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Signal explicitly chooses to use Play services SDK for certain functionality. It works fine without any form of Google Play being supported by the OS. Android SDK does not include Play services by default. It's their very explicit choice to include those proprietary libraries.
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There's no kernel integration for Play services. It's a set of apps which vendors bundle into the OS and grant extensive privileges via custom SELinux policy, privileged permissions and configuration for the OS setting Play services as a provider for various APIs.
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It doesn't do what's claimed in this thread. It's not how things work and the things that are claimed to exist here do not exist. I don't know where that's coming from but it's extraordinarily inaccurate / baseless. Android SDK is open source and doesn't include Play by default.
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You have to explicitly choose to include the Play services libraries. They're proprietary libraries, but they don't impose any kind of DRM on the app. There's a Play Store license check API which paid apps can explicitly use. What is describing simply doesn't exist.
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Apps have a minimum SDK version which is the oldest Android platform version they support. It has nothing to do with Play services. Android SDK and AOSP are entirely open source and nothing resembling the stuff you're describing exists.
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It's the same open source Android SDK whether or not you use Android Studio. It doesn't do anything resembling this. Only thing remotely resembling anything that you've described is an app developer explicitly choosing to use SafetyNet attestation to check device certification.
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It's hard to see how you could be claiming what you are based on good faith. It's not how things work and has no basis in reality. I've gone out of my way to try to come up with some way you could have come to those conclusions in good faith but you're ruling that out.
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