Been using this for about a year on a p9 pro. It works very well. I hear the google tap to pay does not work, but I've never tried it. However Vipps with their tap to pay works fine. BankID works but not with biometric login, which some things require IIRC. And for some reason DnB private works fine, but you are not allowed in on the corp app.

It's mind boggingly stupid that they lock down apps like this, when you can just open the thing in a website anyway. I can use my bank on some linux distro, crazy that they trust me since it is not Windows - the truly secure OS!

Knew about those things before I started, so all in all I'm pretty happy. I'd recommend NOT using different users for different things (I started with banking etc in one profile, that ended up being a huge PITA and according to their docs it is mostly security theater anyway). Happy tinkering!

I personally tend to own two Phones. One all-day carry GrapheneOS device (Pixel 8) and an older WiFi and at home only iPhone for all payment and ensurance stuff.

This is inconvenient in some ways, but at least it is sort of privacy as good as it gets while still being able to run official apps when I need them at home.

To de-google the phone, I use F-Droid as primary App store, Aurora as fallback for non-f-droid Apps and as a last resort Obtainium to install Apps that are not in these stores.

The only google App I really "need" (kind of) is the Camera App, which is sandboxed via GrapheneOS Storage Spaces and without Network permission (why would a camera need internet?).

To backup my phone, I use the integrated GrapheneOS Solution (seedvault!?) for storage and apps, immich for Photos and MyPhoneExplorer for Contacts.

Sometimes it is a bit hard to find good apps for specific purposes, so for everyone interested, here is a list of Apps that I personally use or have used.

  Newpipe - Youtube Client
  Audiobookshelf - Audiobooks
  Voice (PaulWoitaschek) - Local Audiobook Player
  Substreamer - Music
  DSub - Music (alternative)
  VLC - Video-Player
  Organic Maps - Google Maps alternative (not as good)
  PDF Doc Scanner - Open Source Document Scanner
  Wireguard - VPN
  Immich - Photo Backup / Viewer
  LocalSend - File Transfer
  K9 Mail / FairMail - Email Client
  KOReader - Ebooks
  Binary Eye - QRCodes and Barcodes
  Pure Todo - Self hosted PWA PHP Todo List 
  Signal - Messenger
  Open Camera - Open Source Camera App

GrapheneOS seems like the most practically workable of the alternative phone OS, but de-googled Android OSP just feels like the wrong approach. Better would be a pure Linux phone OS and a Proton/Wine-style compatibility layer for Android apps. If that can be made to work with banking and other apps that require Play Store authentication. I hope that ship hasn't sailed completely yet. But it feels like there has to be some way: starting from two glued together phones, there should be a lot of steps you can take to get to a reasonably usable device than can run different apps in different environments.

"Break free from Google" and buy a Pixel phone from them to do so.

But unironically Pixels are currently some of the best actually open phones. They do not lock down or require shady practices for unlocking the bootloader (although they do require a network check once that happens automatically, but it will permanently allow unlocking the bootloader if successful once. Pixels are very easy to restore and almost un-brickable, allow bypassing the boot screen warning by pressing the power button twice, actually allow relocking the bootloader and don't void your warranty unlocking it, don't have a shady one-time fuse like Samsung phones do with Knox, etc.

And once you are on GrapheneOS, break free from your proprietary watch ecosystem and switch to GadgetBridge (https://gadgetbridge.org/)

I run a Thinkpad with NixOS and KDE, a Pixel 9 with GrapheneOS, and an Amazfit watch paired with GadgetBridge on my phone.

It's a testament to the hard work of the FOSS maintainers of these projects, and the spirit of open source, that everything works flawlessly together without any cloud service sucking up my data. For example, I can control youtube and music playback on my laptop with my watch because KDE Connect syncs my laptop and my phone, and gadgetbridge syncs the phone and the watch. The breezy weather app on my phone can automatically push its data to gadgetbridge which in turn pushes the data to the watch. And so on. So many little things, developed independently, working like a single well oiled machine.

