My main thing for /e/ is to have a private phone so that means that there will be no services from Google or Facebook to spy on my activity.
One of the things I have found from my searching of alternatives to Google services, is that Google is promoting its Firebase platform as the basis for Android app development, which means that almost every app will be using Firebase going forward:
Google started leveraging its de-facto monopoly on Android distributions by forcing all apps to use its proprietary service Firebase for push notifications. Problem: The Firebase Android client library is proprietary, meaning FOSS apps can not use it. Apps that do not comply are reported to the user as âusing too much batteryâ.
(from https://www.reddit.com/r/freesoftware/comments/by4ipr/android_now_forces_apps_to_include_proprietary/)
So my question is about this: whether there is any residual association with Firebase for notifications in the /e/ platform. My question comes from a place of newbie ignorance of how push notifications work in Android, and the research I have done this week tells me that there are alternatives to Firebase, though all being proprietary and not as widespread.
I am hoping someone can explain to me how the push notifications work and at what point does Firebase get to have access to my device?
I imagine it to be something like this:
My device needs to maintain an active socket connection to a notification server in order to receive push notifications in real time. Therefore Firebase is Googleâs attempt to consolidate and funnel all notifications through one active socket so that a userâs device doesnât use multiple active sockets and therefore limits the drain on the battery.
But my question is this (and it is because I actually havenât tested it/donât want to take the risk of letting Google into my /e/ OS in order to find out), : does Firebase have any connection on my /e/ device after a fresh install of the /e/OS? ⌠and then if I am to download an app that uses Firebase for push notifications, how does Firebase then get to come onto my device in order to maintain a socket for push notifications? ⌠is that something to do with the MicroG platform tools?
I just need someone to explain this to me. Thanks