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  • Android auto, magic earth, and aurora store?

I installed android auto and gave it wired permissions and it's working well. It's able to redirect my audio from plexamp without having to have the plexamp app "installed" on my android auto interface. However I'm unable to get my magic earth to work on Android Auto.

The usage guide states:

In order to show up in the Android Auto car interface, apps have to be installed from the Play Store and include Android Auto support.

Does this mean the aurora store won't work even though it's a frontend for the play store? Is there any workaround to get an app working via android auto without downloading the app from the play store?

If I sign into a burner gmail, download magic earth from the play store, and then sign out of the play store, will magic earth still receive updates and will google then link my phone/ play services/ etc. to that burner account? And since magic earth was downloaded via the play store will google be able to access my location?

    Strive1154 Other users will be able to answer your Android Auto question. Anyway, Aurora Store is apparently having connecting issues at the moment, and because Google is cracking down on account sharing, my guess is it's unlikely that Aurora will exist for very long.

    You will have to be signed in to the Play Store for it to be able to update your apps.

    Granting the location permission to Magic Earth does not automatically grant the location permission to Play Store and Play Services. Keep in mind that these are all sandboxed apps on GrapheneOS, and are inherently hard-blocked from bypassing the Android permission system. (Android Auto can be granted privileged access, but that is detailed on grapheneos.org). As such, installing apps from the Play Store does not grant Google any privileged or otherwise magical abilities.

    By signing in to the Play Store, it will naturally be able to collect data about what you do in the app, including which apps you install. It will see which apps you already have installed. It can collect your IP address. Beyond that, since it's restricted by Android's app sandbox, I'm not sure what else it can gather about you. You of course choose which information you directly provide when creating a Google account.

    When you try to create a Google account it may ask you for a phone number if you trigger their spam-detection stuff. If you don't want to provide a phone number, you'll most likely not have any luck with connecting behind a VPN, as most VPN server IP addresses are quickly added to spamlists. But I've had success with this method:

    1. Connect to a public Wi-Fi network, such as in a library, cafe or whatever
    2. Install Google Play Services from Apps and open the Play Store app
    3. Provide a real-sounding name and date of birth
    4. Accept the email address that Google suggests to you
    5. After registration, set up two-factor authentication from within the Play Store app, at your earliest convenience

    This increases your chances of not being asked by Google to provide a phone number. I am not certain that all steps are necessary, except for steps 1 and 2, which do seem to trigger far fewer spam control checks by Google.

      fid02 Thank you for the info! I wonder if I can setup an anonymous google account with a VOIP # if it does ask for a phone number.

      9 days later

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      6 months later

      Did someone found a solution how to show apps on Android Auto without install them via Google Play Store?

        ZoraIsHere you need to install on your phone either way.
        but the app has to be android auto compatible in order to appear. and you must install them on your mobile device.

        there are some items regarding aa on the faq of magic earth: https://www.magicearth.com/faq-en/

        https://www.autoevolution.com/news/why-some-apps-are-not-available-on-android-auto-212024.html

        this says that the apps may be disabled due to some power mgmt.. try to launch it on the mobile and make sure there isn't any sort of power management disabling them or similar.

        • Edited

        ZoraIsHere Shizuku installer method im Aurora Store will automatically spoof Play Store as the installation source. You have to enable (wireless?) debugging for it to work, so enable debugging, install the app, then disable debugging (you shouldn't keep debugging enabled at all times.)

        Alternatively, you can pull the apk using adb on a computer, and reinstall it using pm install with the -i argument to spoof the install source (which I believe is how Shizuku does it?)

        adb push /path/to/base.apk /data/local/tmp/app.apk
        adb shell pm install -i "com.android.vending" -r /data/local/tmp/app.apk
        adb shell rm /data/local/tmp/app.apk

        It will not work if the apk is on your pc or on emulated storage of the phone (install will refuse with insufficient permissions), which is why it's sent to /data/local/tmp first. I'm not sure if any other path can be written to without root permissions.

        As always, enable usb debugging, install the app, and then disable developer settings. This should work on Graphene, having personally tested this some time ago. You will have to do this again for every app update, also.

          a month later

          Ammako

          Does this still work? I read elsewhere that Android Auto can see that it's spoofed and will still refuse to show these apps

            Thanks! Also, if I install a maps app through Play Store and then going forward update it through Aurora, will it still be marked as installed through Play?