Why shouldn't I get a Google phone with GrapheneOS? \ stacker news ~tech

pull down to refresh

Why shouldn't I get a Google phone with GrapheneOS?

1593 sats \ 44 comments \ @mrcrown 11 Aug tech

The time has come to purchase a new mobile phone, and I'm considering getting a Google phone specifically to run GrapheneOS. I've already gone through the pros by reading posts, articles, and watching videos.

But what would be the reasons not to go for this setup?

view all related items

42 sats \ 0 replies \ @plebone 11 Aug

I have both and lean towards iOS. I love that I can tweak the hell out of my pixel and be all tinfoil hatty with it. But I os seems to run better, I get better battery life. Apps like Primal (Nostr client) run better on iOS than any other platform. Unless they just kill Bitcoin and Nostr on iOS I will probably always keep it as my main. Another note, is I have 5 family members on iPhones and I'm paying for all the damn Apple services either way...so there is that also.

31 sats \ 6 replies \ @BlokchainB 11 Aug

Yea I struggle with this same very decision. I’m an apple and iOS cuck but hate the monopoly.

But I don’t think all these bitcoiners running to grapheneOS is logical. I am all for protecting for privacy and our data but even with this OS you are depending on the efforts of others to keep it safe and stable.

Plus for less tech savvy people if you have an issue with your phone I am 99% sure the customer support will suck and if your phone bricks due to some bad update you aré screwed.

I think I’ll leave iOS when my two favorite applications leave the platform. Zeus and Damus. That will be my signal to finally leave the platform.

100 sats \ 1 reply \ @anon 11 Aug

Have been on GrapheneOs about 8 months. I love it. Google apps ARE available on it via privacy focused appstore that pulls Play store apps. The ability to do Storage Scopes, restricting apps access to specify folders on my phone is sweet. Plus plus plus.. Buy a cheaper Second hand Pixel eg a 6. Flash it and test it out..

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @BlokchainB 11 Aug

Maybe first I gotta get my lightning piggy to work

171 sats \ 2 replies \ @fiatbad 11 Aug

Yea, but Apple telling Will to remove Zaps from Damus was almost the same to me as Apple banning the app altogether.

Tons of apps have in-app "money", especially games. Even Starbucks has their Star rewards system, which is a kind of Starbucks Currency, and they're one of the top apps in Apple's store.

I find Apple's hypocrisy disgusting. It feels like a blatant war on Bitcoin specifically.

That said, I'm still in the Apple ecosystem. I'm trying to plan my escape, and it's not trivial.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @BitcoinIsTheFuture 12 Aug

Yeah that was not cool, what’s next?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @BlokchainB 11 Aug

I agree It’s not trivial but even with that event Will still develops Damus for iOS and it’s proven to be the best nostr client on iOS. Someone wrote a script that bypasses the Apple ban so it still works.

But don’t forget the customer service for iPhones is top notch! I can walk into any Apple Store world wide and get service on my hardware and software. If I’m on travel and I have an issue with my graphene phone I’m screwed

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Skipper 11 Aug

even with this OS you are depending on the efforts of others to keep it safe and stable.

If you use any piece of software or hardware, you are depending on the effort of others. You're only as strong as the people who made your tech.

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @Signal312 11 Aug

I've had a Graphene OS for some time now. Support, if you post a question on https://discuss.grapheneos.org/ is fine.

I've found that on Graphene it's not as easy as I thought it would be to implement the kind of "digital detox" type features that I would have liked.

But overall I like it.

31 sats \ 0 replies \ @Skipper 11 Aug

Uninstall all apps, leave only the ones you absolutely couldn't live without; turn off notifications on everything; get rid of the wallpaper and replace it with a pure black one; remove all icons, folders, and widgets from your homescreen. Strip away all distractions and clutter. Make your phone as boring as possible. This is what i do for my digital detox.

21 sats \ 5 replies \ @siggy47 11 Aug

A graphene pixel has been my daily driver for over a year now. I mostly weaned myself off of the whole google ecosystem gradually over the past few years, so it didn't feel like a huge adjustment. Still, I wonder what I am accomplishing using Google hardware, but I try not to think about it that much!

53 sats \ 4 replies \ @mrcrown OP 11 Aug

It's also a bit weird to improve your privacy with a phone made by Google

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @siggy47 11 Aug

Yep.

82 sats \ 2 replies \ @Zk2u 11 Aug

Ironically the hardware security is very good on pixels. Their software is also very secure, just not very private.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Skipper 11 Aug

Their software is also very secure

Yhup. Android is more secure than Windows and even Linux.

26 sats \ 0 replies \ @Zk2u 11 Aug

I meant google services are themselves secure, just not private. Though yes you are correct, android is more secure than standard GNU/linux setups even tho android uses the Linux kernel!

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @JesseJames 11 Aug

The only reason NOT to do it could be that is "technical" and requires some knowledge and will to "fiddle" with it .For mere users of apps that could present a technical challenge (messing with option one does not understand). That doesn't seem to be an obstacle here, You already researched it and have a will to do it. I would say , no reason NOT to :-)

21 sats \ 4 replies \ @Silent_Hodler 11 Aug

Been thinking the same. Personally I’m a long time iPhone user, but I’m not too happy about Apple forcing AI on users in the coming devices.

