No Play Store possible / feasible?

user63455

Anyone living without Play Store and Apps installed from it in Germany?

Pocketstar

user63455 Anyone living without Play Store and Apps installed from it in Germany?

I am not from Germany, but one of its neighbouring countries. (-:
I have recently been using zapstore, and have been using Obtainium for a while now which I am quite pleased with.
I stopped using any apps from the Play Store quite a while ago and I am very happy with the results. (I am not missing it)
The main reason that I chose to do this was because I did not want to be dependant on Google and/or big tech in general, I am trying to be as autonomous/independant as possible and care deeply about my privacy.
I also use many apps that can function offline as well. I often use my devices offline. (I don't use SIMcards alltogether)
Here are some links if you're interested;
https://zapstore.dev/
https://github.com/ImranR98/Obtainium

xxx

user63455
Yes. Possible for sure.

notallemanne

user63455
Good morning,

I will try to avoid a simple answer like "yes, it's possible" or "no, it's not possible" and maybe try to reason a little bit with you.

I have to say that even if I live in Germany, I am not a German citizen.
I specify this to underline that I have some applications from my home country, and some from Germany.
For example I happened to have two different versions of Vodafone.

What applications do I have in my play-store-powered profile?
I have some apps to help this profile to exist, or in other words, apps that will be not needed without this profile. This section includes apps like (list not complete):

Mullvad VPN for networking
OnlyOffice to read documents
KeepassDX to autocomplete

Once the profile is flagged for deletion, these apps serve no purpose.

There are then some applications that are good to have, but can easily be migrated to browser websites.
I already did this few weeks ago, but for the sake of the answer I will pretend I still have those.
This section includes apps like (list not complete):

ebay
Payback
Electricity company (not specify to not give up my position)
Doctolib

The bonus of using the website is less tracking, more privacy in general.
The malus is mostly not having live notifications, sometimes you lose some features, like navigation on Google Maps or live messages from your medic in DoctoLib.

Another section is Banking.
Nowadays, a lot of banks have a website allowing you to do things only if you confirm the operation through the app.
Some banks relies on the app only (like Revolut).
If you are in these two banking categories, you need to change your bank before de-googling.

Few banks still do full home banking through website.
This is a personal choice, and in Germany there are some banks you can be used through website.
I can name Sparkasse by heart, but I am sure there are others.

If I have to name pros and cons, I would say the biggest cons about not having a bank app include to not have the possibility to move your money with ease.
Sometimes I need to move money from one account to another, or in/out a pocket before paying.
In the past I tried to trade a bank app with their web portal and I discovered that the most recent features were not available on the website, so I had to stick to the app.

To further expand on this, it also depends how you decide to manage your money.
In my case I have an account that gives back some interests, but I cannot pay from that account, I need to move the money out, first; this is an instant transfer, but I still need the app to do that. If you are willing to put everything in an account with no interest, you mostly don't need an app 24h and can use the website instead.

Up to now, we can easily live without these applications with minor inconvenience.

Then there is another section, which is a deal breaker for de-googlization (to me at least): Gov apps.
In this case I am not sure about Germany, so someone else could add information about this.
In my case, my home country relies on apps for digital identities, mandatory to access some gov services.
While I was living in my home country, I could trade the app with a very long waiting time for an appointment and hours in a queue at the physical office.
Now that I live in Germany, I cannot not have them.
If I need to check for my retirement plan, driving license, id renewal or things like these, sometimes driving 3 hours to reach the nearest consulate is not enough. Sometimes I still need the app because the workflow requires it.
In my home country digital identity is mandatory also to enlist your kids at school.

I would say that if in Germany you have the same, you might still need some apps installed from the Play Store.
I am not sure if this is a deal breaker for you and/or if you can trade the apps for an appointment to a physical office.
If so, I would say you could live without play store, otherwise for a small set of apps you would still need it.

That said, having a profile only for that (like a Private Space) is a very good privacy-friendly option, especially if you use a disposable Google Account.
GOS team is working on a new feature allowing more than one Private Space to exist, which I think it's a very nice feature to "contain" apps.

Ziya

user63455 I am living without play store and without google and Microsoft. I'm living it, thanks to the graphene team

NoahRaketic

It's obviously possible. I used to for a while when I didn't need it. But why do you want to avoid the Play Store, and what apps do you need to use? The answers to those two questions will help to figure out if that actually makes sense for you.

EverettHitch

NoahRaketic using something just because you think you need it does not make it right for you, let alone others or objectively optimal for ones security and privacy.

NoahRaketic

EverettHitch I never said any of what you're implying I said (except that I personally do need it and it's right for me). I'm not sure what you're getting at.

EverettHitch

I would say "living without Google Play" is pretty much possible regatdless of what country you use it in. Maybe not as convenient, but it provides far fewer identifiers the common platform (Google Play) can use for tracking the use of your device and it doesn't know what other third party tools you may be using hence it gets a far fuzzier picture about you. There is no way you can operate completely anonymously in this day and AI surveillance driven age (don't lie to yourselves you can) but you can vastly minimize mass surveillance this common platform utilizes not only to your advantage.

user63455

I almost think that the convinience is too much. And if there some specific solutions which only get released in Stores you can't do much. Maybe I'm too negative about it.