We untie the smartphone from the all-seeing eye of Google. Where to find and how to return Google Apps if they are not there? Manually downloaded market cannot be installed

While most applications developed in Python can run unchanged under App Engine (except those that require access to low-level system functions or network access), using the repository will require significant effort from developers to adapt the applications. Unlike the popular DBMS MySQL and PostgreSQL, the storage is not relational base data, in particular, does not support the schema and does not require data normalization. The platform architecture supports scaling without changing code. Implementing support for relational logic would lead to a significant slowdown. The non-relational nature of the storage requires developers to use non-traditional data storage and processing architecture. For example, instead of storing data in a normalized way in two or more tables and then combining it in a query (join), it is recommended to store logically related data in a single table.

At the same time, all these restrictions may mean that many developers will have to make additional efforts to adapt to the new environment, and they will prefer to choose alternative platforms.

Restrictions

The Google App Engine runtime allows the developer to control only some of the parameters operating system, which can be a problem for application development.

No write access to file system server. The only way to store data is internal storage, a non-relational, highly scalable database. The storage is different from the MySQL and PostgreSQL relational DBMSs that are used on most sites.

Session management systems that use the file system will not work. Google provides Alternative option- Memcache API. It is possible to organize user authorization through Google accounts.

Google widely uses MapReduce technology in its applications, a high-speed interface for parallel computing running on multiple cluster nodes, its support will likely be added to the platform's capabilities.

2018

The researcher received $36 thousand for information about vulnerabilities in Google App Engine

In February 2018, Pereira was able to access the development environment Google App Engine and discovered the possibility of using some internal Google APIs.

In his first report to Google's vulnerability bounty program, the researcher did not identify anything dangerous, but his results were rated P1, which indicates that the issue should be fixed as quickly as possible because it may affect a large number of users.

Continuing the investigation, the expert discovered some interesting exploitation methods and sent Google a second report, after which the company advised Pereira to stop further testing, as he could “easily break something using these internal APIs.”

After analyzing the detected vulnerabilities, Google experts came to the conclusion that they could be exploited for remote code execution “due to the nature of Google work».

IN total Google paid the researcher $36,337, including $5,000 for discovering a less serious problem. The first report was sent to the company on February 25, 2018, and corrections were issued between March 6 and March 13, Pereira said.

Google no longer allows itself to be used to bypass blocks

Application developers will no longer be able to use Google's infrastructure to bypass Internet blocks. The hosting service for websites and web applications on Google servers, called Google App Engine, has closed the ability to use end-address hiding technology known as domain fronting.

The company made no statements about this - the Tor developers were the first to notice changes in the network architecture, which attracted media attention to the problem.

Domain fronting allowed developers to use Google as a proxy, redirecting traffic to own servers via the Google.com domain. This made it possible to bypass government-level blocking, which can block all traffic sent to a specific service. When using domain fronting, all requests originating from a specific country appear as if they are directed to Google.com. Encryption prevented supervisory agencies from tracking them further.

Google told The Verge that the discontinuation of domain fronting was a result of a long-planned update. The company claims that domain fronting was never a specifically supported feature - it was just a quirk of Google's software platform. Now this feature has been eliminated as part of the continuous updating of networks, and the company does not plan to revive it as a specific function.

2015: Google App Engine supports PHP

On June 18, 2015, it became known that public access to the set of technologies of the Google App Engine service for creating applications and other software in the PHP programming language was opened.

Previously the platform only supported Python languages, Go and Java.

In May 2015, data appeared on vulnerabilities in Google App Engine.

According to a statement from Polish research group Security Explorations, there are still unpatched vulnerabilities in Google App Engine for Java, including three escapes from the Java sandbox. After three weeks of silence from Google, the researchers decided to divulge the details of these vulnerabilities, supplementing them with PoC code. The provided code does not break the sandbox, but allows you to partially bypass the Google App Engine protection, giving the attacker the opportunity to gain access to the Java environment in Google App Engine.

Representatives of the company whose employees discovered the vulnerabilities reported incorrect implementation of a number of methods and a lack of security checks in App Engine, which are the main reasons for these flaws. The vulnerabilities they discovered are now present in “ additional protection", implemented on top of the JRE and designed for Google protection App Engine from Java vulnerabilities.

2014

As of February 4, 2014 App Engine has a very significant client base, according to Google, it amounts to about 30 thousand active (paying for the service) customers, including small clients and very large business sites. According to the vendor, more than 90% of its own IT systems run on the App Engine platform and this project resulted from the transformation of the company's own internal IT infrastructure into a public service option.

