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Thoughts on graphene OS?
I got a pixel 9a recently and am debating whether to install graphene OS on it. My main motivations are wanting to avoid AI bloat, potentially improve battery, and reduce tracking. Though, I'd rather not have to spend time continuously troubleshoot my phone for stuff that doesn't work properly. Also, graphene OS is considered quite secure, but is there a plausible risk I need to worry about of the project losing support and eventually becoming less secure than stock Android? If any of you run graphene OS, what are your long-term experiences with it?
I've been running Graphene on my Pixel 8 Pro for the last year and after the initial configuration period, it's been rock solid. No need for continuous troubleshooting at all. Only a couple of apps have needed tweaks after initial install and it was just a quick disable of an overly secure toggle in the app settings.
Being able to deny apps network permission is nice and not having to deal with the AI crap is great.
Similar to this experience, I love it. Been running it since my 7a (March '23?), currently on a 9 Pro XL.
This. I have to use Outlook for work, and I guess my phone either triggered the special need or everyone else's silently installed it, but it now "requires" Microsoft's Intune Company Portal app to access my account. I looked into it and it seems sketch af, but with just denying it network capabilities, I have to endure regular "the Company Portal app has crashed" without dealing with the features it wants to thrust onto my phone. (Also if anyone has additional input on this, I'm willing to learn.)
I also have a firewall which will break apps, but I've been running like that for decades, so I've got it pretty finely tuned. If I did not use that, I don't believe I would notice the difference between GOS and Android (I ran on a stock 9 Pro XL last year on a trip out of the country - it acted the same: same bugs and whatnot haha, but I'm pretty sure the behind-the-scenes was horrific :).
Do you remember having trouble connecting Blue Tooth devices to your 7a?
My BT crashes if I don't wait a few seconds (~5-20s) after enabling it, and it requires that I have the microphone enabled too.
No, the only BT issues I've noticed is occasionally with VLC it will disconnect from my car while playing. Seems to come and go, unrelated to updates, so I'm not sure what's up with it. But it's a VLC thing, not BT.
Will they let you use Web Outlook containerized or does it have to be the app? The issue is with Outlook and Intune is that they want to have administrative access on your phone in order to have work stuff, and if you can make due with Web Outlook, then you don’t have to give them that just for email. If there are more Microsoft tools involved, it might be a different story.
I can connect via the web (which is here on my home desktop), but it is such a pita on my phone. Plus, it is actually good for me to get the alerts for what may be emailed or in my calendar, which I don't allow the browser to do (using Fennec). Actually, I'm not even sure it could alert me like that.
Chrome allows notifications through the web browser, your browser of choice might as well, but I get if the juice isn't worth the squeeze.
I refuse to touch Chrome if I can help it, so yeah... nope. But also, I actually dislike any browser sending notifications in general. I know I can set up specific ones for it (not sure if Fennec allows it), but I'm morphing into a luddite and am actually happier with choosing to check apps or sites instead of them telling me about changes.
Work is the exception. They pay me nicely and I do love my job.
I get you. If you still have the 7a, you might want to returning to stock on it and making it a work phone, but this is what I could find on getting Intune working on a Graphene device.
https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/19212-grapheneos-and-microsoft-intune
https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/1841-ms-intune-company-portal-with-work-profile-not-working
Best bet might be a PWA with Fennec or default browser, playing with certs or play store to try and get things more agreeable, or sticking with what works now.
Oh, I got Intune working just fine... and by "just fine" I mean Outlook works and Intune doesn't :D
I do still have the 7a, and it still has GOS. It did manage to have an epic camera lens crack last May when on a trip to SF. Apparently that model had a history of that, I was just 2 or 3 years into it before the failure.
But, I had never heard of a PWA until now, and my interest is piqued. Granted, I will just stash this until I want to put time back into it, but thank you!
I've been using it for a year or two now with no complaints and zero interest in switching back. Setting things up took more thought than a standard android setup, but no issues, just more choices to make since very little comes preinstalled.
I've heard some bank apps don't work, though I just use my desktop for banking and never had a need to install the app. Only app I've actually wanted to install but couldn't was Craigslist for some reason, but the mobile site works fine.
I've been slowly de-googling for a while now, and one thing I'd share with anyone considering the same: you don't have to go all in at once. You can switch to graphene OS and still just install all your normal google apps if you want. It's security focused by default, but that's just the default. Being "secure" isn't the end-all be-all, the real value, in my mind, is the ability to actually make those decisions as fits your needs.
On the topic of bank apps, there's a really good overview of which ones work here: https://privsec.dev/posts/android/banking-applications-compatibility-with-grapheneos/
Otherwise, I've also had zero problems with use LineageOS / GrapheneOS / DumberOS long-term.
