Google Play Store?

Teracube 2e
#1

I got my new Mureno Teracube 2E. I’m confused! It’s not supposed to have anything Google on it, correct?? Is the App Lounge that came on it Google Play Store in disguise?

The App Lounge/App Management keeps telling me I have an update for the Google Play Store. I don’t see Google Play Store anywhere, and I certainly didn’t install it!! In app Management, where there is a button to install the update, there are three little dots. Clicking on these gives the option to uninstall. When I click uninstall, what comes up is " FakeStore" that I could uninstall.

What IS this. Now I’m suspicious of the App Lounge. I assumed that, since App Lounge came with the phone that installing apps via it was safe (non-Google APKs). Am I wrong? Please help me understand!

Again, I am a recent iphone convert (been Mac/IOS since the 80s). I’m still in the middle of my learning curve. Be gentle!:slightly_smiling_face:

Thanks!

#2

The App Lounge is an opensource app store with the source code available here. It uses certain APIs to provide applications, and these APIs are obtained from other opensource/free apps.

image

FakeStore is an empty package that mimics the existence of Google Play Store, but it is a dummy app that is required to satisfy some dependencies required by microG, which is a free and open-source implementation of proprietary Google libraries that serves as a replacement for Google Play Services. microG is shipped with /e/ to satisfy the user’s need of a few apps requiring Google Play Services for example, payments that require the GMS API, and such. This implementation doesn’t necessarily send personal data to Google, though.

/e/ OS by default, does not come with ANY Google Services preinstalled. Even the server details used for checking if the device has a network connection have been replaced with their own alternatives/self-hosted options from /e/.

If you feel unsafe with App Lounge, I’d suggest you go through the source code for it or go with an alternative like F-Droid, which only provides opensource apps and while it might be “safe”, it might not give you all the apps you require on a day to day basis.

4 Likes
#3

Thanks, Gagan! I appreciate the response!

1 Like