Aurora Store Accounts Blocked by Google

https://gitlab.com/AuroraOSS/AuroraStore/-/issues/912

by fodmap • 3 years ago

189 153 3 years ago

mikece2• 3 years ago

I don't know when it started but I had the same issue on a Samsung tablet yesterday afternoon. If Google permanently blocks access to the Play Store from Aurora then that will be sufficient for me to finally spend the money to get an iPad.

jeroenhd2• 3 years ago

I get that you want to send a message, but what problem does moving to iOS solve? You have the same restrictions, in fact even worse ones, with way fewer options for accountless downloads.

mikece2• 3 years ago

I am less concerned that Apple will exploit my data because they make plenty on the hardware; in the case of Android gear Google's whole point is exploit any data they can for profit. I have few use cases for a tablet as it is (photography being the big one: Canon Camera Connect) so if Google makes it impossible to get/update that app I'll just switch platforms. (If not an iPad then perhaps a laptop but that's far more bulky to take on a photo shoot.)

lost_tourist2• 3 years ago

iOS doesn't spy on you nearly as much google. They also don't sell your data to 3rd parties for a couple of pennies. They have their issues but google absolutely data mines everything on your phone to sell to their clients

worik• 3 years ago

. If Google permanently blocks access to the Play Store from Aurora then that will be sufficient for me to finally spend the money to get an iPad.

Google is a clumsy puppy compared to Apple. Good luck making a client for the iOS play store.

It would be funny, if not for the fact that this duopoly is a dreadful break on innovation in the mobile software space. It is tragic

usernew2• 3 years ago

I'm seriously not getting this POV, which I see a lot.

Yes, some apps are only available in the play store, and the maker of them does not publish them anywhere else. How's that google's fault again? Are you mad at Twitter because Starbucks doesn't sell their coffee there?

There is no vendor "duopoly" between google and apple. There are about a thousand flavors of Android, and a bunch of phone makers - and google isn't even the top Android seller. The only one I've used with a play store was for like a year in 2010.

There is a technology duopoly, but the technology part has nothing to do with google. Much like there's no triopoly between windows/macos/linux. Because "Linux" is not a vendor. Linux is like "car," not like "Toyota." Windows is like "bicycle with lawnmower engine held on with duct tape." Macos is like "you're eating this absolute shit, and it does taste good"

josephcsible• 3 years ago

That feels like cutting off your nose to spite your face, since iOS is still way more locked down than Android. If your employer cut your salary from $100k to $90k, would you respond by quitting and going to work somewhere else for $50k?

Aachen4• 3 years ago

Per another comment, and keeping with your analogy, they think the work at the 50k$ employer is nicer | that Apple isn't as evil as Google.

Not saying they're right or wrong, but that's valid logic if true. Personally I find the other ways in which you get locked down+in to already be so not worth it that it's not even a question I've needed to consider.

hef19898• 3 years ago

Isn't Google forban antitrust fine from the EU with that? With all those new rules about sideloading?

fodmap5• 3 years ago

Yes, IANAL but that sounds like a clear abuse of a market dominant position to me.

sigmar• 3 years ago

To be clear, aurora store is an alternative method to access the google play store and download apps from it. This change isn't making sideloading more difficult, it is making it more difficult to access play store apps without installing the play store.

CobrastanJorji• 3 years ago

I'm unfamiliar with what's going on here. It sounds like this thing vends Google account credentials for a small pool of accounts to be used anonymously? I've gotta be misunderstanding something because that sounds like something that definitely should be blocked and would be wildly outside of Google's terms. How does this thingy work?

CameronNemo2• 3 years ago

You've got it exactly right. Unfortunately, Google's Play Store is the only source for a number of proprietary applications that work mostly okay on degoogled android systems, including:

* my bank app, and probably your's too

* iNaturalist

* various dating apps such as tinder, bumble, hinge, coffee meets bagel

Edit: wonder if I could use a mirror instead?

Edit2: ugh tried apkmirror. Might work. The client has ads (pretty sure google ads...) and popups. Some of the ads contained a download button? I got confused and concerned. Dipped out. I'll just be more dependent on my workstation(s). Phone still works as a phone, I presume.

darkmighty• 3 years ago

I really wish commercial apps would support alternative app stores. There are far worse offenders than Google, but it's currently quite intrusive and who knows if it won't get worse. I doubt the billions in rent they must collect every year on app sales really go on improving the OS experience.

