App Lounge does not work for me. When I try to install anything, it hangs. Under Settings, I click on “Having troubles?”. This takes me to this page, and none of the solutions listed there works for me. A quick search tells me that many other e/OS users have this same problem, and it is exasperating.
I installed Aurora Store and so far that has worked perfectly. The only slight inconvenience that remains relates to banking apps. Some of them work fine, others display an error message to say that they have not been installed correctly.
For such an app, what would be the “correct” way to install it? Instead of using Aurora anonymously, if I create an account in there, would that fix the problem? And if I do that, would it compromise my privacy, beyond the extent required to install the banking app? For example, would it allow Google to track my other activity, unrelated to the installed banking app?
if you create a Google account solely to be used to fetch Playstore Apps and do not use that account for App sign-in, I don’t see it making the privacy picture worse.
Apps will use the many other available identifiers irrespective of how you aquired the App, esp. if you’re authenticated in-App with a Login.
edit: ah ok the question is two-fold: “When I try to install anything, it hangs” … “others display an error message to say that they have not been installed correctly” - my answer only relates to the fetch issues when no anon token is available from the pool / dispenser.
It probably won’t fix the problem. The problem is not because you don’t have an account. You do have an auth token for an anonymous Google account. That’s supposed to be good enough.
The problem is likely because the system keeps track of what was used to install the app. If you check your Aurora Store’s Settings > Installation > Installation method, Session installer is likely selected. That means your banking app somehow knows it was installed using Aurora Store. Go to Settings > Apps > Your App > App details to make sure. It probably says “App installed from Aurora Store”. It needs to say “App installed from microG Companion” for your app to think it’s installed using Google Play Store, as they both have the same package id (com.android.vending). For Aurora Store to do that, you need to select Root installer instead of Session installer, but you might not have that option because your phone isn’t rooted.
App Lounge installs Google Play Store apps the “right way”. If your phone isn’t rooted, it seems to me that your best bet is to wait until the App Lounge starts working with an anonymous account, or log in to App Lounge using your Google account for this one app.
TL;DR: Don’t log in to Aurora Store using your actual Google Account, log in to App Lounge instead. It’s not because of privacy reasons, it’s because the system knows what installed the app
Don’t log in to Aurora Store using your actual Google Account, log in to Aurora Store instead.
Do you mean “log in to App Lounge instead”? You are right, my phone is not rooted. In App Lounge, whether I am logged in to my google account or not, the banking app does not even appear in the search results. In Aurora Store, when I am logged in anonymously, the app does not appear in the search results, but when I am logged in to my google account, it does. I install it, then I run it, and it pops up an error message that explicitly lists unsupported OSes including e/OS. So I guess I’m out of luck. This is only a minor annoyance for me, it still works on my laptop, and on my old phone even without a SIM card. Thanks for your help.
