Afraid of Google but Pixel Camera is needed

Kong

Hi All,

I am looking for the most private method of installing Pixel Camera app on my Pixel 9.

The default installed app produces low quality photos, that's why I do not want to use it anymore.

Important thing is that, I would like to use camera on my main profile without need to switch to another one. I travel a lot and I like shooting many new object every day, that's why switching between profiles would be very inconvenient.

To be more precise - I use only one profile and at this moment I have not installed any Google app on my smartphone.

I thought about Aurora Store and pure APK, but I think they are risky solutions.

GrapheneOSuser74

I personally have got the Gcam app from the Aurora store on my main profile. After that i downloaded the app from the play store on the secondary profile, which forced to update the app on the main profile. By doing this i avoided installation of the play services on the main profiles.
You can do the same thing. If you don't want to have secondary profile in your phone you can disable multiple profiles function.

Foggy

I can confirm that doing an update of an app via the Play Store in a secondary profile causes the app to be updated in the owner profile and marked as Play installed. Looks like that's a handy workaround for apps which insist on being installed by Play.

I think Gcam needs Play Services so you could do that trick via a secondary profile:

Create secondary profile
In owner, install Play Services and Play Store
Push those to secondary profile
Install older version of Google Camera app (either via Aurora or .apk), deny it network permissions
In secondary profile, add Google account
In secondary profile, run Play and upgrade Google Camera to latest version
Whenever you want to update, switch to secondary profile and do it via Play Store

Result is that the owner profile can be updated using Play Store without having a Google account

indigomadelin

Foggy Why do you need steps 2&3? There is App Store for each profile to install Google Play Store and services.

KCne

Foggy I think Gcam needs Play Services

It does not, GrapheneOS has fixed recent issues :)

Foggy

indigomadelin Because AIUI Gcam needs Play Services. I suppose you don't need to install Play Store in the owner profile, but I don't know if the 'installed by Play Store' checks fail if Play Store is missing.

(Gcam is quite happy being installed by a non Play source, eg Aurora. So technically you don't need that check to pass. Some other apps do need the check though)

Kong

KCne so if it does, should I just install GCam from Aurora in my sole profile and that's all? Now, it seems really simple.

FreeFrags22

Kong
Yes, I use Google Camera on my main profile, without Google Play Services. I installed Gcam from aurora store and turned off internet access to gcam. It's very important to turn off internet access in gcam (internet permission) because of private and security reasons, we don't want to send our data to Google.

Kong

FreeFrags22, thanks. Maybe I am doing something wrong but photos from GCam and ones from default Camera app looks very bad in my opinion. Do you see any difference in quality between them?
I have just installed GCam from Aurora Store. Maybe the lack of the Google Services is the problem?

FreeFrags22

Kong
Photos from GCam are fine for me without Google services. I changed some settings in app like resolution, ultra HDR, rich colors on pictures. They are better than from Graphene Camera. But I don't use camera regularly and professionally, only sometimes some text, even less new objects so for my needs is enough. Probably on stock Pixel, Google Camera can use some AI and from this reason photos from gcam installed on graphene can be worse, but I don't see differences. I changed settings of graphene camera too.