F-droid repository format would be easy enough to support a commercial repository you could manually activate, with signing and all.

em-bee4• 3 years ago

it seems you can get iNaturalist also from github: https://github.com/inaturalist/iNaturalistAndroid/releases

i just checked my banks, they are on google play and on the huawei app store, the latter though is not really an alternative i would trust any more than google, and i didn't see if it allows download without an account, but fortunately for myself i don't want banking on my phone anyways, as the phone is the most likely device to break, lost or stolen, nor do i care about those others. but that's just me.

i found apkmirror manageable, thanks to the adblocker i guess.

2h6• 3 years ago

Google's Play Store is the only source for a number of proprietary applications

No, that's not true:

https://github.com/4cq2/googleplay

hellojesus• 3 years ago

It won't help with privacy, but if you want to use apps only sourced via the Google Play Store on degoogled, you can download the apk, extract it, and then load and install it on your device.

I use grapheneos and have a separate profile that has GPS installed which allows me to download the apks. Then I adb in and transfer them from alt_profile->computer->no_gps_profile and install it.

dublinben• 3 years ago

Those apps are almost certainly available in the iOS app store as well.

branon• 3 years ago

Yes, that's exactly how it works, and yes, I install my banking app this way. It's not an issue from my perspective but I can see why Google doesn't like it.

I don't have a Google account and am unable to obtain Play Store APKs any other way, so Aurora Store fills an important niche for me.

I guess I will hold off on updating any Play Store apps until this is fixed or I can find another software/workaround.

ranger207• 3 years ago

Yes, that's correct, and yes it's a massive violation of the terms. Aurora Store also lets you use your own Google account, which is also outside of Google's terms. But the only way to get apps from the Google Play Store without installing the entire set of Google Play Services is this, so the entire setup is outside of Google's terms

jraph2• 3 years ago

and without using something personal like your email address to download programs, which should be granted and was before mobile OSes. And still is on regular computers.

chasil• 3 years ago

It is quite convenient both from the perspective of a stock Kindle Fire (commercial Android), and for LineageOS (non-commercial, unlocked, root available).

It will also indicate if the app requires Google Mobile Services, which would preclude correct functionality outside of MicroG or alternate implementations.

ReadCarlBarks• 3 years ago

the only way to get apps [...] without [...] Google Play Services is this

That's not true. You can download APKs from sites like APKPure (which has been a top search result for "[app name] APK" for many years on... Google).

2h6• 3 years ago

But the only way to get apps from the Google Play Store without installing the entire set of Google Play Services is this

No, that's not true:

https://github.com/4cq2/googleplay

ignoramous• 3 years ago

But the only way to get apps from the Google Play Store without installing the entire set of Google Play Services is this, so the entire setup is outside of Google's terms

Some might argue adversarial interoperability is fair game: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20133151

yyyk• 3 years ago

the only way to get apps from the Google Play Store

There's also Raccon:

https://raccoon.onyxbits.de/

WeylandYutani• 3 years ago

I wonder if apkmirror is against Google terms? Use it to download old versions of apps.

danjoredd3• 3 years ago

For people that want to anonymously use Android...people using Graphene OS for example...it is endlessly useful. You get all the benefits of a mobile operating system without giving your private data to Google.

amf12• 3 years ago

If I understand correctly, people can use Graphene OS anonymously. This was a workaround to use Google Play Services (Store?) anonymously. So the users want to have a piece of cake and eat it too.

blendergeek• 3 years ago

It sounds like this thing vends Google account credentials for a small pool of accounts to be used anonymously?

Yep. It lets people anonymously download apps from Google Play. It provides privacy and usability.

I've gotta be misunderstanding something because that sounds like something that definitely should be blocked

Is there any reason why users shouldn't be able to download apps anonymously?

and would be wildly outside of Google's terms.

Unfortunately Google does prohibit this. I wish Google would allow people to download no-cost apps without an account.

How does this thingy work?

