This isn’t a rant like last time I swear (but in a way it kinda is). I have a technical question.

So I’m pretty sure whatsappshould in theory work without google play services, as in it’s only optional. But I recently debloated my samsung (still using One UI) via ADB and deleted my google account and all of this nasty stuff.

As you know, I can’t ditch WhatsApp so I had to keep it, but it turns out that after debloating I couldn’t enter the app unless my phone is disconnected from wifi, other than that it would crash instantly. If I reinstall Play Services, the app works fine even if I disable PS and freeze it and strip all of its permissions; it just has to be present for WA to work.

I’m suspecting it might have to do with gdrive chat backup because I used to use that feature a year back? As I said I deleted my google account and prior to doing so I removed Whatsapp’s access to drive and had the cloud backup option set to “never”. Or is it something to do with notifications? I’m not sure anymore but it’s kinda frustrating to have Play Services on my phone when in theory Whatsapp doesn’t need it to function.

I tried doing a fresh install of WhatsApp but to no avail, tried it from Aurora store, Apkpure and also Whatsapp’s official website.

  • Mad
    2·
    2 years ago

    probably hardcoded in there or something, because if everything in PS is disabled it’s not actually using any of it. try microg or a cracked version of whatsapp from some shady site

    • Tatar_Nobility@lemmy.mlOP
      3·
      2 years ago

      from some shady site

      Lmao why would I do that

      And I’m also not sure if microg works on stock rom, one that has play services “uninstalled” via ADB

  • Ephera@lemmy.ml
    2·
    2 years ago

    So, uh, what’s your question? 🙃

    I have WhatsApp on my phone and never had Google Play Services on this OS installation. I installed WhatsApp from their official webpage.

    My guess would’ve been that the Play Store version (which you’ll also get when you install from Aurora Store or ApkPure) makes use of the Play Services, and you need the APK from their official webpage for a version that doesn’t need it, but you already tried that.
    I don’t know, maybe try doing that again and make sure you really don’t have any old WhatsApp installed etc.?

    You could also try whether installing WhatsApp into your “work profile” behaves differently. I would recommend that from a privacy viewpoint anyways (prevents WhatsApp from accessing all your contacts), and maybe in your work profile, there won’t be whatever is left of the Play Services.

    You can install an app into the work profile with one of these apps:

    Personally, I’m currently using the latter, but AFAIK, they’re functionally equivalent. The heavy lifting (the actual work profile) is provided by Android anyways.

    • Tatar_Nobility@lemmy.mlOP
      2·
      2 years ago

      My friend, as I’ve specified in my post, I did try installing the app from their webpage but that also did not work.

      I also do use WhatsApp on my work profile (though I experimented with installing in the main profile)

      Anyways, thank you for taking some time to help. I appreciate it.