Why does Google Play claim this app is incompatible with my device?

interpretabilis

Please help me figure out why Google Play shows this message ("This app won't work for your device") and prevents installing the app. The app is com.playstack.balatro.android. I've unpacked and pasted the manifest here. My phone is a Google Pixel 6 running the latest GrapheneOS with Android 16. I couldn't find anything in the manifest that makes the app incompatible. I am aware that there are other ways to install apps like this. I just want to know why Google Play claims the app is incompatible.

Xtreix

interpretabilis I've checked and it looks like this app is using the Play Integrity API, put a negative comment on the app and try to contact the developers to get them to use the Android's hardware attestation API, the Play Integrity API is an anti-competitive and anti-consumer measure by Google, some apps even ban GrapheneOS, some apps enable Play Integrity but don't really use it, GrapheneOS has an option in settings for concerned apps to bypass this, but in the case of your app, it won't work until they allow GrapheneOS.

Here is the link to the guide to send to developers + applications that currently ban GrapheneOS : https://grapheneos.org/articles/attestation-compatibility-guide

de0u

interpretabilis A forum search for Balatro turns this up: https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/18415-balatro-on-graphene/13

interpretabilis

Xtreix Thanks! How did you check that they use the Play Integrity API. I would like to reproduce this.

Xtreix

interpretabilis I didn't do anything special to check it technically, I searched for the app in the Play Store and saw the message “This app won't work for you device”, every time I see this message on an app, I deduce that it's using the Play Integrity API because I don't see what else it could be. If you check the link provided by de0u, it's the same. Perhaps you can also look for an alternative application.

Watermelon

Xtreix I searched for the app in the Play Store and saw the message “This app won't work for you device”, every time I see this message on an app, I deduce that it's using the Play Integrity API

@interpretabilis I have a trick for you guys: Open the Play Store entry for an app, which displays the message that your device isn't compatible:

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The ratings and the contents of the reviews don't matter. Play Store only allows users to post reviews if they're allowed to install the app. Any review you see is proof that a person with the same device model was allowed to install the app, with the date of the review being a strong indication that it had been allowed close to that date (users who have had the app installed before and are now blocked from updating could post a review after the date they've started being blocked as such, and similarly the GrapheneOS improvement that stops Play Store from injecting its garbage that locks you out of using an authentic app because you installed it from a different source makes the Play Store believe you've installed that version from the Play Store which lets you post a review for that version). The only difference I can think of between a person on the same device model being permitted to install an app and another person using the latest GrapheneOS version based on the latest Android version being not permitted, is the operating system.

However, if no reviews show up or they're too old, it's not proof of anything.

DirtyDan

Play integrity enforced apps can sometimes still be installed via the Aurora Store instead if the Play Store is blocking it.

interpretabilis

@matchboxbananasynergy In your post here you wrote that this app (Balatro) uses the Play Integrity API and this is why the Play Store shows the incompatibility message. How did you figure out that they use the Play Integrity API? I would like to to reproduce this.

ottoptj

For what it's worth, it doesn't seem like the app itself does anything to block Graphene. I managed to install Balatro through Aurora Store and can play it fine.