Version of German Corona Warn App without Play Services released via F-Droid

Developers have made a version of the German corona app without Google Play Services available in the F-Droid software store. Users of Huawei devices without Google Play Services can run this app.

The developers call their fork of the official Corona Warn App that appeared in the F-Droid store Corona Tracing and version 1.7.1.2 of the software has been made available. The fork uses the MicroG implementation of Google’s Exposure Notification Framework. MicroG is a free software variant of Google’s Services released in September, which has removed tracking features from Google.

According to the makers of the fork, the German Corona Warn App is free software, but its operation is based on Google’s Exposure Notification Framework. The Free Software Foundation Europe points out that the Google services are deeply integrated into Android and thus undermine the digital sovereignty of users: people who want to use Android free of Google cannot use the app by default.

MicroG already made that possible, but the new fork with the replacement of Exposure Notification does not require the installation of MicroG, which may remove a barrier for many users. In addition, the FSFE points out that there are also users who use Play Services or MicroG, but who prefer F-Droid as a download store. The organization calls on the German government and the makers of the Corona Warn App to work together to incorporate changes to the official software.