Unfortunately, it only works when few people know about it.

kornhole• 3 years ago

This is a major problem for most people with a degoogled phone. Luckily I am using Graphene which provides a sandboxed Google Play services. This means that the only access you need to give it is network access rather than the promiscuous normal access it has to just about everything on your device. https://grapheneos.org/features#sandboxed-google-play

It would be helpful if others can share here how to extract and install APK's outside the Play store.

fodmap5• 3 years ago

Graphene OS is a very interesting option but it only runs in Google's Pixel phones for now, so I'm waiting for the day it could be installed in other devices.

fyloraspit2• 3 years ago

You might be waiting a while. If you read the documentation I think they get into to the reasons for that pretty thoroughly. As a side note, I think the prices for 5's and 6's is pretty reasonable right now (they seem to have fallen a bit from a year or 2 ago).

brewdad• 3 years ago

I've always loved the irony of needing a Google phone so that you can run an OS the de-Googles your phone.

nibbleshifter• 3 years ago

IIRC the devs are only supporting Pixel devices because they are at least vaguely sane.

Supporting random other devices would be a nightmare.

noman-land• 3 years ago

Absolutely loving GrapheneOS for the past year plus. It's my primary device and I have no problems.

probably_wrong• 3 years ago

It would be helpful if others can share here how to extract and install APK's outside the Play store.

I use APKPure. I have the suspicion that it must be some kind of malware/spying operation, but I couldn't find any proof so I kept it. Another HN user [1] followed up on a comment on mine on the topic and they didn't find anything particularly strange either.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32409557

celsoazevedo• 3 years ago

APK Mirror seems to be a more popular option: https://www.apkmirror.com/

Created by https://twitter.com/ArtemR which is known in the Android space.

2h6• 3 years ago

how to extract and install APK's outside the Play store.

https://github.com/4cq2/googleplay

jeroenhd2• 3 years ago

The linked thread claimed you can still create a Google account and use that to sign into the Aurora store. They only ban the shared accounts.

netfortius2• 3 years ago

Huge issue with those having to use a phone from one country with apps local to another country - very common for extensive travel, as the formal Google play store locality change is only allowed once per year.

Freak_NL• 3 years ago

Yeah, that's annoying. Public transport companies sometimes have this issue, where they don't offer travel planning on their normal website, but tell everyone to use their app, only you can't install it because you're not from that country nor in that country when you're preparing to travel there from the comforts of your home.

CameronNemo2• 3 years ago

Does Amtrak still only tweet whenever their trains are delayed?

gavaw2• 3 years ago

You can change your account's country by opening the store and tapping on your avatar. It's a bit convoluted (requires you to make up an address) but it's not the end of the world.

jsnell• 3 years ago

It's trivial to have multiple Google accounts, one from each country, on the same phone. The apps installed by any account will be accessible to all of them.

lazycouchpotato• 3 years ago

I'm not sure how many different countries you visit, but if it's 2-3 you can set up multiple Google accounts and quickly switch between them in the Play Store by swiping up/down on your profile picture.

Snuupy• 3 years ago

I have multiple Google accounts, one in each country. This solves the "app not available in your country" issue.

0xedd• 3 years ago

Use a Linux phone. Contribute. My bank has a website.

Operyl2• 3 years ago

Some banks don’t expose everything on their website, sometimes it’s only available in their mobile app.

staringback• 3 years ago

Change banks then. Free market at work

mmsnberbar66• 3 years ago

which do you recommend? maybe I get one as a toy project at first...

em-bee4• 3 years ago

for a toy project, the pinephone is on my shopping list.

for serious use i stick to /e/OS supported phones. /e/OS has its own store that also gets apps from google play using their API. i wonder if that will be affected too. so far it's still working

hinata08• 3 years ago

toy phones are mostly the Google pixel, and Fairphones

- You can flash anything on these.

- You have 5-10 years of update on the android out of the box

- huge communities.

- consistent VoLTE and VoWIFI support

- lines are easy to understand (only a few models in each generation)

Samsung offers no long term support of phone, do hardly any publication to help open source communities to make a new image of android, and have the knox thing that makes it harder that it could be to flash. They just poop billions of different models every year without further support.

Xiaomi is like Porsche with the 911, which means they brand all of their phones the same, even when they have very different processors, vowifi support or not,... So pay attention to your exact model (the "pro" keyword isn't marketing, it can make the difference between a locked in Mediatek processor and a open source snapdragon)

I'm annoyed to have got the only flavour of Mi10-something without Vowifi support, for example, because I didn't read properly.

Sony has some OK phones to hack as well. And they look good ! But I think there was an article on HN a few days ago, about the hardware of the XA2 that called home to send analytics even with a custom ROM.

