Switching My Phone to GrapheneOS

This spring I switched my phone to GrapheneOS. Here are my impressions after two months, kept short for anyone thinking about doing the same.

Three points up front:

  • Almost all my everyday apps just work — messaging, payments, banking
  • You don’t have to go all-in on de-Googling. Partial is fine
  • The biggest change: I decide what each app is allowed to do

What GrapheneOS is

  • An open-source, privacy- and security-focused OS based on Android
  • Runs only on Pixel phones
  • Looks and feels almost the same as regular Android

The main difference is how Google Play services is treated. On regular Android it’s part of the OS and can’t be removed. On GrapheneOS it isn’t there by default — if you want it, you install it as an ordinary app (this is called sandboxing).

On regular Android, Google Play services is fused with the OS. You can’t uninstall it, you can’t restrict its permissions, and most apps lean on it for notifications and location. On GrapheneOS, Google Play services is just another app: you can delete it, and you decide — app by app — what it gets access to.

Why I switched

I used to be an iPhone user. What wore me down was that moving data on and off the phone had to go through iTunes. I was already looking for a way out of Apple when I read an article about deGoogle — the movement to reduce dependence on Google. I also simply wanted to keep my personal data to myself, so I decided to switch.

GrapheneOS wasn’t the only candidate. I narrowed it down from other privacy-focused systems — CalyxOS, LineageOS, /e/OS — and two things settled it:

  • Apps from Google Play still work. Most apps assume Google Play is there, so a naive de-Google leaves you with apps that won’t run. GrapheneOS lets you install Google Play itself as a regular app
  • The project is actively developed and looks like it will keep getting updates

What I worried about vs. what happened

ConcernTwo months in
Will my apps run?LINE (the messenger daily life in Japan runs on), PayPay (QR payments), banking apps — all fine. The only casualty was the X (Twitter) app, and the browser covers that
Ads?Mostly gone, thanks to DNSNet — a free, DNS-level ad blocker
Managing permissions?For every app, I choose what it may access and what it may read

What I notice daily are the ads and the permissions. A screen without ads is calmer — a little like the world before ads, somehow. And installing an app now includes the small, reassuring step of deciding what it gets to see.

If you want to try

There are only three steps.

For deciding:

  • Installation happens in the browser with the official Web Installer. With a PC and a cable, it takes about an hour
  • The official documentation is in English

The apps I actually use, and how the different app stores divide the work, are in “Apps I Use on GrapheneOS”.

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