[deleted] It only serves any use to people who are too lazy to go to grapheneos.org manually.

Or, for people who do not know about the releases page on the website.

Or, for people who are just getting started with GrapheneOS and haven't yet explored the website. Which is, strictly speaking, not necessary in order to enjoy the convenience of the OS.

Or, for people who simply want the convenience of just opening an app to read the latest news.

I personally wouldn't call this lazy behavior. But to each their own.

    • [deleted]

    fid02 Right. So why have it in the system partition?

    It also has a quick access to donation methods to support the project and community contacts as well.

    This should be put in PlayStore also.

      xxx
      For what benefit? The information isn't of much use for people not using GOS so it doesn't really need to be available beyond the Apps app.

        AlanZ Your opinions about the apps and icons are very well documented on this forum. We can agree to disagree, and despite you not always having phrased your feedback in the most productive way possible, that's still fine.

        However, the comment I'm now replying to is very close to being indistinguishable from trolling. Exaggerations of this nature are not productive, and you're not making a better case for what you want by resorting to them.

        AlanZ You can't uninstall apps that come with the system, they're part of the system. You say "not the same thing", but for all intents and purposes, it is the same thing. What's the actual difference, the size of the apps? With devices that start at 128GB, that is not a valid argument when this app takes an infinitesimal fraction of that.

        [deleted] The feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive. We added the Info app to the app repository days ago to get early feedback, and so far people have appreciated it. You can also see that from others in this thread. Therefore, I would say, that this app is definitely not "useless", at least not to everyone. I understand you might not have a use for it; that's fine. You're free to disable it.

        [deleted] It serves people with an easy way to see what's the latest at a glance, find links to all of our community channels conveniently in case they need support, as well as a handy way to support the project.

        The app's functionality will likely expand in the future to do a lot more to not only improve the experience of people who are new to the OS, but also to existing users e.g. by introducing new features when they're added.

        Dumdum You could say that there might be niche situations where someone who uses GrapheneOS also has a non-GrapheneOS device and might want to keep up, but I agree the usecase is limited. Someone who wants this app outside of GrapheneOS can download "Apps" and get it from there, if they want.

          Anybody knows why latest build is 2024062700 while about phone section shows build number 2024062000 and sys updater says device is up-to-date. Why is it not updating to the 2024062700?

            AlanZ Where do you propose the apps go instead? Having it installed dynamically from Apps in the data partition would waste storage space compared to using the large amount of unused space reserved for the OS partitions. Why would we waste people's storage space putting it in data? Disabling an app fully disables it and stops it from running. You're being very unreasonable both here and elsewhere.

              • [deleted]

              • Edited

              GrapheneOS Nobody is concerned about space. We just don't like not being able to remove stuff. Nobody would prefer an app that is useless to them being disabled, compared to being removed. The users would have the option to later free up space.

                [deleted] You can remove it by disabling it. The claims you've made above are inaccurate. It is not possible to preload an app in the data partition since it's formatted on first boot. An OEM can pretend an app isn't included in the OS images by putting it in a special directory and installing all those apps by default, which only serves the purpose of misleading you. It seems you prefer to be misled, but we have no reason to mislead users as you prefer.

                @[deleted] Your question regarding why the app is installed the way it is has been answered above. Anything else is detracting from the usefulness of the post.

                Things are done in a specific way for a reason, and the reasoning behind this has been adequately explained in this thread.

                Further back-and-forth doesn't contribute to constructive discussion. You said you have made an inaccurate claim. That's misinformation. Nobody said you did so intentionally or with malice.

                Let's let that be the end of that and move on. Thank you.

                  [deleted] Removing off-topic back and forths aren't "changing history", they're preserving the usefulness of the information contained in the post for people who will find it after you, so that they can read the relevant bits, rather than whatever is happening now.

                  Your questions have been answered, and reasoning has been provided. This prolonged back and forth happening now isn't productive and nobody has time for it, the moderation team included. Please treat this post as a warning.

                  AlanZ We previously had nearly zero information about GrapheneOS included in it, not even links to our site. iOS has tons of information about Apple and iOS included, and it has a large number of apps and services included. Including a tiny app providing info about GrapheneOS is hardly a form of bloat.

                  Many GrapheneOS users are not aware of the forum, chat rooms, release notes, donation options, or the other information we provided on the site. Including this information in the OS will help many GrapheneOS users along with benefiting the project through more contributors, more donations and more awareness of what's going on.

                  This app uses the modern Material 3 style and supports Material You. It has themed icon support like all the other apps with launcher icons included with GrapheneOS. You can disable it like the other bundled apps, which is equivalent to uninstalling it beyond it being possible to enable again. iOS has far more information about Apple and iOS included than this and far more bundled apps and services.

                  Our own app icons could become darker when the dark theme is enabled, but you're not going to encourage doing that by repeatedly being rude and making ridiculous attacks on the project.