[Port] Samsung Galaxy Apps Store For LG (And Other) Devices

AnonVendetta

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Apr 29, 2016
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***DISCLAIMER***: I refuse to accept responsibility if your device explodes, your cat/dog suddenly goes bald, you get fired from your job, Donald Trump converts to Islam and changes his first name to Abu, the world becomes engulfed in nuclear fire, etc. 'Nuff said.

Up until a few months ago I owned only Samsung where Android is concerned. But I got tired of the **** battery life that seemed to always manifest no matter which phone I bought. So I made a change and bought the finest LG I could find, which turned out being the v10. I've had a few issues here and there but nothing too serious. In my pre-LG days I used the S-Pen and Galaxy Apps often. Now, the latter was the only thing I really missed.

So, I dug up an old Note 4 ROM zip that was still lingering in my Dropbox, and began copying various files from it into my /system. After lots of headaches I managed the bare minimum # of files that were necessary to get Galaxy Apps working. The result is a <20MB flashable zip.

What you need:

File manager
Xposed
XInstaller
My zip

Download XInstaller, activate it in Xposed, go to Device Properties in the app, enable changing device properties, then change your model to "SM-N910T" (no quotes), then reboot. You technically could probably use any Samsung model, but this is what worked for me. Be aware that this will cause the Play Store (and possibly other apps) to mistake your model. Galaxy Apps checks your model when you run it, so this is necessary, unless you want to edit the APK to omit the model check (I don't know how).

As an alternative to using XInstaller and Xposed, you can just edit the model in your build.prop (located in /system).

Next, reboot into recovery and flash my zip, then wipe cache/dalvik cache. An alternative is to manually copy the files in the zip into their appropriate locations, then set permissions for each file to 0644. You can try installing all the APPs as data/user apps, but the 3 files in /system/etc/permissions and /system/framework must also be present, or this won't work.

Next, reboot into Android, go to Accounts in Settings, then add your Samsung account (create one if you don't have one). Launch Galaxy Apps and let it update and download additional necessary files (if necessary). Everything *should* work normally, including updating GA itself. I was able to download and run apps (all free). However, I haven't tested buying apps, in-app purchases, registering and using a credit/debit card, etc. If anyone wants to try then feel free and report back.

Caveats:

1. This may not work on ROMs below KitKat, since the files were pulled from a KK ROM. All files are presumably Samsung originals and I have not modified them in any way, which is why I'm calling this a port rather than a mod.

2. This may not work on AOSP/CM ROMs (it didn't for me, I got an FC/hang when trying to log into my Samsung account).

3. Nothing else I can think of ATM.

This is my first contribution to the Android community. This can probably also be used on other non-LG devices, but since I own an LG currently, I'm posting it here in the v10 forum, instead of somewhere else on XDA where it would receive more attention (people would eventually find this thread anyway by searching around).

If you think Galaxy Apps on LG is stupid, keep your thoughts to yourself and don't try this, I could care less what you think. This is for people that want to try it. Any trolling will be reported to the mods/admins.

Enjoy!

Edit: To be clear, I'm referring only to the GA Store itself, and not other Samsung Apps like SVoice, SMemo, etc. I just realized that my topic title might cause some confusion and people being mistaken.

Feel free to comment/discuss here, but all questions should either be PMed to me or (less preferably) posted in the Help/Q&A/Troubleshooting forums (but I don't really feel that this 2nd option is appropriate, because any issues are almost certainly due to trying to run GA on non-Samsung devices, rather than an LG/v10/non-Samsung issue).

I will be regularly updating the zip whenever any of the APPs get an update (and probably stop when this no longer works for whatever reason).

Credits to Samsung and HyperDrive ROM devs for the files, and JRummyApps and ZipMe for the means to create a flashable zip.
 

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AnonVendetta

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Apr 29, 2016
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I don't own the v10 anymore. I went back to using the Note 4, which is a bit older than the v10 but still very fast and reliable for me. Battery life is also much better than I remember it being around 2 years ago (the last time I had my old N4 before it was stolen). Overall I'm happy I switched back, very few issues, all small. On it I'm running a modded Nougat ROM that is based on LineageOS. My Galaxy Apps zips runs fine even on that, no need to use Xposed/XInstaller or edit my build.prop, probably because it's an N4 and not an LG. I will continue to provide support for this, I plan to submit another zip soon that has all of the provided Samsung APKs as up-to-date as possible, and will have only the APKs that will be compatible for as many devices as possible.
 
