Hi everyone,
one of the main challenge of /e/OS is to be compatible with as many mobile applications as possible.
As we are not using the Google Play Services, we have microG built in /e/OS, that is acting like the Google Play Services without the Google personal data spying. However, this is still work in progress and some applications don’t work (yet) with /e/OS. There are two main reasons why some don’t work: in some case they use some Google Play Services APIs that have not been implemented yet, or not completely yet, in microG. In the other case, some apps refuse to work if the SafetyNet check fails on the user’s device.
The good news is that microG is improving all the time, and we can report some issues to Marvin, its Founder and maintainer, and usually a solution is found. The second good news is that when microG gets improved following a specific application issue, this usually benefits to some other applications that use the same feature and would have been affected in the same way.
So it’s very important that we have a clear view of all problematic applications, so we can address issues and bring some fixes, if possible.
In 2021 we will add a mechanism to the /e/ Apps installer, so that users can report issues with an application with a few clicks, so that we get some reports that we can easily interpret, with useful logs.
However, it’s not ready yet, so we are opening this discussions so that users who have an issue with an application can report it here, and we will try our best to handle the requests, translate it to issues in our Gitlab and work on it, for the benefit of all.
So here you can comment about issues you have with an app. Please try to be very careful in the way your report the problem:
0- check in this post and in comments if the app has already been reported as faulty. In that case, no need to repost, unless you want to add some useful information.
1- report application name and codename & version. For instance:
VLC org.videolan.vlc 7.2.1
Tip: check the app codename &version in Settings->Apps & notifications->the application, scroll to the bottom
2- report the device name and /e/OS version. Example: Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 /e/OS 0.13-o-202012089191
Tip: find /e/OS version in Settings->System->About phone
3- report briefly the issue you encountered. Like: The application is crashing.
4- report more details & how to reproduce: Like: when using the application, go the the xyz menu, check enter the map: crash. Tell us if it’s new or now.
5- Ideally, report some log from logcat. Use “adb logcat” from a computer for this. You need to find the part related to the application crash. To make it a bit easier, you can use Android Studio for this: plug your smartphone with adb debug enabled, run the application on your smartphone, and look at the “logcat” part in Android studio. You can see you device connected, and next to this, you can select the application process you want to watch by scrolling down into the menu. For instance for Firefox, check for “org.mozilla.firefox”. Then copy-paste the logcat to your report using Preformatted text
Then we will have a look at this, and add to the list of apps to fix, create useful issues in our GitLab etc.
I’m starting here a list of Apps that are known having issues currently:
- Pinterest com.pinterest 8.45.0 https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/backlog/-/issues/2279
- Snapchat com.snapchat.android 11.8.1.32 (problably: SafetyNet fails)
- to be completed!
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