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All the services that I rely upon on my Android phone are free 3rd party apps. Firefox, Banking, Authentication, Calendar

So if the "Epic Phone" had the ability to install and run APKs, that'd be good enough.

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Those APKs will only work on devices with licensed Google Play services. And that platform changes so rapidly that it's effectively impossible for a competitor to build compatible APIs without infringing on Google's IP.

I have an android phone without google play enabled or installed. Not even a replacement framework such as MicroG or whatever. Works fine. Check how f-doid apps are running, or what it requires. No google license, api, nothing.

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