How to approach installing app?

donb108

I'm new to GrapheneOS, just bought a Pixel7 Pro, and installed GrapheneOS; went pretty well. I'm a little confused on how to install apps. I tried the Aurora Store, but the search never seems to work; always returns "Opps, This account is rate limited!" I understand that F-Droid should be avoided in general (something about it's release model), but tried it anyway. It's search works, but it can't find most of the apps I'm looking for. Tried Obtainium; it works great, but seems to be limited to open source.

I'm hoping to avoid google and the play store in general, but haven't figured out how to do that. Every app seems to point me to the same place. But wait, GrapheneOS is sandboxed, is it necessary to do that? Maybe it's OK to install via play store? Or, maybe I should contact the people who created the app and request a APK? Or, ???

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Examples:
Mobile Link (generator monitoring app)
Emporia Energy (car charging app)
Car Scanner (ODB2 code reader app)

Nuttso

donb108 allow aurora to open extern links. Go to vanadium and search for your app with play store in it. It will lead you to the online play store. If you click on install it will open it in Aurora.

Panda-na

donb108 Examples:
Mobile Link (generator monitoring app)
Emporia Energy (car charging app)
Car Scanner (ODB2 code reader app)

Just a heads up about apps like this. Generally they are terrible. They are made once, and will almost never be updated. Are you sure that these apps can run in android 13 at all? I have bad experiences with this kind of apps. Don't know anything about the apps you have in your example.

csis01

donb108 I understand that F-Droid should be avoided in general (something about it's release model), but tried it anyway. It's search works, but it can't find most of the apps I'm looking for.

Some people try to discredit F-Droid for nobody really knows what reason. Their release model is actually a considerable strength because it protects you from secret changes being added to the source code prior to binary release. What you get with F-Droid is a dependable source code archive showing exactly what is in the installed program, something you don't get from anywhere else.

But yes, it only hosts OPEN SOURCE software, so if you're looking for something released binary-only, then you'll be out of luck for sure.

Look at the software you actually use, and see if you can find something reasonable equivalent on F-Droid, not necessarily the same software. For most things, there is usually something.

donb108

Nuttso allow aurora to open extern links. Go to vanadium and search for your app with play store in it. It will lead you to the online play store. If you click on install it will open it in Aurora.

Good idea, how do I do that, I don't see it in settings?

Panda-na Examples:
Mobile Link (generator monitoring app)
Emporia Energy (car charging app)
Car Scanner (ODB2 code reader app)

I agree, they're not great, but in some cases, no other choice.

mortuary_jab Droidify is a great alternative to F-Droid and I'd highly recommend, as long as it has the apps you need.

I installed Droidify and it looks good. Is there a way to do the same thing Nuttso suggested (with external links)?

mortuary_jab

Droidify is a great alternative to F-Droid and I'd highly recommend, as long as it has the apps you need.

Skyway

donb108
Long press aurora store app
App info
Look for open by default , select play.google
Now you can search app via web browser and click the play store search result and it will open the app in the aurora store .
Just an FYI I'm done this and a few apps have not been found when it opens in aurora .
https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/4574-aurora-store/82

[deleted]

donb108

Aurora search functionality may have just come back online; it works for me now (4.1.1 on P6) - something, somewhere got patched.

I hope that it will work for you now as well, and would suggest to do your best to solely use Aurora Store + Manually installed APKs with Obtainium updating. Unistall Droidify (F-Droid, Neo) and use F-Droid website to locate APKs. (Look for 'source'). The fewer apps the better.

I've come to see it as a 'cleanest' set-up (advocated for by Josh of Side Of Burritos channel, among others).

donb108

donb108 allow aurora to open extern links. Go to vanadium and search for your app with play store in it. It will lead you to the online play store. If you click on install it will open it in Aurora.

Skyway Long press aurora store app
App info
Look for open by default , select play.google

Thanks a million, that's really slick; I've installed most of the apps. One app had an error (failed to fetch app details); I think it had a dependency on google play, so I put it on a user profile and installed via google play.