---
title: "microG on a Google-free Android phone, what it fixes"
language: en
topics: ["Freedom", "android", "cloud", "cyber-security", "design", "minimal", "review", "smartphone"]
full_article_url: https://willem.com/en/2021-10-25_using-google-free-android/
---
# microG on a Google-free Android phone, what it fixes

*A re-implementation of Google Play Services for phones without Google.*

> Install microG, a re-implementation of Google's proprietary libraries. When I ran it on my Volla Phone in 2021, most apps that demanded Google Play Services simply worked again, though microG itself still talks to Google cloud services.

Many modern Android apps depend on the proprietary Google Play Services for things like push notifications and in-app purchases. Without it installed, most of those apps refuse to work at all, which severely limits a phone that ships without Google, such as my Volla Phone.
The microG project fills the gap with a re-implementation of Google's proprietary apps and libraries. With microG installed on the Volla, most apps simply worked again in my testing.
There is a caveat: microG still depends on various Google cloud services to function. So in the end you are still using Google on your Google-free smartphone, a trade-off between practicality and complete independence that you should make consciously.