Remove all google services from android. How to disable Google Play services on Android gadgets? Using Google services without GApps package

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Google applications and services (GApps) are installed on almost any Android device. Many owners of gadgets cannot imagine their life without them, others consider them unnecessary and do not use them. Regardless of the assessment of usefulness, one has to admit the disadvantages of GApps, such as accelerated battery consumption or transmission personal information. Don’t want to be spied on, and your gadget to slow down and waste energy on something unknown? Then get rid of GApps - by deleting them, you will not lose the ability to install mobile applications.

Few people care about the presence of presets in the system. installed applications Google. For the most part, they only add convenience to the use of the gadget, but GApps also have disadvantages that can prompt an angry device owner to remove them.

Collection of information about the user. Google not only does this openly, but openly admits to it. Why is she watching us? Officially - for the sale of targeted advertising. (Yes, yes, and even our letters from Gmail are scanned for this.) Unofficially, you can build a whole pyramid of theories, starting with an alien conspiracy and crowning with the slogan “scandals, intrigues, investigations.” For example, a couple of years ago Google began to massively buy companies involved in the development of artificial intelligence. Especially those who have at least somewhat succeeded in this. Are you smart?

One way or another, there is completely official surveillance, and many people don’t like it. A side nuisance from all this is the consumption of traffic.

The service, which was not used at all, managed to eat up 13 MB in a few months.

Increased battery consumption. Recently the company Avast Software compiled a list of autorun applications that reduce the battery life of the device and take up RAM. Six of the ten most power-hungry apps in this anti-rating are Google apps. But not everyone wants to carry with them external battery or use a higher capacity battery.

Top 10 most power-hungry applications according to Avast

Occupied space in ROM and RAM. This is not very relevant for advanced gadgets, but not everyone is chasing new products, and even smartphones with 16 GB of flash memory are sensitive to the approximately one hundred and fifty megabytes that GApps occupy. Finally, Google applications take up space in RAM, and the further it goes, the more the appetite grows not only for the Android OS, but also for GApps. Every megabyte of at least 2 GB of RAM is worth its weight in gold for an active gadget addict today, and all these gluttonous applications take them away and take them away.

So, you decided to experiment and try to live without applications and Google services. Naturally, you do everything at your own peril and risk, so first, evaluate your own strengths and abilities to get out of a difficult situation if something goes wrong. And it is precisely in this case that the first thing you need to do is make a backup copy of the system.

Creation backup copy systems. To create a backup of the entire system (), you need to use the built-in recovery capabilities. Recovery (from English. recovery mode- “recovery mode”) is a kind of mini-OS that is found in any smartphone. It is stored in a special memory area and has an extremely limited set of system functions like a factory reset. We are interested third party recovery with much richer functionality. The most popular third-party recoveries are CWM (ClockworkMod) and . How to enter Recovery we read -

Among other things, third-party recovery allows you to do backup images system in the form of a single archive that contains firmware and other files from internal memory apparatus. This makes it possible to create and restore backups in literally two clicks - ideal for all kinds of experiments with the gadget. You need to save backups to a memory card or external storage device.

To do backup to TWRP you need to select the item in the main menu Backup, and in CWM - Backup and restore. In most cases, the standard settings are fine.

We get Ruth . In the vast majority of cases process of obtaining root rights is simple and does not carry any risks. You will need to connect your smartphone to your computer and run the utility or run special application on the smartphone itself.

Removing services and Google applications. Actually, the process of getting rid of Google applications is that you simply delete application and library files from the corresponding folders. Remove those that you consider unnecessary. Here's the list.

/system/app folder (most applications):

Books.apk - Google Books
Magazines.apk - Google Journals
Maps.apk - Google Maps
Music2.apk - Google Music
CalendarGoogle.apk - Google Calendar
Chrome.apk - Google Chrome
Drive.apk - Google Drive
GoogleEars.apk - Google Ears (similar to Shazam)
GoogleEarth.apk - Google Earth
Hangouts.apk - Google Hangouts
Keep.apk - Google Keep
PlayGames.apk - Google Play Games
PlusOne.apk - Google+
Gmail2.apk - Gmail
GoogleContactsSyncAdapter.apk - contact synchronization
CloudPrint.apk - cloud printing system
GenieWidget.apk - news and weather widget
GoogleHome.apk - home screen with integrated Google Now
GoogleTTS.apk - speech synthesis system
LatinImeGoogle.apk - keyboard with gesture support
QuickOffice.apk - QuickOffice
Street.apk - Google Street
SunBeam.apk - SunBeam live wallpaper
Videos.apk - Google Movies
YouTube.apk - YouTube

