techlore / plexus

Remove the fear of Android app compatibility on de-Googled devices.

Plexus

Remove the fear of Android app compatibility on de-Googled devices.

Important updates as of May 12, 2022

Hey everyone, thanks for visiting the repo & thank you to all contributors. Plexus is going through a massive transition right now:

• The Plexus application has been released
• The Plexus data in that repo is now in JSON format meaning we now have two different datasets, at least temporarily.
• The JSON format is already better than the terrible CSV format in this repo, but the JSON format is actually temporary. We are working on an API to avoid the entire GitHub submission workflow.
• Because so many changes are happening at once, we will not be accepting pull requests until our new workflow is completed. Once it's completed, we will be manually porting over your submissions to the new data and closing the PRs.
• Once everything is completed, all submissions will only be done via the application. We don't have an estimate yet, but it'll be the best ever experience once this is completed, enabling anyone to easily submit apps in an automated fashion in bulk.

Explanation

Google Play Services are an integral part of most Android devices that enable users to utilize their Google account on their phone, as well as enable Google-specific features for applications that rely on them.

When users move to a de-googled ROM like GrapheneOS, CalyxOS or LineageOS, they are faced with opening their standard applications hoping they work. Plexus aims to beat the guessing game and allow users to know exactly what will happen once they flash a new ROM. Plexus supports ROMs with no Google Play Services e.g: (GrapheneOS), as well as ROMs with microG, an open source alternative of Google Play Services, e.g: (CalyxOS).

Navigating Plexus

• To view app data, visit the Plexus Website

• To view the CSV spreadsheet (and contribute) view it here.

• To create or view app requests where other testers can contribute and volunteer to test for you, go here

• To join our Matrix room, go here.

NOTE: Plexus is only for applications directly or indirectly from the Google Play Store. Please do not submit applications from F-Droid as they are all expected to work.

What Do The Ratings Mean?

1. Unusable. Mostly apps that fail to open
2. Acceptable but with missing or broken functionality
3. Almost everything works with minimal caveats
4. Perfect or like-perfect experience

How To Contribute Your Applications

Testing Standards

• Test only Google Play Store applications (Regardless of where they came from, including the Aurora Store)
• Kindly disable Netguard and other blockers
• No Google Play Services
• Pay extra attention to notifications as some will not properly work. If you're testing on MicroG, it is assumed you have enabled GCM/FCM. If you have not enabled GCM/FCM, you are still free to report applications, but please exclude any information regarding missing notifications. (Notifications working is okay and encouraged even with GCM/FCM disabled.)
• If you're testing from MicroG, only input data in the last two columns, and utilize two "X"s for the standard sections.
• If you're testing from a fully de-googled ROM without MicroG, input data in the standard sections and mark the MicroG sections as "X"s

Contribute Method 1 (Recommended)

Edit the file Plexus.csv and start a pull request with your apps to submit. Ensure you're maintaining the proper CSV format in alphabetical order to make merging as simple as possible.

1. App Name
2. Month Last Tested
3. Year Last Tested
4. App score. Please refer to the rating section of the readme to help figure out what score a service is. We may change your score if it doesn't match our rating method. Label "X" if you're testing with MicroG.
5. Any issues with the application. Explain your problems, or just say "No reported issues" if the app works perfectly. Label "X" if you're testing with MicroG.
6. MicroG App Score. This is ONLY for users testing apps on MicroG. Please refer to the rating section of the readme to help figure out what score a service is. We may change your score if it doesn't match our rating method. Label "X" if you're not testing with MicroG.
7. MicroG issues. Explain your problems, or just say "No reported issues" if the app works perfectly. Label "X" if you're not testing with MicroG.

Contribute Method 2 (Non-Github Method)

Email [email protected] with all your apps you use on your phone that are from the Google Play Store (Directly or Indirectly) with the following information:

1. App Name
2. Month Last Tested
3. Year Last Tested
4. App Score. Label "X" if you're testing with MicroG.
5. Any issues with the application. Explain your problems, or just say none if the app works perfectly. Label "X" if you're testing with MicroG.
6. MicroG App Score. Label "X" if you're not testing with MicroG.
7. MicroG issues. Label "X" if you're not testing with MicroG.

I will then update the spreadsheet myself.

