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  • Questions about the launcher, browsing and Google Camera

hello!

I switched from my iPhone to pixel 7 and I am in love with this OS. But the one thing I tried to search for and couldn't get the answer to is the app drawer and lack of ability to rearrange the apps. Either I'm blind or I can't find anywhere the way to sort it all out. I am talking about this A Z all-app menu when you swipe up, not the main screen. Is there any app that can sort this out for me? All I want to do is to create folders and put the apps inside

Also, I've seen other users talking about Brave browser, I understand sticking to the GrapheneOS one is the best choice for maximum privacy and to avoid any fingerprinting?

In terms of the google camera, I've seen this topic here and I can confirm that this works kind of slow on pixel 7 but also the app wants me to download google photos to be able to access pictures from within the camera app. Is there any way to avoid using google photos?

Thanks for all the answers

    Mwk Hi there! Love to hear that you're enjoying GrapheneOS! :)

    Mwk I switched from my iPhone to pixel 7 and I am in love with this OS. But the one thing I tried to search for and couldn't get the answer to is the app drawer and lack of ability to rearrange the apps. Either I'm blind or I can't find anywhere the way to sort it all out. I am talking about this A Z all-app menu when you swipe up, not the main screen. Is there any app that can sort this out for me? All I want to do is to create folders and put the apps inside

    As far as I know, this is not something that you can do on the AOSP Launcher. You may be able to do it with other 3rd party launchers, but you'd need to download and install those.

    Mwk Also, I've seen other users talking about Brave browser, I understand sticking to the GrapheneOS one is the best choice for maximum privacy and to avoid any fingerprinting?

    My personal opinion is that Brave is fine, but I use Vanadium. Brave will fool naive scripts, but it isn't a comprehensive solution against fingerprinting. For that, I recommend Tor Browser.

    For official documentation on web browsing, please take a look here:

    https://grapheneos.org/usage#web-browsing

    Mwk In terms of the google camera, I've seen this topic here and I can confirm that this works kind of slow on pixel 7 but also the app wants me to download google photos to be able to access pictures from within the camera app. Is there any way to avoid using google photos?

    You can't really avoid it if you want to open the gallery from within the Google Camera app. Instead of that, you could exit the app and just open your gallery to look at the photos you've taken instead. It's an extra step, but it should do just fine if you don't want to install Google Photos.

    • Mwk likes this.
    matchboxbananasynergy changed the title to Questions about the launcher, browsing and Google Camera .

    Mwk But the one thing I tried to search for and couldn't get the answer to is the app drawer and lack of ability to rearrange the apps.

    I don't believe this is possible with the stock launcher.

    Mwk I understand sticking to the GrapheneOS one is the best choice for maximum privacy and to avoid any fingerprinting

    There are a lot of discussions here about Vanadium versus other browsers. You'll like find your answers in the search results.

    Mwk the app wants me to download google photos to be able to access pictures from within the camera app.

    Unfortunately, I don't see any way around this. However, Google Photos does not require network access, nor does it require Google Play Services/Store. You can install it with zero permissions and further restrict its file access with storage scopes (e.g., to the DCIM folder). I use Google Camera, Gallery and Photos in this manner with no issues.

    • Mwk likes this.

    Thank you for all your answers!

    What about GPS? What is the best app you could recommend for navigation? i currently have Sygic set up as it had quite high ratings in Aurora but are there any other decent ones?

      Mwk In my opinion, it doesn't get much better than Google Maps. However, if you're looking for an alternative, Organic Maps and Magic Earth are two good options that you could check out.

      Thanks for that, I tried the organic maps and I think it works amazing. In terms of VPNs, which one in your view is trusted provider? I was using nord VPN but I heard it's not really good, what about Proton VPN or any other?

        8 months later

        Mwk magics earth is good. Also there is something you can install that fools the gcam into thinking that whatever gallery app you have is google photos so the preview will work. I use simply gallery pro and it works fine.

          4 months later

          E24
          I think I know which one you mean. It's called GCam Photos Provider. Beware though: when I tried to install the real Google Photos again, it said something about wrong version. I haven't been able to install it since.

            Clueless You would have to UNINSTALL gcam photos provider before you could install gphotos. The gcam photos provider application fakes part of gphotos (i.e. uses its package name) in order that it can respond to the button in gcam. You cannot have two packages with the same name installed at the same time! And because the package signatures don't match, you can't just install one over the other, that would cause a signature mismatch.

              Is it possible to change recents menu? Stock launcher is really bad! Personally I want pixel launcher recents menu that has text select feature. If its possible to get that in GrapheneOS, that would be a great deal, at least for me!

              bookreader
              I Know, I saw that the package names are the same. The Problem persisted after uninstalling it though. I even looked for a leftover folder but didn't find anything.

              Clueless yes it does give me the same error but I won't use google photos I'm happy with simply gallery pro

              Mwk

              I use Osmand for maps and navigation. I even bought their maps+ offering a couple years ago when it was on sale for 6€
              I really like that the app uses offline maps you download beforehand.

              The free version on google play only allows 5 map downloads, but I think on their github you can get the full version without paying.

              I wanted to support the developer and 6€ was a nice sale.