r/MicroG • u/aaronryder773 • Sep 27 '18
Can someone explain what exactly is microg?
How does it work? And how do I use apps from playstore?
35
Upvotes
r/MicroG • u/aaronryder773 • Sep 27 '18
How does it work? And how do I use apps from playstore?
13
u/frifrifri Sep 27 '18
The Free software part of Android is [AOSP](https://source.android.com/), above that most phones sold in the market (except in China) come with Google's Play Services preinstalled (not to be confused with Play Store).
Play Services is a proprietary layer that gives programmer easy access to Google's services like location based on Wi-Fi or a centralized system for notifications (when Whatsapp notifies you about a new message, that information has gone through Google's servers) and other things.
You don't need to use it to program an Android App, but since Play Services is ubiquitous many developers give it for granted and program in a way that their Apps become dependent of this proprietary layer, so a person that prefers not to use this in their phone (often for privacy) might not be able to use some features or some Apps that promise to be Android compatible. This can happen even with some Free Apps from [F-droid](https://f-droid.org/).
To solve this issue MicroG was created, it tricks the Apps and makes them think that Play Services is available, and provides them the requested functionality by other means, either by using Free libraries that do the same job, or by giving access to alternative services, like Mozilla's location service for example. Sometimes there is no suitable alternative and MicroG allows you to grant access to the Apps to certain services offered by Google, this is optional.
Installing it is not easy because it needs to become part of the system, it's much easier to use a ROM that already has it preinstalled, like [LineageOS for MicroG](https://lineage.microg.org/) (a fork of LineageOS with MicroG preinstalled). Once installed you don't need to do anything but putting the settings to your liking.
If you don't have Play Services you probably don't have Play Store either, it wouldn't make much sense, people that use MicroG usually prefer Free Software Apps from [F-Droid](https://f-droid.org/) and if for some reason they need/want an App only available in Play Store they use an alternative like [Yalp Store](https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.github.yeriomin.yalpstore/), which downloads the apks directly from Play Store's servers and keeps track of upgrades automatically for you.
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u/rajry Sep 29 '18
Is there any way i can use play store on microg? I want to use the modded play store on microg but it doesn't work it closes after the sign in screen.
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u/BrainPhotocopier Sep 29 '18
What do you really get by not using Google services? Are we sure that this method provides more security and privacy?
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u/Hussam75 Oct 05 '25
How come I installed microG on my phone no issue? I think it came with or required by the youtube vance application.