Yesterday I decided to create a second profile on my Pixel 5 with GrapheneOS. The idea was that I would only keep Google Play Services (GPS) and Google Play Store (GPS2) there together with WhatsApp (need it go my kids school) and bank apps, and therefore shut down second profile for most of the time. So, I deleted GPS and GPS2 on the main profile and since then, I have Signal Messaging complaining that it requires GPS. I know I ough to probably be complaining with Signal developers, but before I go down that route I just wanted to reassure myself that this is normal behaviour. Presumably, Signal is complaining that it requires GPS only because its the only way it can notify a user that an update is available? I’ve done some minimal tests and it seems to be working normally, despite GPS is not installed on the main profile. I guess I could move to SimpleX and ditch Signal but that would be tough given I spent years convincing people to move to Signal 🙂
Signal uses Play Services for its push notifications. It does have a fallback method which maintains a connection to their servers to get message notifications. It requires changing some battery optimisation settings which might have some minor battery impacts.
Personally I’m using Molly which implements UnifiedPush for Push Notifications without Molly/Signal needing to run in the background constantly. Also swaps a few other Google dependencies (like location pins) with open source alternatives.
Having the second profile with Google Services is a good idea though. That was what I used to do before I shed my last few Google dependencies.
But then UnifiedPush instead needs to constantly run in the background though? So where is the benefit over Signal’s fallback method for push notifications? Is it that UnifiedPush could be used for many other apps at the same time?
That’s pretty much exactly it. Not much benefit for only one application. But I have multiple apps that all recieves notifications via UnifiedPush. My UnifiedPush client (ntfy) stays running in the background, the rest of the apps can go to sleep and get woken up if something haopens.
Personally I’m using Molly
Me too, but even with no limit to battery usage it still gets killed after a while in the background…
Removed by mod
Is that with using UnifiedPush or the WebSocket notification method?
Seems to be websocket as it doesn’t require extra configuration.
There are a couple of dependencies that I will find hard to get rid of like bank authentication. Its getting really hard to find banks that will allow 2FA via methods that don’t require the app.
No, Google Play Services in any form is spyware.
Replace signal with molly (a signal fork). It still works with signal perfectly, but does not complain about Google Play services.
Molly.im does not have a lot of documentation. Does it equally rely on a centralised server? If it does, then surely one of the downsides is that there probably isn’t a huge foundation behind it ensuring the bills are paid, etc. Or is it that Molly is piggy backing on Signal servers? And is the Signal Foundation happy to be have Molly users using its services? How long before Signal Foundation kicks Molly users off it servers?
Also I note u can download two different version: one with Google blobs and one without. What compromise do I have to make if I choose the Google version?
Molly uses Signals servers, meaning you can chat with people that use Signal. As far as I know Signal does allow for third party clients, so as long as their stance doesn’t change Molly should work. Differences between the versions can be found here
Its the first time i hear about Molly … Cant believe i didnt know about it
Right up there with: “Does my pimp love me?”
You need to reinstall Signal for it to fall back to its own push notification system. This is not about updates but checking for messages in the background. This doesn’t mean you cannot receive messages at all without it, just that you’d have to do so manually by opening the app every time.
It may have worked for a little while, but a reinstall is required for restoring full functionality
spent years convincing people to move to Signal
It’s not linear. The first time they probably thought “Oh… another chat app, such a big deal, so complex! I’ll never manage” but now that they did with Signal and realize it’s not that hard, having another will be much easier.
Now on the actual question, I do not know. What actual information does Google get from it and as importantly what can they infer from it? Might actually be good to ask Signal developers since it’s because of their choice.
Related discussions https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/issues/14203 which suggests https://signal.org/android/apk/ might not need GPS and isn’t delivered via Play Store.
I run a Signal Bridge to a Matrix server, then Element with ntfy notifications. I think you can do the same with Molly and ntfy.
No. Next question.
Langis is Signal with the GPS requirement removed.
You can hide the Error notification type (at least in AOSP Android 15).
