email, location and so on, unless you really need to use their functions that require such permission.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ik ! but i want to protect myself from the tracking or spying of google
Root your device, preferably a 'clean' way (without questionable root software that can do more harm than good). Make a TWRP backup or similar, just in case you stuff your device.
Allow installation of apps from unknown sources in "Security > Unknown Sources". Then install AdAway (ad-blocker) from f-droid.org. https://f-droid.org/packages/org.adaway/. F-droid is officially linked from the AdAway website https://adaway.org/ since it was banned on the Google Play Store, which is testament to how much of a threat it is to Google.
The key (to me) is to kill Google's main revenue first: ads. Along with the revenue of all the other adware/tracking/spyware creators who wish to do business on the Spyware Store. The second way to kill them is to use ad-free apps as much as possible (f-droid.org can probably cater to most needs).
Installing a keyboard that doesn't spy on you is fairly important to me. You might consider AnySoftKeyboard or others from f-droid.org. After switching to the new keyboard, uninstall your default Google keyboard using your preferred root uninstaller. You can use Play Store apps like Titanium Backup to uninstall & backup if you wish. You can download Play Store apps without using Play Store by just getting their APK files on sites like https://apps.evozi.com/apk-downloader/ though some apps and games will require Google Play Store and related spyware to run. To me, those that do require Google Play Store and related spyware components aren't even worth considering.
Uninstall every single Google app on your device. Including Voice components. Plus the Play Store and related Services Framework and heaps of other Google Spyware. I have finally started to compile a list of those I have found to be safe to remove, so if you need more details, I might be able to help a bit.
There are usually better apps for Mail, Contacts, Maps, Gallery, Calculator, SMS, messaging, Calendar, Camera, etc. They are freely available without tracking/analytics, adware & spyware. An extremely good place to start inorder to get the basics are the Simple Mobile Tools apps from Tibor Kaputa https://simplemobiletools.github.io/
If you want to spend your money, consider giving it to guys like this.
Some root uninstallers I have tried have been extremely unreliable, leaving your device essentially bricked after they fail to start after removing a component, or by giving you dumb error messages after removing a safe component that other root uninstallers have no trouble with. Regrettably, I have yet to find a decent open source root uninstaller. At the moment I am using Titanium Backup to uninstall unwanted apps and components from Google, unwanted spyware from the chipset manufacturer & unwanted spyware from the device manufacturer. Personally I don't use any of the stock apps, including the stock launcher. All of these companies have a long history of customer privacy violations. All profit from profiling you and selling you out to their partners.
There are useful (adware/tracking-infested) Play Store apps like MyAndroidTools that allow you to disable certain components from certain apps which might also be useful to you. This was available on Google's Play Store but now does not appear. I use it for apps like Firefox, to disable the Crap Components I do not want running.
You might also consider XPrivacy or XPrivacyLua which gives you more control over what apps can do. You might also consider changing your DNS settings from Google's to another with apps like DNS man.
Google is the Spyware King at the moment with literally billions of devices in use, eclipsing Microsoft and Apple soyware in terms of numbers of devices in use.
You have many different ways to protect your Android phone. You should use a strong password and backup your phone. Here is good article about it: imei.info/news/android-privacy-protect
You can just check it.
I recently received a new matepad in the UK and have been struggling for days to get anything up and running so far.
Successful so far is YouTube Vance, it's the only Google related app that I've managed to get working.
Any third party app I've tried is either outdated or outright doesn't run on the device. Examples are Lzplay chatapp and insalling everything manually.
Nothing has worked so far. I was also wondering why there isn't a development channel for this device as it has such big potential but just suffering from the lack of a play store.
Any advice / help would be greatly appreciated. I've tried all the usual stuff but it's hard to find anything online about this tablet.
Bumping for visibility
@gog3219
Youtube Vanced isn't a Google authored app.
Due to an order of the madman in the White House, Huawei since almost a year is no longer allowed to pre-install Google Play Store and/or GMS on their devices.
You have to install Google Play Store ( consists of 4 APKs ) and/or GMS manually by yourself.
jwoegerbauer said:
@gog3219
Youtube Vanced isn't a Google authored app.
Due to an order of the madman in the White House, Huawei since almost a year is no longer allowed to pre-install Google Play Store and/or GMS on their devices.
You have to install Google Play Store ( consists of 4 APKs ) and/or GMS manually by yourself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi thank you for your reply. I'm aware of the reasoning behind the idiotic decision, I was just wondering for my device specifically speaking as its so new and has a lot of problems with the preexisting methods. I've found no way to load GSM onto the device as of yet and made this thread to explore if there were any potential way whatsoever. So any help would be greatly appreciated.
@gog3219
Look here: https://huaweiadvices.com/download-google-installer-3-0-apk-for-android/
EDIT-- This post is super old (but still works).
