What do you use Waydroid for?
I tried Waydroid on Arch and its amazing. It runs Android apps flawlessly. And with a touchscreen device, I feel like I have an Android tablet running inside my Linux machine.
But I still don't know what to use it for...
What apps do you use with Waydroid? What use cases do you have for it?
Don't search tasks for a tool. Search a tool for your tasks.
Well yes, but also no.
Whenever you search for a solution to your problem, it stems from the realization that something is a problem. But sometimes, you have a thing which has been done for a longtime, it was a problem with no solution and you've had to accept that. How would you determine one day that things can be done differently and better without constantly reevaluating everything? It's not realistic.
In my view, it is a perfectly reasonable question to ask "what problem does waydroid solve?" To figure out if you have that issue and you didn't know of this solution.
Sorry, just my 2 cents.
Also, Learning is Fun, so here I have a new toy, let's have fun seeing what I can learn to do with it, then - as you say - that might solve a problem or improve a thing I hadn't thought of before.
Too right.
Someone needs to make a start on the "periodic table of emulators" It might as well be OP.
Minecraft Bedrock.
This is the way 😉 although the Minecraft launcher is pretty good these days running under Waydroid is considerably less hacky as it's not having to thunk between android and Linux userspace.
I've found the official launcher to be terrible, laggy, unstable, and poorly designed even on windows. I don't think it can even launch bedrock anyway, I need to use the unofficial *nix launcher and the android APK to play on a realm.
Sorry I was referring to: https://mcpelauncher.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
Ah, that's exactly what I'm talking about!
Playing Slay the Spire.
It does have a native Linux version but it doesn't sync cross-platform. So since I like playing on the go it is nice to also be able to play at home on a bigger screen.
If it's the Steam version, why not play through proton?
Did it work out of the box for you? Doesn't load for me on either of my machines that have waydroid
Do you have an ARM emulator installed? I don't think the game ships an x86 build. Other than that it just worked.
Is that what libhoudini is? I heard of it, but don't recall if I installed it
I think so. IIRC there are a few different implementations. But if you configure any of them Android will automatically use it to run non-native apps.
The only way I can know the monthly rent amount, is through an Android app.
That's actually horrid. My router is android only and I thought that was bad.
That should be an ADA violation
If I was in the US.
if you want netflix witjh DRM stuff like offline downloads waydroid can do it I think via the android app..
You need to use a waydroid-utils script to install "widevine" for drm.
This is a solution i've tested for someone else not me;
I think it works, but it's not been rigorouly road tested.
Posssibly other DRM services will work if you can tolerate that type of thing.
My guess is that the main use for it is android app development and testing.
you might want to look into stremio or the servarr suite if youre having to jump through these hoops anyway
waydroid is pretty easy to get working - and I think will be usable by the actual end user once set up.
I did look at stremio but I couldn't see a way to do the offline downloads thing on netflix.
That is a desirable feature for the person who travels a lot and they just want to have some videos for when they're off-line or on limited bandwidth like on the train or bus.
This servarr thing looks way more complex - though I admit I might be a bit too dim for it as I couldn't figure out what it actually does.
Thanks for the suggestions though - waydroid looks easiest to meet all the needs. I'm sure someone smarter than me will have fun with that weird servarr suggetion - it does seem to have a whole lot of features.
Servarr is a stack of applications that sets up a media suite. Radarr and Sonarr handle the managing of movies and TV shows, respectively. Prowlarr searches for the media through either Torrenting or Usenet. Then you'd need a downloader like SABnzbd or Deluge. Ombi is another application to handle requests and finally you'd need a streaming app like Plex, Emby or Jellyfin.
Think of it like a marionette; you're making a bunch of services work together for one goal. Most people use docker and create a docker compose file to manage all the services. Typically the flow goes like this, a person makes a request to Ombi for something to watch. That request goes to Radarr or Sonarr, which creates a folder and populates the Metadata from IMDB. Then a request is sent to Prowlarr to find the media. Once found its sent to the downloader, like Deluge, to actually grab the media. After it's done, Radarr / Sonarr will import the media into the correct folder. Now you've got a perfect collection for Plex / Emby / Jellyfish to start streaming your media. Really awesome suite once you get it up and running.
Definitely not to have android apps on a Linux tablet, because in-waydroid rotation doesn't work, and rotating the tablet itself breaks the windowing system until you reboot the container. Issue first reported in 2021.
Reminds me that my daughter wanted to play Toca Life World on her PC. So I guess I would use it for that. As soon as I have the energy to do it.