Application Requests

If you're unable to find an application within Plexus and don't have the means of testing them yourself, you can submit an App Request where other testers can test apps on your behalf. This is purely on a volunteer basis. There will be methods of incentivizing volunteers down the road.

To submit an application request, do one of the following:

1. Submit a PR with your app(s) in the repo.
2. Email [email protected] with the following information: Name/Alias, App Name(s),MicroG (Yes/No), Urgent (Yes/No)

Future Plans & Goals

• Support for "recommended alternatives" similar to alternativeto.net
• More thorough data showing what OS & ROM was used for testing

License

Except where indicated otherwise, this project is licensed under the terms of GPLv3

plexus's Issues

Habit

The CSV file contains an entry with the name Habit. Searching on play store it is not obvious which app it is referring to (there are a lot of applications beginning with Habit, but none with the exact match as far as I scrolled down).

Perhaps the closest is Habit - habit tracker and goals in 21 days. Perhaps the app was renamed, or the person who reported it used the app name in the launcher, not the play store name (the in-launcher name is Habit). The one I assumed to be habit is by Roman K. with the java package name com.habit.application. The java package name can be found by looking at the play store link https:// play.google.com /store/apps/details?id=com.habit.application&hl=en. Since the online play store uses package names to load data about apps, I assume that they are unique (perhaps application names are unique as well, to be honest I don't know, but application names can be changed).

Just to clarify, I am not trying to convince anyone to put package names in the csv right now, since I think it raises the entry bar to both understanding and contributing to plexus. But I'd like to point out that eventually if there was ever a website frontend, if package names were included in the csv, a script could easily load icons, download counts and other data from play store, and perhaps improve user experience. And solve the renaming/incomplete/ambiguous name problem some generic not so well known applications might have.

I tested version 1.1.2 from the aurora store. On android 9, no micro G, disabled netguard. Can confirm everything works in the app, except the rate on playstore button, so I confirm the score of 4. I also checked if notifications work, and they do.

App version when testing

When viewing an app here a third box or some kind of visual element showing what version of the app was tested would be useful since some apps have updates that stop compatibility. This would allow users to know exactly what version of the app to role back to or even if it's 'safe' to update without any issues

Alphabetize spreadsheet

How to Deal with Apps that are Censored on Google Play but Full Version Available from Developer?

I have also seen some developers that offer censored versions of their app in the original Google Play Store and an unrestricted version directly from their website (for example, Minds the social media platform). Should we list these in the CSV?

Pros:

• Makes it easier for new de-Googled Android users to find which apps are now available as a direct download (no Google Play dependencies)
• Helps developers trying to get away from the Google Play Store find users
• Encourages developers to not depend on Google Play even if their apps are proprietary (not open-sourced and not available on F-Droid for example).

Cons:

• This adds another column to track (i.e. URL for the direct download website)
• We would need to adjust the project's app listing policy. We currently do not list F-Droid apps with the expectation that users can browser there for apps without Google Play dependencies.

Add these apps

Add these apps to the list https://www.christitus.com/degoogle-apps/

Posibillity to ask for app tests?

Hi,

thanks for the list!

I was wondering if it's a good idea to have a possibility to ask for app test somewhere - I'm planning to switch to a de-Googled device but I need some apps and it's obviously hard for me to test but only an install away for others ;-)
Specifically they are:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.ard.audiothek
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.deutschlandfunk.dlfaudiothek
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.eos.uptrade.android.fahrinfo.hamburg
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.deutschlandradio.dlf24

... just close the issue if you think it's not the right place / way to ask for app test ...

Best

Add sitemap

Paypal without gservices

I think there is an error in the paypal score
Paypal
Installed app without google services (with aurora store) has no push notifications
Tested with LineageOS 17.1

What about apps on both F-Droid and Google Play?

The README says this:

NOTE: Plexus is only for applications directly or indirectly from the Google Play Store. Please do not submit applications from F-Droid as they are all expected to work.

What about apps on F-Droid and Google Play? For example, I release all my apps on both. Should I include my apps or not? https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Sylvia+van+Os

Cannot update entries unambiguously

I wanted to update the "eBay Kleinanzeigen" app (extreeeeemely popular in Germany) which has become virtually unusable with MicroG after v11.7.0 (current version is v13.9.0). How would I go about this?

