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Motorola and GrapheneOS Foundation partnership announced
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- Title
- Motorola News | Motorola's new partnership with GrapheneOS
- Authors
- marreroc
- Published
- Mar 2 2026
- Word count
- 649 words
I really like that they are expanding beyond Pixels. Having a phone built with grapheneos in mind, and maybe even preinstalled, sounds awesome.
I love Moto phones (once the carrier bloatware and spyware is deactivated) so I am thrilled by this announcement. I hope the current or future equivalent of my Moto Stylus 25 is supported by GrapheneOS.
Cool. But is there actually a market for a GrapheneOS device? Or is it just that they're making it easier to replace Android on their devices, like Sony with their Xperias?
TBH I think there is definitely at least some demand for a phone OS not completely beholden to Google.
Having a major manufactuer put some weight behind Graphene will really help legitimize it in the eyes of people who couldn't tell you the difference between a computer and a monitor.
For corporate and government customers? Absolutely.
I would like a realistic, third option that is not tied to Sony. I myself am an Apple user (currently dictating this to my iPhone right now) and I would love the opportunity to exit the platform. But the only other platform I like in desktop computing is Linux. I would also love it if my phone ran a less Google centric version of Linux.
(As an aside, I don’t appreciate that I have to mispronounce Linux as “lie-nucks” rather than “len-ucks” to get my speech to text to properly write the correct word. After thirty years, I’m tired of helping Apple wreck a nice beach. iykyk)
haha Forgive the lighthearted jab, but are you seriously asking if there's a market for a privacy and security focused OS in the current world of rising authoritarianism, rampant tracking, and dying online anonymity?
But to answer your question, probably both. Motorola needed an OS, and GrapheneOS needed a hardware partner.
Yeah. People are known to value convenience over privacy most of the time, partly because they don't understand the threat, partly because they don't care.
I still know people who like data collection, because they want ads targeted to them.
Christ. I can't even imagine. Why do they even want ads at all?
Reminds of Cyberpunk 2077 where most of the TV programs are just ads.
I'd say it's a valid question especially if you consider the broader scope of what's involved. Motorola currently pushes garbage onto their phones, Glance being one app in particular that they've made it difficult to remove. I don't know what they make off users for pushing this onto people but you have to figure if they're not doing it with a GrapheneOS phone they have to sell the phone at a higher price to cover what they would have expected to make over the life of the phone. And Motorola specs are middling. It happens their pricing is already fairly low so maybe it won't seem so bad even with an increase going to GrapheneOS, but it could change their potential customers some. I would still pay for it probably, even if it takes a $200 phone to a $400 phone. I don't know what the actual values would be though. If any of their pricing goes up to flagship pricing though, they will probably shrink their potential market, because they don't come close to flagship specs.
Well, Graphene is completely free.of any bloatware and free of Google apps. When I installed it, there were like 13 apps installed and there wasn't even e-mail client. You can install Google Play and run Google.things as you wish - which is what I do, but you can do without, if you are able and you want to do so.
I started de-googling my life thanks to discovery of Immich (completely offline, run by user photos server - not unlike Google Photos, but you are the one who runs it) and I will be continuing this by detqching my main e-mail from them. This is partly because of Graphene - I don't have to use any of their services. I wi still be using Google Play as I need at least banking app.
Use Aurora to attain free apps from the Play Store without a Google account.
Very happy to see this. I haven't paid attention to Motorola phones in a few years; it seems like the Razr folding phones are their "flagship" models (in the US, at least), is that correct? If so, does anyone have experience with one they'd care to share? I've never had any interest in a folding phone but maybe I'm missing something. If the GrapheneOS phones are foldable and affordable, I could be persuaded.
If it's any indicator, we have had Motorola phones for the past 5 years. I am writing this message on a Motorola 5g Supra 2022. I got my mom a late model Razr flip phone and she likes it. This might not sound like much, but my mother is over 80 years old and has had life-long rheumatoid arthritis. Her marginally functional hands have difficulty operating most phone screens. She no longer has legible fingerprints that can unlock the phone on the fingerprint reader. However, the flip phone folds into a shape that is easy for her to hold and operate. Better than anything else she has tried in the past few years.
Honestly, I'm a little jealous. I might get a flip phone when I finally decide that my current Motorola has completed its service. But, now that I know about this, it seems like a good reason to hold out and see if can get something with a GrapheneOS.
Welp, I bought a Pixel 9a literally two weeks ago =/
Based on Motorola's current naming structure, the phone won't be out until next year anyway. Article says their "next generation phone" and their 2026 models are already out.
Does that mean that you should avoid Pixels now if you want to go with GrapheneOS or that the newer pixels will get the same support as they usually do?