Since the applications are scattered across several folders, let's move on to others. In folder /system/priv-app there are services and frameworks for the synchronization mechanism... and surveillance, of course:

CalendarProvider.apk - calendar data keeper
GoogleFeedback.apk - system for sending reports on the use of Google Play
GoogleOneTimeInitilalizer.apk - installation wizard for additional Google applications
GoogleBackupTransport.apk - data synchronization of installed applications, Wi-Fi passwords and some settings
GoogleLoginService.apk - a service that connects the device with a Google account
GooglePartnerSetup.apk - a service that allows third party applications access Google services
GoogleServicesFramwork.apk - framework with additional functionality
Phonesky.apk - Play Store
talkback.apk - voice notification about events on the device
PrebuiltGmsCore.apk - Google Services, the core of the entire GApps suite;
SetupWizard.apk - setup wizard on first launch
Wallet.apk - Google Wallet
Velvet.apk - Google search, includes desktop search bar and Google Now

And finally in the folder /system/framework there are frameworks necessary for Google applications to work:

com.google.android.maps.jar
com.google.android.media.effects.jar
com.google.widevine.software.drm.jar

After removal unnecessary applications you need to reboot and then check the functioning of the remaining system applications- whether any of them failed due to the lack of some Google services.

Life without GApps, but with applications

So, we got rid of unnecessary Google applications and took a deep breath. But what to do when you need to install a game or application program? There is no longer an official application store on the device. But, as usual, there are several ways to solve the problem.

Downloading and installing apk files. Keep in mind that now you will often have to manually install applications via apk files that you download yourself somewhere. APK- this is a format for archives of programs for Android; These are the ones required to install the application. To do this manually, you first need to go to the system settings. Then launch the apk file - you can directly download it from the Internet (again at your own peril and risk, of course) or, for example, use the help of the service APK Downloader: On this site you can download the apk of those applications that are presented in the Google Play Store. There is a search system and a catalog by section - everything is like in the regular Play Store. You download the apk, transfer it to your smartphone, run the installation and hope that this application does not need any of the removed GApps to work.

By the way, you can search for applications even easier: find the desired application in the browser on Google Play on your desktop and replace the part “ play.google.com" on " apk-dl.com" It's simple.

Installation alternative stores applications. You can do without manipulating apk files and install application store clients in which all programs are legal and checked for viruses.

The application store, which is installed when accessing from a mobile device using this link. There is no Russian language or country selection “Russia” in the settings, so this service Suitable for those who have no particular problems with English. The store, according to Wikipedia, contains more than 800 thousand applications.

An online store from Yandex, which features more than 100 thousand applications, all checked by Kaspersky Anti-Virus. Among the features of the store, we can note the ability to pay for purchases using the Yandex.Money service or from an account mobile phone. Apparently, work on this service in Yandex has been frozen, but programs continue to be added there.

Another application store, which contains about half a million programs, and exclusively free ones. They can only be downloaded as apk to a smartphone or desktop. There is an application for your smartphone that simplifies installation. The market does not require registration, which is important for maintaining anonymity.

Using Google services without GApps package

Free alternatives to email client, cards, and Google Drive a bunch of. But you don’t have to install any applications at all, because if you need to use one of Google’s services, you can open its web version. By the way, we advise you to check how their web versions work before deleting certain Google applications and services. The functionality of a service in a browser is often less than in a dedicated client application. Plus, not all of them save your data. For example, YouTube in the browser will not remember the moment at which you stopped playing the video. At the same time, sometimes web versions take up less space in RAM and generally consume fewer resources.

How to get Google apps and services back

If something is hopelessly damaged or you don’t like life without Google, you can restore all services and applications in one of three ways.

Installation via recovery. You need to find archive file with GApps specifically for your smartphone, and ideally for your firmware version, stock or third-party. The Open GApps application will help you select and download such a file. Read more here ( How to install Google services). It automatically detects the system version and architecture and offers to download correct file. The archive downloaded in one way or another must be placed on an SD card.

Restoring firmware from backup. If you made a backup using CWM or TWRP, you need to reboot into recovery mode. Usually, to do this, you need to hold down the volume down or up button when turning on your smartphone. Having entered recovery, the first thing you need to do is clean the drive from the remnants of a non-working system. If you have installed TWRP, select item Wipe, then Advanced Wipe and check the boxes as shown in the screenshots.

In case of CWM just select an item Wipe Data/Factory Reset and confirm the action. After that, return to the main recovery menu and click on Restore(For TWRP) or Backup and restore(For CWM). Regardless of what recovery you are using, further actions will be intuitive: you need to select the archive with your backup and confirm the action. If there is no backup, after resetting ( Wipe) you can install the same or another firmware on your smartphone through recovery, supplied as a zip file. More details here:

Do I need to explain to Android device owners what the Google Play Internet application is? Herself Android system created by the IT giant Google. It is not surprising that all services are included not only in mobile gadgets, but also in browsers, and are integrated into the main menu of the operating system of the mobile device. True, there are several controversial issues here that few people pay attention to.

