Yes you can ditch it. But you may need to re-install Whatsapp to switch to its built-in notification service, because it probably checks once at the beginning whether you have Play Services or not and won't notice if you uninstall Play Services later.
WhatsApp without Google Play
Viewpoint0232 Is this purely an assumption or is it in any way verified (e.g. via system log entries)?
I don't know for sure, but I know that it's the case for Signal. It can do its own notifications or use Play, but it decides what to do at install time and needs a reinstall to change it.
I disabled google play services and framewok, restarted whatsapp to test but notifications didn't come through. So i assume @Viewpoint0232 is right and whatsapp checks at time of installation.
After disabling google play services i noticed brave became very slow, every website before loading takes like 5 seconds. Restarted phone and same behavior while no issues with vanadium. Probably need to reinstall brave aswell? Is brave dependant for some reason on play services if u had play services installed before installing brave?
Just to report back, removed play services and reinstalled whatsapp and for the moment notifications work, nice thanks!
Brave it's delay is gone after removing and restarting aswell, while disabled gave brave a delay.
My music app wouldn't open aswell with play services, play store & framework disabled. Even after reinstalling. After removing play services and reinstalling, opens again.
I guess disabling doesn't 'hide' the presence of play services, hence apps still trying to interact with it and unable to.
r134a apps register the presence of Play Services on first launch. This is when they need to connect to Firebase Messaging, initialize various Play components like Billing or Play Integrity and other stuff. On a regular Android build you simply can't uninstall Play Services, so there's no need to design a check for changes in most apps that expect it. Thus apps need to be reinstalled to perform that first startup check.
r134a This is most likely due to Brave's use (by default) of Safe Browsing.
DeletedUser87 I'm aware, i reinstalled my music app several times with the play services suite disabled, in the assumption it would perform it's check on first install and move along. The app wouldn't go past the splash screen.
I had to to effectively delete the play services suite and reinstall in order for the app to function.
Basically i was trying to mention that 'disabling' play services suite and while reinstalling apps, the app in it's initial check still can see the presence of some component(s) of the play services suite, at least based on my observation.
xxx Sure i don't mind, the app i talk about is Deezer. I feel like my english abilities are lacking to explain what i meant as it still seems unclear.
The app works without google play. The app was initially installed after google play service was installed.
After seeing here whatsapp can deliver notifications without google play, before actually deleting google play services suite, i went to system > apps > google play services and disabled it (framework and play store aswell).
I did this to see first for a while if there is weird behavior from other apps that i wasn't aware of.
I saw like i mentioned brave slow 5sec before loading a page, Deezer staying on splash screen and whatsapp no notifications (which i knew already).
Then i deleted whatsapp and deezer, rebooted the phone, checked if play services suite is still disabled. I know apps will perform their initial check on install if play services is available on the device. I reinstalled whatsapp and deezer. Deezer kept behaving as before uninstall while google play services are disabled, resting on the splash screen. I cleared cache and all app data, uninstalled, rebooted, tried reinstall again and same behavior. So i though weird, maybe the app won't work without google play services. I've tried installing Deezer in a profile without ever google play services installed and it worked.
So i came to the, for me, interesting observation that apps on initial check for google play services on install for some reason still can find component(s) from google play services while disabled, and probably tried communicating with it but unable to because disabled. I wanted to share that observation here, as for me it was interesting.
- Edited
r134a Sure i don't mind, the app i talk about is Deezer.
Ok. As far as I know this streamig apps are linked with Play Service. Sorry to say. So it would be better for battery life to use the play service for all apps that can use it.
Edit: you can try this (if you havn't already). https://support.deezer.com/hc/en-gb/articles/115004368825-Problems-With-Playing-Music-On-Mobile
In my experience, WhatsApp notifications sometimes don't actually work without Google Play, even though under "Battery Usage" WhatsApp is clearly running in the background, and I allowed unrestricted background usage for it.
