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From: Arno Welzel <usenet@arnowelzel.de>
Newsgroups: comp.mobile.android
Subject: Re: Why do so many people confuse Google's Firebase (cloud API) with
 Google Services Google Firebase App Indexing (search results)?
Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2024 16:41:10 +0200
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Andrew, 2024-06-23 09:18:

> Arno Welzel wrote on Sun, 23 Jun 2024 02:58:16 +0200 :
> 
>> Andrew, 2024-06-22 20:48:
>>
>>> Why do so many people (including myself, at first) confuse Google's
>>> Firebase (cloud API) with Google Services Google Firebase App Indexing
>>> (search results)?
>>>
>>> Firebase (cloud related):
>>>  <https://firebase.google.com/firebase-and-gcp>
>>>  "Firebase and Google Cloud share three products: Cloud Firestore, 
>>>   Cloud Functions, and Cloud Storage. These are the same products
>>>   that exist in Google Cloud, simply exposed for client-side 
>>>   developers via Firebase. You can access the same data from the 
>>>   server SDKs (Google Cloud) and the client SDKs (Firebase), 
>>>   so your frontend and backend teams can work in concert."
>>
>> Firebase App Indexing was part of Firebase and not a separate product:
>> <https://firebase.google.com/docs/app-indexing?hl=en>
> 
> The question I asked is a very difficult question to answer.

No, it's quite simple:

"Firebase" is a mostly cloud based platform with a number of services
provided by Google: messaging, storage, usage analytics, indexing and so on.

"Firebase App Indexing" is one single feature of that and not a separate
product.

[...]
>> If you don't trust Google, don't use their products!
> 
> That's terrible advice. For a whole bunch of reasons. Don't get me wrong
> though, as I know what you're saying (i.e., you're saying Google is evil).
> 
> However, one reason it's terrible advice is we're just trying to UNDERSTAND
> what's going on; and to say don't use any product if you want to understand
> how it works, is just about the worst advice possible, IMHO.
> 
> However, another more pragmatic reason that's terrible advice is there are
> only two practical choices for cellphones: Android & iOS.

No, there are also "dumb" phones out there which don't use any "smart"
operating system at all or are at least very limited:

<https://www.thelightphone.com/>

And there is the Librem 5 which does not use Android or iOS either but
its own "PureOS":

<https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/>

And since Android is open source, there are also Android versions like
e/OS/ or devices by Murena *without* any Google services at all:

<https://e.foundation/e-os/>
<https://murena.com/products/smartphones/>

And LineageOS can also be used without any Google services at all:

<https://lineageos.org/>

And using F-Droid you can get many apps as well. Of course if you *must*
use a smartphone as a second authentication factor for your bank account
or similar applications, you may just get a cheap device which is only
used for that purpose and nothing else.

> Given we're not an iOS group (for different reasons), we are all using
> Android. Now, you could be talking about rooting & using AOSP... but... 

See above.

> Given my Samsung Galaxy A32-5G baseband is unrootable, I'm forced to use
> some version of Android so I'm stuck using Google products de jure.

No, you can just buy a different device.


-- 
Arno Welzel
https://arnowelzel.de