These devices have replaced play services with things like micro g, do yes they will run pretty much any android app even Google ones would work but that would be defeating the purpose.
While technically correct, it runs apps, it’s misleading because it won’t run the majority of apps from the playstore.
Google holds people captive with the playstore and the very sneaky google play services.
Only the most hardcore tinkerers and privacy oriented would run a pure AOSP phone.
Teknikal@anarchist.nexus 5 hours ago
Zak@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
I’ve tried it, and only ran into a couple apps that wouldn’t work with MicroG. I won’t pretend it’s painless, but it’s workable for someone with sufficient motivation.