Froid about apollo

[flashtheman]

Hi. Many people use Android but don't create a Google account. And without Google account, you can use the Google Play Store. I don't want a google account.

[champo]

We use google play services for push notifications. Notifications are key to ensuring lightning payments work correctly. Play services, with all it's issues, allows us to have a quick and reliable service. There's alternatives we can explore, but they are not simple and would take a lot of effort to get right.
We hear quite a bit from users like yourselves that prefer not to use Google related services and will look into removing Play services in the future. As to when, I can't make promises: we're a small team and that sometimes stops from exploring all possible improvements to Muun.

[mikece]

MicroG can substitute the Google services

I personally would prefer updates that I initiate, like pull-to-refresh or hitting an update/sync icon. Part of what I love about my Graphene OS phone is that because I don't have those services constantly running and pinging in the background I can easily get three to five days of battery life on a single charge. Simpler, less distracting, greener.

[gabrc52]

MicroG can substitute the Google services

[mikece]

We use google play services for push notifications. Notifications are key to ensuring lightning payments work correctly. Play services, with all it's issues, allows us to have a quick and reliable service. There's alternatives we can explore, but they are not simple and would take a lot of effort to get right. We hear quite a bit from users like yourselves that prefer not to use Google related services and will look into removing Play services in the future. As to when, I can't make promises: we're a small team and that sometimes stops from exploring all possible improvements to Muun.

I have no clue how hard the following would be but couldn't the app detect if it doesn't have access to Google services and switch to pull-only updating? I would be fine with a pull-to-refresh UI scheme (or clicking an update circle-arrow). I am looking to move to Graphene OS full-time and there are no Google Services with that OS (Graphene is basically Android with all Google Services ripped out).

Then again, if lightning transactions cannot work without Google Play Services then that's another matter entirely.

[vv01f]

@champo there also is microg to minimize the involvement of google and enable functionality such as cloud messaging (push notifications), see e.g. https://forum.f-droid.org/t/push-notifications-without-google/6010

[champo]

Hi! It's not in our immediate plans. Just so I understand, why would you prefer that distribution?

Even if it would be available as an .apk, it probably isn't usable because the app needs Google services. See other issue: #9.

[hues0]

What does it need Google services for? (apart from push notifications)

[Nosferath]

To me, an .apk would allow me to verify its signature more easily, without having to use adb.

[champo]

@Nosferath I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Can you explain your use case in more detail? Thanks!

[flashtheman]

@champo .apk means that it's fine to have the possibility to download the .apk instead of having it available in F-droid.

[gabrc52]

It would be nice to have on F-Droid. In the meantime, you can use Aurora Store to download it without having a Google account, just sign in anonymously.

@gabrc52 no, it doesn't work without google services

[xrishox]

i would like to see this on fdroid as well

[05nelsonm]

Might be worth considering bumping priority on this due to recent meat space events.

[brccabral]

Can you setup GitHub to build it automatically? https://www.ingloriousmind.com/blog/automated-builds-for-your-projects-on-github/

[easyKL]

Notification should not be an issue, since instant messaging apps get distributed on F-Droid, like Element and Wire
That said, you should accept that the app will be signed with F-Droid's key.
OK, some other apps provide just the Play Store link and and alternatively the .apk direct download, like this one.

I believe is web sockets what is used for notifications... but I cannot recall it now.

[RasheedAZ]

Any update on this? Thanks.