Been running GrapheneOS for a while on a Pixel 9, and extremely happy with it! Apart from the usual perks of the FOSS ecosystem, there are a few things specific to GrapheneOS that are not immediately apparent but have turned out to work very well -

1. The Pixel camera app works, including all modes and settings. A camera that takes good photos was absolutely a requirement for me, and the FOSS camera apps are not quite as good yet.

2. I don't have Google Photos and the pixel camera app tries to launch google photos when you want to review the picture you just took. But there is a FOSS app called GPhotosShim that uses the same namespace as google photos and thus fools the camera into launching that app instead. Once launched, it just launches whatever media management app you actually have configured, so it's seamless.

3. Android Auto works!

4. Android QuickShare works!

5. NFC tags / Yubikey integration works!

6. Screencasting works!

7. Sensor access and internet access can be disabled for apps by default (and I do).

I've used GrapheneOS on a Pixel 3a, 5, 8 and 10 Pro so far and it's worked really well. I couldn't imagine going back.

The only things I'm missing (which don't exist in other OS'es either):

- Being able to configure contact scopes in such a way that the app in question only gets access to the phone numbers of the contacts belonging to the label I specified, e.g. "WhatsApp", nothing more. Yes, one can of course add contacts' phone numbers to the contact scopes "by hand" but 1) there is a limit on the number of contacts/phone numbers configured this way, and 2) AFAIK there is no way to back up that list.

- Being able to install browser extensions in Vanadium.

- Being able to configure multiple VPNs at once, e.g. for Tailscale, ad filtering, blocking HackerNews during times when I should be doing something more productive :) etc., especially since the Vanadium browser doesn't support extensions (see above). I was hoping that the Rethink app might implement something like this (https://github.com/celzero/rethink-app/issues/1047) but it doesn't look like it's coming and it'd probably be much better to do this at the OS level.

About his comment:

> Unfortunately, I must recommend Windows 10/11 here, because then you don’t have to mess around with any drivers; it’s the simplest option.

When I worked at Microsoft but ran FreeBSD at home, I often used my work Windows laptop to install custom ROMs. This is because FreeBSD was finicky with adb.

Now I run Fedora and the Android drivers are pre-installed. I installed GrapheneOS on both a Pixel 10 Pro (main) and Pixel 9 (spare) that way.

On Windows, I've had more trouble with Android drivers than I did on non-Windows.

This is especially interesting in regard to the recent HN dicussion on spyware by for-profit intel firms having access to Whatsapp, Telegram, Signal, etc. (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47033976) through OS-level no-click hijacks.

I wonder how secure GrapheneOS is in that regard, and what the other contenders are?

The banking app compatibility issue gets framed wrong. The real problem is not "does Google Play work" but "does Play Integrity API work" - that is a device attestation mechanism, not a Google dependency per se.

Building fintech apps, we integrated Play Integrity as a fraud signal. Sandboxed Play Services on GrapheneOS actually passes most of these checks now, and false positive rates for legitimate users are negligible. The hardliners who refuse sandboxed Play can still use most banking apps that fall back to basic root detection rather than hardware attestation.

The real gap is NFC payments - Google Pay needs privileged hardware access that sandboxed apps cannot get. But that is one use case, not a reason to skip GrapheneOS entirely. Curve works fine in EU.

Been running GrapheneOS for about 18 months now on a Pixel 8 Pro. The banking app situation is genuinely better than the article implies. Sandboxed Play Services handles most major apps fine, including N26 and Revolut which I use daily for fintech work. The main friction is not apps but convenience features like auto-fill across profiles breaking if you use the separate work/personal profile setup.

What most people miss: the real value of GrapheneOS is not just escaping Google surveillance but the per-app network and sensor permission toggles. Being able to cut network access to apps that have no business phoning home changes how you think about every install. That alone is worth the switch.

I've been using GrapheneOS for about 3 years now. For the most part, it works very well. I don't have any issues with banking apps, nor any other closed source apps. I'm using two profiles both with sandboxed Google play installed. I'm logged in into my private Google account on the work profile.