Android: first acquaintance

As a rule, when faced with the question of whether Google Play services can be removed, you first have to figure out what this service itself is. As a rule, such a widget is mainly present in the main menu of any smartphone or tablet running Android OS.

Nothing wrong with that. The fact is that in order to popularize certain services, any “operating system” from the Android family is initially configured to persuade the user to use one or another function offered by Google services (Google+, Gmail, Play Games, Play Press, etc.).

Naturally, a registration account must be created for each user or, if you prefer, device. As a rule, this first concerns creating an account in the Google service itself with confirmation Email Gmail. There is no point in removing it in the first place. You can do this later. By at least, even to access Google services, you can access your mail from a regular home computer, laptop or mobile device by entering the appropriate address in the Internet browser line.

But what if you don’t want to create such a record? Here, the solution to the problem of whether it is possible to remove Google Play services on Android comes down only to obtaining so-called root rights or access in superuser mode.

Removing the service itself without having the above rights is almost impossible. Applications built into the Android interface are activated automatically, and, as research shows, system processes, “hang” in the RAM of a smartphone or tablet constantly. Even if you completely delete everything, the operating system itself will still transfer data to the corporation’s servers. Whether you like it or not, such a transfer occurs the first time you try to connect to the Network.

Naturally, we need to fight this. For example, if you have a problem with whether you can remove Google Play services ( fast consumption batteries implying), use standard means You won't need a mobile OS. Here you will need additional programs like CCleaner or most interesting application for methodically clearing “dangling” DU Battery Saver programs.

Google Play

But that's not all. When wondering whether it is possible to remove Google Play services as unnecessary, you also need to look at the special consequences. Those that may only appear after uninstalling some component of the shared service. Therefore, be careful.

What’s most interesting is questions like “Is it possible to remove Google Play services, eliminate rapid battery consumption, or simply save on charging?” are solved quite simply. In any application that is responsible for the state of the battery of a tablet or smartphone (provided that one is installed), there is a special mode. After unloading all the programs hanging there unnecessarily, you can begin to remove some components.

For example Sony smartphones Xperia has several main points. First of all, even if the user has root access or is a superuser, under no circumstances should you delete the application Xperia Home. Essentially, this is a regular launcher that starts displaying the Android system in relation to specific model smartphone.

Is it possible to remove Google Play services as such altogether? Can. But this will require either obtaining the appropriate access rights, or complete flashing mobile gadget. And then, after use new firmware no one can guarantee that it will work stably, much less accept the removal of Google modules.

By the way, if anyone doesn’t know, the question of whether Google Play services can be deleted is also resolved through the accompanying software installed on a computer terminal for control mobile gadget. For example, programs like My Phone Explorer or Mobogenie are quite popular, which are designed to work with smartphones or tablets, regardless of the model or manufacturer. Naturally, you can meet specialized utilities for a specific brand. This is where Samsung is particularly different, creating mobile software for almost every new flagship model.

Google Chrome browser: problem with viruses

Let's consider another important issue. The solution to the problem of whether it is possible to delete Google Play services w3bsit3-dns.com may also be associated with the presence of the Google browser Chrome on mobile device or on a computer.

As practice shows, in Lately Cases have become more frequent when a distribution package downloaded even from the official website contains a threat. In addition, the browser itself is designed in such a way that it can block the removal of one or another component of any service.

Registration

As is already clear, registration is carried out by creating an account in mail server Gmail. It was said above that creating a registration to access the same Play Store you still have to. However, sometimes you will need to answer the first incoming message in the mail to confirm the process. On the other hand, that's where it all ends. So the service itself can be deleted without problems.

Loading system resources

Regarding system resources, it should be noted that almost all Google applications in one form or another affect the system, loading it into background to the point of impossibility. It is recommended to use at least some primitive programs to stop background services, not to mention removing them from the mobile gadget.

Play Store: uninstallation

Is it possible to remove Google Play services on Android? Yes, you can. Here everything depends on the needs of the user himself. In principle, if someone does not need access to the storage of applications and games, deletion will not affect the system as a whole. Moreover, for many users, the headache associated with constant reminders that something new has been released will disappear (of course, if the notification functions have been enabled).

To uninstall, you can use the usual drag-and-drop of the program into top part screen (in the mode when display of all programs is turned on), where the “Delete” icon should appear. A widget (shortcut) can be removed from the Desktop by dragging it down (to the Trash). Please note that in in this case Only the link to the program is deleted, not the application itself.