As for your question: well GrapheneOS might be discontinued or even forbidden by law. Someone can also cook up a hacked version or an update and spread it due to potential lower levels of due diligence. It may also randomly start to break after an update or make the device less stable due to some not obvious mistake.

I’ll give it a go soon as I’m slowly transitioning to having my own setup for cloud and related stuff.

399 sats \ 0 replies \ @Zk2u 11 Aug

I’ve switched back to iOS from android 3 times now after each attempt going awry. I have a P8P sitting on my desk from the last attempt lol. I hate how you need to use things like profiles to prevent apps from seeing which other apps are installed. iOS won’t let apps do this. Also, choosing a subset of contacts for an app. GrapheneOS makes a big deal out of hardware memory tagging but all system services on iOS, macOS and iPadOS use the same, it’s just Apple never shouted about it. Read through the platform security guide. In my opinion, you get what you pay for with iPhones. Likely a different threat model for me than for y’all of course, but there are annoying things with android itself and just the general lack of quality in many apps available is why I have kept my iPhone every time. All my cloud stuff is self hosted, I’m not using any of their services per se.

As for AI stuff, I respect and trust the way it is implemented. Same way signal built contact verification. “AI” isn’t a problem, it’s mostly just how it’s implemented. I imagine you’ll be able to disable it, I know you definitely can disable ChatGPT which is what I will be doing. Don’t mind the other stuff though, I’ve read their technical documents on how they built it and I approve of the unique design (I’m a systems engineer anyway) they used.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Skipper 11 Aug

well GrapheneOS might be discontinued or even forbidden by law.

Graphene is basically the same Android everyone uses, but with all the Google stuff stripped away by default and some really good security patches added to make it more secure.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @mrcrown OP 11 Aug

I'm using android for years now with the One plus phones because they where slight cheaper and less bloatware. But they changed this in the last years.

But the topic you mentioned about different profiles is something that would bother me.

I don't have problems with ai, but like you said. It's how they implement it. And for now I don't see why I should have something with ai on my phone

31 sats \ 0 replies \ @Zk2u 11 Aug

I would recommend reading their article on how they built it, if you’re technically inclined. Attestation method is very similar to how signal scans your contacts for contact discovery privately. https://security.apple.com/blog/private-cloud-compute/

21 sats \ 6 replies \ @03a5308755 11 Aug

Maybe don't get one if you don't care about privacy and like fancy new AI features, speech recognition etc.

Besides that GrapheneOS is the best ROM I ever used, really stable, very clean. If you install sandboxed google play services you can use every app and still have many benefits. Installation takes like 10 mins. I'll never go back as long as dev continues.

21 sats \ 4 replies \ @freetx 11 Aug

What are you using to send receive SMS on graphene?

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @JesseJames 11 Aug

QKSMS+ and Signal (primary)

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @Skipper 11 Aug

QKSMS+ is great, but doesn't seem to work on secondary profiles. I don't know why tho.

14 sats \ 0 replies \ @nullama 12 Aug

SMS sending and receiving works out of the box in gOS, there's a Messaging app preinstalled.

24 sats \ 0 replies \ @nerd2ninja 11 Aug

I don't send and receive SMS on graphene personally. My smartphone is just a neat pocket computer. I have a Nokia for sending SMS and calls.

https://www.hmd.com/en_in/feature-phones

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @mrcrown OP 11 Aug

I really don't care about Ai features and stuff. They main reason is to improve my privacy setup. The apps I used the most are a NOSTR app, X, TG.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @tr3v 11 Aug freebie

Do it. It rocks. I've been running GrapheneOS for 2 years. You won't miss being a mobile cuck.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nullama 12 Aug

I've been using gOS exclusively for a couple of years and it's been great. I'm not even using the provided sandboxed Google Play compatibility layer, only open source software.

It took me some time to find alternatives to the software I was using before, but in many cases I discovered better options in open source.

The support is excellent, and the fact that I have the last word on my phone's apps is great. Current pixels come extremely bloated in the stock OS. You can't uninstall many of the apps, and Google Play store has "super admin" privileges, so it can do whatever it wants on your phone.

The only negative I can see using GrapheneOS is that when you reboot the phone it shows an ugly screen saying you are booting a different OS. That's it.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Malachi17 11 Aug

You shouldn't. You don't deserve it. Look at you, you'd get it, and in three years, you'd be ready to move on to the next thing. Ingrate.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Satoshi__Nakamoto 11 Aug

Yep bro now it's your time to... But I wanna know why only Google phone GrapheneOS is best bro it just awesome

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Skipper 11 Aug

Google Phone hardware is the best when it comes to security.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @bc52210b20 11 Aug

What about CalyxOS?

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @Skipper 11 Aug

There's no second best.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @TNStacker 11 Aug

You should

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @DawnoftheDead 11 Aug

Its expensive and future support is questionable?

Also many mainstream apps like banking and government IDs do not work on them afaik

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nullama 12 Aug

I haven't had any issues with any apps.

Which ones don't work?, here's a list of banking apps with their compatibility

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @mrcrown OP 11 Aug

Those 2 things are my latest concern's 😅

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Skipper 11 Aug

Everything works on mine.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @kdnolan 11 Aug

Maps is annoyingly shite

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nullama 12 Aug

I quite like Organic Maps. Fully offline usage, and you can edit map data on the fly.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @77edb424fc 11 Aug outlawed

stackers have outlawed this. turn on wild west mode in your /settings to see outlawed content.