I use it for some banking apps and online shops that require the android app for using coupons.
The only thing I can truly think of is Signal. If there was a native Gtk app for signal that was near feature complete I would probably ditch Android altogether. Maybe OSMAnd~, but that's a nice to have.
Flare isn't feature complete but you can run it in the background for all notifications.
Yeah I know about it, but it's so so far off from being usable as a daily driver interacting with people on Android sadly :/
Android does have lots of games, and some apps that aren't as easy to use, or as good as in native linux. For example, some painting apps (krita is powerful, but can also overwhelm someone), video editors like capcut or lumafusion, audio apps. For most of everything else, there is a web browser on linux that can do the job better probably, and native apps. But overall, I'd say that Android apps aren't really that useful on linux, because they're mostly geared towards apps that you use on the go, while you usually sitting on a chair at home or work when you're using linux. To be honest, most native apps now have been replaced by a web browser, so either native linux or native android apps are only useful for high end professional usages (e.g. blender, video editing, etc) rather than everyday use.
aren't a lot of games aarch64 only? do they even support x86? I've attempted in the past to use waydroid for a game, but no way to install it on an x86 machine. Does waydroid support some kind of box64 layer?
There is an unofficial script that ads arm emulation. Note before anyone asks, it will not become officially supported by waydroid.
Only the ones that are written in compiling language. The ones written in java/cotlin can. Also, in x86 tablets there are special chips that have arm emulation in hardware for these compiled apps. But plain x86 desktop cpus don't have that. So it depends what app can work and what can't.
People with linux phones use it to run android apps: Signal because using electron is worse than waydroid for battery life, banking apps, bullshit government apps without web versions, etc. It's terrible for battery life, but it works.
Anti Commercial-AI license
Also, thr emulated Android web browser runs much smoother than any native one
2FA app, in my case aegis, and a few games
There aren't any 2FA apps for desktop?
Yeah. You'd have to pry keepassxc from my cold dead hands st this point. Passwords + TOTP, cross platform, just a datafile.
Yes there are for example by gnome authenticate
*Gnome Authenticator
Not aegis, which is what I'm used to
Yes there are for example by gnome authenticate
Ive thought about using it for bank apps so I dont have hassle if I lose the phone or it gets robbed. Has anyone tried this ?
I imagine it would fail CTS and SafetyNet. Kind of curious if shizuku works on it
Using the Apple Music client
Lotta people in here saying what they use it for, but the only ppl I know irl running waydroid are playing softcore gatcha games on it.
I miss Dragalia Lost
I should see what the community servers are up to
Honestly: I cannot have the Instagram app on my phone (both for privacy and for addiction) - I have it installed on Waydroid and the fact that it works like 50% of the way keeps me from using it more than a couple times a week.
Used to use it for Apple Music but Cider 2 does what I want now, especially since Apple started locking down AM on rooted devices (of which Waydroid basically is) for no good reason.
Cider doesn't support lossless, but then again neither does the version of android supported by waydroid currently
I was able to get lossless back then. It's a matter of enabling
fake_wififor the app in Waydroid. You have to play a track for it to activate, but that's also a bug I've experienced on my actual phone.I could enable it in the app, but Android versions below 10 resample everything down to 16 bit / 44.1 khz and Waydroid is stuck on Android 9 for now.
Now I guess I'd have to pass safety net or hide root and I can't be bothered. I just plug my phone into the dac instead
Yeah I got a headphone dongle for my phone. Cider 2 is still nice though, 256kbps AAC (whether CBR or VBR) is fine for most people, and it seems to stay in that bitrate.
I use it to run the Sky App to stream football.
The only options are a windows app or an android app (since you can't watch in the browser) and I couldn't get the windows app to work with WINE.
The android app runs fairly well with waydroid, although it occasionally runs into some hiccups.
I wonder if Pokemon Go would work on waydroid...
I haven't gotten to it, but I'd like to try and set it up as an android TV replacement. Just have distro of choice load on boot with Bluetooth remote/controller for input
I'd imagine the drm would ruin that plan. No HD streaming.
I did have some scripts to do this more properly but the shift to A11 broke a lot of stuff, I plan on revisting it when the A13 (or was it A12) work is done and released as stable.
F1tv, Amazon music and that's about it more or less. I'll occasionally use it on my steam deck for some android games but I don't play more than maybe 3 or 4 android games total and that's rare.
