For those who use GrapheneOS, is it worth it? Do you like it?
My backups are done, all that is left is the final choice to wipe my whole phone.
I’m pretty sure they don’t “guarantee software integrity” as it is. At least not in any meaningful way.
Easily the best phone i ever used. Graphene on a Pixel that is.
It’s great! Top notch privacy and security with OEM update convenience.
Welcome to the cool side Peter! (Family guy joke). No but seriously, jumping over to GrapheneOS was the best choice i’ve made in years.
Same here, never looked back. Enjoy it as long as it lasts
Honestly man god bless I’m here for the cause but it’s a real pain as a daily driver.
What makes it a pain to daily drive for you?
my work stack is all google. i tried using it full time last year with a pixel and i just found the sandboxed google services to be too unreliable in a pinch
Work profiles are a big sticking point for tech workers I think. Apparently some have got it to work, but my org’s didn’t. I think if your company uses MAM instead of MDM you might have better luck, but I couldn’t get Intune to set up the work profile correctly. I started carrying a phone size ereader everywhere so I just set up work stuff on that, but even then managing wifi for the second device is a pain.
Why don’t you elaborate and say why?
It’s the opposite- you’ll come to the bright side, to the free lands
100% love it.
I was worried that I would try it, not be able to use it for my needs, and be stuck hating what android has turned into, but not yet able to jump ship for linux phones (because moving to apple is as bad as what android is turning into).
Instead, graphene reminded me of why I loved android in the first place. It genuinely works so much smoother, I don’t have to worry about much of anything at all, but can relatively freely do whatever the fuck I want on my device.
As usual, you do have to be aware that some apps just will not cooperate with any OS changes that aren’t OEM. And graphene isn’t root friendly. So that’s why the “relatively freely” is present in the previous paragraph. Within those bounds though, holy crap is it a better experience than anything else I’ve ever used since my lgg3 was new. Faster, better battery life, and zero bloat to deal with. That’s compared to pixels I had fucked with that weren’t the same model as the one I was so generously given me by a great friend. Can’t say for sure that if graphene was available on my other devices that it would be better in terms of speed and battery life, since that’s hardware dependent to a great degree.
But I can say that when I fucked around on pixels newer than the one I have, that they were less responsive and drained battery faster doing similar tasks, despite having newer hardware.
I’ve said it elsewhere before, but my experience with graphene pissed me off. It makes me so angry that this experience isn’t the default experience for all devices, out of the box. I hate that until the recent announcement, that having this experience meant being limited to the shitty choices Google made for pixels (like no sd card, not the chipset or anything like that). I’m hopeful that the Motorola option is realistic for me once this phone has met its end of life. I’m riding it until the wheels fall off though lol.
Legit, if you aren’t limited by work requirements regarding apps you have to use, and your bank app isn’t pissy, don’t hesitate. I haven’t been this happy with any device since I put lineage on an old tablet years ago and it fit my needs so perfectly I couldn’t believe it. Even my beloved g3 didn’t work as well with any rom as this pixel does with graphene.
Graphene isn’t root friendly because root friendly is a security vulnerability.
You CAN install GOS builds which allow you to have root, but if you care about security (and, that’s why you’re here) then you should not.
Well, security isn’t 100% the same as private, if you meant here as in this C/, rather than here as in this post. I tend to favor security over privacy, when only one is possible, but there is a small difference in how they apply to phones.
But, yeah, afaik, rooting a device decreases security. But if you can’t/don’t want to jump through hoops, not having it is also a decrease in entry level personal choice. But that’s true of any android rom, not just graphene. It’s just that graphene is explicitly against root because of the holes it can cause.
Again, on my end, root isn’t currently high value. The things I would do with root access aren’t worth the extra hassle and decrease in efficacy of graphene to do what it is intended to do.
Mind you, there are devices I would root if I weren’t too lazy, for a small number of options. Just being able to easily use older apks is becoming a huge pain in the ass, and it’s annoying enough that my irritation will eventually outweigh my laziness on a couple of devices, just not those I use for anything beyond playing games and writing fiction (where keyboard choice matters a lot on android, and my keyboard of choice is 32bit based, which you have to root for two of my devices to fix).
Anyway, tangents aside, I appreciate your extra detail :)
Yep, do it.
(Posted from a Pixel 7 running GrapheneOS)
100% You’ll wonder why you’d ever go back.
(Posted from a Pixel Tablet running GrapheneOS. My little secure portable workstation.)
Agreed! (Posted from Pixel 8 running GrapheneOS)
Do it (Posted from an Arch machine tunneling through a Pixel 6 while copying backups and installing GOS on a Pixel 8)! e: update - transfer complete, good to go for another 2 years.
My Pixel 7a with GrapheneOS says ‘Hi!’ 🤗
Definitely worth it!
(From an IPhone 17 with GrapheneOS)
is it worth it? Do you like it?
yes
I"M INSANE
Welcome to freedom
Kudos!
