It's actually really great!

Google Play Services is a dependency for some apps, and GrapheneOS allows for people to take steps to protect their privacy while still being able to use those apps.

First, with GrapheneOS google play services run in a sandbox like any other app. (play services have more privileged access in vanilla android)

It also works well with a multi-user setup. The default account in Android is the "owner account" and in GrapheneOS (and AOSP) you can use the owner account to create multiple distinct user accounts on the device. Then, you can only install google play services in one user account. Google play services won't start if you're not logged into that user account.

Google play services won't have visibility into your other user accounts and what you're doing there. And even in your account with play services installed, there's a bit more privacy because of the sandboxing (although I believe google play will know all of the apps installed in that user account)

There's a full explanation here: https://grapheneos.org/usage#sandboxed-google-play

Edit: I am a web security researcher and longtime user of GrapheneOS and have always been impressed by the features, frequent security updates, and focus on usability, security, and privacy. They've upstreamed numerous security improvements to Android and other open source projects (so if you're running Android, they've probably made your phone more secure!).

https://grapheneos.org/faq#upstream

I encourage folks to join me in making a regular small donation to the project if you have some cash to spare. They're doing good work.

https://grapheneos.org/donate

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andrepd 2 days ago | parent [-]

Why is this in any way superior to microg, apart from compatibility? Microg simply spoofs/shims the API while not actually contacting Google servers at all.

	▲	strcat a day ago \| parent \| next [-]
		microG still uses Google services for accounts, push messaging and many other features. microG itself has functionality requiring downloading and running Google executables as part of itself. It doesn't change the fact that apps depending on Google Play are using Google Play libraries often making connections on their own without Play services. GrapheneOS sandboxed Google Play compatibility layer provides far broader app compatibility while giving strictly less access to Google Play code. Sandboxed Google Play runs as a set of regular apps with no special access or privileges. It's the same app sandbox the apps using it run in with the Google Play SDK and libraries built into them. GrapheneOS improves the app sandbox and permission model substantially, which applies to sandboxed Google Play in the same way. GrapheneOS implements functionality such as location services via the OS and reroutes apps using Google Play APIs to the OS APIs. We have our own network location and geocoding implementations in the OS. We're building our own fully local text-to-speech and speech-to-text services right now.
	▲	neobrain 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> Microg simply spoofs/shims the API while not actually contacting Google servers at all. It's not quite that simple; it still contacts Google servers as soon as you enable push notifications, for example, which then won't run in a sandbox. Never enabling any such services is possible, but you have to be somewhat careful about what you're doing.