hey, at least I can disable it

and I did just that

so uhh

I think I uninstalled the only way to install APKs...?

I guess it's com.google.android.packageinstaller

yeah, on a non-Google Android system it should be com.android.packageinstaller, but maybe Google modified the APK installer?

alright new user

and it SUCCEEDED!?!

LIKE, EVEN THE PLAY SERVICES?!?!?!?!?!?!?

WOW THIS IS A MOOD

btw the Play Store is actually called com.android.vending

uninstalling that too

this is so forbidden and good it must be lewd

sorry for not CWing

this is what a Google-less unrooted Xperia looks like on first boot

On the left, my regular account, has Google.

On the right, my test account, has no Google.

Now, there's things that are left unanswered for now. Can you uninstall Play Services with an already used account? Can you run adb somehow before the phone boots up for the first time, so you can make sure you have a 100% clean Android session? Can you automate the deletion every time you add an account, particularly with guest accounts? Is there any hidden backdoor I have yet to notice?

This is still amazing though, mind you

can't install microG, guess that if you uninstall Play Services you are opting out of all apps that require it

WhatsApp seems to work without Play Services, I'm not willing to give them a number to try out tho. I do know things such as location should be based on it tho

Is there any specific Play-only app I should look at?

A cute detail of the Aurora Store is that it tells you whenever apps are GSF (Play Services) dependent or not

Sadly, most Play apps aren't, and most GSF dependent apps will unavoidably crash

But hey. Snapseed works. And that's all that matters.

This is what peak performance looks like

Trying to give a try to uninstalling Play Services with my main account, I just realized why it's not possible: it's set as a device owner (the closest thing to root in a non-rooted Android), which cannot be undone unless from inside the app itself - something that I doubt Google wants me to do.

So yeah, only three ways to properly uninstall Play Services:

- find an exploit in the Play Services app,
- find an explot in Android itself, OR
- wipe the device

There's also another challenge: if you uninstall every input method provided by the system, you won't be able to type your password in an encrypted phone unless ADB is enabled.

Yeah, I don't know how to feel about this one.

Actually, that only applies with safe mode, so I think we're safe here

This phone is basically begging to be wiped, I'll do a few more backups and then I'll dab on em spies

Current mood: struggling to find out how to prevent the Play Services from becoming the device owner

Apparently you need to do NFC provisioning to set a device owner... and how do you do that?

So, you have to put the phone in contact with an NFC device (like another phone!) in order to #provision a device owner. However, you still need to be able to somehow install the device owner APK... how can you do that if you don't even have ADB...?

Apparently it can download the device owner/device policy controller/admin app from the Internet. I'm afraid it probably relies on Google Play for that, though.

what the hell, apparently there's even a more unknown QR provisioning mode

AHHHHHHHHH I JUST FOUND OUT HOW TO TELL ANDROID WHERE TO DOWNLOAD THE APK FROM

I CAN ACTUALLY MAKE A CUSTOM APP THAT REPLACES GOOGLE PLAY

Installed a demo app. The moment of truth, let's see if I can uninstall Play Services with this one!

wait, can there be *two* device policy managers?

Oh, Google...

Well

I kept trying

and it worked somehow

Basically, I just tried to uninstall every Google package except com.google.android.packageinstaller and com.google.android.webview, I think that was it

Firefox, sweet Firefox

oh god

I just realized a mistake of mine

there's no camera app in here and I don't know why???

I know where the APKs are but I get INSTALL_PARSE_FAILED_NO_CERTIFICATES

Maybe adb shell cmd package install-existing can do it

Yup! That worked!

It should also work as a way to restore Play Services, funnily enough - so that's pretty flexible!