Tech note: Android LineageOS 15.1 without Google

My experience from 2018 running LineageOS 15.1 on a Sony Xperia Z1 without Google services.

Gesture Input

AOSP doesn’t include gesture input by default, but it can be added manually:

  1. Download the appropriate Google Apps package.
  2. Extract it, and from the Optional folder, open swypelibs-lib-arm.tar.lz to find the file libjni_latinimegoogle.so.
  3. Use adb to transfer this file to your phone: adb push /path/to/libjni_latinimegoogle.so /system/lib.
  4. Reboot the phone to complete setup.

Apps

You can download apps from APKMirror. To install them, use:

adb install -r app-name.apk

Google-less Setup Alternative

Alternatively, you can install Open GApps but skip signing in to your Google account on the device. Apps can still be installed manually from APKMirror.