If I enter a new testing date, the current format leads others to believe that on this same date, I tested the app without MicroG as well, which I didn't.

As of Feb 2021, the app has a rating of 3 and μ4. If the MicroG rating plummets to 1, do I simply deduce the other rating must be a 1 (at best)?.

I think just adding separate dates for tests with and without MicroG would solve this, + a note/hint to users that in cases where the MicroG rating is somehow lower, this in all likelihood means the (current version of the) app hasn't been fully vetted.

EDIT: Even better, use the release version instead of a date. People who use LineageOS et al. and who know how to handle Github in order to update the .csv probably also know where to find the version info of the respective app.

`Plexus.csv` file links not working

The links in the readme to the Plexus.csv file are not working. Where is the template file? How can contribute without emailing?

Display example tile with description

The issue:
Not everyone understands what they are looking at. It could be confusing to new comers when they see two scores and all the colors.

The solution:
Build a tile template that is numbered and list their descriptions of what they are/mean.

Double entry

Hey, I've just seen that there are two entries for WhatsApp (once typed "WhatsApp", and once typed "Whatsapp", I believe that's a typo?) in the spreadsheet. I guess that's by accident?

Remove Matrix link/icon

I'm confused about where the source code for this website actually is, because I can't find it in this repo. Anyways, I think the Matrix icon in the footer should be replaced with this code:

<a href="https://discuss.techlore.tech/c/techlore/plexus/12" class="ml-3 md:ml-5 text-gray-100 hover:text-gray-200" rel="noopener" target="_blank">
  <span class="sr-only">Discussion Forum</span>
  <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 448 512" class="w-auto h-6" fill="currentColor"><!--! Font Awesome Pro 6.4.0 by @fontawesome - https://fontawesome.com License - https://fontawesome.com/license (Commercial License) Copyright 2023 Fonticons, Inc. --><path d="M225.9 32C103.3 32 0 130.5 0 252.1 0 256 .1 480 .1 480l225.8-.2c122.7 0 222.1-102.3 222.1-223.9C448 134.3 348.6 32 225.9 32zM224 384c-19.4 0-37.9-4.3-54.4-12.1L88.5 392l22.9-75c-9.8-18.1-15.4-38.9-15.4-61 0-70.7 57.3-128 128-128s128 57.3 128 128-57.3 128-128 128z"></path></svg>
</a>

And the Matrix icon in the header should just be removed.

👍

Better explanations for new users

I just, a week or so ago, installed GrapheneOS on my Pixel 3a, so I am very new to this. I read through the Readme.md and there were a lot of things I don't fully understand. I would like a better explanation of certain words and sentences, etc in the readme.md, so that I as a beginner can start reporting some apps to this project.

Generally, you talk about MicroG, but there is no real explanation for what it is? I download apps mostly from F-droid, but some are from Aurora Store. Is MicroG a competing store? Or is MicroG a service that Aurora is using? Or is it something else...I think a better explanation of MicroG is important here, since it is a term that is used all over the readme.md. The wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroG) didn't help me much either, since it does not mention GrapheneOS at all.

A couple of more things that I think could benefit from a better explanation:

From the section explanation:
"Plexus supports ROMs with simply no Google Play Services, as well as ROMs with MicroG, an open source variation of Google Play Services."

I don't know where, for example, GrapheneOS fits in here. Maybe give a few examples of each option here.

From the section Testing standards:
"Test only Google Play Store applications (Regardless of where they came from)"

What does the last part mean? Does it mean Aurora Store for example?

"No Google Play Services"

What does this mean? Is there some setting I need to disable before testing apps? You say above that MicroG is an open source variation of Google Play Services, so, no MicroG? Or are you saying that MicroG is ok, because it is an open source variant of Google Play Services? I guess I am confused, because, again, I don't really know what MicroG is.

These are just some questions that I had after reading through the readme.md. For the time being I will hold off on contributing with a few apps, in fear of just reporting things wrong, and messing things up...

Incorrect map preview submissions need to be re-verified due to fixed bug

A bug in late 2020 resulted in many people not seeing maps in certain applications which has supposedly been fixed. All apps with missing maps need to be retested to double-check their compatibility. This is something I can investigate myself in the coming week, any help is appreciated in the meantime.

