should i remove google play services? (lemdro.id)

submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by goofsqueak@lemdro.id to c/lineageos@lemmy.ml

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i installed lineage on my nothing phone 1, and when i got to the part where you install play services i didn't remember if the apps i use needed play services or not, or if i could install it later. so i installed it, but now im starting to wonder if that was a mistake and if i can do something about it? i honestly barely know anything 🥀

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[-] Auster@thebrainbin.org 5 points 3 days ago

Imo, if you have no use for Google Play's services, or if you have alternatives for them, you probably should removed whatever Google-related services in your phone. Surveilance tool, DRM facilitator, enshittification spearhead, and with bad algorithms at best, suspicion of social engineering at worse, so not something I'd trust in a device of mine at least.

But if you have use for something of theirs and having a secondary phone for that is not viable, not much to be done, I think. Usually banking apps and other service apps don't work without their services, games are a coin flip, and the rest may work without.

Also if you remove Google Play's services, you can still download your apps from elsewhere, like Aurora Store as an alternative Google Play frontend, F-Droid for FOSS stuff, Itch.io for games, APKmirror for Google Play APKs (only free stuff though, nothing paid!), developers' repositories, etc.

[-] goofsqueak@lemdro.id 2 points 3 days ago

ah crap my venmo style app (swish) uses play services and i would prefer to keep it 🥀 is stuff like microG och gapps better? and if they are better, is there any way i can remove the default play services?

[-] Auster@thebrainbin.org 1 points 3 days ago

GAPPs is "Google Apps", of which iirc the app Google Play Services is a part of.

MicroG to my knowledge is a reimplementation of Google Play's services (not just the app but the services it provides), but by default privacy-oriented, not tracking the user unlike the original apps, and you can choose which parts of the services ("APIs") MicroG uses from Google. Some trial and error for enabling/disabling services may be needed for apps to work though.

To remove Google Play Services, if you installed it as a system app, I'm not familiar with the process but I'd presume you'd have to remove it through the bootloader, assuming also you keep your phone unlocked as you mentioned you use LineageOS. If you installed it as an app, you can uninstall it as any other app, though from experience, some apps will misbehave for a few days, like sending notifications about not finding Google Play Services, Whatsapp insisting on making a Google Drive backup, etc., though those stopped after a while.

this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2026

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