Google's high reputation as a cloud service provider and one of the pioneers in the use of methods largely determined the market's trust in App Engine and other PaaS offerings of the company, designed to implement projects that require highly elastic scaling, processing a large number of unstructured data sets and solving a number of business problems. analysts. Some added enterprise level features (99.95% SLA, proper technical support, availability of a relational DBMS, advanced version control, minimum time downtime, automatic scaling, the presence of basic distributed caching services, project lifecycle management based on the Apache Maven and Spring frameworks for the Java version of the service) have significantly eliminated traditional market concerns regarding aPaaS approaches in general and Google in particular.

Integration capabilities at the API level allow us to offer PaaS functionality for customers to create hybrid IT systems, including using other programming systems. An attractive option for customers is the combined use of application (Google Apps in SaaS implementation) and platform (Google Cloud Platform, IaaS and PaaS) Google offerings.

App Engine 1.9.0

The runtime environment for PHP scripts has been improved, speeding up the loading of standard libraries. External interaction with executable programs occurs only through HTTP/HTTPS requests, this limits App Engine to the realm of web systems.

More than 30 holes in Google App Engine

On December 10, 2014, the media reported the presence of more than 30 vulnerabilities in cloud platform Google App Engine. The vulnerabilities were discovered by the Polish company Security Explorations.

Once the researchers escaped the Java virtual machine sandbox, they were able to run arbitrary code at a lower level and access the virtual machine's system files.

They began to study ways to get out of the “sandbox” of the operating system, that is, one level lower. But it was not possible to do this - the account was blocked by Google security service. According to researchers, Google considered their activity suspicious and decided to block access.

Weaknesses in the security system allow the user to leave the sandbox (sandbox - isolated environment) Java virtual machine, inside which applications run, and execution of arbitrary code in an environment more low level, said Adam Gowdiak, head and founder of Security Explorations. He did not bother to determine the level of danger posed by the discovered flaws, but chose to notify Google.

In addition to Java, the GAE platform supports applications written in Python, PHP and Go. According to the director of the research company, the actual number of vulnerabilities contained in the platform could be much higher? since the study only covered virtual machine Java.

As of 16:10 on December 10, 2014, Google did not comment on the Security Explorations statement.

It takes time to create an email server that has a great web interface, is accessible every second from anywhere in the world, and also provides comprehensive functionality to users and administrators. Not only time, but also computers, and besides computers, also people who will service all this, and much more. If we add here a convenient exchange service instant messages, which will unite a group of people engaged in joint work, then the result is a serious system of corporate communication, which, even if resources are available, will not be organized immediately.

For collaboration, it would be nice to have a calendar that allows you to plan not only your personal time, but also the time of those with whom you work, and also take into account their busyness when planning conferences and meetings. To get the full picture, you need to add a document collaboration environment. By collecting these and some other services together, we get Google Apps.

Google Apps is an environment that provides the following collaboration tools: the already popular email service GMail, instant messaging client Google Talk (in fact, the service is fully suitable for communicating with any Jabber user), calendar Google Calendar, tools for working with documents and spreadsheets Google Docs & Spreadsheets, the “central page” is a place for convenient placement of information that will be common to all users, a page editor from Google that allows you to quickly create and publish the necessary information.

Part 1. Functions available to the user

Describing all the functions that are available to every user of the Google Apps system is a rather lengthy task, since the system combines several rather flexible products from Google, each of which has already successfully proven itself. Plus, most of these services are quite popular individually.

To begin with, we note that Google Apps is a serious service that has several packages, each of which is different different amounts services provided by Google. All packages provide: a full set of services (mail, calendar, working with documents, creating pages, instant messaging client, etc.), no restrictions on the number of user accounts, access from mobile devices, and an administrator control panel. Thus, basic set, which is provided to all users, is approximately the same, in addition, there is a migration system from one package to another, which allows you to start with a simpler and free package, and later, if necessary, migrate to a suitable package with the necessary additions. The main differences are as follows.

It's better to start with the standard one Google package Apps. It's free

• Standard package ( Standard Edition) - 2 gigabytes free space by email, help through online resources (but not online telephone help), presence contextual advertising on the services pages.
• Premier package (Premier Edition) - 10 gigabytes for mail, 99.9% guaranteed uptime of the mail service, the ability to manage resources, online help 24/7, which includes telephone consultations, API in order to the best way integrate Google Apps into an existing infrastructure. The only one of all the packages that is not free. Price of this package depends on the number of user accounts. Users of the package get access to all new functions and services of the system as they are released, for example, in the near future there is a migration service from other email clients, which will allow migration with the least effort.
• Package for educational institutions(Education Edition) - everything is the same as in the previous case. With only a small difference: only 2 gigabytes per account, no guarantee of 99.9% uptime. The package is provided under a separate license for non-profit educational organizations.