Full App List Webpage

It’d be great if we could get a view similar to the spreadsheet but on the website.

A nice visual representation of all apps on one page including:

• App names
• Ratings
• Alphabetically sorted
• Total amount of apps tested

This could show the extensiveness of everything we’ve tested and allows users to more easily browser through the database.

Allow submissions through the website

• It would lower the entry bar (no need for GH account or to open an email client and write a mail to a person)
• Some extra data could be automatically collected (linking the playstore link of the app could allow for the automatic scraping of package name, version number)
• Some data is easier to collect (month and year of testing, category of the app (perhaps in a friendly drop down menu)
• The submissions could be reviewed manually in order to avoid spam, and a privacy friendly captcha could keep bots away. This does not add too much workload, since all email or github PR submissions are reviewed manually anyways

Santander UK is listed as working, but it does not work (with MicroG)

It's listed as all green: https://plexus.techlore.tech/applications/santander-uk

But for me, when I log in, I get redirected to an "access denied" page - it's completely unusable.

Can someone test Wealthsimple?

If anyone could try Wealthsimple it would be greatly appreciated!

Where does the name Plexus come from/what does it refer to?

It’s nowhere explained what “Plexus” actually means or what it refers to.

To make the size remember-able, one should at least explain that and try to use a name that is easy to remember.

So maybe explain that on the website or at least in the GitHub Readme.

Revamp User Interface to Ditch Number System for End Users

Numbers are perfect for internal spread sheets and and values, but for a website it may be more intuitive to translate these to more visual queues.

Some ideas:
Stars (1-4 stars)
Rank (Gold, silver, bronze) - Similar to ProtonDB

This would replace a generic “4” on the website, and would allow us to better award and represent things with great compatibility. Gold sounds a lot better than 4 :)

@tomkonidas You’d probably be a good person to figure out how to make this change happen with the current site UI

What does X mean?

On the website https://plexus.techlore.tech I do not understand if X means Untested or Does Not Work. Can you actually state what it means?

Include package name?

It might be helpful to also record the package name / Playstore link to uniquely identify an app, as some names are shared by multiple apps (e.g. just try to identify which app is meant by "Music Player"). As this project focuses on apps from Play only, using the URL ("Playstore Link") would make it easier for non-tech-savvy users, though the pure package name would suffice (and can be deduced from the link). It would also make it easier to look it up.

Add support for app categories

Not a priority currently, but down the road adding app categories won’t be very challenging and will allow users to find and categorize apps by a category.

Ex. Users curious what games they can play on GrapheneOS can sort by “Games” on Plexus.

App compatibility contribution

I'm just going to put a list of apps to contribute, but I don't want to edit the csv.

Apps:

App - iAttended
Month Tested - January
Year Tested - 2022
Platform - GrapheneOS
Score - 2
Issue Notes - App launches with no warnings but when you go to login via email link, doesn't log you in

App - Navy Federal Credit Union
Month Tested - January
Year Tested - 2022
Platform - GrapheneOS
Score - 4
Issue Notes - No reported issues

App - SchoolFirst FCU
Month Tested - January
Year Tested - 2022
Platform - GrapheneOS
Score - 4
Issue Notes - No reported issues

App - GroupMe
Month Tested - January
Year Tested - 2022
Platform - GrapheneOS
Score - 1
Issue Notes - Doesn't let you use without google services

App - Canon Camera Connect
Month Tested - January
Year Tested - 2022
Platform - GrapheneOS
Score - 4
Issue Notes - No reported issues

App - Outlook
Month Tested - January
Year Tested - 2022
Platform - GrapheneOS
Score - 3
Issue Notes - Works no notifications

App - PayRange
Month Tested - January
Year Tested - 2022
Platform - GrapheneOS
Score - 3
Issue Notes - Says can't work without Google services, although still lets you log in and scan for washer machines

App - MyCU
Month Tested - January
Year Tested - 2022
Platform - GrapheneOS
Score - 4
Issue Notes - No Issues Reported

App - SimpleLogin
Month Tested - January
Year Tested - 2022
Platform - GrapheneOS
Score - 4
Issue Notes - No Issues Reported

App - Govee Home
Month Tested - January
Year Tested - 2022
Platform - GrapheneOS
Score - 4
Issue Notes - No Issues Reported

App - BLEDIM
Month Tested - January
Year Tested - 2022
Platform - GrapheneOS
Score - 4
Issue Notes - No Issues Reported

Permission to clean up CSV file & fix misformatted comment strings?