However, there was one case that lead me to thinking about ditching grapheneos to this day. I installed Uber on my phone and I was able to successfully create an account and use it. When it came to booking a ride, the app crashed and I had to log in again. Once I did that, I was told that my account has been suspended for violating the terms of services. All I did to that point was creating an account and booking a ride. I was able to resolve the issue luckily after a few days and going back and fourth a couple of times with the Uber support, however, the risk of getting banned on any such platform is still risky, and thus I'm not sure if grapheneos is usable if you need to use such services.

It's a shame only Pixel phones are supported. I have PWM sensitivity and Pixel phones are notoriously bad for this, my eyes hurt when I look at one for more than 30mn. Due to the lack of good, secure alternative, I have had to give up on privacy in exchange for manufacturer updates.

GrapheneOS' approach is to focus more on security than privacy, because they believe increased security leads to increased privacy. Unfortunately, that means their hardware requirements pretty much limit the hardware that you can run it on (currently only the Pixel phone range). Worse, it also means they stop supporting a device when it reaches End-Of-Life as software security updates stop for it (see How long can GrapheneOS support my device for? - https://grapheneos.org/faq#device-lifetime ). Sad though - GrapheneOS on Sony Open Devices ( https://developer.sony.com/open-source/aosp-on-xperia-open-d... ) would have been nice.

While I admire GrapheneOS and its goals, I feel that until we free the proprietary baseband processors and their RTOS from the grips of Qualcomm and friends it's a pyrrhic victory, at best.

> For me, it works like this: on the Owner user, because that’s the name of the main account created automatically with the system, I installed the Google Play Store along with Google Play services and GmsCompatConfig

Many people here might recoil at this: to go through the trouble of de-Googling your phone and then just install Google Play services and the Play Store, but the important part is that it is a choice they could make.

Pixels are arguably the best option for software choice among mainstream phones (and iPhones are the worst), but both are a huge regression of choice compared to traditional personal computing platforms.

I use and appreciate GrapheneOS due to it being one of, if not the best, option we currently have.

That said, I do not like how much the project depends on Google.

- GrapheneOS is based on Android, which is solely developed by Google.

- GrapheneOS only supports Google Pixel devices. Thankfully, they are working on partnering with a different manufacturer, but details are still very limited.

- They recommend using the Google Play Store (requires a Google account) to get apps and recommend against using F-Droid.

- Their Vanadium web browser is based on Chromium, which is controlled by Google. It also does not have an ad blocker or support extensions. They recommend against using Firefox. Firefox, and Safari to a more limited extent, are the only web browsers keeping Google from having complete control over web standards and the way we can access the internet.

This is not a criticism of the GrapheneOS project or developers. I understand that security is the biggest priority of GrapheneOS and I understand that Google is often good at security. They are following the goals of the project. It is more directed towards the GrapheneOS community that often blindly recommends GrapheneOS as the only option and treats any alternative as inferior and not to be considered. Most users do not need security at all costs. Especially among the free and open source enthusiast community, freedom and user control are often prioritized. There should be more awareness and discussion about what the user wants and whether that actually aligns with the security-first goals of GrapheneOS.

One of the only big downsides I've noticed with GrapheneOS is that several banking apps don't work with it at all thanks to being tied to Google's verification ecosystem.

Luckily I have hardware 2FA keys from my bank so I can authenticate using that. It also slightly decreases the suck-factor from whenever the phone decides to fly off down a drain. This may not be the case for you, so do your research on what you need for daily living.

We need Linux OSes and phones to catch up to really break free from this duopoly. Only when there is enough traction, essential infrastructure like banks will start supporting Oses like that. It's a chicken and egg kind of problem.

One thing that is a game changer on GrapheneOS is the network toggle for apps. Turn off network access for your keyboard, camera app, calculator, files, etc.

Until these OS also start putting forward something like WebOS that tried to get phones back to on open web, there is no breaking the binary format and Appstore monopoly.

I wish Europe would have forced that 10 years ago since the US is beyond saving.

