I’m a new GrapheneOS user, about 1 month in and really enjoying it. Before purchasing my Pixel and flashing GOS, I lurked on this forum and read through the Usage guides and FAQs to learn good practice.
Some key things I learned relevant to this post:
- At present, Google Play Services is required to use hardware security keys (important for me)
- There’s lots of talk about F-Droid and Aurora Store on the internet, but there’s compelling arguments against one or the other within the GOS community.
- Obtanium is a nice option for app management that looks to be growing and improving positively.
- The Play Store via ‘Apps’ is a preferred (preferred due to being generally recommended by GOS) option for getting apps given the security of the Play Store and the sandboxed implementation from GOS.
I use the Play Store with a pseudonymous Google account to install/update the Proton suite of Apps and Signal. I use Obtanium for everything else (i.e., notes app, Organic Maps, Cheogram, internet radio player). My list of apps that I need/want is fairly small.
To the point: everything I get via the Play Store I can get directly from the companies via their website. I, personally, will continue to use GPS (to support my Yubikey security key) but don’t necessarily need the Play Store or the Google account on my phone.
Is there any tangible benefit* to removing the Google account and uninstalling the Play Store while continuing to use GPS?
Thanks all and appreciate the discourse and guidance this forum provides.
*“benefit” in this context = increased privacy via a reduction in tracking by Google