this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2024
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As much as I hate Google and the Play Store, I trust it more than third party app stores. APKPure, Aptoide, APKMirror... They all sound a bit sketchy to me. Because if you think about it, there's absolutely no way to verify that the APK files they serve haven't been diddled with, since the Google Play store doesn't give a file hash that would enable me to verify the file's signature independently. Not to mention, their apps have a knack for displaying obnoxious advertisement at full screen and full volume.
And even if I did trust them, do you find this normal? Why is Google allowed to make me jump through hoops and compromise my security with impunity?
This comment about the app signature should apply to your situation too, you can't mess with an APK and then sign it with the Google Play keys.
APKMirror is the most trustworthy website there is for APKs out there, if you do some research you will see that the community consensus is it being pretty safe.
I do however understand your concern, especially when talking about banking apps. Honestly now that I think about it, for a banking app I'd rather make a burner Google Account as well. For less sensitive apps however, APKMirror is the best non Google way to get their APKs.
About the app, I have no idea, I only ever used the website (with uBlock).
Obviously it sucks that you need a Google account to access all these apps "properly" through the Play Store, for free apps they should really just let you download them without an account.
Without mentioning that most of the time (and probably depending where you live) you won't find your banking app in there, nor in the Aurora Store usually.
Hmm no, if it's in the Google Play store, it's in Aurora too - kind of by definition.
I live in a Central American country where I simply can't find my banking app in Aurora Store or in APKMirror (or any of those sites), and when I search the app name in Google Play it's there, so I guess it has some kind of logic since the app uses anonymous Google accounts that are probably located in a country where it makes no sense that my banking app is there, I mean, why should my Central American banking app be shown in US for example?
If you log out of Aurora and use the "insecure" option you may have better luck. By default, Aurora's location is in France but the insecure log-in is where you or your vpn location is.
Interesting... I sort of assumed everybody in the world had the same view of the Google Play store. Like for instance, my bank has subsidiaries in many countries, and I can see all the national versions of their apps in the Play Store as well as in Aurora. But now that you mention it, it's possible that not everybody can download everything everywhere.
Although that seems quite wrong: what if you travel to, say, France or Italy, you need to update your banking app while you reside there and you can't see the app? That sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Then again, it's Google. They are kind of a giant disaster for millions of people who don't need their aggravation...
I suppose in the case where I'm using Google Play with a Google account, the most likely thing is that I'll be able to update without a problem because my account is in the country where the app is located, just that it's using the servers in the country where I live.
In the case of the Aurora store of APKMirror, well, I'm fucked, I guess the only think that I can do is use the website of my bank, that I suppose this will be the case in many banks, the interface and the overall experience is worse than that of the app.
To be honest, is just a shit that many, not to say all banking apps depend specifically on Google to work, it would not be a surprise to me that if I try to install my banking app extracting the APK for myself and then installing it on a deGoogled phone, the app will tell me that it requires Google to work or something like that.
Not necessarily. My bank's app for instance works perfectly well without Google Play Services. Quite surprising actually, and a relief that I don't need a separate non-deGoogled cellphone just to do my banking. You might be surprised that yours does too.
My banking app works fine without play services as well with just the loss of the ATM locator functionality in the map.
Try getting the app URL and opening that on your device because I found a lot of times that even apps that are not shown will show up if you use the direct link instead.
That's an interesting point I hadn't considered, some quick searching however shows that (at least some) German banking apps are on APKMirror. I can't speak for other countries though.