I spent a week without the Google Play Store and barely survived & more related news here

The whole talk of Android has always been openness. You can download apps, get APKs from the web, and even switch to third-party app stores; Google isn’t stopping you from doing any of that (at least for now). So when I decided to go a week without the Play Store, I wasn’t exactly nervous about jumping in.

I kept Google Play Services up and running because this wasn’t a full Google takedown mission. I just wanted to see how far I could get getting and managing my daily apps after turning off the Play Store.

Spoiler: It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t exactly easy either.

Before getting rid of the Play Store, it obviously needed a replacement. I ended up installing three or four different app stores just to see which one could cover everything I needed. Of all of them, Aurora Store came the closest to being a like-for-like replacement for the Play Store. It’s essentially an open source interface to the Play Store, so I had access to pretty much the same library of apps. The only difference was that the Aurora Store didn’t force me to use a Google account, which was the point of this experiment.

Aurora Store also does a couple of things better than the Play Store itself. First, it allows you to download previous versions of an app, meaning that if a recent update broke something or removed a feature you liked, you can roll back directly from the Aurora Store. There is also a Spoof Manager that allows you to spoof your device model so that you can download apps that are not available on your phone. Of course, there is no guarantee that they will work, but you can at least try. I didn’t need any of these features during my week, but they definitely come in handy.

The big problem, however, is that the Aurora Store doesn’t let you purchase apps and games unless you sign in with a Google account. But the good thing was that the Aurora Store allowed me to update apps that I had already purchased and installed through the Play Store.

Despite what my week without the Play Store was, I’m glad I did it, because it made me realize how many great apps exist outside of the Play Store. These are apps that I probably would never have come across otherwise.

F-Droid deserves most of the credit here. Its entire library is based on free and open source apps, and most of them are completely absent from the Play Store. So yeah, browsing F-Droid was quite refreshing because I discovered Android apps that I had no idea existed. GitHub Store is another source I leaned on, as many developers skip the Play Store entirely and simply push APKs directly into their repositories.

The point is that leaving the Play Store led me to some apps that I now prefer to their Play Store equivalents. HeliBoard is one of them. It’s an open source keyboard app that works completely offline, meaning I don’t have to worry about a big company recording everything I type. LibreTube is another good one. It is an ad-free YouTube client that allows me to watch videos, listen to songs, and listen to podcasts without paying for YouTube Premium. These are just a couple of examples. I also found Seal, Breezy Weather, Kvaesitso, Obtainium and Shelter and honestly, each one could write their own article.

I went into this experiment feeling pretty confident, but living without the Play Store was harder than I expected. The first thing I noticed is how many apps I couldn’t get. And no, I’m not just talking about paid apps and games, although I missed them terribly. Banking apps were the first real wall I hit. Some of them refused to open or were flagged the moment they detected something was wrong.

The biggest problem was keeping all my apps up to date. Yes, Aurora Store has an auto-update option, but calling it seamless would be a stretch. Even when I tried updating apps manually, I still had to hit the install button individually for each app, every time. To be fair, the Play Store isn’t exactly perfect when it comes to automatic app updates either, but at least it doesn’t require me to babysit the entire process.

Another big headache was in-app purchases. Giving up on paid apps is one thing, but most Android apps these days lock their best features behind some kind of paywall, and without the Play Store billing system underneath it all, that door was effectively closed.

The time I spent without the Play Store made me realize how much it offers beyond apps and games. Play Protect is the most obvious. It’s Google’s built-in malware scanner and it scans all the apps installed on my phone, even those I’ve downloaded. Beyond detecting malware, Play Protect can flag apps that are trying to steal my data and even remove them on its own. That’s a pretty solid safety net to give up.

Automatic application archiving is another underrated feature. If my phone is ever running out of storage, the Play Store can automatically archive apps that I haven’t touched in a while. It doesn’t delete any of the app’s data, so when I need it again, I can simply restore it and pick up where I left off. Since my Pixel 10a only has 128GB of internal storage, this is quite useful.

Subscription management is also quite simple with the Play Store. I can go to the “Subscriptions” tab and see all the apps I’m paying for. Obviously, it’s possible to track subscriptions without it, but it usually means digging through emails or relying on a third-party app.

And finally, there are the things that are not absolutely essential but do matter. Google Play Points offers rewards for app purchases. Google Play Pass gives me access to a library of premium apps and games for a flat monthly fee. The Google Play Family Library allows me to share paid apps and games with family members, so I don’t have to buy them twice. Moving away from the Play Store means giving up all of these features.

This whole experiment taught me two things. First of all, the openness of Android is very real. Secondly, comfort is an incredible drug. Would you ever try to get rid of the Play Store, even just for a week? Tell us in the comments below.