Ungoogled APKs on /e/ AppStore?

I want to know whether the apks on /e/ App Store are degoogloed / ungoogleded?

Because i can see Whats app in App Store.
I asked because if all the apks in App Store are degoogle, then i may choose without any tension (following /e/ philosophy)

Thanks

Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/ the unGoogled mobile OS and online servicesphone

No, these should be the genuine Apps, unchanged.
https://doc.e.foundation/faq#where-do-the-apps-in-e-installer-application-come-from

That’s why /e/ comes with microG installed, which tries to mimic Google services with Open Source software to at least give Apps relying on Google services a chance to work with /e/ in the case users want to run such Apps.

Hello Zeno,

The apps you will find in the App store are the same than in google play.

As of today, i do not think that anyone has taken the responsibility to modify app and republish them without the trackers.

This is probably because of the legal issues.

If you really want to try this kind of things, you can learn to extract, modify and rebuild apps yourself, using a tool like Lucky patcher or apktool.

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If you really need to use an app that has trackers in it, the (next) best thing you can do (instead of finding a tracker-free alternative) is to install an app called Shelter, use it to create a second user profile and then install the app(s) you need (that have trackers) under Shelter.

See threads such as: Installing WhatsApp under Shelter.

Hello Zeno, welcome to the forums!

Here’s the thread that @dotcoma mentioned about installing WhatsApp under Shelter.

To clarify on why Apps from the default store are not modified and may contain trackers, is because the goal of this project is to bring an un-Googled operating system. Still, many people use and rely on popular apps such as WhatsApp and the option to install them is there for them easily.

What many people do when they don’t want or need apps from the default store, is install something like F-Droid which is an app store exclusively for open-sourced applications.

Yes you made it more clear. Google free OS !!
I will use /e/ OS and then apk from F-droid and if it is unavoidable they i will use Aurora.

Is it ok ?

2 Likes

Yes, but you might want to ‘isolate’ the apps with trackers using…
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.typeblog.shelter/

1 Like

How does this help? Other people will have your number in their contact list, that way they still have your contacts, only then “reversed”.

Yes, that is correct. Exactly the same , as what I do. Good solution :+1:

Not sure I understand…

I do use tracker control, this blocks all tracker. Right?
Sometime webpages do not load and by minimising the webbrowser and reopen it it loads very fast then.
However whatsapp is in my sheltter. This is the only app.
The rest, some with trackers are in the main os

shelter contacts:  | whatsapp       |  whatsapp contacts outside shelter
                a->|                |<-d has your number
                b->|                |<-e has your number
                c->|                |<-f has your number

whatsapp can link the whole contactlist because they know your number, and contact lists from your contacts.
a
b
c
d
e
f

Maybe Shelter is more useful for commercial apps that ‘merely’ track you and do not download your contacts list.

Can you suggest good tracker control ?
Thanks

That is the name of the app, this a detailed thread about Tracker Control and how to use.