Works as expected, which is like stock Android. I have very rarely needed to change defaults to make apps work, but it will depend somewhat on how you use your phone. The major cons for most people are probably that Google Wallet NFC payments won't work and your bank might not allow you to use their app
I'm significantly more worried about changes to the AOSP and the push for Play Integrity adoption than the Graphene devs randomly deciding to close up shop. If Graphene were to stop development before your phone's support window expired, I guess you'd just back up your data and swap back to stock in order to keep up with security updates.
If you're interested in switching I would look through their documentation (FAQ/Usage) as they address many common questions and concerns in-depth. In most cases if you own a supported phone and are security/privacy conscious there isn't much reason not to use GrapheneOS.
I've had it installed on an 8 Pro for 1.5 years and I find it very, very stable. I've had one small issue in the past (a display freeze that was fixed by locking and unlocking again), and I don't even know if I can attribute that to GrapheneOS or AOSP.
I really want to recommend it, but RCS support has been a nightmare to deal with over the past year. While they aren't the source of complexity or breakage, the Graphene team's response has been lackluster. They don't seem to recognize or respect its newfound prominence. Writing it off because it's not full E2EE is still a slap in the face to anyone with a group chat they want to stay in.
My understanding is that no one has an AOSP RCS implementation because the RCS protocol is extremely complex and it would be a massive undertaking to implement from scratch. I use iodeOS, which is based on Lineage, and there's no option for me either. That said, it does seem like as of very recently, the Graphene team has started looking into making their own RCS implementation! https://piunikaweb.com/2026/04/21/grapheneos-to-add-native-rcs-support-to-default-messaging-app/
From a functionality standpoint, can you still use the Google Messages app for SMS group chats?
Maybe? I wouldn't be able to tell you unfortunately. As I understand it if you're in a group chat it will auto convert it to RCS if all members are activated. So because I was using regular Android before, that happened and it isn't reversible to my knowledge. If you hit 30 days without RCS activated you get booted from all your groups. Perhaps yes you could restart the group as SMS, but you'll lose all the history. No one wants to be that person.
I was just hearing someone non-technical out saying that they think Pixels are the worst phones and they really regret having the 8 Pro. As someone working in tech and more or less up to date on what's available, pros and cons of phone options, etc, I was quite baffled to hear that as a Pixel would be one of my first choices for good performance overall. But when they expanded, it became clear that it was due to all the unavoidable google products, apps and widgets, like the google search bar that permanently on the home screen for some reason???
So even from user friendliness perspective I would say that Graphene is a god send for being one of the only ways to have a phone that in the users control completely, no permanent widgets or bloatware apps. It has a good rep for being a privacy and security leader and while that's earned, I think for the vast majority of people this OS deserves a mention for just usability and customer focused design.
The only caveat: you should probably check before if your banking apps are supported and whether you want to use the google wallet because that does not work.
I'm using a Pixel 6a with the stock OS and my home screen search bar opens the Firefox search. I remember I changed it soon after I got the phone, so I don't know if Google might have disabled being able to configure it or made it less discoverable.
But can you remove the bar entirely?
I think you can't with the default launcher. But you can install another launcher and make it the default.
Yes, exactly. I'm on a Pixel 10 Pro and switched launchers immediately because of this. I'm using Lawnchair and Firefox and now it works just how I want it.
The reason why I kind of hate this phone though? Every time an app accesses the camera and the OIS engages it clunks really loud and you can feel it jerk the whole phone. When not using the camera it jiggles around in the phone constantly making noise. Apparently this is normal behavior but it makes a $1200 phone feel cheap as shit. I've only ever had mid-range Motorolas before I liked all of them better than this phone.
I bought used Pixel 6a for 100€ to try Graphene 10 months ago. I run it to this day, the phone is still plenty fast.
About Graphene though:
Anyway - Graphene comes with like 13 apps installed and actually no e-mail client. You can install Google play and associated things right from Graphene (no need to download on some shady web). But since there are almost no apps on the phone, it made me pick my own. I use Fairmail (kinda mess to do first setup, but very nice afterwards), Immich instead of Google Photos (which I have installed because of the Pixel camera app not showing last photo if Photos are not installed), I use FOSS calendar, I use FOSS file explorer... It let's you think out-of-the-box, if you want, that's it.
I still have many apps from Google store - for convenience, as I already use Wallet, Maps, Family Link and others. I can't get rid of it completely.
Graphene itself is just like pure Android and works great. You just set it up and there you go. It's not experimental OS, it is fully functional and keeps releasing (security) updates quite frequently.
The only problems were with privileges for Google.apps as they tend to run through Google services (meaning you have to let Google services have the privileges).
Feel free to ask specific questions.
Although I could live with the annoyance of not accessing pictures from the camera without Google Photos, I found myself using it to edit videos. Not that I do any complex editing, but something as simple as rotating 90° is not possible in Immich annoyingly.
yet
Immich is still moving and I'd say pretty fast. It is already great for my usecase and is aspiring to become the best.