Memory and CPU load

From all of the above, it is clear that Google services built into standard set Android OS loads the system quite heavily. If anyone used system utilities to clear the same RAM, you probably noticed that the system uses more than half of the available resources. Not to mention loaded programs, in this case Google services do not stop even during optimization. Everything is very simple. The device considers them system ones.

Removing residual components

If you have root rights or Super User mode, you can delete almost everything. True, you should not use the standard uninstaller built into the Android OS itself, or use uninstallation when accessing Google Play. Naturally, in this situation, only related services can be deleted, and even then not always.

It’s better to “destroy” Google Play itself using the same CCleaner applications. By the way, unlike popular program Clean Master, which everyone is praising left and right, removes absolutely everything that may be present in the system.

Don't believe me? Try installing these two programs and compare their performance. Only pseudo-deletion occurs (or termination of the process at a certain point). Then it needs to be turned on again and again. But CCleaner, even when deciding whether Google Play services can be removed, behaves somewhat differently, erasing even cache folders hidden from the user’s eyes and those remaining after running programs or visiting sites on the Internet.

If all else fails

What to advise if none of the above methods helped? Let's say right away that the question of whether it is possible to remove Google Play services on Android should be resolved with access to root rights. Of course, you shouldn’t overdo it, otherwise a user who doesn’t know what each specific service is responsible for can create a situation where the system stops functioning altogether.

In this case, we can advise you to update the system itself, the uninstaller program, or, ultimately, re-set access to root rights. Perhaps, in addition to them, in some cases the “Superuser” mode may be required.

Conclusion

It remains to add that there is nothing wrong with removing Google services built into the Android OS. This will significantly affect the entire system only in terms of benefit, since RAM will not be used in such a loaded version. This will not affect the OS itself in any way. As a last resort, you can restore the system from a backup or download the Google Play application from an unofficial source, and then install it again.

Many users want to know how to remove some Google services from their Android device. This question arises because these programs are not always needed. At the same time, they take up free space.

Removal instructions

Data-lazy-type="image" data-src="http://androidkak.ru/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/udalit-google-play-300x200.jpg" alt="delete services" width="300" height="200" srcset="" data-srcset="http://androidkak.ru/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/udalit-google-play-300x200..jpg 320w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px"> !} It should be understood that the elimination of programs such as Google Play can lead to the fact that the phone turns into a banal “brick”.

If Android is not rooted, then you will need to access it first. After which you can use the program My Phone Explorer. It is located on the official portal, and you should download it from there.

It is easy to work with such software, as it fully supports the Russian language. When you open it for the first time, you will be prompted to sync. If necessary, you can not only delete unnecessary programs from Google, but also work with the file system.

Another powerful Android app is Titanium Backup. How to work with it:

after startup, allow the system to use some of your rights;
then installed applications will appear on the screen; if necessary, you can remove them forever;
Perhaps you don’t want to delete them completely, then you can simply “freeze” such an application for a while.

If you want, you can get rid of it completely account Google. Most users simply do not know what it is for. Removal is possible thanks to the settings. Just remember to copy all the data to your hard drive before doing this.

Instructions:

go directly from the applications to the “Import/Export” section;
go to “Settings”, then to “Accounts”;
then click on the ellipsis icon and activate “Delete account”.

Using a third party market

If you decide to completely remove Google Play, you will need to install applications from other markets. There are three worthy alternatives:

1Mobile Market - 500,000 units of various software. Basically all applications are free.
Yandex Store. There are 90,000 applications here. Before connecting to the store, developers check them for viruses.
Amazon Appstore. It contains 80,000 applications, each of them is checked manually. Here you can get access to one paid program every day.

Android smartphones are undoubtedly very popular. They attract primarily with their open platform, user friendliness and, of course, the abundance of possibilities. But nevertheless, Android, which comes as standard in many phones, has a whole set of pre-installed software.

The vast majority of this is software produced by Google. And it’s no secret that Google’s main business is collecting our private information. Google tirelessly collects information about us, search queries are carefully logged, movements are tracked, and passwords, emails and contact information are stored for years to come. All this is an integral part of modernity, but we are quite capable of changing it.

Today I will tell you how to remove Google programs from your phone, replacing them with open-source analogues and thereby significantly increasing the level of your privacy.

It's no secret that any device under Android control(at least the one certified by Google) contains not only components assembled from AOSP, but also an impressive amount of proprietary Google programs. These are the same Google Play, Gmail, Hangouts, Maps and a bunch of other applications, including a dialer and a camera (starting with KitKat).