Have fun 😊Good call!!! ;)
6 months in, and I can’t imagine going back. Use the web installer if possible, it is quick and really easy. Then immediately create a secondary user account for the Google compatibility layer, if you want that shit. I dont but I need my bank app. Keep it seperate. If you wanna use Google apps sometimes, have a separate user for that. You will gain quite a bit of battery without Google calling home every couple minutes. But if you install the compatibility layer in your main profile it becomes a chore to move to another account.
What about 2FA, and banking apps, and banks’ payment apps? At least in Yurop they require a “safe” / “uncompromised” OS. Oh the irony! But that is why I am still unrooted.
I used to have a service which required Authy and that will not work with a failed Play Integrity API check.
Chase and AMEX make it more annoying to log in by requiring additional 2FA after fingerprint unlocks.
Capital One is the same experience as my stock OS.
2FA has been fine for me, but banking apps are iffy where some work and some do not. I don’t use or trust banking apps, so it wasn’t a blocker for me.
If you install sandboxed Play Services then they should work. If not then the websites will.
That’s where I’ve gone wrong…
🙀
The best part of the movie!
Made the jump last week.
The only thing I miss is Android Pay, but it’s not a big deal. Cards are fine, you’ll just need to remember your wallet.
I did find I had a problem with my work 2FA app, but that’s their problem to solve, not mine. Maybe they’ll give me a 2FA USB key.
A few pieces of advice:
- Don’t forget to back up any apps with local data that support it. You won’t get your app data back from the play store. Many FOSS apps have built-in backup optioms to files etc.
- Back up your phone logs and SMS if that’s valuable to you, and ideally make sure the backup works on another device.
- Install GCam to keep the same level of camera quality and features as the original app provides. I recommend BigKaKa’s versions for good compatibility with Pixels, though they can get a little cluttered.
- Do install both the Play Store and Play Services if you want to use any Google app like YouTube or Maps (even some non-Google ones will need it). Then use a more private app store like Aurora and remove all permissions from the Play Store to strike a good middle-ground.
- The Fossify apps are great alternatives to the imo not very good stock apps preinstalled on LineageOS.
I feel like the tap pay would be what I miss most, but I saw someone suggest just getting a case that can hold your payment card, and it’s essentially the same thing.
Yep, though losing your wallet and phone at the same time would be rough.
Be careful with having your card exposed; there exists a scam where someone puts a chip reader waist level in certain places, like a crowded line, where it’ll skim off a few dollars off anyone who gets close enough. The rfid blocking cards work well (just do a bit of research, lots of sham ones out there), it also looks like there’s some options for rid blocking phone wallets too.
Do install both the Play Store and Play Services if you want to use any Google app like YouTube or Maps (even some non-Google ones will need it). Then use a more private app store like Aurora and remove all permissions from the Play Store to strike a good middle-ground.
I unfortunately use play services on both my main profile and gaming profile (I had to make a seperate non Premission Manager X profile to be able to play games), but if you’re smart like Veronica in her GrapheneOS video, you can do a degoogled profile and a sandboxed profile!
If I could convince my family to contact me through Signal/Molly rather than Google Messages, maybe I could go completely degoogled on one profile. But alas.
Nice link to the GCAM app fork, brings back some features that I missed out on with the normal app.
Yeah it’s nice to have PhotoSphere back!
“Software integrity cannot be guaranteed on a custom os”
Ah yes software integrity like, sorry we no longer support your device beyond its intended lifecycle and please make sure your beloved app has the latest enshitification update installed.
is it worth it?
I’ll try to be objective.
The Pros:
- Graphene gives you more “control” over your data “out of the box” than any other custom firmware. Yes, you can patch and mod your favorite firmware to your liking, but graphene “just works”
- It’s rock solid and reliable. It only supports one hardware family. I’ve never had graphene lock-up, crash, camera stop working, etc
- The installation and upgrading is amazingly easy (compared to other cfw) and streamlined. After the initial setup, it behaves just like any ofw.
- You’ll see just how much of an intrusive cancer Google has become (Google play has a “feature” where they’ll dynamically load code and try to run it - graphene blocks this kinda crap).
- Going back to stock Google (with locked bootloader) is rather easy. So you don’t have much to lose (other than a few hours) in trying.
The Cons:
- Some apps will crash. Graphene hardens how applications behave (in terms of accessing memory, for example) some apps are buggy and will not work. Not many apps (may 1 or 2 out of 30+) but it does happen and you can fittle with the app settings to try to fix it, but it’s tedious through trial-and-error
- Some apps won’t work, like maybe your bank because it will never pass the “Google integrity” checks. The fear and concern is that more and more apps will start to block cfw. So expect that you might need a second device.
- Any apps/processes that deal with money (tap-to-pay, Google wallet) probably will not work (again, it fails the “Google integrity” checks).
- (personal preference) I don’t like the graphene launcher nor their store nor their (boring) default icons. However, graphene empowers you to change/replace all this.
