I cannot use a custom ROM as I need apps that sadly enforce the Google Play Integrity API, and no GrapheneOS with Google Play Services dose not passes this check.

I am stuck between an iPhone and a Google Pixel.

I have government apps and a work app on my phone that I do not want to route through a VPN or any other type of proxy(All apps are in the Android privet spaces). The only thing I need to go through a VPN/proxy is my browser (I know brave have a VPN in their browser but I don’t want to use or pay for it and the DuckDuckGo vpn is system wide and the Firefox vpn does not have a Firefox exstention on iOS or android). I need to be able to change countries myself (I don’t think you can do that with Apple’s Private Relay), as I live in the EU and ID checks for social media, other things, and maybe even Wikipedia are coming soon. Android support split tunneling but iOS don’t.

I need to have Facebook Messenger installed on my phone and active all the time (I cannot put it into the private space feature on Android).

I use another service for mail and backup, so iCloud end-to-end encryption is not a plus for me.

I don’t communicate much over SMS, but I would be able to chat over iMessage instead of Facebook Messenger with some contacts.

  • sun@slrpnk.netOP
    0·
    12 days ago

    Thanks for thanking the time to response and give a detailed response.

    I sadly need to receive notifications from Facebook Messenger (I don’t give it access to anything other than notifications, but I know it can still collect a lot of data) on my phone. Notfiactions only works properly if you have Google Play Services :-(. Facebook Messenger is like Imessage in the US or WhatsApp in most of the rest of the world.

    Do you have Google Play Services installed? If not, how do you deal with notifications? And can you buy things from the Google Play Store? I need AltStore (I know it’s a super privacy-invasive app but i need it).

    But i think you are right about them not killing customs roms android will probably continue to stay open source.

    Maybe it’s just me overthinking the thing with Google Play Integrity API, because as of now, I have two apps that use it, and I can easily have them on a second device. But if Google Play Services got restricted in the same way, I would not be able to use the device and would need to get back to stock Android. I have tried daily driving GrapheneOS without Google Play Services, but it was not feasible.

    Just cureise do you make music (“My producer”)?

    • Mugita Sokio@discuss.onlineEnglish
      0·
      12 days ago

      In terms of Facebook Messenger notifications, probably have Google Play Services installed on that particular profile I mentioned… as that could be the safest bet.

      For the Google Play Services, I don’t have those installed, and I don’t use apps that require the Google Play notifications in my setup. If an app has notifications, it’s their own push notification services within the apps themselves.

      And for when I talked about my producer, this is him on his main channel and his personal channel. I’m his former editor, and the current narrator for a channel that’s currently inactive, being this one since the third video on the channel. I sound very similar to Neigsendoig in some circumstances.