Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> wrote:

Q: What's going on?
A: There is a newly added hidden handshake happening every time you
open a modern app. If you use a standard setup, it happens so fast
you never notice it. But if you try to use your phone anonymously,
that handshake fails, the app freezes, and Google demands a login.

GrapheneOS warn you if an app is using the Play Integrity API. Most apps continue as normal, but some banking apps refuse to work. I've never had an app demand a Google login (that I can remember, anyway). It's only a
handful of apps I have that are making Play Integrity checks (WhatsApp,
Garmin Connect, maybe eBay are the few I have that do it regularly), but obviously if an app just flat doesn't work then I'm not running it. Aside
from banking, I recall one taxi app wouldn't let me make an account to use
it - I just used a different taxi company.

Some apps won't run if they have been installed from a location other than
the Play Store. The trick there is to install them another way in the
primary user profile (eg via .apk or Aurora Store) then launch a secondary
user profile with a Google account and install them via the Play Store,
which will automatically update the app in the primary profile to having the 'installed by Play Store' flag (only one copy of an app can be installed
across the system). You can then stop the secondary profile and carry on
using the app in the primary profile. If you deny the app network access in the secondary profile it can't phone home anything relating to the Google account it was installed with, and if your primary profile doesn't have a Google account then it can't get hold of that ID.

Theo

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)