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Running *without* Google Play Services installed

Zacarias
over 7 years ago
Hi.

Before buying a forerunner watch I'm trying to find out if having an
Android phone *without* Google Play Services installed will be a
problem (I know I can install them, but that's something I don't
want to do).

I've already installed the APK (copied from a phone which does
have Google Play Services) and everything "seems" to work.
However I don't have a Garmin watch to test with.

Has anyone run this kind of setup before?
What "limitations" are you finding?

Thanks.
  • 0 over 7 years ago
    You can do a partial test by entering a manual activity, sleep record, and weight in Connect web and then pull down on the display to see if it appears in mobile Connect. If so, you know you're halfway there. Then you can either edit what you synced or create new records in mobile Connect and sync it back to web Connect. That will be a good predictor. Then there's always express to fill any gaps.
  • 0 over 7 years ago
    That's a great suggestion. Thanks.

    For anyone else also wondering, these are my results: I've tried sync'ing in both ways and it seems to work (great!). Whatever I edit on the web app immediately appears on the mobile app and the other way around.

    One thing I know for sure is that not having Google Play Services installed will prevent the mobile app from receiving notifications from Garmin (instead, I guess, they will manually be retrieved every time I open the mobile app).

    But, does the mobile app receive notifications? Are these common? What type of notifications (if any) does the mobile app usually receive from Garmin?

    All in all, it looks like it's not going to be as painful as I thought :)

    In any case, here goes a suggestion for Garmin developers: please try to make things more open:
    - Publish the mobile app in alternative stores (not just the Google Play Store)
    - Ideally, also offer the APK for downloading from your website
    - EVEN more ideally, think about making the mobile app open source!
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 7 years ago
    That's a great suggestion. Thanks.

    For anyone else also wondering, these are my results: I've tried sync'ing in both ways and it seems to work (great!). Whatever I edit on the web app immediately appears on the mobile app and the other way around.

    One thing I know for sure is that not having Google Play Services installed will prevent the mobile app from receiving notifications from Garmin (instead, I guess, they will manually be retrieved every time I open the mobile app).

    But, does the mobile app receive notifications? Are these common? What type of notifications (if any) does the mobile app usually receive from Garmin?

    All in all, it looks like it's not going to be as painful as I thought :)

    In any case, here goes a suggestion for Garmin developers: please try to make things more open:
    - Publish the mobile app in alternative stores like androidapksbox, apkpure or apk mirror (not just the Google Play Store)
    - Ideally, also offer the APK for downloading from your website
    - EVEN more ideally, think about making the mobile app open source!


    Agree with you, i also want to use garmin but i don't have google play store installed on my device. Official APK is needed for us who don't have google play store app.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 7 years ago
    I agree with you, i have xiaomi with no gplay. I hope there is official app for Android without gplay.
  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Former Member

    over 2 years after ...

    Do you still use the app without Google Play?

    Thanks a lot!

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to WEBASCHTL

    I do!

    I'm currently using (on my phone) the "microG" flavor of Lineage (see here: https://lineage.microg.org/) which uses signature spoofing to make apps "think" they are talking to Google Services.

    With this, Garmin apps are 99% functional and everything works perfect except for some delayed notification from time to time and rare crashes (which, to be fair, might also be present on a regular phone, maybe?).

    Before that I was using the regular flavor of Lineage without microG nor GApps for more than one year and I would say it was ~70% functional (being maps of my runs the big missing piece, as they would not be displayed and/or the app would crash when trying to open them).

    In conclusion: using a Google-free android phone with Garmin apps is completely possible as of 2020.

    PS: I think android is dead and we should all support "raw" linux phones such as the "Pine Phone" (see here: https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/). Having working Garmin apps for that platform will certainly be very hard unless Garmin steps in and makes their apps open source.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 4 years ago in reply to Zacarias

    Where did you download the app? I am thinking of switching to Calyxos and the app would be a must-have for me.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Former Member

    First, install "f-droid" manually, from here -> https://www.f-droid.org/

    F-droid is an alternative to the Google Play Store that only contains open source software. One of these open source apps is called "Aurora store". Install it.

    "Aurora store" is another alternative store that contains *the same apps* as the original Google Play Store (app checksums are exactly the same, thus you can be sure there is no "extra" undesired malware).

    At this point you have two stores on your phone:

    • "F-droid", which only contains open source apps.
    • "Aurora", which contains a copy of the close source apps from Google Play. You can install "Garmin Connect" from here.

    By the way, what I do is I always try to *only* use "F-droid", and fall back to "Aurora" exclusively for those cases where an open source version of the app does not exist yet (ie. "Garmin Connect" and "Whatsapp").

    PS: Don't forget to donate to those open source projects you use and enjoy! :)

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 4 years ago in reply to Zacarias

    Okay, thank you Slight smile

    stay healty!!