For all these components there is not only source code, but also no explanation at all about the principles of their operation. Many of them are initially designed to collect certain types of information and send it to Google servers. This is how, for example, GoogleBackupTransport behaves, which is responsible for synchronizing the list of installed applications, passwords and other data, GoogleContactsSyncAdapter, which synchronizes the list of contacts, or ChromeBookmarksSyncAdapter, whose job is to synchronize browser bookmarks. Plus collecting information about all queries in the search engine.

There's nothing wrong with the syncing itself, of course, and it's a great mechanism that allows you to set up a new phone in a matter of minutes, and Google Now even manages to give us useful information based on our data (sometimes). The only problem is that all this destroys our privacy, because, as Snowden showed, under the hood of the NSA (and, most likely, a bunch of other services) is not only some evil empire called Microsoft, but also Google, and as well as many other companies from the “we are not evil, but fluffy philanthropists” crowd.

In other words: Google will merge us all without any problems, and it’s not a fact that its employees, sitting in their offices with masseuses and dogs, don’t laugh at the names from yours contact book(everything is encrypted there, yes), drinking 15-year-old pu-erh from Yunnan province. Or maybe to hell with Google? Let's take their Android and let them go through the forest?

What is Google Apps

The latest version of the custom KitKat-based firmware for my smartphone weighs 200 MB, however, in order to get a real experience from the smartphone, I also have to flash the gapps archive on top of it, the size of which is 170 MB. Only after this will I receive a system similar to that pre-installed on Nexus devices, with all the goodies in the form of a desktop integrated with Google Now, a screen lock based on a face shot, a camera with support for spherical shooting and a kilogram of Google software, from Google Play to Google Books.

I repeat once again: all this is closed software from Google, which in a good way cannot be distributed at all without their knowledge (that’s why it is not in custom firmware like), but since it is quite easy to extract it from the firmware of Nexus devices, you can find it on the Internet great amount similar archives, including severely truncated ones. In order to release an Android smartphone with a set of gapps on board, the manufacturer must send it for certification to Google, which, after evaluating the quality and performance of the smartphone, will either give the go-ahead or kick it (but this does not stop the Chinese at all).

So Google Apps get to the smartphone. Of the users, 99% either use pre-installed applications, or install them yourself on absolutely clean and completely anonymous firmware. And then, from the moment you enter your username and password, synchronization and downloading of information begins.

To figure out how this happens, let’s unpack the same archive with gapps and take a look inside. We are interested in the /system/app and /system/priv-app directories; during installation, their contents are copied to the directories of the same name inside the smartphone. The second directory is a KitKat innovation, apparently invented to store private applications that are accessible only to the administrator (owner) of the device and invisible to other users logged into the system.

In the /system/app directory we will find a large number of various Google applications, easily recognizable by the name of the package: Books.apk, Chrome.apk, Gmail2.apk and so on. Each of them will share information differently, but that's totally fine (yes, Google will know you're reading Paulo Coelho through their app!). Greatest danger here represents GoogleContactsSyncAdapter.apk, which is only responsible for sending to remote server contact list. We write down the name in a notepad and move on.

Most of the files from the /system/priv-app directory are the services and frameworks necessary to run this whole synchronization and surveillance machine:

GoogleBackupTransport.apk - synchronizes data from installed applications, Wi-Fi passwords and some settings;
GoogleLoginService.apk - connects the device with a Google account;
GooglePartnerSetup.apk - allows third-party applications to access Google services;
GoogleServicesFramwork.apk - a framework with various auxiliary functionality;
Phonesky.apk - Play Store (oddly enough);
PrebuiltGmsCore.apk - Google Services, as the name suggests, is the core of the entire gapps suite;
Velvet.apk is a Google search that includes a desktop search bar and Google Now.

In essence, this is the part of Google Apps that is responsible for leaking our private information. Let's try to get rid of all this.

Method number 1. Disabling through settings

The easiest way to unlink a smartphone from Google is to use the standard system settings. The good thing about this method is that it does not require root rights, installation of custom firmware, or custom recovery. Everything can be done in any stock firmware without losing access to your account and applications like Gmail (if necessary). However, no one will vouch for the efficiency, since it is quite possible that some gapps components will continue to send data.

The main location for synchronization settings is the menu “Settings -> Accounts -> Google -> [email protected]" Here you can disable things like syncing contacts, application data, Gmail, Play Music, Google Keep, and more. All you need to do is simply uncheck the desired menu items. Next, go to the “Settings -> Backup and reset” menu and uncheck the “Data backup” and “Auto recovery” items.