After the administrator who works with Google Apps has added a user to the system (Google Apps domain), the user can work with all services that are enabled in the system. One of the main ideas of Google Apps is the global integration of all services and organization comfortable work people who are united common system Google Apps. This allows you to seriously save time on organizing collaboration, since the work environment is ready for use within a few minutes after full activation.

Mail and Messaging

After the mail service related to the domain is activated, it will be available to users on a special page, the name of which is determined by system administrator. If the domain settings allow this, then all domain users will automatically be added to the contacts of each new user of the system.

The same applies to the instant messaging client: new domain users will be automatically added to the client’s contact list. This ensures an immediate start to the user’s work after registering him in the system. There is no longer any need to add each colleague separately to your contact list.

It is obvious that users get everything standard features mail service from Google: mail archiving, spam filtering, the ability to search through all mail messages, creating filters, access via POP, mail forwarding and much more. The same can be said about Google Talk - all functions are fully available, and the administrator can limit the ability of users to add users from other domains or from other jabber servers to the contact list, which allows limiting the circle of communication to only the necessary contacts.

Calendar

Very convenient tool planning personal working time, which, in the context of global integration, allows you to plan not only your own work time, but also take into account the working hours and tasks of colleagues. The main features of the calendar in Google Apps: creating events, for each of which you can define the event name, time and duration, determining the composition of participants and checking their availability during the event, setting reminders for events, viewing other people’s calendars, working with the calendar on mobile devices, managing access to calendars and so on.

A domain user can add a specific employee's calendar using special form, which allows you to search calendars using both keywords and an employee's email address. This way you can always have up-to-date information about the tasks and work of a certain employee (obviously, only to the extent that this allows you to determine his calendar).

Work with documents

All are supported popular formats documents: Word, Excel, OpenOffice

Currently it is possible to work with the following types files: Word and Excel documents, OpenOffice documents, RTF, HTML and text documents. This set of supported formats ensures that the service is suitable for a wide range of users. The results of the work can be saved either to a local computer or stored on a server. Thus, for full-fledged work With documents, you just need to have access to the Google Apps service from anywhere in the world, from any computer.

Comparison of the capabilities of the editors themselves Google Docs& Spreadsheets with Word and Excel or OpenOffice is a topic for another discussion. Practice shows that the functions are sufficient to prepare a normal document that contains commonly used design elements: lists, formatting and various styles, tables, images and hyperlinks, and so on.

Google Docs & Spreadsheets provides ample opportunities to collaborate on documents. To make working with documents as convenient and productive as possible for a group of employees, the following options are available.

• Document version management. Intermediate versions of a document are created automatically by the system quite often and, in addition, every time the user saves the document. A function is available to compare two selected versions, which makes it easy to track the changes that were made by the next editing of the document.

• Document access control. You can invite system users to collaborate with a document, indicating what rights are given to the user: only viewing the document or editing. Additional features allow a user invited to work with a document to, in turn, invite other users. People who are working on a document at the same time can set up a chat to discuss changes to the document, which will be visible to all participants in the discussion. It is possible to publish a document from permanent address, which allows anyone in the domain to access the document (for example, after all changes are made and approved, the document is published for public viewing). In addition, it is possible to archive documents that have already been brought to their final state, but may still be needed.

Collaboration with documents in Google Apps is organized at a high level, sufficient to work with documents and quickly and efficiently access general information. A custom functions editing the contents of documents is only inferior in certain aspects familiar Word, Excel and OpenOffice.

Start page and page editor

The start page is the first thing users see after logging into Google Apps

The start page is the place that is designed to be the first thing users see after logging into the Google system Apps. This page is similar to Google's personal page (www.igoogle.com), in the same way it is intended to be the first page a user encounters when getting started. It may contain gadgets from Google and third party developers, as well as the information employees need to get started. This is not a complete list of useful things that can be placed on home page Google Apps: gadgets for previewing personal mailboxes and calendar events, search, including a special Google Custom Search, which allows you to search only for what is really needed, viewing RSS, bookmarks, Google Notebook and even a large number of useful elements.

The web page editor allows you to quickly and easily create your own pages, which can then be conveniently published using the Google service. To create, you can use a large amount of already ready-made designs(location of elements on the page, color scheme, and so on) and a fairly convenient editor that practically does not require the user to know HTML, CSS and other languages. Publication new page occurs instantly, which significantly reduces the time spent conveying information to other users or clients.

