Obtain and update Pixel Camera without Play Store.

[deleted]

Me and you may be asking : "Whats the best way to get the Google Camera app without having Sandboxed Play installed, as I don't want it on my device?"

Its important to note that you cant relaibly download it from apk sites such as Apkmirror, as the Play store serves different versions of the Gcam depending on the device it detects. You can notice this by extracting the split apk and there will be splits containing your device's codename (eg. panther).

My current method is pretty shit but it works:

Have a seperate profile with Play Store
Download Pixel Camera
Dump Split APK with Inure or Package Manager (fdroid)
Move the dumped apk to the main profile somehow
Download and install Split APK Installer (SAI) from apkmirror.
Select and install the split apk which may or may not fail the install for some random reason.
Profit and repeat for EACH update

Im currently looking for a simpler and better way to do this.
If there was a way to get the device specific apk without the store, it would half the work cut out.

How do you all do it?
Thanks for the responses in advance.

GoSh

New to GOS, but found that as of October 24 I can do it this straight fwd way on my p7pro with latest GOS. Probably common knowledge but this thread came up first for my search so maybe helpful for others.

In a User profile without GSF stuff, install Aurora Store.
In Aurora, set the spoofing options to a "pixel 5a" (API 34) (setting it to 7a (api33) gave a crashing PixelCamera app; install worked, but when starting pCam briefly showed standard settings pop-up then crashed).
Install pixelCamera. While at it, also install GooglePhotos if you want to be able to go and edit pics directly after taking them.
Before starting Pcam and gFotos for the first time, check app settings and remove network permission.
Works.

Rizzler

GoSh Will this have the correct device version? It needs to have device specific configuration. Is your device a pixel 5?

Also check out GPhotosShim
If you want to open the picture you taken with the thumbnail without using google photos, but your main gallery.

brookie229

Rizzler

Thanks for that - got rid of my nag screen when using the Pixel camera (without Google Photos) and my Fossify Gallery app.

Hb1hf

Rizzler I went with Google Camera + Photos. Since no Google app in that profile has network permission anyway, I figured why not both?

Rizzler

Hb1hf Understandable choice. I like much less bloated gallery, and i want to minimize google apps on my phone, so another gallery suits me better.

rellhom

are you guys installing google camera on your main profile? I thought it was wiser to keep google stuff in a secondary profile ?

yore

rellhom I like to install apps on the Owner profile and disable those apps, then install it to secondary profiles. That way I can update all apps once from the Owner profile and it's not a problem for having apps like Google Camera since it is disabled.

rellhom

yore
interesting, I didn't know about this method. so you install it in the main profile, and then somehow copy the install to a private profile?

Rizzler

rellhom theres a builtin option to install existing apps from owner onto other profiles

yore

rellhom You can install an app in Owner.

Then go to Settings and visit System > Multiple users. There you can tap on a profile and install the app to that profile.

karlachameleon

As I am unsure, can you answer:

Will updating an app in owner profile update the app in the other profile(s) it's installed in without action in it(them)?
You can update the app in owner profile if it is disabled rather than just not used?
Thanks,

Probably9857

karlachameleon Will updating an app in owner profile update the app in the other profile(s) it's installed in without action in it(them)?

Yes.

karlachameleon You can update the app in owner profile if it is disabled rather than just not used?

Yes, that is my understanding, but I have not verified it personally. In theory an app store could decide not to automatically update disabled apps, but it seems unlikely that any of them would be checking for this, since AOSP doesn't even allow user-installed apps to be disabled.

yore

karlachameleon Yes and yes

karlachameleon

yore Many thanks