The Google Settings application, which is part of Google Services, is also responsible for many synchronization settings. With its help, in particular, you can disable Google’s access to your location (“Access to geodata -> Access to my geodata / Sending geodata / Location history”), disable sending personal data to the search engine (“Search -> Personal data”), disable Google Now (“Search -> Google Now”) and disable remote control (“ Remote control-> Remote device search / Remote blocking and reset settings").

In the same " Google Settings"By the way, you can disable any application that uses Google account for authorization. We are talking not only about the software installed on the device, but also about all applications ever used, including websites. For example, I found a lot of sites on this list that I haven’t visited for at least a couple of years.

In the event that you do not intend to use Google services at all, it will be easier to disconnect your smartphone from your account completely, that is, simply delete it through the settings: “Settings -> Accounts -> Google -> [email protected]-> Menu button -> Delete account.”

Most Google applications can be disabled painlessly through the settings: “Applications -> ALL -> desired application -> Disable”.

Method number 2. Cleaning the official firmware

In the event that the stock firmware has root rights, you can get rid of Google Apps by simply deleting them from your smartphone. As I already said, they are all stored in the /system/app and /system/priv-app directories. For example, in the case of KitKat, the list of Google applications in the first directory will be like this:

Books.apk - Google Books;
CalendarGoogle.apk - Google Calendar;
Chrome.apk - Google Chrome;
CloudPrint.apk - cloud printing system;
Drive.apk - Google Drive;
GenieWidget.apk - news and weather widget;
Gmail2.apk - Gmail;
GoogleContactsSyncAdapter.apk - contact synchronization;
GoogleEars.apk - Google Ears (similar to Shazam);
GoogleEarth.apk - Google Earth;
GoogleHome.apk - home screen with integrated Google Now;
GoogleTTS.apk - speech synthesis system;
Hangouts.apk - Google Hangouts;
Keep.apk - Google Keep;
LatinImeGoogle.apk - keyboard with gesture support;
Magazines.apk - Google Magazines;
Maps.apk - Google Maps;
Music2.apk - Google Music;
PlayGames.apk - Google PlayGames;
PlusOne.apk - Google+;
QuickOffice.apk - QuickOffice;
Street.apk - Google Street;
SunBeam.apk - SunBeam live wallpaper;
Videos.apk - Google Movies;
YouTube.apk - YouTube.

The /system/priv-app directory, in addition to those listed earlier, also contains the following files:

CalendarProvider.apk - stores calendar data;
GoogleFeedback.apk - sends a report on the use of Google Play;
GoogleOneTimeInitilalizer.apk - installation wizard for additional Google applications;
SetupWizard.apk - setup wizard on first launch;
Wallet.apk - Google Wallet;
talkback.apk - voice notification about events on the device.

The Gapps kit for KitKat, among other things, also includes a proprietary camera with support for spherical shooting and a proprietary desktop with integrated Google Now.

But that is not all. Google Apps depends on several frameworks, which are located in the /system/framework directory. These files are com.google.android.maps.jar, com.google.android.media.effects.jar and com.google.widevine.software.drm.jar. There are also many libraries in the /system/lib directory that are used exclusively by Google applications. It is not at all necessary to remove them, but it is possible. Just to clean up the trash. You can find their list in the comments.

In previous (and future) versions of the system, the content of Google Apps is different, so before uninstalling I recommend downloading gapps the required version from the site goo.im/gapps, unpack from using WinRar and view the content. You should also take into account the dependence of some applications from the market on Google applications, I will talk more about this later.

Method number 3. Custom firmware without gapps

The previous method can be significantly simplified if you simply install custom firmware on your smartphone without Google Apps. In this case, the smartphone/tablet will be crystal clear without any connection to Google. The disadvantage of this method is the absence of Google Play, but you can either replace it with a third-party application store (more on that below), or use the following method, which involves installing a stripped-down Google versions Apps.

Method number 4. Google Play and nothing else

This method of partially decoupling from Google is a kind of compromise. It does not solve the problem of surveillance - at least without the settings from the first method - but it allows you to avoid cluttering the system with a bunch of useless software that will hang in the background and eat up memory. The idea is simple - install custom firmware and upload a minimalist version of gapps on top of it, which includes only Google Play.

There are many such minimal gapps assemblies on the Internet, but I would recommend using the time-tested BaNkS Gapps, namely the “month-date” file GApps Core 4.4.2 signed.zip". They work on any smartphone, are ART compatible and include only the basic gapps files, a list of which is given in the "What are Gapps" section, framework files, as well as several libraries. Essentially, it's Google Play, synchronization tools and nothing else.