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AnonVendetta

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Apr 29, 2016
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@raven213: They are:
Samsung Account
Samsung Billing
Samsung Galaxy Apps
Samsung In-App Purchase
Samsung Push Service

The only ones you can actually interact with are Account and Galaxy Apps, Account is so you can sign into a Samsung account from your Settings' Accounts menu, or from Galaxy Apps itself. I don't think Galaxy will let you download without an account anyway. Billing and IAP are most likely for being able to collect your payment info if you buy an app or make an in-app purchase (like buying coins in a online game or whatever). I haven't tested buying anything, so if anyone decides to tries, please post whether it worked. And Push Service is so the Samsung apps can send notifications to your device. So basically, just the bare essentials needed for Galaxy to work and nothing else. As for Samsung Camera, I doubt it will work, it'll probably just crash, since other files might be needed for that. Maybe you can get a Samsung Camera APK from apkmirror.com, or from Galaxy. There are also numerous threads on XDA where you can find collections of Samsung apps, they might have what you want.

I'm posting an updated zip with updated versions of all the apps/APKs, I made it not too long ago so they should be relatively recent. If they're out of date, they may ask to update, just let them. Or you can manually check for updates in Galaxy. I haven't tested the new version much, but it did work in my most recent try.

Also, I've come up with a new method that should work. It involves pushing touchwiz.xml to /system/etc/permissions/, and pushing twframework.jar and twframework-res.apk to /system/framework/. These are necessary and must be present in /system/. But the APKs can just be installed as regular user/data apps instead of system apps. To accomplish this just flash the latest zip (presumably from TWRP), then open TWRP's file manager, go to /system/priv-app/ and delete the Samsung APK files. You can also use FlashFire. Then boot into Android, unzip the zip file, then just install the APKs like you normally would. You'll need to enable Unknown Sources for this to work. Follow my instructions from the first post too. If you're on Marshmallow or higher, go to Settings and then Apps, manually grant all permissions for the Samsung stuff. If you cant see them make sure to enable viewing of system apps in this menu.
 

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xanga

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I am going to apply this method to my new non-Samsung Android phone as I really missed Samsung Focus. Do you think I will be able to use Samsung Focus with your method?
 

rickpub

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Yeah, it's a shame that this isn't working on Linage 15.1 . I can get the watch talking to my phone but I am unable to load any apps from Galaxy apps to the phone (which is better than nothing). As you said it just hangs... Everything else seems to work, it can even communicate with SHealth. If I don't update Galaxy Apps after flashing your 2nd zip I can sign in but when trying to install/download apps to my phone (Note Edge... pretty much a note 4) it downloads but hangs at that point and is unable install it to the watch through the gear plugin apparently (which is running).... If I update to the latest Galaxy apps (4.2.22) it can't even log in it gives me an error that the account already exists in account manager. Anyway, seems like I am almost getting it though. In fact I was able to work this prior to the last month or so (not with your zips) but something either changed with the Samsung apps or with Lineage 15.1
If anyone manages to get this to work completely on Lineage 14.1 or 15.1 pls post how you did it. I would like to at least be able to add watch faces.
 

AnonVendetta

Senior Member
Apr 29, 2016
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Portland, OR
@Nick32603: What did you do? You just flashed the zip? And now your camera isn't working? I don't see how my zip would break your camera, unless you changed your model in build.prop, or with the Xposed module I mentioned. You can try deleting the files in the zip from your system partition. Or you can flash a stock KDZ. I used my zips on a LG v10 stock ROM awhile back, nothing broke, camera continued working normally. If you need more help then just post or send me a PM, I'll try to help.
 

Darkblader24

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Feb 21, 2017
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Here is a link to a zip with the updated Galaxy Apps components (everything should be current as of May 2019). Follow steps in 1st post and flash in TWRP:

https://mega.nz/#!8h5EDIQI!QWNMQ4DB4Qg4Vx_83uf86Nnw_OSymSAZpdNnB8omVng
Thanks, I tried installing this after the original one didn't work, but it didn't work either. It always hung itself up or crashed when trying to add a new Samsung account.
But I got it finally working after installing this Samsung Account APK: https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/samsu...ng-account/samsung-account-2-2-04-64-release/
I'm not sure why it works now but I'll take it. Newer versions of this apk might work as well, but I only tried this one.