Notifications only working properly with Play services elevated permissions

plolock

I'd prefer to lock down Google services as much as I can, but the inconvenience of not getting notifications from various apps that I assume rely on Google is a deal breaker

I notice this as when I give play services network access I get a bunch of buffered notifications from various apps

Have I misconfigured the device or am I maybe not getting how the dependency hierarchy works?

Signal is among those that doesn't really work with play services denied network.

Am I sharing lots of sensitive data with Google by having play services allowed network access?

Johnnyloans

plolock Have I misconfigured the device

No.

Many apps use google's FCM for notifications. Google play services must be installed then the app follows to register its notifications properly. Network permission is needed for play services to get these notifications.

For an app like signal, google knows you got a message at a certain time of day.
For many other apps that aren't e2ee, google can see the entire notification that you receive.

This method saves on battery, because only 1 app--google--listens for notifications instead of every app being awake for notifications.

Cheers

littlerack

plolock FYI giving Play services a network access is not "elevated permissions".

littlerack

plolock Am I sharing lots of sensitive data

Define "sensitive data".

littlerack

plolock Signal is among those that doesn't really work with play services denied network.

If you're so into "locking down" Google, what's the reason of not de-googling? Your overall post is kinda self-contradicting, as you're trying to achieve mutually exclusive goals.

Though I see why certain services can't be easily replaced with google-less alternatives, Signal is definitely not one of them.

MetropleX

plolock ignal is among those that doesn't really work with play services denied network.

Install https://molly.im instead of Signal, it's an alternative client, and select either websocket or FCM push it should work regardless for either as they have their own efficient implementation so it works regardless of Play being present.

Their push is efficient with battery and far superior.