Integration into Google Apps has reached the point where documents that are sent to you by mail are immediately available from mailbox You can open Google Docs & Spreadsheets for work. Switching between different services is done with a simple mouse click. However, there is no problem in keeping them all open and ready to work in different windows browser.

Thus, Google Apps creates an environment that is convenient not only for the collaboration of several people who are located in different places, but also for organizing the collaboration of a large number of employees who can be scattered across various countries. Considering that Google quite often provides APIs to its products, thereby allowing you to create your own applications that further integrate Google applications into your specific work environment, Google Apps can be a very convenient environment for collaboration. In addition, Google is constantly working to improve existing services and adding new ones. Our immediate plans include adding a service for migrating from various email clients to GMail and the ability to create and edit presentations, that is, a service similar to PowerPoint.

This article will help you understand what it is Google Play, Google Apps services (gapps), how to install them and where to find the so-called “hacked market”.

What is Google Play?

Google Play Store is a virtual application store, thanks to which owners of Android devices can install and buy applications, books and periodicals, music, and films.

What is Google Apps?

Google Apps (gapps) are services and applications preinstalled in most Android devices that provide data exchange and synchronization between your Google account and third-party software. Most firmware without gapps have a number of restrictions on the use of Google Play, Google account and proprietary applications of the search giant.

Where to find and how to return Google Apps if they are not there?

The easiest way is through custom recovery. To do this, you need directly CWM or TWRP recovery and installation Google archive Apps (can be downloaded). Just download the required version of gapps and install it as regular archive updates. It is important to remember - for everyone Android versions, you need to install a specific assembly of gapps. Otherwise, to fix possible errors and failures, a complete flashing of the device will be required.

Installing Google Apps and Google Play

1. The first installation method is through custom Recovery. Read how to do this here: installing applications via CWM and installing applications via TWRP.
2. The second way is using the Google Apps Installer application. In one click without a PC, root or custom recovery.
3. The third method is to install Gapps manually without CWM. This is especially true for Chinese phones.

Hacked Google Play Market

Hacked Google Play will not allow uncontrolled downloading and updating paid applications, in addition, you will not be able to play movies and music for free. However, if you already have pirated content on your device, a hacked “market” will allow you to use it despite the protection. You can install the hacked “market” from the application Lucky Patcher. To unlock the functionality of the modified Google Play, you will have to additionally install system patches. As a result we get:

• emulation of a response to the application about the correct license;
• modification of the “Return payment” function, after which, when this button is pressed, the spent funds are returned to the account, but the application is not deleted from the system (it can only be updated manually);
• possibility of switching off automatic update Google Play.

The most common Google Play Market errors and ways to solve them

Below we look at the most common problems and Google errors Play Store:

A manually downloaded market cannot be installed.

Solution: the market apk file needs to be renamed to “Phonesky.apk”, “Vending.apk” or to com.android.vending.apk (depending on the device firmware). You can view the correct name by following the path “system root/system/app”. The renamed package should be moved to the place of the old one and not forgetting to edit the access rights in the file properties using the mask “rw-r-r” (or 644). After these manipulations you need to reboot.

When launching the market or adding an account, the messages “Unable to establish a reliable connection”, “No connection” or “Connection timed out” appear.

Solution: First, you need to make sure that the correct date and time are set on the device. Then, if this is not the problem, you need to check the connection and DNS server settings. For correct operation You must select “GoogleDNS” as the DNS server using any profile application. If you use a Wi-Fi router to access the Network, then enter the DNS server 8.8.8.8 in its settings. You can also check the “hosts” file at “system root /etc/. There should be only one entry in this file - 127.0.0.1 localhost. Everything unnecessary must be removed (while maintaining access rights).

Persistent error "Process com.android.vending stopped unexpectedly."

Solution: you need to completely reinstall the market, clearing the Dalvik cache and deleting the .odex file. All necessary manipulations can be done in any file manager with support for root functions.

Error when receiving data from server with code .

Solution: Most likely your Google Services Framework service application is frozen. You need to revive it, clear its data and cache, and then reboot the system.

During the installation process, progress froze at the “Installing...” or “Downloading...” stage.

Solution: Check if there is enough space to install the application. If this is not the problem, uninstall the application you are updating and Google Play cache and data. U problematic application It is also recommended to uninstall all updates. After the manipulations have been completed, repeat the update.

During the download-installation of the update, the process crashes with an error or a message about the impossibility of updating.

