this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2026
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Privacy
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Most apps will work with just sandboxed play services installed. But, If your app has implemented play integrity checks then you need play store installed, and you need to be logged in too. Only then you'll be able to use banking apps.
It really depends on the banking app, for example mine used google play store to download but doesnt need it to run at all (updates happen from it though). So i can run it on my main profile with gps (google play store) disabled.
Protip - Download something like the Shelter app so you can set up a Work profile space and install the apps that need GPS to run n then this can be the space where you have these apps. Shelter has a really handy feature that lets you get notifications from these apps when on another profile n can send files between. Best of all you can pause the work space, basically stops all apps.
At the start i had quite a few GPS apps here but I've slowly using less n less. At the moment there are three apps there that I need for work but only rarely so really need to unpause that space like 2% of the time.
P.S - try and ensure the apps on your main profile are not downloaded from GPS/Aurora Store. You can check the app info to see which store you downloaded them from. If you can, get them from other stores (others have given good tips on those already) or their own websites/githubs. Basically want to have zero connected apps n can disable google play store n services on your main profile.