this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2023

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128

Google removed Island and Shelter apps from the Play Store (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by alphacyberranger to c/android

23 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Shelter may have been taken down a while ago, not sure if by Google or the developer.

According to the Island developer Island was removed because it's not supposed to use

REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES, so it's probably the same for Shelter. They're appealing but if/when it returns it might be "with limited functionality" which one would be able to restore with an "extension" downloaded on github but at that point why not just install the apk from github in the first place.

As for Shelter and Insular (fork of Island), they're also available on F-Droid.

Wonder if they're cracking down on these "hacks" to leverage the work profile on purpose, like they do local VPNs that block ads.

all 27 comments

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[–] lazycouchpotato 29 points 1 year ago

Ugh.

Thankfully Island is available on Github, and Shelter and Insular are on F-Droid.

I rely on Island for having two copies of apps like WhatsApp since Google can't be bothered to offer this feature on Pixels like Samsung, OnePlus, etc. do.

[–] RegalPotoo 24 points 1 year ago (2 children)

... what are these apps? The GitHub project readme for Island doesn't actually say what it does

[–] richardisaguy 25 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Both use android's work profile feature to isolate apps from the main profile, for example, If you install tiktok on island, and whatsapp on main, neither WhatsApp or tiktok will be able to see each other, among other kinds of data

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How well does it hide root?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It doesn't directly, but some banking apps detect magisk in the app list, so even if you've added the apps to the exception list in magisk they'll refuse to launch.

Installing the same apps in the work profile makes the magisk app inaccessible/invisible to them, which allows them to start up normally.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I use shamiko so that does it more

Thanks, that answers my question

[–] jrandiny 4 points 1 year ago

It allows you to isolate app inside a sandbox, thus limiting the data they can harvest

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's not a hack. I think they don't want things that can install apps in the Play store.

But I'd love to learn more about their reason

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Technically Google Chrome and Google Files can install packages. Wonder if they'll remove those too.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can wait for Pinephone to go mainstream.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I really wanted to upgrade from my S5 to a linux phone, but the NAND died on me. I'm on a Fairphone now, hopefully the Linux phone ecosystem gets better so I can make the jump there next in a few years time 👌

[+] AngryAnusHornets 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

[deleted]

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I have the older FP3+ model (last one with a headphone jack) - if you've got the S22 it's definitely going to be a downgrade sadly.

My previous device was over half a decade old, so I got a boost in performance and better cameras, however I do find myself using Gcam if I want a point-and-shoot experience (particularly in the dark with Night Sight), and OpenCamera otherwise. The cameras are ok, just the apps don't make the most of them IMO.

The FP4 I believe improves on these quite a bit, especially in the performance department, but it hasn't got a headphone jack. There FP forums are really active with people discussing the device - there's a thread dedicated to photos taken with the device if you want a better feel of the camera's capabilities in particular

https://forum.fairphone.com/t/fp4-pictures-gallery/78667

As for my FP3 device in general, I really like it. It's well supported by various custom ROMs, quite a few documented teardowns on the forum. I've replaced my vibration sensor, the last one burned out due to my love of haptic feedback 😅. I believe there's also a PostmarketOS linux distro available for the device too. Taking it apart is really easy, all the screws are identical sizes and no special tools are needed.

I just wish Fairphone had additional resources to pour into the software side of things - the device supports partially charging the battery, and reducing the quick charge speed, but these are not options available the settings... You can only set these via the command line/Termux with a rooted device. Google has also been giving them a hassle over the fingerprint sensor and certification - as of Android 13 I believe the fingerprint sensor in my device no longer will work in most apps as it does now on Android 10

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Island is great. My wife runs ecommerce and social media accounts for her job (and has her own side business at home) and used to use 2 phones, with Island she can run parallel sandboxed copies of certain apps at the same time (ebay etc). It's the first thing she installs on a new phone and at this point she'd refuse a new phone if she couldn't use Island on it. With the normal work profile, she'd have to constantly switch between profiles and miss out on real time notifications.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I can see and install Island from Play Store (just did that a minute ago) so idk what's the issue...

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

https://github.com/oasisfeng/island/issues/432

It was removed for 2 weeks, the developer found a workaround. Still sucks that Google removed them at all

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I use Shelter and keep it updated direct from the GitHub repo using Obtainium.

[–] alphacyberranger 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What's Obtainium?

[–] WhoRoger 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

An app to keep your installed github apps up to date

[–] alphacyberranger 3 points 1 year ago

That's nice.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You won't need that for Shelter. It hasn't been updated in years.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Lol - it has been a while. A little less than a year. That said, it does what it says on the wrapper so there's probably no need for any major updates. If Google mucks around with Work profiles, the dev may reappear when we need him most - just like Batman.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Glad its still working. I've been using Island for a while now. Maybe it is because I used Shelter for a long time but I like it better. I'm going to switch back if its still working :--)

[–] nosnahc 3 points 1 year ago

I have an easy access to my work profil thanks to CalyxOS. So if I install Waze on this profil, it will be sandboxed? Or it still have access to a lot of my informations ?