# Finally - A solution for kosher and dpad compatible Google Maps?
**URL:** https://jtechforums.org/t/finally-a-solution-for-kosher-and-dpad-compatible-google-maps/7862
**Category:** Android Apps
**Created:** [July 7, 2026, 1:39am UTC](https://jtechforums.org/t/finally-a-solution-for-kosher-and-dpad-compatible-google-maps/7862 "2026-07-07T01:39:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 190
### Author:  [@ars18](https://jtechforums.org/u/ars18)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2026, 4:33pm UTC](https://jtechforums.org/t/finally-a-solution-for-kosher-and-dpad-compatible-google-maps/7862/190 "2026-07-15T16:33:53Z")
@keepitkosher
Just wanna explain some stuff about our forum and broader community, and why everyone here got so excited for your project after seeing the below in GH issues:
If I misunderstood some sorta joke I’m sorry for this wall of text 🙂
If not, it pissed me off and that’s why I’m writing this. (also with a 🙂 )
* * *
Let me start by saying our forum is the best! Duh.
### Why
1. We have so much info on random obscure devices that nobody outside of the JTechForums/dumpbphone community have even heard of.
2. Many of our solutions to issues with these phones (and many apps, PI stuff, root detection, pairip etc…) can be used globally
3. Reverse engineering applies to so much of what we do and I love it. Some genuinely crazy going on around here. I know you’d appreciate it if you browsed around the topics here, as you made Vela and continue to RE to keep it going.
This forum mostly discusses topics regarding creating and maintaining responsible tech. The general idea is that users would like to be free of temptation for porn/innapropriate content, while still having benefits of having dumbed down smartphones (flip, bar, normal sized, whatever).
This can include but not limited to decompiling apks and removing webviews or unnecesary features, hosts blocking and other more advanced network configs, and the same (easier) if source is available. Webviews if not removed can become a full accessible browser.
You may ask, why not just have self control? It’s the general consensus around these parts that when it comes down to it, people don’t. You know that saying that applies to many areas, “99 percent of people do x, and the other 1 percent are lying.” 🙂
So that would be the reason for such a request or similar.
* * *
### Why your project was very well received here:
First of all, I’d say 99% of the people here do not care one bit about having google services track them. I’ll post some threads below on community issues in Google Maps:
> [@Google Maps picture blocking](https://jtechforums.org/t/google-maps-picture-blocking/5183):
>
> Does anyone know the host entries are to block all pictures on Google Maps without breaking the rest of the app
> [@Kosher Google Maps](https://jtechforums.org/t/kosher-google-maps/3354):
>
> Does anyone have a Google Maps APK without pictures or IAB? Or does anyone know the URL’s to block to block pictures in Google Maps?
As well as phones without google services have issues running it of course.
When Vela came along, it was immediately seen as the perfect solution. Thanks for that.
### What people did not realize
Most people here have never contributed to a codebase aside from feedback. Most don’t even have a GitHub account.
Can you just add this? Should be simple… lol
Also, yeah, people should not be asking to add religious restrictions to a general application, I agree and have stated this quite a few times in this thread.
### Here’s the good and the bad, and I believe it applies anywhere, not just in our community:
1. Most people say “What’s a github account”, “It’s too complicated for me”, etc… - You will not receive stars from most of your users, especially from here, and from the reach of your app either by kosher ROMs or by bluetooth sharing apks from flip phone to flip phone 🙂
2. I would love if people donated/sponsored more but as I say, “meh” - You will not receive many donations in general (such is OSS, it is what it is)
3. People don’t understand what large efforts go into big projects
4. People really only pipe up when there’s issues
* * *
Also, here, I appreciate you. For real. Great project (please I’m begging you slow down though haha).
* * *
Here’s a compromise on the donate button that should satisfy everyone (take it or leave it by me, doesn’t matter):
First of all I realized I needed to update the donate link to buymeacoffee, I included it in this PR. Sorry I missed it.
Second, if the user has no browser installed, and only has system webview, clickable links will show, “Your device does not have a browser” toast on click and disregard webview.
Example:
>
>
> \* Donate link goes to the upstream author's Buy Me a Coffee page
>
> Port of upstre…am PimpinPumpkin/Vela commit d6e8230f. The Support Vela
> entry and the one-time prompt pointed at a GitHub Sponsors page that
> went nowhere; upstream switched to buymeacoffee.com/PimpinPumpkin and
> added the repo FUNDING.yml. Donations go to the upstream author - the
> app is theirs, this fork only adds the D-pad and small-screen work.
>
> \* External links only open in an actual browser, never the system WebView
>
> Keypad phones ship a preinstalled fake browser - a system WebView shell
> that renders an error page for every URL - and a bare ACTION\_VIEW sent
> every Website, donate, Street View, Book/Order, notice and F-Droid
> voice-fallback link straight into it. Every http(s) link now goes
> through one helper (ui/ExternalLinks.kt) that resolves ACTUAL browsers
> first: an app declaring CATEGORY\_APP\_BROWSER, or any user-installed
> handler of generic https links. No real browser installed shows a
> toast (Your device does not have a browser, translated in all 15
> locales) and opens nothing; when the default handler is not a real
> browser, the intent is pinned to one, so the shell can never open even
> as the system default.
>
> Scheme-less website values are treated as web URLs - Google's place
> payload stores bare domains, and those used to slip through to the raw
> intent path (device-found). Non-web schemes (tel:, geo:, APK installs)
> are untouched; the manifest gains the Android 11+ package-visibility
> queries the browser check needs.
>
> Device-proven end to end: no browser -\> toast, nothing opens; browser
> disabled via root mid-session -\> toast returns; browser installed -\>
> the website and donate pages open in it while the fake stays shut out
> as the default handler; the Call button still reaches the dialer.
>
> \* Scope the browser gate to link buttons only, and drop the imports the rewiring orphaned
>
> The voice-engine installer's F-Droid fallback goes back to its original
> code: it is part of an install flow, not a clickable link button, and
> the browser gate is for link buttons only (website, Street View, Book
> and Order, donate, privacy page, notice Learn more, open in Maps).
> Also removes the three files' now-unused Uri and Intent imports that
> failed detekt in CI.
>
> \* Docs: the browser gate's exact scope, mechanics and gotchas
>
> AGENTS.md documents ExternalLinks end to end: the nine gated link
> buttons listed exhaustively, the two-signal real-browser definition,
> the load-bearing manifest queries entries, the scheme-less-URL hole,
> the untouched non-web schemes, and the hard scope rule - link buttons
> only, never the in-app WebView fetchers, downloads, updater or share
> intents. The FEATURES.md entry drops the voice-fallback mention that
> no longer applies and states the scope and both-flavor proof.
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