What are mtalk.google.com and www.googleapis.com serving for?

Hi. Could anybody help me to enlighten what
mtalk.google.com, www.googleapis.com and safebrowsing.googleapis.com are doing?

I am controlling my traffic with Blokada but I figured out that those requests are currently passing through. And I am curious if I should block them or rather not. Any advice?

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Hey community, please see OPs message. I have the same question. Can /e/ delete those google home calling connections in V1, or do we have to block them with Blockada and sorts?
Found a more elaborate discussion on the topic here: https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/android-phones-home-to-mtalk-google-com/16217

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I’m not sure if these calls really come from the OS itself, seems more like it’s coming from an app.

Mtalk is related to Google Talk / Google Hangouts (which definitely is not a part of /e/).
Googleapis can be pretty much anything, like Google Fonts or any other libraries hosted by Google. So this call can also come from a website for example.
Safebrowsing is a blacklisting service by Google which identifies possible malicious or harming websites and then blocks them when you try to visit them with your browser.

As this thread was started about a year ago, it would be great if @ralxx could recheck if these calls still occur with the latest /e/ version.

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mtalk.google.com is needed by GCM (cloud messaging). For those using adblockers it was always recommended to whitelist it (not block it), otherwise one would have problems with push messaging. If Device Registration and GCM are turned off then it doesn’t matter.

Let’s not forget the purpose of microG. :smirk:

Someone did raise that question a long time ago at the microG GitHub…
Why does GCM needs to connect to mtalk.google.com ? · Issue #569

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