Why are these Google LLC apps on my degoogled phone

/e/OS Devices Fairphone
1

Divice Fairphone 6 with e/Os v4

Because I cannot seem to solve the App launch issue for months concerning installing and updating apps I’ve switched to Aurora store.

There I find three apps I can update which I haven’t previously seen trough the app lounge. Since I’m degoogled I’m aware I should never log into any Google service from this phone in order to prevent to be tracked from thereon and forever after as you get an ID tagged to your phone by Google.

Can somebody explain me why these apps show up in the Aurora store, why they are to be updated ( I’ve never installed them to begin with) and what are the risks of being tracked by Google trough them.

Screenshot_20260705-120943_Aurora Store
Screenshot_20260705-120943_Aurora Store1116×670 71.5 KB

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2

You have Aurora store set to Update app from other Sources.

You can change this in Aurora store > Settings icon, top right > Settings > Updates

or

Aurora store > Settings icon, top right > Blacklist manager.

Note on Google Play Services; microG provides “microG Companion” which has the same name com.android.vending plus

package:com.google.android.gms
package:com.google.android.gsf

The SIM app might have been provided as a “helper” by your carrier. (??)

You could try to find the source of apps from

Settings > Apps and notifications > See all … apps > problem_app > scroll to STORE

… or if a system app visible by

Settings > Apps and notifications > See all … apps > 3 dot menu top right > Show system >

2 Likes
3

So you googled your phone :rofl:

Can i ask, why you choose Aurora store, if the default “ App Lounge” has the same sources (but keep google outside your phone) ?

Default app lounge use google play source, and the opensource area of App Lounge use F-droid repo.

Totally no reason to get aurora store, unless you want to google your /e/OS device (what you just did). Installing F-droid is only necessary if you want to use other fdroid repo’s other then the default one.(like guardian project, izzy on droid f-droid repo, KDE android release builds, wind offline)

Maybe backup personal data and factory reset is the most easy way to de-google it. And just use the default app-lounge.

4

Doesn’t feel very helpful. People come here to ask for assistance, not to be laughed at…

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5

How is Aurora Store introducing Google back to the phone, and App Lounge is not, when they both offer the same functionality in the same way, i.e. accessing the Google Play Store as a client, either anonymously or with a given Google account?

Android Auto is either user installed or a stub to enable user installation … How to setup Android Auto with /e/OS?

Gestor des SIMs seems to be a SIM manager App. As @aibd already hinted at, such an App mostly gets installed automatically depending on the mobile network carrier of the inserted SIM card.

Google Play Services in the list is the common misunderstanding when Aurora Store sees the successful camouflage of microG. It’s microG, and it can’t be updated by Aurora Store even if you try. @aibd already gave ways to tell Aurora Store not to bother with this.

Apart from App Lounge simply not working very well consistently for a lot of users for a long time now, sadly.
And incidentally, behold …

The common reason for /e/OS users to get Aurora Store is because it actually works, and does so consistently.

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6

Well, it is a fact.

And most easy way is mentioned, factory reset after backing up personal data.

I think it is more work to remove google play services (all installed google apps by aurora store , and get microG back manually.

7

No, it’s nonsense.

There are no Google Play Services installed, so they don’t need to be removed. It’s just microG doing its job posing as Google Play Services to unsuspecting Apps (including Aurora Store when Aurora Store is not configured to ignore this).
Aurora Store can neither install the real Google Play Services on /e/OS nor update the camouflaged microG with the real Google Play Services because of signature mismatch. This is an ever recurring topic in this forum.

Do you think you really have a degoogled smartphone by still using an Android OS like /e/OS, so that when you see the word “Google” in somebody’s App list you can laugh at them?
Google wrote most of the code actively running on your /e/OS phone and provides the necessary security updates for it. And if you run /e/OS on an Android version which Google somewhen stops supporting, then Murena will stop supporting this Android version, too, and either urge you to upgrade to /e/OS on a newer Android version, or if this is not available for your device they will unceremoniously drop the device. So very degoogled, ha ha.

Some reading material for your kind attention:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)#Development

https://doc.e.foundation/what-s-e

And here are examples of degoogling with which you perhaps get the right to laugh at any sighting of the word “Google” … https://www.ubuntu-touch.io/ … https://postmarketos.org/ … https://sailfishos.org/

3 Likes
8

I know about Sailfish. I prefer that above e/OS/. But Sailfish use android emulator, and that is not so compatible with made for android apps as e/os/.

Maybe in a future i change /e/os for postmarket OS on my Fairphone gen6. But then i get same issue as Sailfish, i need some Android or IOS apps on a smartphone, do they run on Sailfish / PostmarketOS.

Ubuntu = bloatware. Any well known Linux user stay away from Ubuntu.

9

Thanks @aibd

You are correct. If I look at the app and indeed it is the same name.

I presume is has something to do with Micro-G and the fact that e/Os is forked from lineage/OS which in turn is a dressed down android so no Google tracking is present..?

So I did what you said and changed the settings of Aurora store so they no longer appear. Which is the simplest way.

I presume I don’t need to update them since they never appeared in App launcher when it still was working correctly. Am I right about that?

By not updating I presume I also don’t accidentally introduce a google lcc app which has the same name? Do you know if it could this cause error or malfunctioning?

Do you know what the use of Android auto is, I also never installed it myself so it must have come with the phone..

@AnotherElk what is “or a stub”?

@Jeroensky Like I said App lounche has been malfunctioning for months and none of the suggestions to get it to work seem to be working on my phone. What I learned on this forum is that Aurora store sources the apps from the same place as App louche.

Furthermore I did not google my phone because I simply did not update these apps. Out of precariousness and therefore I started this post….

10

Correct. MicroG is central to /e/OS in the way that it stands in between the user and Google. Start to understand it with A simple guide to understand microG.

Loosely speaking, how does it stand between? By naming itself with identical appID names as used by Google

com.android.vending
com.google.android.gms
com.google.android.gsf

Aurora is fooled into offering what it thinks is an update … the Google app with a newer build date.

Hmmm … Android Auto is not on my FP3 a15 I find Android Auto stub com.google.android.projection.gearhead. I do not bear to think about Android Auto; it is used to communicate with Google equipped motor cars.

It crops up a lot in the forum.

No, indeed you did not.

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