Seems random whether or not a notification will show up (and unless I just switched to a different app without closing WhatsApp, they are delayed by at least 2-3 minutes).
Since the upgrade to Android 15, I almost never get WhatsApp notifications (BTW, according to the people I chat with through WhatsApp, on their end it seems the messages aren't even being received on my end until I open the app when this happens).
glenn Is anyone running WhatsApp without google play?
I do continuously. No issues so far.
mrket Same here. And before anyone asks, Play Services was never installed. Seems to have become a real issue since Android 15. WhatsApp calls are missed now, too.
5 days later
I continuously receive messages with these settings on Android 15, (pixel 8a)
Settings:
(wprofile: user profile with WhatsApp, no g services)
- (owner profile) System -> Users -> wprofile -> Allow running in background:on
- System ->Users -> wprofile -> Set notifications to current user:on
- app info -> App battery usage -> Allow background usage:on
- app info -> App battery usage -> Allow background usage -> unrestricted:selected
- app info -> manage app if unused:off
- app info -> Notification - All notifications:on
- app info -> Background data:on
- Battery -> Battery saver:off
If you force stopped whatsapp you need to open it once to receive data again.
Some weird behavior in my case regarding calls and a way to switch users while being called:
If you are called from the wprofile while at the owner profile, everything behaves like this:
- You can't interact with the call.
- You can't switch to the wprofile to interact with the call.
- You can't adjust the ringing sound with volume buttons.
- "Do not disturb" does not mute the call, but does if it was activated beforehand.
- You can only adjust the ringing sound in the settings or mute the call by clicking the power button.
If you are a non-owner user and you are called by wprofile, you can do all of the above, but once you switch to wprofile, the ringing stops and you can't accept the call. The WhatsApp notification "accept/decline" does nothing and stays like this after the call. Nothing about the call in the app itself. You have then to force stop WhatsApp or get another call to get rid of the notification.
However, if you don't switch the user but go to the lock screen via power button (or if you are already there) and click on "end session," you are transferred to the owner login screen, and you can now switch directly the user by sliding down the top panel and then accepting the call. This worked continuously, but then I tried to replicate it by creating another user, it now doesn't work for both; the notification just freezes after switching like described in the section before.
9 days later
- Edited
frankenstein Sorry, I wish I could confirm your findings, but notifications really don't work as well as on Android 14 anymore.
My settings:
- Installed in main profile
- No Play Services (never were installed)
- Battery saver: off
App settings:
- Notifications -> All notifications: on
- Permissions -> Pause app activity if unused: off
- Mobile data usage -> Background data: allowed
- App battery usage -> Allow background usage allowed -> on & unrestricted
- Manage app if unused: off
Everything you wrote about the work profile issues isn't relevant to my cases.
Results since Android 15:
- No notifications, for hours, basically until the users open WhatsApp themselves
- No call notifications, sometimes even when WhatsApp is in the foreground, until the other user just stops trying (and then the receiving end gets a missed call message)
- Also seeing
GooglePlayServicesUtil: com.whatsapp requires the Google Play Store, but it is missing.logcat entries - Other curious logcat entries:
com.whatsapp: AIBinder_linkToDeath is being called with a non-null cookie and no onUnlink callback set. This might not be intended. AIBinder_DeathRecipient_setOnUnlinked should be called first. WhatsAppJni: DetachThreadOnExit: detached current thread from JVM JobService: onNetworkChanged() not implemented in androidx.work.impl.background.systemjob.SystemJobService. Must override in a subclass.
SovereignCopper same with Viber, message notifications worked fine, but with Android 15 not. Nothing changed under Viber App settings
SovereignCopper It seems on my device WhatsApp is creating new notification "groups" (not sure what they're called) with default settings.
It also seems to assign previously changed "Conversations" the "Silent Notifications" group.
I currently have 4 "Silent Notifications" groups, 3 "Message Notifications" and 2 "Group Notifications".
I'll keep an eye on it to see if more are added over time.
Is the same happening on your end?