Now with Aurora store out of the picture it seems there is no real alternative to using the Google Play store for apps that cant be downloaded directly or via Fdroid.
But how bad is it actually to use Play store? I never used it before on my current phone, its no problem to create a dummy google account and the apps I need is free so no credit card needs to be registered. But what info will they actually get from my device ? Will they pull my phone number and whatnot ?
The Playstore app is in near constant communication with the Google servers (for “checking updates”), so Google can track you quite well via this.
Not to mention in my experience Play Services can be a battery drain. I experienced it in stock Pie and it just happens randomly.
I intend to turn it off again(see my reply above) so that should not be an issue.
Problem is there is a few apps I need and can only get there(to buy certain train tickets) and I cant simply just do it on the train companys website. All the time I have had this android phone I have had Google Play store disabled and im running a vpn firewall so no calls from any app is going through. Would I be able to just get a few apps and then disable and firewall anything *.google.com again ?