Hello,
is there someone on the forum that is running WhatsApp under GrapheneOS?
If yes, I would like to hear your experience with it, because I have read many different stories about it.
Do you have it in the main profile?
Do you have it in the private profile?
Are you using the sandboxed Google Play Services in that profile to have the push notifications running?
Did you install the app from the Play Store itself or via Aurora Store?
Yes, I know that running WA in GOS is not the best way, but having kids in these days makes live not that easy …
Just because you use GOS does not mean that you HAVE to go full retard regarding privacy. You could. Some may argue you should. But GOS jsut gives you the option, it does not make you do it.
That being said: How good is your german? I would advice to read what Mike Kuketz says about it.
I know. In my post I listed the different ways to do it and was curious how others are managing it.
Kuketz blog and forum and the GOS forum have been source of all my questions as german is my native language.
There are a lot of discussions in both but none has a answer to my questions. What I have found, were a lot of posts where the posters got problems that the WA app flagged the account as blocked but most posters did not find any reason why this happend and they were not able to unblock their number.
This would be the nightmare for the (digital) life of my kids. I really want to avoid such.
I’m really sorry that I can’t help you with this. I don’t use WhatsApp myself so unfortunately I can’t be of any assistance
I don’t know any more than what you’ve already found out. Have you ever been to the Graphene Matrix room? The people there are always very helpful.
Sort of. As I use the private profile (in my owner profile) for “private stuff” , I’ve set up a work profile (using Shelter) for non-foss, proprietary where I have WhatsApp.
No Google Play services.
As I don’t need to have real time access to the apps in my work profile. I just activate it when I need to interact with one of the apps in there.
Notifications fromWhatsApp seem to have been working during the time that I have had the work profile activated and have had WhatsApp open . It needs to be said that I make a limited use of this applications and that this could be one of those things one’s mileage might vary.
some info you may find useful (thanks to my extended machine-based intelligence)
Core Infrastructure Components
Persistent Connections WhatsApp maintains long-lived encrypted TCP sockets (implemented in Erlang) between each client device and a cluster of routing servers. These connections handle presence tracking, message queuing, and real-time delivery when users are actively online.
Platform-Specific Push Services When a user is offline or the app is in the background, WhatsApp routes notifications through:
APNs (Apple Push Notification Service) for iOS devices
FCM (Firebase Cloud Messaging, formerly GCM) for Android devices
These services wake the app and display alerts on the device.
Hybrid Push-Pull Architecture
WhatsApp uses a clever combination of both approaches:
Push: Ensures real-time delivery via the persistent connections and platform push services
Pull: Provides reliability by having the client fetch the actual message payload once it reconnects to the socket
This means the notification itself is lightweight (just a signal), while the full message content is pulled over the encrypted socket channel once the client is active again.
Backend Infrastructure
Databases: Mix of relational (MySQL) and NoSQL stores for user metadata
Message Queuing: Kafka for durable message storage in partitioned logs
Media Storage: Dedicated storage solutions for images, videos, and files
Local Storage: SQLite databases on devices for offline access
WebSocket Managers: Use Redis and consistent hashing for efficient user-to-server mapping
This architecture allows WhatsApp to scale to billions of users while maintaining reliable, real-time notification delivery across different network conditions and device states.
The Dependency
WhatsApp relies on Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) for push notifications on Android, and FCM is bundled into Google Play Services. The FCM client runs within Play Services and maintains a persistent connection to Google’s servers, delivering message-arrival events to WhatsApp even when the app itself isn’t actively connected to the internet.
Why This Matters
This architecture means:
Without Google Play Services: Standard WhatsApp installations won’t receive push notifications on devices lacking Google Play Services (like some Huawei phones in certain regions, or custom ROMs without GApps)
Battery efficiency: Since Play Services handles the persistent connection, WhatsApp doesn’t need to keep its own connection alive when the app is closed, saving battery
Reliability: Google’s infrastructure handles the heavy lifting of notification delivery at scale
Workarounds & Alternatives
There are some exceptions:
microG: A re-implementation of Google Play Services that can enable FCM functionality on devices without official Google services
UnifiedPush: An alternative push notification system, but WhatsApp doesn’t currently support it
When WhatsApp is actively open: The app uses its own persistent TCP/Erlang connections for real-time delivery, bypassing FCM entirely
So while WhatsApp has its own robust messaging infrastructure, the notification delivery layer on Android specifically depends on Google Play Services through FCM. This is different from iOS, where APNs is a separate system that all apps use regardless of Apple’s other services.
No worries mate.
I am using custom ROMs more than 10 years with different devices from Samsung, Motorola, Sony, Google, Fairphone etc. Most devices are running stock ROM only a few minutes to enable OEM unlocking and then get a custom ROM installed.
I am used to this kind of risk …