Another method (maybe better for your use case?) is the Aurora store. Please see the COMMENTS SECTION.
How To Download any app on the playstore, Without installing GMS, GAPPS, AMAZON, Or any other App Store
EVOZI:
https://apps.evozi.com/apk-downloader/
GOOGLE PLAY STORE:
Android Apps on Google Play
Enjoy millions of the latest Android apps, games, music, movies, TV, books, magazines & more. Anytime, anywhere, across your devices.
play.google.com
Simply paste the playstore link to evozi, of the app you want to download!
This is not warez, you Can Not Download Paid apps.
This site just caches and backs up all our favorite apps.
Rarely, if you're looking for something too obscure, it will not be able to locate it.
Have Fun
Google Play Store lets you download and install Android apps on an Android-powered phone or tablet or emulator if GMS Core already are installed thereon.
Sometimes evozi will say something about "you're being rate limited" and it won't work. I think this is bc they are getting too much traffic. I use Evozi in this example, as it is the cleanest (adless) experience, but do bare in mind you can always use other Mirrors~! sites like APKpure.com are mostly safe
any idea how does https://apps.evozi.com/apk-downloader/ work as am trying to automate some work and i dont want to depend on apk-downloader or any other mirror
@synackers sorry I just now had the time to research what I wanted to share. There's a "store" that has access to the playstore repositories, that is open source, and gives the user the freedom to choose to enable google features or not. This works on windows phones too and I would guess WSA too?
It is called the "aurora store" it's website is here:
auroraoss.com
This is still new to me so I can not explain it personally but the knowledge is available
This article explains a little about it and shows pictures
Maybe they have a github repo somewhere you can obtain the code you need to dl things
Hope it helps!
Hi Jeneh , to be honest am not interested in any open source apk mirroring available in internet
am seeking to understand how auroraoss or evozi actually works behind the screen ... how do they give you apk to be downloadable is also fetched from other mirror or do they have google developer and google offer any api to play store ..etc
more deep technical details is of my interest . i do appreciate your feedback
@synackers The Aurora Store is different from evozi or other sites like evozi, in that it actually accesses the repositories, ie the link to the android app in question.
For instance: to download the app "Termux" a call is made to get the app from com.termux and it goes on to install and build from there, the latest software.
When using evozi or apk mirror, they save actual hard copies of the apps to their servers to share to users, which could be any older version of the app.
Evozi regularly redownloads the more popular apps from the play store and they take requests. However there is No version choice available. The downloaded apks hash signatures will match the playstore app sigs for that app version.
Sites like apk mirror and others tend to keep all the older app versions and provide a choice which version to download. This is my only use case for these as they are more risky and you should vet the sigs on them.
Here is aurora's gitlab https://gitlab.com/AuroraOSS/AuroraStore
This link has all the code to be able to go through and find exactly what you need.
Some info on the code
"Aurora Store was originally based on Sergei Yeriomin's Yalp store. Aurora Store v4.0 is a rewrite of version 3 in Kotlin"
The developer of the store has made a page here on xda that maybe they would be willing to give better insight to a specific question you have in the installation process to provide the technicals.
Outside of Aurora, it may be beneficial to learn about PackageInstaller to be able to manually install and or uninstall apps with code. Or Package Manager, if you open that spoiler and select the "PM" option you can see all the code for using it.
Hi Jenneh ,
much appreciate your response and cooperation |
https://www.codevoila.com/post/77/how-to-install-or-uninstall-an-android-apk-file-programmatically this is definitely valuable and its crystal clear for me on how aurora works.. i had a glance at the code in github .
now my challenge or use case which i want to achieve is as following ;
1. need to take APK directly from play store ( i dont mind if google offer paid API which am not aware or seen )
this should be automated off android physical phone / or emulator
working in other project ^^ and stuck in this point
what i have noticed indeed evozi take package from playstore cause i checked an APK which recently was published and not available in any other mirror site
Aruroa still need mobile phone or emulator to work
Thanks again and appreciate your cooperation
With regards to thread's title "Download Any Apk Off The Playstore Without installing Google, AMAZON, or Any other APP Store" take note that you of course need an app store to get APKs from.
Never make use of Aptoide: it's Large, Decentralized, Dangerous.
Aptoide is one of the most sophisticated app sources. The store works with a distributed network of different store providers and combines them on a unified platform. However, this poses significant security risks.
Truely not what am seeking , any mirror is not an enterprise grade options cause security risk is high so if there is any way to download directly apk from play store without the need for emulator or device would be much appreciated
The app store with least security risks is Google Play Store.
Apps from outside of the Google Play Store are also scan using Google Play protect on the device, it is a security risk to install apps outside of the Play Store but as long as you trust the app developer you should be fine.
well, what is the case if i need to automate a way for MDM solutions
IDK.
Probably MDM isn't not applicable if the managed devices differ in Android version and ARM architecture.