The biggest hold-back for me is that, here in Australia, Google Wallet (aka Google Pay) is the only way you can do tap credit card payments that I know of. Can't with Paypal. Not with any banking apps that I know of.

It's just so damned convenient. And the recording of transactions on the phone saves me having to collect paper receipts.

Break free from Google*. As long as you buy a Google phone. I really want to use it, but the Pixel only requirement is a deal breaker

This is the phone version of saying “the power utility is an evil awful monopoly that treats me like shit, so I’m gonna get solar and batteries and go off grid.”

It’s cool it’s possible, but it’s not practical for most people.

Does anyone have a good grasp of the differences between GOS and /e/OS? I'm buying a Fairphone soon and was wondering what both are like

The main problem with the Pixel phones, along with most Android phones these days, is the lack of a μSD card slot and a 3.5mm headphone jack. When I recently had to purchase a new phone, I had to go with a Motorolo G, as it had both of those features.

As a long time iOS user, I now mainly run Graphene + GadgetBridge with a helio strap. Pretty nice and private setup.

My running watch is from a chinese company that I do not trust, so I lock down the permissions quite far. I like that Graphene lets me control the network permission and have offline maps that cannot report anything external.

Overall the most annoying thing is not being able to iMessage... I moved who I could over to signal.

Also the battery life is amazing because I keept restricting apps from background usage and the defaults already do a good job of that

"Break Free from Android and iOS" looks inside - Android

FYI: Google Fi + GrapheneOS doesn't work. My son recently tried setting up GrapheneOS and got everything working but couldn't get connected to Google Fi to work, even with a SIM card.

"Break free from Google ..." by purchasing Google hardware and using [software "based on"] Google software

Is it really "breaking free" from a company if the method of "breaking free" requires continued cooperation from the company

This is not to suggest using a modified version of Android isn't useful. This comment is not about GrapheneOS. (But there will be HN replies that will try to redirect focus to it anyway.) This comment is about claiming it's possible to "break free" from something while still remaining inextricably tied to it

In addition to using a custom ROM, there are methods of stopping the Pixel's attempts to "phone home" to the company that work even with the version of Android pre-installed by the company intact. However if a method requires software, e.g., drivers, or is "based on" software controlled by the company, then ultimately the company holds the cards. IMHO, this is not what it means to "break free"

Perhaps the most reliable method of stopping these connections to the company is one that does not rely on cooperation by the company. This is because if the company decides to stop cooperating, the method still works

The list of open source apps in this article was very informative and something you can benefit from even if you don't use GrapheneOS. Many of the apps listed I hadn't heard of.

Switched to this from Apple a year and a half ago. Works for most things. Unexpectedly, replacement apps lack polish. Also, RCS works very inconsistently (been without it for months), seems to be Google's fault. There may be workarounds, but I haven't had the energy to try the more complicated suggestions.

I am probably going to switch back to a used old iPhone for "phone appliance" tasks, but keep around the Pixel for other things.

My main takeaway from the experience is that iMessage is an even bigger weapon than I thought.

How is it a break from google/appple if the only supported devices are Pixels? I can't use my sony or other vendors hardware at all.

Are there valid reasons to only support pixels?

Let’s just say, it took a while for the Stingray to get in while moving at 70mph. But it got in when it’s 0mph

What about device attestation? Will you be able to run banking apps and Netflix et. al.?

For me the biggest concern is that while you may be able to use and run your own device, you will be locked out of most propietary services. Much like how more and more websites simply don't work with Firefox anymore.

It's not breaking free from Google, but pretending it does not affect you. You are still at mercy of app developers and Google which may introduce some changes that will affect you. Additionally you never know what will work or stop working.

Been using GOS since roughly 2020. I refuse to use a Phone without GOS on it. It's been amazing.

I've been using /e/OS for years. Since 2025 I'm on Pixel 9A and GOS. It's excellent. Everything I need works great. Updates are so frequent. Attention to details regarded to security is amazing. My favorite mobile OS.

