Is there any progress with isolating Google apps from each other?
At the moment if you log in to a Google or app like the Play store it logs you in to Maps and other Google apps. They are able to communicate with each other.
Is there going to be any way to stop this?
So for example if you log into Play store Google can not link your account to Maps and your location.
Also if they are isolated you could use different burner accounts for say YouTube, Play store etc
This is a Google problem not a GOS problem.
Google is an ecosystem and the only way to deal with this is to find alternative ways of accessing Google services.
Use Newpipe instead of logging into YouTube.
Give GMaps WV (available on f-droid) a try instead of logging into Maps.
Aurora store works pretty good. It will update paid apps which are already installed.
GI1 Is there any progress with isolating Google apps from each other?
You can currently do this by running them in different user profiles. The team has begun working on a feature to enable apps to be isolated from each other within the same user profile. We have an early prototype but there is still a lot of work to do to before that will be ready.
[deleted] Google is an ecosystem and the only way to deal with this is to find alternative ways of accessing Google services.
There are other ways to deal with this as outlined above.
Carlos-Anso The team has begun working on a feature to enable apps to be isolated from each other within the same user profile.
On the topic of isolating Google apps, will the app isolation take into consideration the "Passwords and accounts" section of the system settings? I imagine this is something GOS devs already considered, but apps (especially Google) would probably still utilise the account info there even with an IPC scope feature added to GOS.
Dumdum maybe this comment in the issue tracker will help answer the question: https://github.com/GrapheneOS/os-issue-tracker/issues/2244#issuecomment-1588728518
Based on what I understand about how accounts work, it would probably be a big ask to, for example, scope a saved account to Google Play, but not permit Google Photos access to it. But the issue is still open, so not sure what the plan is or what the developers' thoughts on this are.
Regarding the Google app isolation thing the team is working on:
Will this require each app to have a different Google account or is the plan for just one Google account?
[deleted] yes I already use NewPipe, Aurora store and other alternatives. I don’t really want to have to keep switching user profiles. I stopped using this as I find the workflow too difficult to manage.
Some apps I would like to use offline but with an account like Google Photos (it does not have the same features without an account). The issue is it logs into everything on the phone like Maps which has location and network. I am using GBoard for the keyboard even though it’s offline.
I believe the Google apps may potentially be communicating with each other through the account so not fully sandboxed.
Having isolated Google apps could benefit in many ways. You could potentially use different google burner accounts for different apps/uses and they would be contained within that app only.
I realise it may be hard to implement but it has been mentioned a few times over the last couple of years and I believe it is being worked on.
Carlos-Anso although it may sound like a good idea separating GSF dependent apps into different profiles, what is to stop Google from linking those profiles on the remote end once you're logged in and those connections are paralel and ongoing (as in two profiles running concurrently)?
Carlos-Anso Any updates on this potential feature?
GI1 Any updates on this potential feature?
The GrapheneOS team doesn't often make pre-announcements until a feature is genuinely close to shipping, and they generally don't provide periodic "Feature X is not happening this month" updates either.
Features often sit in "working on it" status for months in a row before switching to "likely coming soon". Note that Carlos-Anso described this feature as "still a lot of work to do". Personally my hunch is that this will not be available for at least six months, and I also suspect there won't be any status updates within those six months.
Please note that I don't speak for the GrapheneOS project.
Does anyone know of any progress has been made on this yet? Just checking in as almost a year since I first mentioned. Was there information about ‘AccountScopes’ or something similar?
GI1 I was a wondering if something might have been mentioned and I missed it.
The GrapheneOS project issues release notes, including an RSS feed, and the on-device "Info" app also displays release notes. Major features are typically announced on the forum via a dedicated thread, and on social media. So there are many ways to find out about the feature once it is released.
