GrapheneOS Elements push notifications without play and fdroid

jro

Hello,
I've been thinking about migrating to Graphene and as many I have some doubts with missing push notifications from play services ( I know I can enable them, but then what's the point of Graphene ).

Matrix allows us to bridge almost all chat messengers so if it is supported I'm ready to start my own migration.
The main question is: Does elements installed directly from their github supports push notifications ?

matchboxbananasynergy

jro Hi there! Welcome to the forum.

jro ( I know I can enable them, but then what's the point of Graphene ).

I assuming that "them" refers to Sandboxed Google Play here. It's absolutely your choice whether you want to use that or not, and that's why GrapheneOS doesn't come with any Google apps enabled by default.

That said, it's important to highlight two things:

While Play Services on Stock OS are problematic due to their highly privileged access over the device, the same is not the case on GrapheneOS. The Sandboxed Google Play approach makes it so they're just like any other app.

You can find more information about how it works on a high level here:

https://grapheneos.org/features#sandboxed-google-play

As for "what's the point of Graphene", even with Sandboxed Google Play, which already puts Play Services on an even playing field, it has a whole bunch of features that you can't find anywhere else. :)

Does elements installed directly from their github supports push notifications ?

I believe that the version that you can get from GitHub still requires Sandboxed Google Play. The F-Droid version doesn't. It would be great if they could release that version to GitHub Releases as well, or eventually to an app store like Accrescent so that people who don't want to use Play Services and F-Droid have a sensible choice.

mommy

just curious, are there a disadvantages from downloading things from F-droid over github

mythodical

mommy there are some potential security pitfalls with F-Droid as explained here, but the repository remains quite popular. GitHub can be a bit tedious, and not all FOSS apps are readily available as APKs from GitHub, leading to a mixed workflow of app stores, RSS readers and manual downloads.

Qwerty

mommy GitHub is directly from the developers. F-droid signs each app with its own signing keys. So in this equation, you have to trust two parties--the developers and the F-Droid team. It all depends on your threat model.

mommy

Thank you for the info, that's good to know.

mommy

stupid question, do the apps from github update automatically

mythodical

mommy no, generally you will need an RSS reader or app tracker to keep track of when new releases are available from GitHub (the mixed workflow I mentioned).

wjl

mommy No, but you can achieve that with Obtainium if you like. Or manually like @mythodical wrote.

jro

Well, It seems like its time to build apps manually from source code if I don't want F-Droid. Anyway thanks, I didn't notice that they release Gplay version.

Eirikr70

I would recommend that you install Schildichat rather than Element. It is a well-maintained fork of Element that includes notifications from AOSP rather than from Google Play.

TrustExecutor

Eirikr70

Element also support the Unified Push protocol! Maybe this fork also do?.There is a long list of apps that supports this protocol where you can self host a notification server and let multiple apps share the same persistent connection, thus reducing battery consumption significantly. The functionality is similar to that of Play Services notifications but completely private (if you use your own server).
https://unifiedpush.org/

If we can implement this standard among open source apps it would be a game changer for de-googled phones.

GrapheneLover

TrustExecutor That's right, hopefully more apps will support it soon. It would be nice to see.

Eirikr70

TrustExecutor Element also support the Unified Push protocol!

Yes and no. I don't know if they changed their policy lately, but a few months ago, they would publish an F-Droid version (the one with Unified push) every several months. That is why I installed Schildichat. But you nust be right and there are probably other solutions.