Does anyone have an answer to the problem of an OS for a laptop? I'm thinking about strong security here, less so about privacy (which is doable, for example via a Linux distribution).

I wish there were a good iPhone Mini sized phone I could install GrapheneOS on.

Switched a couple of weeks ago and works perfectly. I also found so many better apps that dont steal your data for basic stuff like weather, notes, messaging,...

> "Perplexity - I switched to Gemini, but I confirm it works"

Oh the irony.

Wallet Apps and Tap-to-pay do not work. Even got banned from PayPal. Android needs an architectural change from the ground up.

How does this break free from Google? Isn't the Android that Google themselves writes and maintains the upstream of Graphene? Are they going to disconnect completely from upstream Android or something?

Should be noted that in order for OEM unlocking toggle to work, you need to turn on WiFi and connect to the internet.

I had a Pixel 6a with Graphene OS for a year before the phone started to glitch and eventually die. It ran pretty hot; sometimes it was hard to even hold the phone in my hands without burning myself.

I could not get a replacement as I bought the phone in a foreign country (Google doesn’t sell Pixels here in Brazil).

So as much as I love the idea of running a more private phone, I found the hardware extremely fragile and poorly designed, so I will not buy from them again anytime soon.

Do they just not have ANY screenshots of the OS anywhere on the web site

I've been using it for more than 2 years, and I can't think of ever going back to a stock OS. I had to send my phone for a screen repair, in the meantime I picked up my old Samsung, and the sheer amount of apps I didn't want, notifications and dark patterns to tricking me into handing over my data made me anxious. I couldn't finish setting the phone up and drove to my parent's home to pick up their old, remotely nerfed by Google, Pixel 4a so I could install GrapheneOS into it and use it while I waited for my repaired Pixel 8.

Google is so much engrained in our lives that we can't really break free. You can't just don't use youtube and for that you need a google account.These projects are nice and good for tinkering, but can't use this as a dialy driver.

GrapheneOS needs at least the modem blob provided by the OEM. It runs as root, it has full network control. Same could go for other "drivers" like wifi+bluetooth.

Privacy is more a dream than a real thing.

Break free from Android... by installing Android? I'm not sure it's really breaking free when the first task to do is intall Google Play Services so your banking app works.

Sounds like we can't actually breaking free from Android and iOS. Maybe with Linux like the Fedora Atomic for mobile devices? https://github.com/pocketblue/pocketblue Or PostmarketOS? https://postmarketos.org/

Even then banking would probably only work through the browser... Sad state of the world really.

Many are complaining about banking app compatability, but I've never felt compelled to use anything other than my browser for banking. What's the big deal with the banking apps? Am missing out on some huge advantage here?

It's weird that here on HN some people are trying to break free from Google and Apple and on the other side some people are married to Gemini, and both look like to be the majority at times.

Break free from Google by paying money to Google for a Pixel phone? Even with a used Pixel, you're helping prop up their used market value which helps Google

How are the cameras on the latest devices running GrapheneOS? My last Android experience was the Oneplus One and the experience left me with the feeling that cameras are just too proprietary to work well once you go tinkering with custom ROMs and camera apps.

I'm not a photographer or anything, I just want to quickly point and shoot and get on with whatever I'm doing without thinking too hard.

I want to break free - Queen :)

Lyrics https://genius.com/Queen-i-want-to-break-free-lyrics

Graphene is very attractive, the two things that prevent me from going are a) using your phone as a credit card, I'm too attached to that now. b) work profile does not work with rooted phones

This is so well-written with obvious care! Answers so much of what I've been wanting to know, as someone who's thinking about taking this plunge.

Some privacy settings for GrapheneOS:

https://inteltechniques.com/blog/2026/01/05/grapheneos-2026-...

There's several AOSP based ROMs in forums like xda. Mostly developed by enthusiasts.

Recall using one years ago on my Samsung device with happy results. That was long before banking apps etc. Wondering what's the difference with this? Extra security?

What is the smallest phone that Graphene will run on? I would love to switch but these massive pixel phones are a no go for me.

