Hello! I’m running GrapheneOS on my Pixel 7 with sandboxed play services, and use some apps that depends on play services like Satispay and my banking app. Today I tried, as an experiment, to deactivate the play service app, and see what happens. Well, they both opens and seem to work, except for a notification saying “Activate Play Services, this app will not work if you don’t” Is this notification lying? Or are some functionalitis not working without play services? If yes, which one?
Some obscure or secondary function might not work.
I had this app for example (can’t remember the name) that insisted on getting networking permissions. I kept refusing each time it asked at startup time but it was working fine. Then one day I realized it wanted it for its online help that I never read.
It really depends on the app.
Also, you have app developers that copy/paste sample code, adapt it a bit to their purpose and call it good enough, even of the sample code includes a lot of libs and permissions that aren’t actually used by that particular application.
My city’s parking app does this: “You must enable Google Play Services to use this app.” Works perfectly anyways
Yep, I get this sometimes on apps that work just fine.
Yea common, I get a lot of those when not using gapps at all. Some possible longshot issue will trigger that message.
Generally, notifications will no longer work, but most other functionality will. There is a good chance that if there is an ATM map, it will not work either because it requires Google Maps.
Gotcha, thanks!
It’s usually lying. I’d just long press it and hide the notification. If you have an app that’s requires Google Play, and you absolutely have to have that app, then you can always make a second user profile and install play services into that. That way you can turn off play services when it’s not needed.