Why. Why. Why does an app REQUIRE Google Play Store spyware to run?

I do NOT understand WHY this app REQUIRES Google Play Store spyware to run. Can you explain why?

Anyone can reproduce what I found out after testing on another phone. (1) Run Network Cell Info Lite version 20 Oct 2022 and it works

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(2) Disable the latest Android 12 Google Play Store for privacy Settings > Apps > Your apps > Google Play Store > Disable (3) Run Network Cell Info Lite and it crashes in light of privacy

It's repeatable. (4) Turn on the Android 12 Google Play Store spyware Settings > Apps > Your apps > Google Play Store > Turn on (5) Run Network Cell Info Lite version 20 Oct 2022 and it works

This is the privacy you lose with the application that I tested above.

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These are my versions: Android version 12 Google Play system update version March 1, 2022 Android security patch level September 1, 2022 Google Play Store version 32.9.14-21 [0][PR]482870704 (83291410)

The app can't even open up unless Google Play Store spyware is running. Why?

No other apps that I have need that. For example, this is a very similar (almost exact) app and it works great.

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Why would an app REQUIRE Google Play Store spyware to be running?

Reply to
Erholt Rhein
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Hi Arlen.

Reply to
e.day

I followed your instructions with a few exceptions:

  1. I'm using Android 11 on a Moto G Power (2020).
  2. I'm using Network Cell Info Pro, not Lite.
  3. I forced stop the Google Play Store app and then disabled it. Network Cell Info Pro worked normally and did not hang.

I don't know. Try clearing the cache for the Play Store and for Network Cell Info Lite.

Bug report it to the developers and use a different app until it's fixed. It's a good app and worth the $4.99 investment:

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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Simplest explanation is that the author (like 99.whatever% of android phone users) has play store enabled, developed the app and didn't even think to test it without play store, maybe the software want a unique identifier to crowdsource data from the users, and if it can't get one it handles that poorly?

Reply to
Andy Burns

Because most apps use Google Firebase for the analytics and push notifications and because of that almost all Play Store apps require the "Play Store Services" as a soft dependency. You can technically run those apps without the "Play Store Services" but you will have a neutered experience.

If you want to have a Google-less experience try using F-Droid and only using apps from there.

Reply to
5GyYap52yQ1UGMWD

My mistake for not saying you must reboot before it really takes hold. It's counter intuitive. I agree. But you have to reboot to really test.

Can you try again after rebooting?

As an extra test, I disabled & forcestopped Google Play Services and nothing happened out of the ordinary until I rebooted.

When I rebooted, one by one, all the Google apps which are apparently dependent upon Google Play Services issued complaining notifications.

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Speech Services by Google won't work unless you enable Google Play Services Google Calendar Sync won't work unless you enable Google Play Services Google Partner Setup won't work unless you enable Google Play Services Device Health Services won't work unless you enable Google Play Services Maps won't work unless you enable Google Play Services Google Wi-Fi Provisioner won't work unless you enable Google Play Services

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It was my fault for not realizing you must reboot (which I had done many times so I had forgotten about the reboot as a necessary part of the test).

I don't know either. That's why I asked. I suspect it's linked to some spyware that is in the Google Play Store app.

If they're linking to Google spyware on purpose, why would they tell me?

I linked to a different app which works without Google Play Store running.

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If the app is doing what it appears to be doing, that's a bad investment. It appears to be spyware but I don't know that for absolutely sure.

That is why I asked if others can reproduce what I'm seeing. Did you reproduce what I saw AFTER you rebooted?

(Again, I apologize that I did not state that I had rebooted many times before I reported what my test results were in the original post).

This isn't at all about what the app does though. This question is only why the app needs to have Google Play Store running.

Reply to
Erholt Rhein

You need to be very clear whether you're talking Google Play Store or Google Play Services because they're completely different on Android.

Specifically I disabled & forcestopped only the Google Play Store module and not the Google Play Services module for the test initially described.

Checking again, this is the initial test condition: ENABLED/RUNNING Google Play Services 22.42.12 DISABLED/FORCESTOPPED Google Play Store 32.9.14-21

In checking my tests I forgot to mention in the original post that a reboot is required even if the app was both disabled and forcestopped in Android.

Apparently pressing "Force stop" doesn't do what anyone would think it does since a reboot is required as can be shown when I tested your suggestion.

Based on your suggestion, I tested this reverse scenario: DISABLED/FORCESTOPPED Google Play Services 22.42.12 ENABLED/RUNNING Google Play Store 32.9.14-21

In that test, the app still worked but that's when I realized things are DIFFERENT once you reboot after disabling and force stopping programs.

Even turning off both and testing, the app still worked! DISABLED/FORCESTOPPED Google Play Services 22.42.12 DISABLED/FORCESTOPPED Google Play Store 32.9.14-21

Yet rebooting after the test condition above, the app crashed as before.

Unfortunately, too many other errors resulted from Google Play Services disabled/forcestopped/rebooted as shown by notifictions after reboot. ERROR

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Enable Google Play Services [Name-of-app] won't work unless you enable Google Play Services

If someone else can confirm the following, that would help all. (1) Install the app and make sure it pops up when tapped (2) Disable & force stop Google Play Store in Android settings (3) Reboot (this is the part I had forgotten I had done many times) (4) Try to run the app

In my case, the app crashes if Google Play Store is not running. If that happens for others, the important question to ask is why.