I noticed recently while adding my own additions to the CSV file for the #268 pull request that the CSV file appears to render rather messily when opening in something like a spreadsheet program. The reason for this is that people have left comments with commas in them without quotation marks closing off their comment string.

I wanted to ask permission to go through and clean up the CSV file to make it easier to open with a normal spreadsheet program, instead of having to do it in a plain text editor like I did. Also wanted to ask if the instructions for how to make a contribution can be updated to reflect the need to close off comments with quotation marks to prevent this issue from happening again.

Add new sandboxed play services on GrapheneOS

Hi all,

Please add support for the new sandboxed play services on GrapheneOS in addition to the two options "microg" and "de-googled". See: https://grapheneos.org/usage#sandboxed-play-services

Best regards,
PhysicsIsAwesome

Multiple reviews per app

This is how previous successful compatibility review systems do it (https://www.protondb.com/) and (https://appdb.winehq.org/).
Although it does indeed make the interface more complicated, and is perhaps more relevant if multiple conflicting reports arise for some applications. I just wanted to throw the idea out there for discussion.

A full cleanup is required

The dataset has become a bit messy, mostly due to all of the contributors - thanks everyone!

Some things I'm going to do to clean up the dataset:

• Remove all F-Droid apps
• Fix up typos
• Fix "missing map preview" issues due to a patched MicroG bug
• Re-test some questionable submissions
• Fix up notes & descriptions to be cleaner and make more sense

Multi entries?

I've got a bunch of phones.
Should I upload entries for all environments?
I've got some Graphene, Lineage without Gapps, Lineagemicrog, Pixel, Oneplus, Huawei, Garbage1-5 ....

Submissions for lots of closed source apps

GrapheneOS Android 13, no sandboxed Play services or microg, no root

Comdirect Phototan working normally, no push notifications

Comdirect app working normally

SecureGo plus app working, no push notifications

GLS Banking not working without push notifications

GLS mBank working

Spotify working

ebay kleinanzeigen working, no push, no maps

ToxFox: working normally

Peta veganstart: working normally

acr phone: working normally

Cwtch: working normally

foodsharing: working normally

foxit pdf reader: normally (internet off recommended)

xodo pdf: normally (internet off recommended)

snapseed: working normally (internet off recommended)

Google camera: requires google camera services, works perfectly then (internet off recommended)

viral icon pack: working normally (internet off recommended)

App search page and individual app pages show different scores

Take 9GAG, for example.
On the search page scores are X - 4:

But when you open the app page at https://plexus.techlore.tech/applications/9gag it shows X - 3:

Looks like it's caused by the fact that the search page and app page use different JSONs with different data.
Search page uses: https://plexus.techlore.tech/page-data/sq/d/485815842.json
App page uses: https://plexus.techlore.tech/page-data/applications/9gag/page-data.json

There are multiple apps that behave like this.

Some app pages don't work at all. For example https://plexus.techlore.tech/applications/kate-mobile returns a 404.

I tried pulling the repo and building locally - everything works fine.

Rebuilding and redeploying the app should probably fix both issues.

Request: Add Mastodon Official App

Downloaded from Aurora Store, since it's the newest version ahead of Github (I'm unable to do this)

Error in Plexus.csv

There's an error in Plexus.csv, which appears to originate from commit b78e3759566fd47cad3b3159d4907d025f33f87c. Specifically, line 269 has 9 rows instead of 7:

Google Maps,April,2021,2,Cannot add Google account,2,"Cannot open if logged in, works if not logged in",4,No reported issues

I suppose this could be corrected by removing the middle rating, as it seems to be an old rating. Then it would look like this:

Google Maps,April,2021,2,Cannot add Google account,4,No reported issues

Specify whether cloud messaging is on or off for microG

Whether notifications work with microG is usually dependent on whether Google Cloud Messaging has been switched on. Maybe this info would be useful in the notes, in case some notifications don't work even with gcm.