A Google-free space for your Android apps, on a stock phone. No root, no custom OS.
Website: riberojuanca.github.io/bubble-android
Bubble turns Android's own Private Space into a "bubble": a separate, hidden profile where the apps you choose run natively, with their own data, without Google services inside, behind a deny-by-default firewall. Your banking and Google apps stay installed on the normal phone. Notification privacy controls affect features such as suggested replies, accessory forwarding and launcher badges.
Status: experimental. Built and tested on a Pixel 9a with Android 17 (stock, locked bootloader). Other phones and Android versions are untested; some parts are known to depend on Android 17 (see Compatibility).
- Creates the bubble: a minimal Private Space with Google Play Services, the Play Store and their plumbing left out from the first boot.
- Keeps Google out: a guard disables any Google service that shows up inside.
- Hides its use: the system events that would reveal what you do in the bubble are not written to the system log.
- Filters the network: every app inside starts without internet; you allow each one on Wi-Fi, on mobile data, or both.
- Adds apps your way: copy apps you already have, install APK files, or use F-Droid inside the bubble.
- Locks itself smartly: the bubble closes when the screen turns off, unless one of its apps is playing music.
- Meta space (optional): a separate work profile for Facebook and Instagram, which crash without Google; Google is installed there but turned off.
- Bubble Apps and a widget: all your bubble and Meta apps in one grid, and on your home screen as real icons (in the launcher's shape, with Bubble's small mark) or a widget. Bubble Apps is not a separate download: installing Bubble adds two icons to the app drawer, Bubble to set things up and Bubble Apps to open apps and place them on the home screen (also reachable from Bubble's home).
- Bubble photos and files: pick a photo saved in the bubble as your wallpaper (also from Wallpaper & style, through an optional button over Google Photos) or give it to any app that asks for an image, and browse the bubble's own files. Only what you pick leaves the bubble, and a locked bubble asks for your fingerprint right there.
- Removes everything in one step, leaving the phone as it was.
Bubble cannot make the bubble invisible to Android itself. The phone's Google services can still know that a private profile exists and which apps are installed in it; while the profile is open its notifications could also reach notification listeners on the phone. Bubble revokes the Google notification listeners and assistant that could read them (verified on the Android 17 emulator and a Pixel 9a), but Android's own system components still process notifications locally (on the Pixel this includes some Google components that run as the system itself), and complete isolation from the OS is not possible without root. Apps that require Google's Play Integrity check (many banking apps, some games) will not work inside. Read the full, honest privacy model.
Creating a profile without Google, filtering its network and managing its apps need system permissions no ordinary app can get. Bubble borrows them from Android's shell identity, through your phone's own wireless debugging, paired once with a code, with no computer. A small engine runs with that identity only while Bubble works. Day-to-day actions (opening apps, changing their network access) go directly from Bubble to its copy inside each profile, without wireless debugging. Details in Architecture.
- Download the APK from Releases and install it.
- Open Bubble and follow the two setup steps: pair (turn on Developer options and Wireless debugging, type the 6-digit code) and create the bubble (about a minute).
- Open the app drawer and unlock the Private section at the bottom: that is your bubble.
Bubble checks for new releases when you open it, at most once every six hours. Tap Update when offered, or use Settings → Check for updates. Android confirms the installation; your data and pairing are kept.
The user manual explains every screen, every option and what to do when something goes wrong.
- User manual: install, daily use, troubleshooting, FAQ (en español).
- Privacy model: what Bubble protects and what it cannot.
- Architecture: the pieces and how they talk.
- Reverse engineering: what we found inside Android 17 to make this possible, with evidence.
- Design decisions.
- App compatibility and testing.
- Security: why Bubble needs each permission, and how to report a problem.
- Contributing: build from source, conventions.
| Tested | Pixel 9a, Android 17 (API 37), stock |
| Requires | Android 15 or later for Private Space; Bubble creates the bubble only on API 37 for now (an internal system call it uses is version-specific) |
| Needs | Developer options and Wireless debugging (Wi-Fi for setup) |
| Not needed | Root, an unlocked bootloader, a computer |
Bubble is free and open source, and will stay that way. If it is useful to you, you can support its development through GitHub Sponsors or a donation (see the Sponsor button on this repository).
MIT.