title covers the question. can I do it without losing the whole purpose of Graphene (privacy)?
for some context, I an thinking on installing GrapheneOS on my Pixel 6 and there are several apps that I really like that I either purchased our bought a lifetime subscription/ads removal etc.
I guess I could find replacements for some of them or deal with lack of paid features, but the others I like that much that it could even stop me from using GrapheneOS (i.e., Pleco with its dictionaries and strokes orders for Chinese)
or, maybe, any way just to enable some services only for those apps?
You’ll have to install the (sandboxed) Google playstore and login with your current account to continue using your paid apps. Even with that setup you will be better of on GOS in terms of security and privacy, becsuse of the sandboxed play sevices and other features. If you wish you can also use a separate profile for your paid apps. This will basically isolate them from everything else you do on your phone.
According to the Usage page on their site, you can.
Play Store services are fully available including in-app purchases, Play Asset Delivery, Play Feature Delivery and app / content license checks.
[…]
The Play Store requires being signed into an account in order to install apps or use in-app purchases. This is still true even for an alternate frontend to the Play Store. Aurora Store still requires an account but fetches shared account credentials from Aurora Store’s service by default.
The Play Store provides many services used by apps including Play Asset Delivery, Play Feature Delivery, in-app purchases and license checks for paid apps. The Play Store app is also the most secure way to install and update apps from the Play Store.
The “whole purpose” of GrapheneOS is not Privacy. The primary goal of GrapheneOS is improved security but privacy is a top priority also.
As to your question, I believe that you will necessarily need to give up some privacy, restoring purchases necessarily involves connecting your personal Google account to your GrapheneOS device, and using the Google play store. GrapheneOS has what they call “sandboxed Google Play Services” which just means that Play Services has the same privileges as any normal app (it doesn’t mean your privacy is perfectly protected by any means, as some people mistakenly assume). In terms of privacy, it is better than privileged play services, but much worse than no play services whatsoever.
I GrapheneOS’ed the other day.
Play store has all purchases and subscriptions, but I needet to readd my main payment method again.
Give that a check once your done