Possible to have more than two profiles on GOS

los2cos2gos

New to GOS and I am trying to organize my things here (I sought refuge from CalyxOS).

Is it possible to have more than two profiles on GOS? Basically, I am looking at a scenario where I can have three profiles: one with no Play Services, one with Play Services but not logged in, and a third for those apps that like tracking me. From what I understand, one profile can not see another and therefore I want to organize my apps in this way.

So, is it possible to have three profiles, at least one of which (the logged in Playstore one) being private? How? Thanks in advance for your help!

nandohyphen1

los2cos2gos Is it possible to have more than two profiles on GOS?

Yes. You can have up to 32 profiles

From the GrapheneOS website;
https://grapheneos.org/features#improved-user-profiles

More user profiles
GrapheneOS raises the limit on the number of secondary user profiles to 32 (31 + guest) instead of only 4 (3 + guest) to make this feature much more flexible.

nandohyphen1

los2cos2gos From what I understand, one profile can not see another

That is correct. I don't use Google Play Services, but my setup is,
Owner profile - Non tracking apps
Second Profile - apps that track
Banking Profile - my bank stuff
Private Space - apps that track but require SMS verification to log into (its easier this way instead of switching profiles for the text)

los2cos2gos

nandohyphen1 How do you figure out if an app is tracking app?

And the apps in one profle have no knowledge of what is going on in the other, is that correct?

Btw, signal/molly, etc require SMS verification to set up but can you get notifications too if the profile is in private space?

nandohyphen1

los2cos2gos How do you figure out if an app is tracking app?

I use Exodus Privacy. It tells you what apps have trackers.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.eu.exodus_privacy.exodusprivacy

And the apps in one profle have no knowledge of what is going on in the other, is that correct?

Yes that is correct. If you want to learn about how sandboxed Google Play works, read this
https://grapheneos.org/features#sandboxed-google-play

I'd recommend you read through the features on the website
https://grapheneos.org/features

Btw, signal/molly, etc require SMS verification to set up but can you get notifications too if the profile is in private space?

If the private space is locked, you won't get notifications, so this isn't good for apps that must run in the background and send notifications. See this post on the forum
https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/16670-private-space-on-android-15-grapheneos

nandohyphen1

los2cos2gos How do you figure out if an app is tracking app?

I also install apps from Aurora Store. It is anonymous access to the Google Play store. It tells you the app compatibility with GrapheneOS and how many trackers the app has. You can get it on F Droid
https://f-droid.org/packages/com.aurora.store

But many people have mixed feelings on Aurora Store. I personally like it, but search the forum and see what people said. Here's some to start off with
https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/2692-google-play-store-vs-aurora-store

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/11992-playstore-or-aurora

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/6505-pro-and-cons-of-using-google-play-vs-aurora

de0u

nandohyphen1 I use Exodus Privacy. It tells you what apps have trackers.

To a very limited extent. I recommend a search of this forum. It's not clear the results are worth relying on.

los2cos2gos

nandohyphen1 Thank you, how do you install Aurora store? I tried using obtainium, but the github source suggests that there are no release assets. So, it appears that the only option I would have is to use the source from fdroid.

nandohyphen1

los2cos2gos you can install it on F Droid or directly from the website as a .apk file.
https://store.auroraoss.com/

los2cos2gos

nandohyphen1 Thanks, actually I found an entire "repo" of such apps on obtainium: https://apps.obtainium.imranr.dev/
It even has molly.

DeletedUser495

nandohyphen1 if you want Aurora, get it here
https://gitlab.com/AuroraOSS/AuroraStore/-/releases
not from shady source that points to Huawei Appgallery

los2cos2gos

DeletedUser495 Btw, the obtainium link is to aurora.oss.com/api/files/com.aurora.store (which is also official, right?)

CharlieMander

Im stupid.

But my favorite thing so far is the profiles.

I have 3 user profiles

My Owner Acount is Graphene No google. Second is Google Lite that is bare bones, just a small amout of BS... Ha ha. 3rd is Full Spyware thats like a normal phone but I have 100× more control....

Slowly I will try to get rid of more and more spyware untill its only GrapheneOS.

I feel like just installing the OS you are already 100× better than the normal android user is before downloading.

It is nice to have so much control over everything, even in my "spyware" user profile.

los2cos2gos

CharlieMander Just curious, what is GoogleLite (barebones Google)?

CharlieMander

los2cos2gos Google Lite is just the name I made up for one of my "Profiles".
It is Google Maps with a random Google account I made. I have tested all the non spyware "Maps" apps and Everything is terrible compared to Google Maps. "Obviously just talking about how it is for everyday use for a normal person, not about privacy".

So my "Google Lite" is just the last bit of junk with no better solution.... But with a random GMail account That I will re make probably every 6 months. It is a random Gmail. Not my original Gmail.

I am a stupid amateur. If you need real privacy and are not just annoyed with being spyed on do not listen to my advice. I am just a person who hates what android has become. I am not a privacy expert. My advice is for the basic user annoyed with google, who was scared to switch over to Graphene.

But GrapheneOS is great.

los2cos2gos

So, to add a new profile, it appears to me that I should add a new user in the "Users" setting. Is that correct? Thanks!

nandohyphen1

los2cos2gos So, to add a new profile, it appears to me that I should add a new user in the "Users" setting. Is that correct? Thanks!

Yes that is correct

los2cos2gos

Is there an easy way to switch from one profile to the next? Sort of like happens for the private space (which only appears to need an unlock)? Thank you.

DeletedUser433

Profiles can't see each other but apps can still listen to localhost which is why you must encrypt traffic if you use it

los2cos2gos

DeletedUser433 Sorry, my question is how do I switch from one profile to the other, i.e. if there is a way, other than to go and do "switch user" from settings which seems to be a lot more work than going down or up the space (for Private Space and back).

nandohyphen1

los2cos2gos if there is a way, other than to go and do "switch user" from settings which seems to be a lot more work than going down or up the space (for Private Space and back).

Yes. To switch quicker swipe down from the screen twice, and in the bottom right look for a little person icon. When you click on it you can choose the user

los2cos2gos

nandohyphen1 Does this work even with a private space (in addition to a second profile)?
I don't know if it is possible to have more than one private space.