GrapheneOS - User Profile and Google Services Setup

Privacy and Security Get Advice
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This is incorrect. Any app can interface with sandboxed Google Play Services in the same profile, therefore the only way to ensure certain apps don’t utilize Play Services is to keep them in separate profiles. Sandboxed Google Play is a security feature which prevents Google Play from deeply rooting itself in your phone with a lot of system privileges, but it is not a privacy feature, in the sense that it does not provide a significant privacy advantage over standard Google Play.

Right now I’m assuming that by “profiles” you mean entirely separate user accounts that you switch between on the lock screen, like:

  1. User Account 1: No Play Services, F-Droid Apps
  2. User Account 2: Play Services, Non-Personal Apps
  3. User Account 3: Play Services, Personal Apps

You could look into using an app like Shelter which creates a Work Profile, allowing you to merge your first and second (or second and third) profiles you currently have into a single user, which is slightly more convenient, like:

  • User Account 1:
    • Personal Profile: No Play Services, F-Droid Apps
    • Work Profile: Play Services, Non-Personal Apps
  • User Account 2: Play Services, Personal Apps
Alternative Setups

Since I don’t really care if the apps I have that require Google Play have access to my personal Google account, my personal setup is a single user account:

  • User Account 1:
    • Personal Profile: No Play Services, F-Droid Apps
    • Work Profile: Play Services Apps

This is slightly less private in some sense, but it is a lot more convenient because it does not require user switching. I can get notifications from both profiles at once on the same lock screen, which is very useful.

Or, a maybe overkill setup could use Shelter in both users and could look like:

  • User Account 1: (Exclusively Non-Personal Apps)
    • Personal Profile: No Play Services, Non-Personal F-Droid/APKMirror Apps
    • Work Profile: Play Services, Non-Personal Apps
  • User Account 2: (Exclusively Personal Apps)
    • Personal Profile: No Play Services, Personal F-Droid/APKMirror Apps
    • Work Profile: Play Services, Personal Apps
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