Box v3.4.5

A small, focused release. No new models, no new themes, no feature changes, this one is entirely
about taking Google code out of the app. Both changes apply to both downloads, the standard Main build
and the custom-ROM build.

🔥 Firebase removed, completely

Box was originally forked from Google's AI Edge Gallery, and it inherited Google's Firebase
libraries along with everything else: Firebase Analytics and Firebase Cloud Messaging (push
notifications).

Box never used either of them. They had no configuration file, so they could not start up, could
not collect anything and could not send anything, the analytics was additionally switched off by
hand in the app's manifest.

They are now gone entirely rather than being disabled:

• Both Firebase libraries removed from the build
• The Firebase startup call removed
• The push-notification service deleted
• The analytics file and all 20 of its (already inactive) tracking calls deleted
• Six Google entries removed from the app manifest, including the three Google Analytics
  measurement components

📡 A Google logging uploader, switched off

While removing Firebase, a second piece of Google code turned up: Clearcut, Google's usage-logging
transport. It arrives inside ML Kit the library Box uses for background removal, face
detection and reading text from images so it did not leave with Firebase.

Two things made it worth dealing with properly:

• It sends over an ordinary HTTPS connection rather than through Google Play services, so being on
  a de-Googled phone does not stop it.
• There is no setting to turn it off. Google does not provide one in these versions of ML Kit.

Box now switches it off at the source, by disabling the single component that tells the uploader
where to send anything. With nothing registered, every event is discarded before it is even written
down, let alone sent. This is a path Google's own code is written to handle, so nothing breaks, the
ML Kit features themselves are completely unaffected.

this was almost certainly idle for most people most of the time, since those
features only wake up when you actually open them. It is off now regardless.

📵 The "Enable Google Play services" message

Some people running Box on GrapheneOS and other de-Googled Android builds have seen a
notification at the top of the screen saying "Box won't work unless you enable Google Play
services."

Box does not need Google Play services and never has. That message was raised by Google's own code
sitting inside the app, not by Box.

Firebase was the one piece of that code that started up automatically every time you opened the app,
and it is what this release removes. If you saw that message, it should now be gone.

If you still see it after updating, please open a GitHub issue and say which screen you were on
when it appeared, that will pin down what is left to remove.
As mentioned earlier all logging as been switched off from day one in Box.

🙏 Thanks

Huge shoutout and thanks to all the great and wonderful people making these models available to
everyone — Box would not be possible without the hard work of the community!

If you'd like to see your model, or a model you know of, featured in Box, send me an email or open a
GitHub issue. Box prioritises the LiteRT backend, so LiteRT-LM models are preferred for several
reasons — but I'm open to quality GGUF suggestions too!