I need to have Google Security app to be able to use the Volkswagen app.
Can i Install that in e/OS degoogled?
How Can I find it?
Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/OS the deGoogled mobile OS and online services
VW changed their app so it wil require the Google Play Integrity API. This app doesn’t work anymore on de-googles OS’s like /e/OS.
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Unfortunately, the current situation is not that good and has been discussed before (just search for “Volkswagen” in this forum).
See e.g. Volkswagen app stopped working - Google related? - #41 by Sunpower
The only suggestion is to write Volkswagen customer support and let them clearly know that you want to run the app on a smartphone with custom ROM. Will they listen? I do not know, but you can also emphasize that a working app on a custom ROM will be a dealbreaker for a car purchase.
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Thanks
Do I need to switch OS?
Thank. Sorry I don’t understand what custom ROM means. Will that be the whole software for the app in a binary format to download,or?
I think a custom rom is not from the phone manufacturer. And in our case it does not support google security.
Volkswagen wrote back. They doesn’t care about some clients with a secure custom rom. They argue with some safety functions in the app and think they need google to make the app secure.
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eOS is a “custom”-ROM whereas when you buy a “normal” phone it comes with a “stock”-ROM (“normal” google-dripping android) provided by the manufacturer from “stock”…
ROM in that context is another expression for firmware if you will.
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That’s what I thought that this “ROM” is a kind of firmware.
But how would it be psosible for VW to supply “us” with such a ROM?
Does this whole situation mean that if you want to communicate with your VW car you cannot use e/os degoogled?
Can I replace i twith the version od e/os that contains Google?
Is that a simple procedure?
Slightly loosely speaking, the message from VW is that all users must have a phone identical to a manufacturer installed phone.
Once the device is what is sometimes called Jailbroken with alternative operating system they will not allow their app to work on it.
Personal speculation is that VW motor cars themselves are on their way to being fully Googled potentially a Google box as deep inside the car as the gearbox.
That would not be /e/OS it would require reversion to manufacturer’s own Operating System (Stock ROM).
Maybe we need to see the exact wording to see why it is described this way. I do not believe it is any sort of “add on”.
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Thanks for your concern, everone. The answer in Swedish looks like this:
Din telefon har inga säkerhetsrelaterade tjänster aktiverade från Google. Du har en Android men inte tjänsterna från start på den telefonen. Vänligen aktivera dessa och då kommer Appen att fungera. Tyvärr kan vi inte bistå med hjälp för din telefon utan då får du kontakta tillverkaren för hur man utför en sådan aktivering.
A Google (!) translation will be:
Your phone does not have Google’s security-related services enabled. Although you have an Android device, these services are not active on it by default. Please enable them, and the app will then work. Unfortunately, we cannot provide assistance with your phone; you will need to contact the manufacturer for instructions on how to enable these services.
Thanks!
This would fit with VW accepting only a complete and entire manufacturer operating system with full Google authentication
without pointing to the actual problem for VW
or why they feel a need to be ruthlessly tied to that advertising agency.
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Additional reading:
Play Integrity API - Wikipedia
https://www.change.org/p/stop-google-from-discriminating-against-custom-rom-users
And this older article, by /e/OS Murena founder Gaël Duval, for background: Google abuse of dominant position: some facts about the Google Android operating system and personal data collection. - Gaël Duval (blog, Murena, /e/OS my data is my data, Mandrake Linux...)
And yes, you can probably reinstall stock, fully-googled Android if you decide to go that route.
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Thanks for more background information.
If I cannot convince Volkswagen to help out by redesigning there app, I see no other solution than th get a fully-googled Android OS.
Do you?
I guess it depends what you want.
Full disclosure, I have a 10 year old VAG car, I depended on VAG vehicles in order to earn a living, they disappoined me with the diesel emmissions nonsense. I probably won’t buy another. Two strikes is enough.
If you find a better engineered car it will probably come from China where perhaps Google is absent.
I would prefer to live without Google.
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I feel the same way.
In my current (old) car, I had a 3rd party bluetooth kit installed, for hands-free (minimal) call handling.
For navigation (if and when I require it), I use my degoogled Sony, Osmand~, and its built-in voice prompts, mounted in a holder on my dashboard.
I don’t really feel the need for any other features regarding the entertainment system, traffic, etc., although I admit I don’t know anything about any specific benefits that the VW app provides.
Everybody makes their own choices, though.
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Or Japan or South Korea. Anyway, it is IMHO important to let Volkswagen know that their decision to support only fully certified Google Android phones will lead to customer loss.
My decision to ditch Windows because of the pro-Trump tech bros may not change much, but “voting with your wallet” is one of the few options that you have.
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Since it’s an electric car I want to schedule the charging. .
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Would it be possible to use a second phone, running stock Android, dedicated to that alone, while using the privacy-protecting /e/OS phone for the rest of your use? 
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That is of course possible, but not practical and financially negative.
I have demanded from VW to supply an app without Google requeirements. But of course that will be in vain.
Is there any chance that OVMS would work for you OVMS Application request