[Q] Google in the sandbox

hi,

there is no end of praise from me for this project. i believe it is the most important FLOSS project within the android ecosystem, save maybe for FLOSS androids themselves.

different people use it to different ends. some people want a completely free/libre OS that runs common apps. some people want to sever the ties with Google without crippling their platform to unusable levels, mainly because of privacy concerns. some people want it for efficiency reasons, to limit data and power wasted by google's services.

me, i want to continue using many Google's services. what i absolutely cannot stand is giving Google root access on my phone because i want to use the Gmail app, or any other productivity app. stuff like the Play store and Play Services with their bypassing of the OS security (install apps, remove apps, remote attestation, etc, all behind your back) has to absolutely go.

in essence, i want to eliminate all google code that has elevated privileges, but i have no issue with running non-free google code as long as it is sandboxed using the usual android app sandboxing. this objective is less ambitious than microG's.

i've partially succeeded at this by installing microG with stuff like Google's contact and calendar sync apps. but some google apps (eg: Hangouts) crash, presumably because they are running against microG's re-implementation of the google account client.

would it be possible to scale down a microG installation and use Google's account implementation (and any other proprietary services required), with the limitation that all non-free code must run as regular sandboxed apps?

i don't know enough about the structure of google services to even propose experiments to try out. maybe only @mar-v-in knows these things.

thanks for the project and the help!

Start by reviewing the microG installation components and Google's account implementation mentioned in the issue, then investigate why apps such as Hangouts crash against microG. Done means establishing whether the required proprietary services can run as regular sandboxed apps without elevated privileges, and documenting the result or a concrete implementation path.