Can you explain the benefit of using F1TV app this way, instead of the browser? I'm genuinely curious if this gives a better experience in some way
I use Multiviewer, having track maps and timing is sick
Yeah, Multiviewer is a huge PITA to use on steam deck since it gets wiped on updates, Brave, my browser of choice is explicitly blocked from the web version and I'm used to the android interface so it seemed right on my main PC since I already needed to do it this way on my deck.
You already answered this in your question description :) With a touchscreen laptop and Linux and WayDroid you can have a Linux tablet. (Unfortunately (?) the choice of a DeGoogle ROM for Android tablets is minimal and you never know when the ROM developer will buy a new phone, change their life priorities and drop the ROM development) Compared to an Android phone you'd have a much larger screen. What do I use WayDroid for personally ? Just to test some programs, to see what's new in F-Droid, and sometimes use LibreTube.
If you like LibreTube check out Grayjay. It similarly lets you privately browse and watch YT content, while also being able to subscribe and make playlists, but it's killer feature is pooling all your subscriptions across different platforms into one feed. Ie having your Patreon, YouTube, Twitch, etc all in one app.
Why should one use libretube over freetube? What special features does it provide?
Does it still run Roblox? Since it stopped working under wine (again) I read it was the only way to get Roblox on Linux.
Side point, is it possible to install the google play store on waydroid? Aurora keeps crashing.
Yep,
waydroid init -s GAPPS. But it will complain when first trying to sign in with Google so you'll have to authorize the device.I go with APKUpdater now.
I use it to play visual novel type android games.
To make my system less secure lol
It is true that Waydroid isn't super secure. that being said, it is still just a mostly stock android (unless you download gapps). Root is not exposed to the container so unless an exploit is found it is reasonably secure. There are measures waydroid can take to make it more secure. but as it stands it's "not bad"
Android relies on SELinux for its app sandbox. On Fedora the Waydroid package has some SELinux rules, but not sure if they are as good.
Daniel Micay answered under a Waydroid issue and at least on Android I fully trust his knowledge.
I dont know about exposed root, but Waydroid uses LXC containers and not rootless Podman/Docker.
The best solution would either be:
as far as I know the SELinux container is configured, whether or not the distro uses it isn't up to waydroid but the packaging and host configuration. If there are issues with the SELinux implementation they need to be brought up.
Waydroid also supports apparmor for some protections when SELinux is not available. OFC it's not as good as selinux (and currently it's set in warning mode so it doesn't actually offer protections out of box, please we need people testing this) https://github.com/waydroid/waydroid/pull/906
If you want to use a VM, and anyone who needs a highish level of security should. Bliss OS is a much better option. Though it doesnt offer "native integration" with the host.
Was straight up asking myself this the other day and still couldn't come up with a good answer. I keep reading for 2fa or my passwords but that's not really a reason IMO. Why not just have a copy of your totp seeds (any good android totp manager should let you export) and then use a desktop manager like keepassxc, the same with your passwords. The only reason i can personally think of are games but even then which games are worth keeping on your desktop that don't already have a port? Another application that might be worth emulating could be like Shazam but not sure how good the desktop alternatives are
Well, you know, some people use more than one computer. Having WayDroid + 2FA codes on one laptop, and filling in the codes on a browser on the other laptop does not defeat the idea of strictly using two different devices for 2FA.
No i get people use more than one computer but I don't understand your point though about using wayDroid specifically vs a desktop totp manager? You can achieve the same by just having your totp seeds on one computer and manually filling the generated code on the other. Only difference is no android application needed just a standalone desktop totp manager
Right, I see your point. Now, I don't see myself clicking on a touchscreen laptop with KeePassXC to get TOTP codes. Seems easier to use Aegis app in WayDroid.
Ahh didn't think about laptops with touchscreens just assumed touchpads or mice. That's fair honestly never knew that was a popular way to navigate would assume people just get tablets for that but you make a solid point.
I would say use a cross-platform password manager that supports it in that case. Bitwarden, 1Password and Enpass all have Linux versions and support TOTP, and in the case of Enpass, it has local wifi sync so none of it goes to them. I get that moving 2FA codes to that can be time-consuming, though.
I went through the same process of thought.
I'm using Aegis and it exports an encrypted .json backup automatically whenever I change or add something, so I can sync that backup somewhere off the phone and the desktop app OTPClient can open it directly from the backup dir.
For playing games (or for any other native app) you can use scrcpy to see the actual Android screen on your desktop and use mouse and keyboard with it, sort of like vnc.
There are a few games that are unique to Android that I like playing this way, like Battleheart or Puzzle Retreat.
My friend asked me to use xbox live chat so I'm probably going to try using waydroid for that