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From: Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
Newsgroups: comp.mobile.android
Subject: Re: What can't you do on Android WITHOUT a Google Account set up in the OS?
Date: 01 Jan 2025 16:57:30 +0000 (GMT)
Organization: University of Cambridge, England
Message-ID: <24s*+Zv3z@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk>
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Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote:
> Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
> > To use a Fitbit, you need a Google account (unless you have a legacy Fitbit
> > account from years ago).  To use the Fitbit app you need to sign in with the
> > Google account, which installs the Google account centrally on the phone,
> > which means that account infests the rest of the OS and gets used for other
> > stuff (eg Play Services/Store).
> 
>   Are you sure about that? Can't you just use a Google account to login
> into the *app*, instead of into the *system*/OS? Many apps have such
> functionality, i.e. an app-specific login, so I wouldn't know why the
> Fitbit app would be any different.

It shows under Settings -> Accounts, and the Play Store uses it without
asking.  There's no way to sign out of it apart from deleting it from the
phone.  If I do that the Fitbit app stops working and wants a sign in again.

Theo