I don't run Graphene myself but have a few friends that do. They've had a good experience themselves, though sometimes RCS gets a bit fucky and their messages only send as SMS. Not entirely sure if that's Graphene's fault or the carrier however. Other than that, no issues, no constantly tweaking settings to get the basics functioning.
I'm similar to others - been running it on a Pixel 8 for about a year and a half, zero complaints. It Just Works™. I'm using it with their Google Play compatibility layer so it's not as hardcore degoogled as it could be, and I'm sure that has a lot to do with my extremely smooth experience.
Only issues I've encountered were (1) an app demanding a higher level of verification from the Play Integrity API than it needed (not a sensitive app, absolutely no reason to do so when literally every other app I've ever used, including banking apps, works just fine without it) and (2) being unable to share location in Google maps, but I'm not positive that that one's not my fault since I didn't want to use that feature anyway and disabled a bunch of relevant stuff.
I'm not super comfortable with some of the behavior of the organization's leadership or their public communication practices, but the OS itself is fantastic. Happy to answer any questions you have.
I've been using GrapgeneOS on a Pixel7a for a few years.
The only complaint I have is that connecting my blue tooth headphones requires some thought...
Besides that Ive had no problems besides the ones mentioned already with payments and a small hickup with banking for 1 week over 2 years ago.
Been running GrapheneOS on a Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro for about a year now. The experience is quite straightforward once you have it installed. I still use Google Play Services (Google Maps is required for me, although Magic Earth feels like it is getting there) and have had minimal issues troubleshooting things.
If I had to troubleshoot an issue, it was usually because of an app not having the correct permissions or the function just not being there (ie. Google Wallet or banking apps).
I switched over to web apps or just logging in on the sites for banking. Google Wallet is a nice feature, but I was okay letting it go when I switched over.
Secondary review is from my partner. She has been a Motorola user since the original Razer and has been increasingly frustrated with the Google Stock UI and AI contantly being shoved in her face. I switched her over to GrapheneOS and she noticed her battery lasts a lot longer and likes the interface better. She is not the most tech savvy of individuals, but she is happy using GrapheneOS to host her social media services and play YouTube in the backround throughout the day.
Wish you best of luck on the journey and take it one step at a time if you switch to GrapheneOS. I find many people try to do too many things at once and get frustrated by it. When I first switched over, I kept all my same workflows and ways I operated on stock, just without the bloat. From there I tweaked it further and farther away from Google's Suite. Cheers.
My wife and I have been using it for two and a half years on Pixel 8 or 8a, not sure which we have.
No issues to speak of. It connects to the car for music, it does the internet stuff just fine, I am honestly surprised at how little fiddling it actually requires. I put it up there with the pihole in terms of "spend an hour setting it up and never have to touch it again" which is about the highest praise I can give a piece of software.
I think that she has to disable the safer memory thing for one of her apps. I have not had the need to do that at all, and would probably just not choose to use the app with that requirement.
It works just fine. It's almost boring in how normal it is, actually, which is probably a good thing. My biggest issue with it is that it lacks some of the bells and whistles of lineageos, but nothing serious.
It's not going to lose support, don't worry about that.
I've been running it for 4+ years. No trouble shooting, it just works. The biggest issue I've had is getting android auto to work. Once its working its fine though.
Running it on a Pixel 9a (base model) for a couple of months now.
It's what you'd expect in that it basically works like Android, just stripped down and hardened.
I use it as my main phone but I keep carrying a secondary phone for Discord, WhatsApp(Use this instead of SMS for communication) and bank, I tried installing WhatsApp but it complained about RCL.
By going to GrapheneOS I understand that basically I'm being a bit paranoid, but because I don't understand the implications of enabling RCL, I decided to keep it disabled, so I need my previous phone to run WhatsApp.
For banking I didn't try, but it goes back to hearing that Aurora's (cached?) Apps can be compromised, ignoring the fact that I'd probably run into RCL issues as well.
Discord I don't trust enough to want on my GOS phone.
The caveat really is whether you'd have another phone when needed or not.
I've had it on an 8pro for a couple months now, no issue. I'm setting up a 10a on it and did have a weird issue where I could not get the phone to connect to wireless on the stock software before loading Graphene (you need to connect wireless on stock first once to allow OEM unlocking). Turns out there's a weird problem with the Pixel10 using WPA3 and I had to change my router to broadcast WPA2. No idea if that's a Pixel9 issue, just mentioning it in case, because it took forever to figure it out.
I'm running it on a Pixel 9. No complaints other than tap-to-pay is gone, but the tradeoff is well worth it in my book. I've been slowly de-Googling my life, and so far just "paying them off" by buying the phone is my best option. I don't have any Google apps installed other than the Play Store.