Are there any Nostr phone clients that do NOT require Google Play services, or any (minimal) permissions? (i.e. are privacy focused, and partner well with GrapheneOS?)
Would love to hear from Graphene users....
Thanks!
#asknostr
#plebchain
Discussion
YES! Aurora anon login and fdroid are both completely anon
Amethyst can be downloaded via fdroid and Aurora, for instance
Amethyst still requires quite a few permissions...
I'm looking for something that a) doesn't require anything of Google, and b) minimizes the requested permissions...
Maybe Amethyst is as good as it gets, but hoping for something with less permissions...
Thanks!
Another popular method is using PWAs like nostrudel - graphene inherently reduces attack surfaces even with permissions granted from amethyst - but to my knowledge that is the best it gets I believe. I may be missing a client still myself.
I also just checked and I have 0 Google services installed and used fdroid to install amethyst - so I guess I don't get what you refer to as "Google permissions" cause it doesn't have any. Unless you're speaking of backend reliance in which case I have no clue on.
Yes, it's the backend support--so (for example) if you go to Aurora and search for "nostr" you'll see the clients - and many (most?) of them say "requires GSF" (Google Services Framework).
Now some apps may say they require GSF but run fine without. For others, no so...
And while you can install Google services on Graphene in a sandbox I'd prefer not to...and (of course) there are other permissions as well.
So--looking for recommendations 😃 (i.e. "stand on the shoulders of others" as it were)
I see - in that regard it makes perfect sense.
I knew there was a compatibility layer - but I thought that only applied when Google services and frameworks were installed - and since I don't have any, I'm surmising amethyst still uses that compatibility layer regardless - so I'm still learning a lot.
The safest option I can think of is a PWA client for nostr - but I'm interested in something like that too.
Afaik, amethyst supports using unified push for notifications which doesn't rely on Google infrastructure afaik.
What permissions does it require on fdroid for you?
nostr:npub1gcxzte5zlkncx26j68ez60fzkvtkm9e0vrwdcvsjakxf9mu9qewqlfnj5z will know best.
I am posting this from Amethyst on GrapheneOS right now. Works great. I get updates from Obtainium. There's a build without Google services but it still shows notifications if you want them.
Hmmm...thanks...I'll look into it. Trying out Primal for the time being (not exactly the same as Primal desktop, but getting use to it).
Thanks again--will give Amethyst a try. Is the version on F-droid the one without Google services?
Yes. It's on the IzzyOnDroid repo. Which is good because the official F-Droid one is slowwww at pushing updates.