Any single-tap ways to toggle disable/enable apps?

shapirus

So my use case is to disable the Google Play Store app when not in use (which is most of the time), then reenable when needed, use, disable again.

There's a bunch of apps of varying convenience to achieve that, but in all cases they require either root or shizuku or other ways to gain some additional privileges to do the job. I don't really want to mess with them at this time on this particular device.

Currently I have to go into the settings menu -> apps -> all apps -> search -> play store -> disable/enable. This takes some time, but, fortunately, it's not required all that often, so realistically I could live with that. But, maybe there's a more convenient way after all? I know it's not likely, but maybe something like this could be implemented as part of GOS?

I'm aware of secondary profiles. That won't do, they do much more than reqiured in this case and assume a different workflow. A single-icon "tap to toggle" thingy is what I'm talking about.

Novaliss

shapirus
Longpress your Settings app, tap 'widgets' and put a settings widget on your homescreen. It will now ask for what the widget should do, and tap the entry called 'App info'.
Now you've got a shortcut to all apps.

This is the closest path in untampered GrapheneOS, since apps aren't allowed to disable/enable other apps.

shapirus

Novaliss I didn't realize that settings had a widget to quickly reach certain entries of the entire list. This can be super handy for many things, not just for the problem in question. Speaking of the latter, I'd say it will do the job for me. Thanks!

Johnnyloans

or other ways to gain some additional privileges to do the job

Leaving that out, you can do this:

Novaliss

Johnnyloans Thanks a gigaton for this advice! Shortcut to Obtainium! Wow

Johnnyloans

Well bugger me sideways.

This takes some time

goes with the solution that saves 5% of time over the 80% time saver

Johnnyloans

Novaliss

I learned it from the master @Novaliss

schklom

For any interested power user (not aimed at beginners):

There is an AOSP-native (no-root/tampering of the OS) way to freeze/unfreeze apps in the main Profile similarly to how Shelter and Insular can un/freeze apps in a Work Profile, though that requires setting up a Device-Owner (DO) app.

DO is a feature meant for organizations that own devices (your device technically then becomes OrganizationOwned if you want to search in AOSP code), this brings some big tradeoffs:

Private Spaces and Work Profiles can't co-exist with a DO
the initial setup of a DO requires to have no secondary user Profiles and to temporarily disable apps with accounts

Relevant FOSS apps (don't use if you're a newbie) to set this up are Dhizuku Owndroid and Hail.

If you use a secondary profile (you can still set them up after setting the DO), you'll need the DO app in Owner as well. Functionally, it's like a Work Profile setup with Shelter but in the main Profile: a shortcut can un/freeze all apps, and each app can have a shortcut to temporarily unfreeze. Personally, I love it but it's sad I can't setup a Private Space anymore.

And to go back to how it was before, removing the DO is easy, it's about 2-3 buttons to press in the DO app, and no app disappears.

shapirus

FWIW, DO with Hail didn't work for me: adb threw an error that there are already multiple users, or something like this. I believe here's the relevant issue: https://github.com/aistra0528/Hail/issues/317

I haven't created any secondary profiles, just have a single one, the owner, as came from a clean GOS install.

schklom

It seems I missed some sub-requirements: setting up the DO requires no extra Profiles (secondary User Profile + Work Profile + Private Space) and no app accounts listed in the Android settings.

@shapirus Island/Insular/Shelter profiles are Work Profiles and must be removed before setting up the DO. You can keep Island, but it will not be able to do anything after you have a DO,