Me and a friend of mine both use GrapheneOS (GOS) and RethinkDNS (RT).
Yesterday we both got the same notification from RT independently, saying that the new app "ANDROID" (all uppercase.. very shady) was installed and if we want to isolate it or not.

We used two different Browsers (Vanadium and Privacy browser), visiting a local newspaper website respectively buying something on Amazon.

Did someone also have this expierience?

We both do not know:
o is it related to GOS, RT or something completely different?
o Is the "ANDROID" app malware?

It was not possible to get to the ANDROID app settings page, unlike for all other system apps.

I wanted this post to be short, so maybe some information is missing. Don't hesitate to ask, please!

2 months later

rdns dev here

ANDROID isn't malware. It is one of the many system users (like DNS, GPS, MDNS, MEDIA etc).

When the OS assigns ownership of outgoing packets to one of these system users like ANDROID, DNS etc; and if Rethink is seeing that happen for the first time, it informs the user about it.

See this thread on Rethink's subreddit: an unknown app installed by itself called 0 / mirror.

    ignoramous

    Can ypu let us chain different proxies together in RDNS? I want more than 1 including the ability to route to InvisiblePro:

    Example; VPN1 OpenVPN config
    VPN 2: proxy configs through 9050 port
    VPN 3: socks5

        4 days later

        notahuman Can ypu let us chain different proxies together in RDNS? I want more than 1 including the ability to route to InvisiblePro:

        SagerNet SingBox does this (as does solutions built atop SingBox like Hiddify) (I am not recommending you use them, but pointing out the alternatives). "Chaining proxies" isn't trivial to implement, and given how complicated the app already is, I don't see ourselves implementing it anytime soon.

            ignoramous I understand. Thanks for making such a great App, people and me really like it!

              AlphaElwedritsch and this is exactly where the dog is buried

              Not sure what you mean. SagerNet is a library that supports proxy chaining (among other things). It is straight forward to include SagerNet in Rethink.

              The complication comes in terms of building a user interface for it. Adding more features to Rethink is only making it more painful for folks to understand the app and/or debug when things don't work. As chaining proxies is a very niche ask, it doesn't seem worth the complication.

                  ignoramous I think the problem lies thus: this stuff is inherently difficult to understand. The app is complicated due to the fact that the concept itself is too difficult. I think a proper tooltip functionality explaining each function would go rather a long way to helping the understandability of what's going on. Talking for myself, though I doubt I'm unique, I want to use the functionality, but I don't fully understand it.

                    ignoramous I think many users who want to use Rethink DNS are power users.

                    You could always do an "Expert Mode" like ublock if you wanted.

                    A lot of times I wish I could route everything through Orbot or Invizible, but some things won't work as a result. It's possible to use Orbot and FoxProxy in Firefox on top of it, but it means having a socks that will easily connect and a lot of times socks cost money, plus some Apps won't work with that configuration. I also would prefer to not have my ISP have a record of my being a Tor user. Many people use VPNs for many things. Tor puts me into a different pool of users.

                    Rethink is already an incredible App and everyone is really impressed by it and I could be the only one who wants this. A feature like this would mean a lot of coding and be hard to do so I'm just glad Rethink exists!

                    Although the poster above said Rethink is complicated, the only reason I don't use it is that much is the proxy doesn't offer the level of control I wanted. If I could Daisy chain VPNs then I would just have Rethink be something that analyzes or blocks packets prior to getting sent or coming in. But the options for proxy inside the App still mean everything is either coming out of 1 IP and I don't want that because so many servers and data centers are owned by big tech and able to do things like calculate ping time to guess which user is which.

                        notahuman Although the poster above said Rethink is complicated

                        I would say, for most of the "normal" users it is too complicated.
                        and as I see it, it is becoming increasingly complicated

                            notahuman You could always do an "Expert Mode" like ublock if you wanted.

                            Yes, let's see if we ever get around to implementing another mode. It isn't as trivial, unfortunately, though it does seem like we should attempt doing so anyway.

                            notahuman But the options for proxy inside the App still mean everything is either coming out of 1 IP

                            You mean, you need support to connect to multiple SOCKS5 upstreams like with WireGuard (instead of just 1)? If so, that's planned (https://github.com/celzero/rethink-app/issues/1623).

                            AlphaElwedritsch and as I see it, it is becoming increasingly complicated

                            True. If you've got any suggestions on what we could do, please feel free to offer them (here, or over email mz at celzero dot com or on our GitHub).

                                  Hi ignoramous,

                                  I'm self-hosting a few apps, and would like to access these apps via Wireguard. Is it possible on Rethink to access my self-hosted apps via Wireguard while simultaneously connected to a commercial VPN?

                                    @"ignoramous"

                                    I just want to say, have been using RDNS for.. ages tbh lol

                                    Have never found it complicated - it also functions exactly as it should - never have any issues..
                                    That in itself is a hugely important factor for myself personally, given an 'issue' on that scale often results in an information leak.

                                    I really do appreciate the immense amount time and effort you put into developing it, plus even been able to find the time on top of it and and everything else you have going on, to help users directly - you really are a legend & a superstar! Thankyou :)