Reply to
Erholt Rhein

You said to disable "Google Play Store" app. What you probably meant was disable "Google Play Services". I just disabled both.

Done. Network Cell Info Pro works normally.

I got the same things when I disabled "Google Play Services". When I ran Network Cell Info Pro, the app complained "Network Cell Info Pro won't work unless you enable Google Play service". I managed to back out of the error message and tested the various pages. I don't have an easy way to compare with the normal screens, but it looks like everything except the maps, are present and functional. Other than obnoxious notifications, no oddities and no hangs.

OK, I enabled Google Play Services, left Google Play Store disabled, and rebooted (from power off state). Network Cell Info Pro works normally. No hangs.

Did you try clearing the cache as I suggested? I know it's a basic solution, but it works quite often when I get calls for application hangs.

I'm out of time and late for a free lunch. Bug me later if you want me to try anything else.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Occam's Razor would tend to agree with you that it's just an innocent coding error this particular author (and no others that I know of) has made.

Certainly it's reproduceable on a new phone that this app won't come up if the Google Play Store is disabled, force stopped, & the phone rebooted.

That means the app is definitely interacting with the Google Play Store app (in a way that most other apps as far as we know do NOT interact that way).

Based on your previous advice a few months ago when this topic came up

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From Windows I connected via adb to the phone over wifi and then typed C:\> adb pair 192.168.1.3:35461 692572 Successfully paired to 192.168.1.3:35461 [guid=adb-MODEL-SERIAL] C:\> adb logcat ActivityManager:I MyApp:D *:S

I was surprised that worked because "MyApp" shouldn't exist. The app is actually "Network Cell Info Lite" "com.wilysis.cellinfolite".

Nonetheless, this output occurs whenever I tap on the app & it crashes.

11-02 11:25:00.346 1432 1476 I ActivityManager: Start proc 17023:com.wilysis.cellinfolite/u0a332 for pre-top-activity {com.wilysis.cellinfolite/com.wilysis.cellinfo.Arxikh} 11-02 11:25:00.376 1432 1700 I ActivityManager: DSS OFF for com.wilysis.cellinfolite 11-02 11:25:00.383 1432 1468 I ActivityManager: Changes in 10332 19 to 2, 0 to 15 11-02 11:25:00.594 1432 1476 I ActivityManager: Start proc 17113:com.google.android.webview:sandboxed_process0:org.chromium.content.app.SandboxedProcessService0:0/u0i7 for {com.wilysis.cellinfolite/org.chromium.content.app.SandboxedProcessService0:0} 11-02 11:25:00.594 1432 1476 I ActivityManager: check webview name : com.google.android.webview:sandboxed_process0:org.chromium.content.app.SandboxedProcessService0:0check hostingname webview : {com.wilysis.cellinfolite/org.chromium.content.app.SandboxedProcessService0:0} 11-02 11:25:00.617 1432 1652 I ActivityManager: DSS OFF for com.wilysis.cellinfolite 11-02 11:25:00.621 1432 1652 I ActivityManager: Changes in 99007 20 to 3, 0 to 15 11-02 11:25:00.651 1432 1700 W ActivityManager: Unable to start service Intent { act=com.android.vending.licensing.ILicensingService pkg=com.android.vending } U=0: not found 11-02 11:25:00.704 1432 3317 I ActivityManager: Process com.wilysis.cellinfolite (pid 17023) has died: fg TOP (171,1468) 11-02 11:25:00.706 1432 3317 I ActivityManager: Killing 17113:com.google.android.webview:sandboxed_process0:org.chromium.content.app.SandboxedProcessService0:0/u0a332i7 (adj 0): isolated not needed 11-02 11:25:00.706 1432 3317 I ActivityManager: Changes in 99007 3 to 19, 15 to 0

I don't know which lines matter but these seems to be important. (1) Unable to start service ILicensingService (2) pkg=com.android.vending (3) Process com.wilysis.cellinfolite has died (4) Killing com.google.android.webview:sandboxed_process

Notice the official name of the "Google Play Store" app is "com.android.vending" so there is no doubt the correlation.

I suspect there is a "licensing service" inside of the Google Play Store app (aka "com.android.vending") which is called "com.android.vending.licensing.ILicensingService") that the app "com.wilysis.cellinfolite" is depending upon that no other app in my new Android 12 phone is dependent upon.

I suspect it's spyware but I don't know that for a fact.

All I know for sure is the app requires Google Play Store to be running in order to come up on an Android 12 phone.

Reply to
Erholt Rhein

Oh yeah. I was just going with what I remembered at that moment. Yes, I'm referring to the Google Play Services app.

This wouldn't do anything significant since the whole thing relies on the "Services" app anyway.

Yes, that's the issue. A lot of apps from the Play Store requires the "Services" app to be even functional.

As I said, it's because they're using Google's own push notifications and analytics system. A lot of app developers don't really care that much about user privacy and would rather use a proprietary implementation that's easy to include in their project.

The only way out of it is to either use F-Droid apps which doesn't not rely on Google's Firebase code or use a "Play Services Emulator" like microG. The latter, however, requires you to fully wipe and reinstall your phone's system ROM. That might not be possible depending on the phone that you are currently using.

Reply to
5GyYap52yQ1UGMWD

On Tue, 01 Nov 2022 23:14:42 -0500, e.day snipped-for-privacy@panix.co wrote as underneath :

Thanks for detecting!

Reply to
Charlie+

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