Time to mention <a href="https://microg.org/" rel="nofollow">https://microg.org/</a> / <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12864429" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12864429</a> again. It's a FLOSS re-implementation of Google Play Services. It offers e.g.:<p>* Optional completely offline geo location service via an on-phone database which often preserves battery and even works when no internet access is available. Online backends using e.g. Mozilla Location Service are also available<p>* The often unavoidable Push notifications via Google Cloud Messaging while only sending minimal identifying data<p>* The Analytics (tracking) and Ad parts are simple stubs which avoid app crashes but do nothing else
Or you can just install Yalp Store from F-Droid (<a href="https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=com.github.yeriomin.yalpstore" rel="nofollow">https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=com.github.yerio...</a>) and download the apps from the Google Play Store directly to your device. You can also easily update your apps with Yalp Store.<p>Another possibility is to use the Java software Raccoon on your Desktop, available here: <a href="http://raccoon.onyxbits.de/" rel="nofollow">http://raccoon.onyxbits.de/</a>
Uber, Tinder, and other apps I use require Google Play Services in their latest version. They simply refuse to work without it and there is no web alternative. It's either downgrade to a bug-prone version or use Google Play Services. There is really no privacy on a fully functional Android Phone that isn't just email and phone services - though I guess if you're using Uber and Tinder there is no privacy one way or the other.
I use an Android phone without any Google services or a Google account. When I got the phone, it brought up a demand to sign in with a Google account. But there's a "Later" option to bypass that temporarily. Disabling "Google One Time Setup" made that go away.<p>Mail is the built-in IMAP client. Browsing is with Firefox. Apps come from F-droid. Maps come from ZNavi. It's OK.
Remember using play services <i>unofficially</i> like e.g. microg can get your account locked. It is OK to create a throw away accounted for downloading apps,but continued usage _may_ lock your account.
I do use lineageOS on a nexus 5 without play services and battery lasts 2 days with light usage.
Instead of downloading an app from Google Play and transferring it to the open source phone you could use Aptoide. <a href="https://www.aptoide.com/?lang=en" rel="nofollow">https://www.aptoide.com/?lang=en</a>
I tried to use a Cyanogenmod phone over the summer without google play services (I couldn't get it to install).<p>I used the Amazon android store, which has many of the same applications as the play store. However, most apps I installed crashed on first launch due to (I assumed) lack of play services.<p>It was a very crappy experience which lasted only about a week before I switched back to a handset where the gapps flash worked correctly.
There really isn't that much on google play store worth installing (except games I guess? even that's not so great and most cost money) that doesn't have some open source counterpart. The only exceptions are things like kik (and those don't run well, if at all, without google play services.)