Solution: it is necessary to perform all the manipulations as in the solution previous problem. If the situation does not change, move the application to the device memory or to a memory card (depending on the original location) and try updating again. If the problem persists, you need to delete the file “smdl2tmp1.asec” in the path “mnt/secure/asec/”.

During installation of an application or update, the error "Unknown error: -24" occurs.

Solution: clean the system of application “tails”. If automatic utilities fail, you must manually clean residual files along the path “system root/data/data” and “sdcard/Android/data/”.

An error code “- 101” or “489” prevents you from downloading, installing or updating the application.

Solution: change the access point or connection type.

The error code “- 491” prevents you from downloading, installing or updating the application.

Solution: clear the Google Play application cache, and if that doesn’t help, clear the entire system (through custom recovery or using service utilities).

The error “Download failed, please try again” appears.

Solution: delete your third-party market account information (Samsung, Amazon, Yandex, etc.).

The error “The download could not be completed. There is not enough space on the device."

Solution: Check available space. If this is not the problem, remove updates from the application settings by clearing the cache and try updating again.

The error code “- 921” prevents you from downloading, installing or updating the application.

Solution: Clear the cache of the problematic application, Google Play and Google Services Framework. Reboot your device and try again. If the problem persists, clear the data from these apps.

The error code “RPC:AEC:0” prevents you from downloading, installing or updating the application.

Solution: You need to reset Google Play, Google Play Services, Google Services Framework, and then restart the system.

The error code “RPC:S-5:AEC-0” (as well as “923”, “DF-BPA-13”, “942”, “403”) prevents you from downloading, installing or updating the application.

Solution: you need to reset data from Google Play, Google Play Services, Google Services Framework. Then delete account Google and restart the system.

The search does not find the required application.

Solution: this application, may not be compatible with your device or may not be available in your region. You can find a link to the description from the desktop version of Google Play, but you won’t be able to download it using standard methods.

During installation of the application, the message “The content filtering level does not allow you to download this application” appears.

Solution: check the required filters in the market settings.

All entries in the list of installed applications have disappeared.

Solution: clear the market cache.

And finally, a piece of advice: the first thing you need to do when any error appears is to go to the application settings, find the Google Play application and clear its cache.

Google has quickly grown from a small search engine to a giant infrastructure whose components run on our PCs, smartphones, tablets and even TVs. Google tirelessly collects information about us, search queries are carefully logged, movements are tracked, and passwords, emails and Contact Information are preserved for years to come. All this is an integral part of modernity, but we are quite capable of changing it.

Introduction

It's no secret that any device running Android (at least one that is certified by Google) contains not only components assembled from AOSP, but also an impressive number 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 is, of course, nothing wrong with the fact of synchronization, and it is an excellent mechanism that allows you to configure 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) there is not only some kind of evil empire under named Microsoft, but also Google, 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, are not laughing at the names from your 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 CyanogenMod), 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).

This is how Google Apps get to your 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 new to KitKat and houses applications that use system APIs that are marked "private" and not accessible to regular applications.

In the /system/app directory we will find a large number of different 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, app data, Gmail, Play Music, Google Keep And so on. 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 access to the 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 your 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.”

Majority Google applications You can safely disable it through the settings: “Applications -> ALL -> desired application -> Disable.”

Settings Google account
Google Settings

Method number 2. Cleaning the official firmware

If the stock firmware has root rights, you can get rid of Google Apps by simply deleting them from the 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 about using 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 a list of them on the website ][.

In previous (and future) versions of the system, the contents of Google Apps are different, so before deleting, I recommend downloading gapps of the required version from the site goo.im/gapps, unpack it 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 version of Google 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 not to clutter the system with a bunch of useless software, which 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 way to simply and conveniently install applications that would not force us to download them ourselves, and then dump them on a memory card and install manually. One of these ways is to install a third-party market.

On this moment there are three more or less viable Google alternatives 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 application store 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 the original digital signatures of the application developers, which allows them to be used simultaneously. An application installed from one market can be updated without problems from another, and if will disappear when deleted from the list of installed ones in all of them at once. However, you will have to buy them separately.

Open Source Market

In addition to those described in the article, as well as many other lesser-known application stores, you can find a different repository on the Internet. 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

Even though gapps components are not part of the official Android API, some applications still expect to see them on the system, which can cause a number of problems - from the application not working at all to losing some of its functionality. 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 solve these problems, XDA user MaR-V-iN started the NOGAPPS project, which is developing a set of open source components to replace the original Google functionality Apps. There are currently three replacement components available:

• Network Location - geolocation service based on Wi-Fi and basic GSM stations. 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 is an 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 the company Google Android without her 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.