> Break free from Google and Apple

Step 1: Buy a Google phone

I need to try this out.

Is there a great phone with high end specs this runs on?

Currently have an iPhone 16 pro, and probably my next phone will be something like this.

I need to be able to share photos easily with my wife, typically I’ve been using airdrop.

GrapheneOS is Android isn't it? Same binary blob issues and such? Or is that not an issue on Pixel devices?

I had to replace my old phone a few months back and I went with a used Pixel 8 pro from Backmarket specifically so I could try GrapheneOS. I'll never go back if I can help it. I love this OS.

Has anyone tried monitoring traffic from this ROM and see whether their claim of having minimal analytics and booseted privacy is true?

It's very annoying that they restrict themselves to Pixels. I get they can't guarantee all the security features they want on other phones, but even a subset of those security features and the other advantages like the lack of cruft would make it very attractive to be able to run on other phones.

It's a sign of how far we've come that this article says "Break Free from Google and Apple", not "Break Free from Google, Apple and Microsoft".

They should get the same level of financing (donations) as Tor project at least. Some big organization like Open Technology Fund or NLnet should give them yearly grants.

So you were happy in your orchard/garden but then plenti arrived offering the forbidden fruit; android. This is the slippery slope that led us here, open rebellion against the tech patriarchy

My observation is - It is the ecosystem that is sticky not just the OS.

Citibank app does not work in GrapheneOS

I really don't want to give Google money so the Pixel is off for me until GrapheneOS supports something else.

For now I consider smartphones as disposable toys that can't be trusted with anything sensitive and use a computer for privacy.

I also don't like the idea of running Android, I still hope for a real linux phone at some point.

is it worth to buy google pixel just for installing grapheneos? in my country, it is kinda pricey and of course it cannot install bank apps because almost all of them are must non root phone.

Why only pixel phones are supported?

If Apple partners with Starlink, this is my next mobile OS

Combine it with OnemanBSD to be really FREE. Lookhere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wHaoQhXOYY

Breaking free from Google by using a Google phone with a Google designed processor

Hah, just talked with my colleague, his feedback is that it’s too raw to be used daily

Am I the only one who finds monospace font barely readable for articles? Good for code, bad for longer forms of text.

I can't take this seriously when their mission statement is to "break free from Google and Apple" and their entire output is a fork of a Google repo.

If you're based on AOSP, the project is still 100% reliant on Google!

It seems extremely cynical to me to depend on the work of a thousand-man team to build your OS, then patch out a couple of lines and claim you've broken free from them. Without Google, none of this project could exist.

"Break free from Google"

All supported devices are exclusively Pixels.

The article is a wall of text with not a single screenshot.

And I couldn't easily find a link to a page that summarised GrapheneOS with some images so I could see how polished it looked.

This is one of the reasons why OSS fails to gain mainstream appeal (as much as I want it to)

For some (and other not-so) obvious reasons I switched to Graphene a few weeks ago. For years I've been pushing towards de-cloudifying my digital life and there were several reasons for it: On one hand it was the constant content subscription which gave me 0 guarantees that what I am interested in will still be available the next morning, even though I've paid for it, and the other was, you guessed it, the idiotic LLMs everywhere and subsequently the complete annihilation of security practices by giving a probabilistic model unrestricted access to all of your data.

First things, first, kudos to the GrapheneOS team for making it this easy to install and the surprisingly rapid support for new devices. Sure, there are features which I otherwise liked in the stock android that came with Pixel phones(swipe typing is something I very much enjoyed) but all in all, I can't say I miss much from it otherwise. I've slimmed down my list of apps to basic functionalities backed by self-hosted services (nextcloud, immich, jellifin, etc. along with a VPN I maintain myself) and I honestly don't miss much from the stock Android.