Changing the search engine to DuckDuckGo

Even after complete shutdown synchronization, the “built-in” Google search bar will remain on the home screen. IN stock firmware Some manufacturers (Samsung, for example) are just a widget that can be easily removed from the screen. IN pure Android and devices from many other manufacturers, it is “built into” the home screen, but it can be removed by disabling all search from Google (along with Google Now) using the menu “Settings -> Applications -> All -> Google search-> Disable" or by installing a third-party launcher. Next, just download DuckDuckGo from the market or another application store and add the widget of the same name to your home screen.

Third party market

The second and third methods involve completely getting rid of Google Apps, including Google Play and the ability to log in using a Google account, so we must find a simple and convenient installation applications that would not force us to download them ourselves, and then dump them onto a memory card and install them manually. One such way is to install a third-party market.

On this moment There are three more or less viable alternatives to Google Play. These are Amazon Appstore, Yandex.Store and 1Mobile Market. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages, which mainly come down to the number of applications and payment methods:

Amazon Appstore is the most famous store applications after Google Play. Contains more than 75 thousand applications (compared to 800 thousand on Google Play), the quality of each of which is manually checked, just like iTunes for iOS. You can pay using credit card or Amazon Coins, which are given as a gift for purchasing a Kindle Fire tablet or as a gift from another user. One of the most interesting features of the store is the daily giveaway one of the paid applications.
Yandex.Store is a store from the Yandex company. Contains more than 85 thousand applications, each of which is scanned by Kaspersky antivirus. It doesn’t particularly stand out, but it has a killer feature in the form of the ability to pay for purchases using the Yandex.Money service or a mobile phone account.
1Mobile Market is the largest third-party repository of Android applications, including more than 500 thousand software. It differs from others by the presence of exclusively free applications (not to be confused with pirated ones), which is why it allows you not to go through the account registration stage and maintain anonymity.

Applications in all three markets have original digital signatures application developers, allowing them to be used simultaneously. An application installed from one market can be updated without problems from another, and if will disappear if deleted from the list of installed ones in all of them at once. However, you will have to buy them separately.

. It is completely anonymous and contains only free software distributed under licenses approved by the FSF. There are only a thousand applications in F-Droid, but all of them are guaranteed to not contain backdoors or other systems for disclosing personal data. It is F-Droid that is used as the default market in the free Android firmware Replicant.

Solving the problem of application dependence on Google Apps

Although the gapps components are not part of the official Android API, some applications still expect to see them in the system, which can cause a number of problems - from complete inoperability of the application to loss of some of its functions. Some applications will refuse to install due to the lack of the Google Maps API, others crash immediately after launch without detecting it, others include direct links to Google Play, which can lead to crashes and incorrect operation.

To address these issues, XDA user MaR-V-iN started the NOGAPPS project, which is developing a set of open source components to replace the original Google Apps functionality. There are currently three replacement components available:

Network Location is a Wi-Fi based geolocation service and base stations GSM. Based on Apple's IP address database and open base station database;
Maps API - replacement of the interface to Google Maps based on OpenStreetMap;
BlankStore - open alternative to the Play Store client. Allows you to install free applications from the Google store, but is not recommended for use due to possible sanctions from the search engine (this is prohibited by their rules).

The components are installed separately and different ways. You just need to manually copy the Network Location to the /system/app/ directory in Android 2.3–4.3 or to the /system/priv-app/ directory in KitKat (in this case you should use the NetworkLocation-gms.apk file). Maps API is installed by flashing the nogapps-maps.zip file via the recovery console. To install the market, you will have to not only copy the file, but also generate an Android ID on a large machine, but since this is not recommended, I will not talk about it and will limit myself to a link to the instructions.

After all the manipulations, the software should work correctly.

conclusions

For Google Android without it own applications is useless, so it is not surprising that the company removes the most delicious parts of the system and leaves the code closed. However, in this article I showed that there is life without gapps and it can be even easier and more convenient than with Google.

Last updated by at January 27, 2017.

I haven’t parted with my Nexus 4 for a year and a half now, and it just so happens that the battery life is worse than before. Of course, you can order a new one, but it takes time, fuss with replacement, etc., so it was decided to conduct an experiment to completely get rid of Google Apps, which often took first place in terms of battery consumption and always had a not very good reputation in terms of energy saving.

I have been familiar with kernels for a long time, but there was no desire to experiment with enthusiast builds, so Cyanogenmod 11 was chosen as a test subject. Yes, it was the 11th version based on KitKat, for the simple reason that during the “experiment” (December 2014-January 2015) many criticized LolliPop for being gluttonous, and even adequate third party firmware based on 5.0 at that moment there was no.

Well, Cyanogen is installed, but the Google Apps package recommended for installation is not. Less than 5 minutes later, the question arose: where to get applications? A very obvious solution comes to mind in the form of Yandex.Store. Go to the yandex.store website and download the store's apk. It’s worth noting here that the AOSP browser turned out to be quite good. It is unlikely to be suitable for long surfing on the Internet, but for quick search the necessary information or checking the schedule at the university will do.

