Insular - Questions

Apps
1

Hi all,

I recently came across insular, I tried it out to install a non FOSS work chat app into the island. It crashed a few times, but generally seems to work fine, but I have some questions:

  1. I noticed it does not use my VPN in the island, which is good, since I don’t want non FOSS apps to be on the same IP as my normal android apps. Question is, the local IP and network is still shared. I only keep trusted devices in my LAN, and non trusted, i.e. Windows on a guest wifi. Is it possible to make the island use the guest wifi and not have access to my trusted LAN?

  2. The file system seems to be clean for the island, meaning it has none of my files, which is good. But say I installed excel into the island, how would I put an excel spreadsheet on to the island file system?

  3. What are the cons vs keeping those same untrusted apps onto a different device? I mean if I had the non-foss chat app on another phone that I could switch on and off whenever I wanted. Also I could keep it at home (in an ON state) while I went out, how does that compare to having that chat app on my normal device, in an island, also ON. Are there any disadvantages?

Thank you.

2

the local IP and network is still shared

yes, use another VPN app in the work profile to block LAN access

guest wifi

no

how would I put an excel spreadsheet on to the island file system

you can still share/pick files between the main and work profile
you can also install this app into each profile to make it easier: Save on Device | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

that I could switch on and off whenever I wanted.

you can still switch off the work profile via the “pause work apps” button, it completely stops them

any disadvantages?

you can see what apps can see about your device without permissions using this app: kDI Device Info system permission | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

for just a proprietary chat app, a work profile is likely fine

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