I want to point out that for a very long time I worked for a company that developed games for mobile devices and while the data we collected was mostly anonymous(*unless you logged in with facebook and by implications we had your facebook id) and it was never even utilized all that much beyond bad attempts at maximizing sales(not effectively anyway cause the people in charge were as incompetent as they could get), I can say that we collected ungodly amounts of data: most of the cloud bills were storage for that specific reason. While we did not have bad intentions and had to operate under strict GDPR regulations, this was a large company that was constantly monitored. Small companies can fly under the radar and get away with not abiding by the rules and laws and commonly they are not even aware what the repercussions could be. Similarly, the US and Asia-based giants can simply shrug it off and toss a few billions in fines. Make no mistake, no company is looking for your best interest and with that in mind, I couldn't recommend GrapheneOS (and self-hosting everything) enough, assuming you know what you are doing.

After reading this blog post, going to grapheneos's site, and browsing a half-dozen or so pages that I thought might show me what it looked like... I cannot find a single image of it.

GrapheneOS team, I'm begging you... Hire or recruit one person with advertising or copy-for-public-consumption experience. Just one.

I switch from iPhone to a pixel 9 fold, and installed graphene after 2 weeks on stock android.

Look, it's better than stock android overall, UI much more simplified even though it gives you a lot more security control, battery feels slightly longer, but there are drawbacks, i.e. twitter/x wouldn't install, neither would my bank's app. However from time to time I go to use iOS on the iphone and it just feels like better software, with better ergonomics overall, the combination of the xnu kernel plus the design and feel of the..buttons.. on iOS is still years ahead in my opinion. So keep that in mind if you're switching away from apple to it, as android still feels like decade plus old software.

Now for the upsides.. there's a built in terminal and debian vm you can install and run your agentic AI tools (claude code,opencode etc) in a portable sandboxed environment which you just don't get onios. You can even fire up a graphical xfce session albeit that takes quite a bit of work to get it to go.

As for the tablet form factor of the phone itself when unfolded, i found it amazing the first few weeks and then later found myself rarely using it.

Overall I'm going to stick with itand will never go back to stock android, but am quite annoyed at how much better it could actually be.

I really doubt they have an issue tracking you despite all this added effort.

Why is it that Google find my doesn’t work? I can’t get it running on my pixel, seems like a known issue.

I use this and lineage, but in a few years time this could be moot if Google decides to completely lock down devices. That leaves commercial options like Fairphone

If you are using social media, you might get a shadowban, just because you needed to unlock your bootloader to install this OS.

the OS is great, but too risky in certain situations.

Anyone like GrapheneOS better? Like it has some features? Or is it a locked down version of Android?

GrapheneOS is like using Firefox. Works on most sites, but those few things just don’t. Maybe it’s a dealbreaker for some. And they’re dependent on Google.

What you want is a solar 6502 with lots of memory and GMRS mesh

Unless govts make web a primary citizen of information dissemination and acceptance, it will be only apple/google on the sim card linked access

A lot like Linux zealots people say a lot of things along these lines:

“It’s perfect. I love it. It works great. No complaints” and then go on to list 100 rough edges that mainstream phone OS users never have any issues with. It’s funny.

As great as GrapheneOS has been, I'm still tempted to switch to LineageOS. Sure, it would be objectively less secure, but at least then I might be able to disable the obnoxious "automatically disabled 3 unused background apps" notifications.

The biggest problem with security culture is its obsessive hyperfocus on security. Any change that could possibly be less secure (even in extremely exclusive circumstances) must be wrong. Even if it improves accessibility, it must be rejected out of hand.

GrapheneOS promises to liberate us from the enshittification of Google's anticompetitive moat; but it focuses that effort exclusively on security. Everything else that was enshittified gets carefully preserved as-is in the name of "security".

All I want is a mobile computer that does what I tell it to. Why is that constantly treated as an unreasonable fantasy?

  Full control over app permissions

  GrapheneOS allows for full control over what permissions each application can have. 
  For example, in conventional Android forks, every application by default has granted 
  Network (internet access) and Sensors [...] permissions.

  Has anyone ever wondered if all apps on a phone need Internet access? 

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40667147

Break free from Google and Apple by buying a phone from Google /s