MicroG (typically styled as microG) is a
free and open-source
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a Software license, license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term ...
implementation of
proprietary Google
Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
libraries
A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...
that serves as a replacement for
Google Play Services on the
Android operating system. It is maintained by the German developer Marvin Wißfeld.
He describes microG as "the
framework (libraries,
services,
patches) to create a fully-compatible
Android distribution without any proprietary Google components".
Background
Although
Google
Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
initially released the
Android operating system as
open-source software
Open-source software (OSS) is Software, computer software that is released under a Open-source license, license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and Software distribution, distribute the software an ...
in 2007, the company gradually replaced some of Android's open-source components with
proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software, software that grants its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner a legal monopoly by modern copyright and intellectual property law to exclude the recipient from freely sharing t ...
as Android grew in popularity. Wißfeld created the NOGAPPS project in 2012 as a
free and open-source
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a Software license, license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term ...
drop-in replacement for
Google Play Services, Google's closed-source
system software
System software is software designed to provide a platform for other software. An example of system software is an operating system (OS) (like macOS, Linux, Android, and Microsoft Windows).
Application software is software that allows users to d ...
that has been
pre-installed on almost all Android devices. The NOGAPPS project became MicroG by 2016.
Features
MicroG allows Android apps to access replica
application programming interfaces
An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build su ...
(APIs) that are provided by Google Play Services, including the APIs associated with
Google Play
Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifie ...
,
Google Maps
Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panorama, interactive panoramic views of streets (Google Street View, Street View ...
, and Google's
geolocation
Geopositioning is the process of determining or estimating the geographic position of an object or a person.
Geopositioning yields a set of Geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinates (such as latitude and longitude) in a given map datum ...
and messaging features.
Unlike Google Play Services, MicroG does not
track user activity on the device, and users can selectively enable and disable specific API features.
Depending what apps are installed by users, user activity may still be tracked by Google.
LineageOS for MicroG

In 2017, microG released "LineageOS for microG", a
fork of LineageOS – a free and open-source Android-based operating system – that includes both MicroG and the
F-Droid
F-Droid is a free and open source app store and software repository for Android (operating system), Android, serving a similar function to the Google Play store. The main repository, hosted by the project, contains only free software, free and o ...
app store as pre-installed software. LineageOS for MicroG was created after LineageOS developers declined to integrate MicroG into LineageOS; the developers cited MicroG's need to
spoof code signatures as a security concern.
To enable MicroG's functionality, LineageOS for MicroG includes limited support for signature spoofing.
MicroG developers claim that older smartphones consume less battery power using LineageOS for MicroG compared to operating systems that use Google Play Services.
LineageOS for MicroG supported 39 device models in 2017,
and now supports the same device models as LineageOS.
Devices receive newer versions of LineageOS for MicroG through semi-monthly
over-the-air updates.
Adoption
For a 2018 paper on Android app privacy, security researchers from
Nagoya University
, abbreviated to or NU, is a Japanese national research university located in Chikusa-ku, Nagoya.
It was established in 1939 as the last of the nine Imperial Universities in the then Empire of Japan, and is now a Designated National Universit ...
used MicroG to bypass Google's SafetyNet security mechanism on an
Android Marshmallow emulator
In computing, an emulator is Computer hardware, hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run sof ...
. The researchers altered Android's
package manager
A package manager or package management system is a collection of software tools that automates the process of installing, upgrading, configuring, and removing computer programs for a computer in a consistent manner.
A package manager deals wi ...
and implemented signature spoofing to enable MicroG on the emulator.
CalyxOS includes options for using MicroG as a privacy enhanced replacement for some of the functionality in
Google Play Services.
DivestOS
DivestOS was an Free and open-source software, open source, Android (operating system), Android operating system. It was a soft Fork (software development), fork of LineageOS that aimed to increase security and privacy with support for End-of-li ...
, a LineageOS soft fork, chose ''not'' to support MicroG or other ways of installing or running proprietary Google apps. Since July 2023, DivestOS allows installing MicroG after enabling it in system settings, but does not recommend doing so and still considers this feature unsupported.
Essential Products' "Project Gem" smartphone, previously in development, used a fork of Android that eschews Google Play Services in favor of MicroG, according to Essential's
commits to the Android
codebase
In software development, a codebase (or code base) is a collection of source code used to build a particular software system, application, or software component. Typically, a codebase includes only human-written source code system files; thu ...
in late 2019. Essential Products shut down in February 2020.
IodéOS includes MicroG.
As of May 2022, Murena company is selling a few phones including MicroG with the
/e/ operating system, a privacy-oriented fork of LineageOS, with Google Services "mostly removed".
In 2019, companies associated with /e/ began selling
refurbished smartphones with MicroG pre-installed.
In 2020,
OmniROM began providing builds including MicroG built in for certain devices.
Reception
In 2016, Nathan Willis of
LWN.net expected MicroG to be a "welcome addition" for users of alternative Android-based projects, including
CyanogenMod,
Replicant, and
Blackphone. Willis suggested that MicroG could increase its adoption by collaborating with these projects.
Corbin Davenport, writing for Android Police in April 2018, installed LineageOS for MicroG on a
Xiaomi Mi 4c smartphone using the
Team Win Recovery Project image in an experiment in which he exclusively used open-source software on Android. Davenport was unable to log in to his
Google Account
A Google Account is a user account that is required for access, authentication and authorization to certain online Google services. It is also often used as single sign-on for third party services.
Usage
A Google Account is required for Gmail, ...
through MicroG and concluded that "Going all open-source isn't feasible", despite the high quality of some open-source Android apps from
F-Droid
F-Droid is a free and open source app store and software repository for Android (operating system), Android, serving a similar function to the Google Play store. The main repository, hosted by the project, contains only free software, free and o ...
.
''
Lifehacker
''Lifehacker'' is a weblog about life hacks and software that launched on 31 January 2005. The site was originally launched by Gawker Media and is owned by Ziff Davis. The blog posts cover a wide range of topics including Microsoft Windows, M ...
''s Brendan Hesse recommended MicroG in his November 2018 tutorial to
"quitting Google". Hesse saw MicroG as a "promising" alternative to Google Play Services that was "incomplete and still in development", but said that it was "usable" and "runs pretty well".
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, in a 2019
ZDNet review of a refurbished
Samsung Galaxy S9+ smartphone from /e/, determined that applications which were more closely integrated with
Google Mobile Services were less likely to function properly with MicroG. During his device test, Vaughan-Nichols was able to use
Signal
A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology.
In ...
,
Telegram
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas pi ...
,
Facebook
Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
, and other Android apps with no problems, while
Lyft
Lyft, Inc. is an American company offering ride-hailing services, motorized scooters, and bicycle-sharing systems in the United States and Canada. Lyft sets fares, which vary using a dynamic pricing model based on local supply and demand a ...
and
Uber
Uber Technologies, Inc. is an American multinational transportation company that provides Ridesharing company, ride-hailing services, courier services, food delivery, and freight transport. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, a ...
operated less reliably; Vaughan-Nichols was not able to run Google Maps or
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
at all, concluding, "applications can be a pain" and "installing /e/ is a monster of a job."
In May 2022, Vaughan-Nichols in ZDNet wrote "in the /e/OS, most (but not all) Google services have been removed and replaced with MicroG services."
References
External links
*
LineageOS for microGLineageOS for microG repositoryon
GitHub
GitHub () is a Proprietary software, proprietary developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. It uses Git to provide distributed version control and GitHub itself provides access control, bug trackin ...
{{Mobile operating systems
Custom Android firmware
Free mobile software
Software forks
Android (operating system) forks
Free computer libraries