I've been hearing a lot of buzz about this OS for a while and decided to install it since I already have a Google Pixel 9XL.
For those who haven't heard about it you can read it about it here: https://grapheneos.org/
Basically it's privacy and security focused with the ability to "degoogle" your phone and run Google apps sandboxed so that Google has no access to my files(unless I give it to them), and can only send telemetry to Google from what's in that sandbox. In addition to the privacy features, there's a bunch of other security features that are considered "hardened" by many security experts in comparison to iOS or other Android builds, making it easily the most secure phone OS on the market.
Review
So far so good, super easy installation and everything works the way I'd like, Android auto and my smart watch work just fine. No tap to pay but I don't use that anyways.
Some people have issues installing some apps but so far I've been fine, even with banking apps. Whenever I can I download and install apps directly from the app developer's GitHub which makes up a good chunk of the apps available. The rest are installed via the sandboxed Google play store.
As for certain apps like Gemini AI, I've opted to not install the core AI apps as that's basically where a lot of the telemetry goes through. Instead I run Gemini through an app called Hermit which is basically a highly optimized browser that turns the web page into a "lite app". I've gone ahead and done this for just about anything I can, ranging from social media to Amazon's shopping app. The improvement of my battery life is astounding for an already 1 year old phone. I went the whole day on one charge, nearly 5hrs of screen on time and still had 45% battery left by bed time. It really speaks to how much these services are spying on us if they're constantly watching what we are doing, where we're going and even typing. Yes Gboard or other keyboards are basically spyware/ keyloggers. I do still use Gboard but I'm able to cut off all access to the internet, files etc on my phone.
I take internet security pretty seriously with a few of my devices running Linux if it's not for gaming, though I can game just fine on Linux if I'm willing to sacrifice things like framegen. So this was right up my alley as a new project to keep me busy.
For anyone considering trying out Graphene OS I'd say go for it, I'm not missing anything and so far I only see benefits. It's nice knowing I actually own the device I paid for instead of big tech being having their grubby little hands in it. Is it perfectly secure or private? Nothing connected to the internet really is. But this certainly shrinks the attack vector and gives me a shield against privacy and security threats.
Cheers!
For those who haven't heard about it you can read it about it here: https://grapheneos.org/
Basically it's privacy and security focused with the ability to "degoogle" your phone and run Google apps sandboxed so that Google has no access to my files(unless I give it to them), and can only send telemetry to Google from what's in that sandbox. In addition to the privacy features, there's a bunch of other security features that are considered "hardened" by many security experts in comparison to iOS or other Android builds, making it easily the most secure phone OS on the market.
Review
So far so good, super easy installation and everything works the way I'd like, Android auto and my smart watch work just fine. No tap to pay but I don't use that anyways.
Some people have issues installing some apps but so far I've been fine, even with banking apps. Whenever I can I download and install apps directly from the app developer's GitHub which makes up a good chunk of the apps available. The rest are installed via the sandboxed Google play store.
As for certain apps like Gemini AI, I've opted to not install the core AI apps as that's basically where a lot of the telemetry goes through. Instead I run Gemini through an app called Hermit which is basically a highly optimized browser that turns the web page into a "lite app". I've gone ahead and done this for just about anything I can, ranging from social media to Amazon's shopping app. The improvement of my battery life is astounding for an already 1 year old phone. I went the whole day on one charge, nearly 5hrs of screen on time and still had 45% battery left by bed time. It really speaks to how much these services are spying on us if they're constantly watching what we are doing, where we're going and even typing. Yes Gboard or other keyboards are basically spyware/ keyloggers. I do still use Gboard but I'm able to cut off all access to the internet, files etc on my phone.
I take internet security pretty seriously with a few of my devices running Linux if it's not for gaming, though I can game just fine on Linux if I'm willing to sacrifice things like framegen. So this was right up my alley as a new project to keep me busy.
For anyone considering trying out Graphene OS I'd say go for it, I'm not missing anything and so far I only see benefits. It's nice knowing I actually own the device I paid for instead of big tech being having their grubby little hands in it. Is it perfectly secure or private? Nothing connected to the internet really is. But this certainly shrinks the attack vector and gives me a shield against privacy and security threats.
Cheers!
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