I’m thinking about flashing my phone to GrapheneOS to get rid of all the Google shit. Anybody have experience with it? Do you like it? Is there a better privacy-focused solution for Android phones? I’ve got a Pixel, and the process looks pretty straightforward but I’m curious to hear if any comrades here have tried it.
You must log in or register to comment.
I have not had any issues, but I did install a cracked version of the Google camera app because it had more features than the default.
Nice, thank you!
I have grapheneOS on my pixel 9 and i am pretty satisfied. Everything works for me and you can get all the apps from the playstore if you can’t do without some app. The verification for WhatsApp did not work on mine but it seems to be a personal issue.
I use it and there aren’t any problems that spring to mind. It works mostly like other android phones I have had. I have heard that the camera app isn’t as good, but I use a physical camera if I want really good pictures, so it hasn’t been something I cared about, and for the random pictures I do take it has been fine.
I have google play stuff installed and my banks app and a money transfer app installed and they happen to mostly work for me, some times they can complain about the phone not being secure or whatever it is they say, but when they aren’t doing so they work perfectly. And some combination of rebooting to actually install OS updates and reinstalling the apps have made them work again for now.
ⓘ This user is suspected of being a cat. Please report any suspicious behavior.
It was an overall good experience for me, and if you’re already completely de-Googled then you’ll be satisfied with the GrapheneOS stock apps. They are very basic AOSP versions compared to what you’d be accustomed to on Google’s Android, but they provide all necessary functions for a smartphone. Their Vanadium browser is also excellent and even felt a bit more responsive than Chrome.
If you need some Google apps and services and have an account, the Play service and store are easily installed from Graphene’s included ‘mini store’ app, and you can log in to the Google account to install whatever apps are only on Play. As of late last year, you can also use RCS in Google Messages by following some easy post-install instructions posted on Graphene’s website. Absent the Play store, your main method to install apps will be something like F-Droid or Obtainium or simply downloading an .apk directly.
One perk of Graphene’s flash-all script is that it accounts for and flashes to both boot slots on devices which have that arrangement, as opposed to Google’s which only flashes to the active/current slot and then steams full speed into start-up without pausing to allow the user time to flash to the other slot or re-enable flash lock.
Is there a better privacy-focused solution for Android phones?
Short of not using the phone at all, no.
It’s the smartphone equivalent to installing desktop Linux on your PC. You will probably find the same parallels and challenges that switching to Linux entails: the more complex your patterns of use and workflows, the more proprietary and commercial programs you use = higher likelihood of friction and frustrations and having to change or eliminate things after the transition.
I tried it several times on my Pixels for some months, ended up going back to stock Android as I did for Windows on my PC. Among my reasons were software dependency, going from one package manager or install method to several which need to be managed individually, and other miscellaneous bugs and annoyances, mostly.
It’s easy to install and you can just as easily revert to stock Android if it doesn’t work out, only a few minutes needed for a complete flash either way.
This is great. Thank you.
Anything that requires the Google Play Integrity API isn’t going to work because you aren’t running a verified build of Android, but that’s mostly banking apps and stuff. I haven’t really been affected much by it and really it just feels like using Android with a lot more control over your privacy.
deleted by creator
I use it and I would recommend it to basically anyone who can install it and cares about digital privacy
I use it, and certain banking and corporate apps won’t work without the Google APIs.
However, online banking via the browser still works.
My banking apps work fine. Sometimes they don’t like me using a VPN though.
Been using it for ages, actually got a pixel 8 specifically for it. It’s almost indistinguishable from stock android if you use the gplay sandbox feature. The only thing you’ll have trouble with is some banking or government apps, but you can always just use the website and carry a card.
Using it. Took a little getting used to, even coming from LineageOS/microG. All good now though. The only app I’ve had refuse to work is the Uber driver app (I was gonna do some food delivery).