Let's go back to the store. Yandex.Store is installed and ready to use, but one thing about this very use is terribly repulsive. We are, of course, talking about the design of the application. After Google spoiled us with tales of ubiquitous... Material Design, there is no desire to see an interface a la Android 4.0.

The surprise was the presence of most applications in the store catalog: here you have clients of all popular social networks, and office suites, and even Flappy Bird in the original. By the way, not everything is rosy with toys, there are not many of them, and those that exist are already quite old and do not shine with quality. However, for me, as a person who practically does not play on my phone, this was not a big drawback.

All the most required applications were successfully installed, and those that were not found in the store were downloaded from a well-known forum.

Let's get back to battery life. On official firmware 5.0, and even 4.4 with my use (social networks, calls, WhatsApp and a little Internet), the phone lasted an hour and a half for the screen to work, plus or minus 20 minutes.

Imagine my surprise when, on the first day without Google Apps, I saw in the screen performance statistics that same hour and a half with 45% of the remaining charge. And indeed, by the end of the day the phone had not yet turned off, and the screen operating time stopped at 2.5 hours with 10-15% charge, which could not but rejoice.

There were some drawbacks: for example, there were problems with notifications, many stopped coming, the VK application was especially upsetting, so messages had to be checked manually by refreshing the page directly in the application.

Everything was fine for about two weeks, but then all the disadvantages began to reveal themselves. It became clear that without Google Play it’s really boring, because you often want to check what new applications have appeared and try them out right away. Evernote, which replaced Google Keep, also did not catch on - yet Keep turned out to be more familiar and simpler. Perhaps it’s worth stopping here and talking about what applications I replaced this or that from Google. As mentioned above, Evernote replaced Google Keep for me, but it didn’t justify itself because the interface was too cumbersome. There are a lot of unnecessary and unnecessary functions for me, but there is excellent synchronization in the cloud, without which there is no life at all after Keep.

Google Calendar was replaced by Any.do Cal, but it was deleted a couple of days later because it found great alternative represented by Today Calendar, which I still use. There is a nice Material Design, you can check the weather, and it’s convenient to plan an event.

I haven't been listening to music on my phone lately, so as a music player The built-in CyanogenMod Apollo was enough. It turned out to be convenient to view mail using the Yandex application, but later the choice fell on Mailbox. Still, it turned out to be much more pleasing to the eye than the mixture iOS interfaces and Android in one program.

I hadn’t really used Google maps before, so I painlessly and completely switched to 2GIS, and the schedule public transport Yandex.Transport shows without any complaints. The choice of browser was obvious; Chrome's closest competitor, in my opinion, has always been Firefox, so I chose it as the main one and was very pleased. The Yandex browser, by the way, turned out to be quite laggy, so after 10 minutes of use it was removed, but the translator helped out, although it lagged behind its Western counterpart in terms of functions.

The app is no longer available on Google Play :(

And so with almost every application from Google, a replacement was found for everything, with the exception of Google Now, but the point here is not that I needed it endlessly, on the contrary, unexpectedly for myself, I noted that the service, of course, is pleasant, but not necessary - It is quite possible to live without it. Without geolocation, by the way, either.

In general, the author of these lines lasted exactly a month, after which Google Apps were re-flashed, and the phone again began to hold an order of magnitude less. Undoubtedly, I could have tried to hold out longer and, most likely, I would have gotten used to it, but still the ecosystem took over and I got used to using something other than Chrome on home computer Well, it didn’t work out, and where there is Chrome, there is Keep, and Translator, and other Google delights.

To tell the truth, thoughts of limiting myself from Google applications still haunt my head, especially in view of the latest ones, which plans to expel Google from Android and create its own application store, but without Google’s gluttonous services. All we can do is wait and hope that the guys will do everything well.

Perhaps it is worth drawing a few conclusions and summing up all of the above.

Yes, it has been experimentally proven that Google Services eats up your battery with great appetite, but all this, in part, can be justified by the quick arrival of notifications, widespread synchronization and the strong simplification of everyday life.
Google Play, like any beautiful (can you hear Yandex? Beautiful!), convenient and content-filled application store is a great thing, without which modern smartphone can hardly be called a smartphone.
You can find a replacement for your usual application without any problems, but will this replacement be better than that, what happened? In some cases, yes, but if you live somewhere abroad, you are unlikely to agree with me about the usefulness of Yandex services or 2Gis maps.

Which Google services are most important to you? Share with us in the comments what is stopping you from giving up Google Apps?