Google Play "Something went wrong" overlay over app

Leza89

Hey everyone.. It seems that there has been an "up"grade to the Google Play detection or something alike which is very, very annoying.

I enjoy playing, for example, Diablo Immortal from time to time and never had trouble running it on Graphene OS.. and I never had GSF installed..

With today's Update however, i get an overlay, stating
"Something went wrong
Check that Google Play is enabled on your device and that you're using an up-to-date version before opening the app. If the problem persists, try reinstalling the app."

I get the identical message with Eternium, so I think it is a new "feature" that Google has implemented to ensure their spyware is running..

Anyone knows how to get rid of that overlay? The app is running in the background without any issues.. I just can't control it because of that stupid "paywall"

akc3n

Hi, please try these steps here https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/8330-app-compatibility-with-grapheneos

Leza89

Hi, thanks for your response. I came across that article, and tried the "low hanging fruits; but I think this issue is different from a pure compatibility issue.

The app is (rightfully) complaining about missing Google Play services — that is not a bug since that is actually not running(and never was); so I won't be able to fix this without installing Google Play

However, the game is running perfectly fine in the background; So it is just a check that is not necessary for the execution of the app.

Steps 1 and 2 are already enabled for Diablo Immortal because it doesn't work without, I don't want to do step 3 for a game (also.. Google play would still be missing), I don't want to install Google Play store on my Phone and it is not a bug in the classic sense.

I thought that Graphene OS might be looking for annoying checks like that and just hiding them and that Google broke this function with a recent upgrade, hence why I figured "Development" was a suitable tag.

akc3n

other8026

Leza89 I thought that Graphene OS might be looking for annoying checks like that and just hiding them and that Google broke this function with a recent upgrade, hence why I figured "Development" was a suitable tag.

Not sure how GrapheneOS can change how apps operate. And the goal of GrapheneOS isn't to de-Google, but is rather focused on privacy and security.

The Diablo game is most likely using a Google library that now pretends to rely on Google Play to work properly. It's possible it used to work just fine without Google Play, but they're planning on changing things so that the library actually will rely on Google Play in the future. Something must have updated and now throws up that annoying message that stops you from playing the game. Apps that "don't work" on GrapheneOS probably work just fine, but choose not to or break because they're not expecting Google Play to be missing, like banking apps that refuse to work because some Google library tells them the OS doesn't pass their "integrity"/"security" checks.

Unfortunately, installing Google Play is probably the only way you can get the game working in the short term. You can also try contacting the game developers to see if they'd be willing to fix it.

Leza89

other8026

Since it is just an overlay, I'd imagine it to be relatively trivial to get around this..
I have another program that "requires Windows 10" but installs perfectly fine under WINE and then can be executed from a Windows 7 machine, for example.

Here's a screenshot for clarity:
(https://i.ibb.co/sKWckhd/Screenshot-20240512-185537.png)

other8026

Leza89 Since it is just an overlay, I'd imagine it to be relatively trivial to get around this..

As far as I can tell, it probably isn't something that would be possible or easily done.

Leza89

other8026 Hmm.. You are probably right; it must be a function call withing the app itself and not an additional app that"s being called since.. Well there is nothing to be called.

I will probably have to try something like https://github.com/microg/FakeStore but that has been discontinued and I am not sure if the successor https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/tree/master/vending-app will do what I need it to do.. Well; something for after work to read up on.

Thank you for your replies.