I'm just mentioning that it'll be at least a year until a Motorola/Graphene phone comes out based on what Motorola has/releases. Google has made developing alternative Android-based OSes more difficult for the Pixel line, so who knows if it'll continue when there's, presumably, a revenue stream with Motorola directly.
I see.
I actually was considering getting a Pixel 9a myself from an iPhone 13 specifically for GrapheneOS, and reading that article made me pause whether the 9a will get updates for more than 1/2 years or not.
I'm sure support for Pixel isn't going anywhere anytime soon, Graphene doesn't seem the type to abandon all of their current users/supporters to try to force a new device purchase. Even the Pixel 6 has monthly Graphene updates.
Current thought that I think makes the most sense is that Motorola puts GrapheneOS on the next ThinkPhone as it has a security co-processor the Moto KeySafe; a dedicated security chip is a requirement for GrapheneOS going forward.
Depending on where you got it from, it might be eligible for a return?
This rules. I've used Motorola phones for years. My Pixel 7 Pro's screen got destroyed a month or so ago. I was running GrapheneOS but the screen replacement cost is ridiculous, so I just switched to a Moto Play. I would love to have GrapheneOS back (as long as RCS works).
That's going to be a bit of a tall order, since Google Messages RCS is the backbone of all RCS messages, and play store wouldn't be on a Graphene OS device by default. Unless Graphene makes an interoperable version of RCS, which if they do, more power to them.
Motorola may choose to put Google Play on the phones by default, in Graphene's sandbox: https://grapheneos.org/usage#sandboxed-google-play
I couldn't see them doing anything else. I'm willing to bet 95% of the market for this needs some sort of thing from the Play store.
RCS works perfectly fine on GrapheneOS—you just need to install the Google Messages app.
I wonder how Google Play certifications process will this phone needs, and also which apps (including Google's) will be preloaded.
This could be the first bloatware-free phone with optional Google Play, zero other Google Apps and no Meta (Facebook) apps. From a previous court case in Europe, Google says they will provide Google Play for a premium if the OEM doesn't want other preloaded Google Apps, but I don't think there is any takers. (Also since you don't preload Google's Chrome, perhaps revenue sharing from ads may be impacted). I suppose Motorola could just push most of the OS development cost to GrapheneOS Foundation to offset the cost.
I would not be surprised if the phone is sold at a premium on top of the Google Play version of the phone, which you could say is the price you pay for privacy. But the vocal group in /r/android would only want a mid/budget range phone without this premium...
TBH just providing proper driver support to Graphene and a few small donations to the foundation is pretty much all that's needed.
Google will do everything in their power to make up excuses to not legitimize a device like this. I forsee them pulling a Microsoft and make offering other Google Android phones unaffordable if Motorola releases Graphene preinstalled.
One of GrapheneOS’ big selling points is that it lets you easily download and install a modified version of Google Play Services that runs as a normal sandboxed program, instead of as a privileged program that can access all the data on your phone. It lets you use Google Play Services while minimizing how much Google gets.
I can’t imagine Motorola would let Graphene include this feature on their phones. Graphene has been small enough until now that Google probably just didn’t care enough to do anything about it. But Motorola probably doesn’t want to a) piss of Google, who they need to make phones or b) get sued by Google.
So it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out.
Google cared enough to torpedo the device tree to make porting to new hardware as tricky as possible.
We don’t know that they specifically did that to go after Graphene though, do we? Google does all sorts of stuff to make life difficult for outside companies all the time (see all the crazy auditing requirements for specific categories of apps).
I'm not particularly inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.
May need to upgrade my OnePlus 9 Pro eventually, which has served me well for the past 4.5 years.
It's not in the worst state, a few minor cosmetic scratches on the screen that are only really noticeable when you squint in light, a battery that spends about half the time at 1% because the OS can't properly read it, other than that it's been smooth sailing and easily the best state a phone of mine has been in.
Maybe Motorola will be my next pick. I'm not a fan of being wholly stuck to the Google ecosystem but I'm also so invested in Android that I don't particularly want an iPhone.
https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/116159651541677008
This is honestly great.
I have a Samsung Galaxy Fold 5 that I love, was looking at a Pixel Fold specifically for GrapheneOS, and I just looked it up and Motorola has announced their own Fold phone.
So I'm excited to look further into the Motorola fold.
Now apologies because my internet is having some connection issues right now at work, but does anyone know if their current line of phones will support GrapheneOS or is this for future phones? I'd like to know if I get one of their phones now I'll be able to install it, or if I need to wait for it to be supported.
Next year’s phones. They said there wasn’t enough time to make it for this year’s models. It sounds like the Moto Fold isn’t getting Graphene:
Well that's disappointing. It would be a no-brainer purchase for me if and when a fold phone supports GrapheneOS.
Welp, back to looking at the Pixel Fold I guess.