I'm also annoyed because I have had that exact model with iodéOS.

So yeah, I'd recommend to just get a Pixel phone if you want something compact (the 6A is pretty narrow), or the Fairphone if you want something large that you can physically repair, and update for the longest even if you don't hack it.

(I now have a Mi10 Lite and a Pixel 6A. I just had the latter, so that I can use one of these to hack a bit.)

fodmap5• 3 years ago

My daily driver is a Linux phone running Ubuntu Touch. Besides that I have three more phones running other Linux projects, basically to test them, and to report bugs.

In addition to those devices, I also have another one running Lineage OS because I need some apps that I can't run in any other way, v.gr. Monash University Low FODMAP Diet App.

SubzeroCarnage4• 3 years ago

Ubuntu Touch doesn't even have encryption: https://github.com/ubports/ubuntu-touch/issues/178

charcircuit5• 3 years ago

All Android phones are Linux phones.

ktosobcy2• 3 years ago

oh ffs... i do hope tha we will soon see alter alternative stores. unfortunately android (with iOS) has virtual monopoly and they force dumb stores...

ewoodrich• 3 years ago

Aurora isn't an alternative app store, it's an alternative method of accessing the Google Play Store. F-Droid is an alternative app store on Android usually used by degoogled phones.

Aachen4• 3 years ago

With alternative stores, I'm hoping that we'll get a choice in where to install public transport apps, Spotify, Discord, games, et cetera from, rather than having the choice between Google and illegal mirroring sites (the app's owner holds copyright and didn't authorise something like apkmirror/apkpure to distribute with ads and potential malware, though they've proven more reliable on the latter front than early apk redistribution sites).

That's how I also read GP's comment, but your reading is also a valid one.

ktosobcy2• 3 years ago

Correct and I do get most of my apps from f-droid but unfortunately majority of big apps (banks, IMs) are on Google play only... because there is no sane/official alternative now (even f-droid can't update the apps automatically... )

toastercat• 3 years ago

It's been a great app, but I've found myself relying on APK Mirror more and more. Would be nice if there was a more up-to-date APK Mirror client that can handle updates automatically.

2OEH8eoCRo02• 3 years ago

Many apps are removed from APK Mirror via DMCA takedown.

flangola72• 3 years ago

Why would they even honor that?

fyloraspit2• 3 years ago

Welp.. lucky I updated a couple of days ago.

blangk• 3 years ago

For those affected, I just tested, and there was a Signal update available which successfully completed. Perhaps updates for existing / old users will continue to work? Fingers crossed

foreheadhurts• 3 years ago

Its tangential to your point, but Signal offers apk downloads from its site, and the app itself does auto-update.

"Advanced users with special needs can download the Signal APK directly."

https://signal.org/android/apk/

BiteCode_dev3• 3 years ago

Seems like Google is spending way more energy in preventing user to avoid being spied upon by them than they are actually moderating the app store against spywares and malwares.

Aurora wouldn't need to exist if they gave us an easy way to get apps from the Play store without giving control of our entire phone to the worst privacy offenders on earth.

brucethemoose2• 3 years ago

Well yeah, they lose money from the former and (in the short term) make money by ignoring the later.

wildredkraut• 3 years ago

I hope they file a report to the EU‘s Digital Market Act Commission.

smnrg• 3 years ago

Obtainium is open source and can download/update directly from source on GitHub or GitLab—or even use directly F-Droid, IzzyOnDroid, Mullvad, Signal, APKMirror, APKPure, Steam, Telegram, VLC, Neutron.

https://github.com/ImranR98/Obtainium

t0bia_s2• 3 years ago

Solution:

1. Settings -> Apps -> Default apps -> Opening links -> Aurora Store -> Add link -> check both boxes

2. Search for your desired app with any web browser + search engine, long press on the play store link

3. Open link in external app (Aurora Store)

4. No need to de-anonymize yourself or wait for an update. Hopefully this gets fixed soon.

easyKL• 3 years ago

Unfortunately this workaround doesn't seem to allow you to get the download button on Aurora Store for the searched app: "App purchases not available on Anonymous accounts" But you'll get the Update tab for the already installed apps.

t0bia_s2• 3 years ago

Well clearly you cannot licence purchased apps on play store outside play store. But it works for all free apps.

Aurora Store Accounts Blocked by Google

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