Intro
This post is inspired by a post titled “Android to iPhone, whats it like? (Update)” by @CleoTheWizard@beehaw.org.
I grew up with an iPad and desktop computers and my family members also had Apple products. When I had the chance to purchase my first phone I did lots of research, I looked up the best smartphones at the time, I saw videos from Marques Brownlee, EverythingApplePro, Unbox Therapy, etc. It was a tough decision between Samsung S7 but I ended up getting the iPhone 7. Apple was all the rage at school, I got hooked into the ecosystem, even bought the first Airpods, used iMessage, and all the other Apple stuff. Their UI is very polished. I was even an iOS beta tester all 4 years I had it.
iPhone Experience
2 years ago, my iPhone 7 started to have severe battery issues and so I decided it was time to upgrade. I also did research on my phone choices at the time too. This time it was between the iPhone 13 and Samsung S22. I did a bunch of research on this one too, much like my previous phone and ended up choosing the iPhone 13. I preordered the phone right when it opened but then I changed my mind, I wanted a different color, so I canceled it but the color was gone. So, I ordered the Samsung S22. However, when I was doing my research, I got into privacy and security and the r/degoogle subreddit. So I saw these solutions like CalyxOS and GrapheneOS. I then cancelled that Samsung S22 order. I was amazed, I saw how private and secure these solutions were without even having to touch Google or Apple. Stuff like the Aurora Store and Fdroid sounded like really cool stuff. I cancelled my Samsung S22 order and bought a used Pixel 5, because I didn’t want to directly support Google.
CalyxOS on Android Experience
I started off with CalyxOS because GrapheneOS sounded really hardcore and hard to use. The experience was amazing. I really liked Netguard and the firewalls for the apps. I used ProtonVPN, ProtonMail, Bitwarden, Signal. My ecosystem of Foss, privacy, and security was complete. However, after a year or so of using the OS, it started getting buggy. My distinctly remember that my volume would magically keep on raising to the max volume, it was a terrible bug. I would watch videos or listen to music and it will shoot up to 100% like someone was holding the power button. I tried to look up answers on this issue and couldn’t find any solutions so I decided to try out GrapheneOS.
GrapheneOS on Android Experience
I figured I heard a lot about this amazing project and so I should get on it before my device is no longer supported. I think I’m about a year into using GrapheneOS and I can say that it is amazing. It felt like a more refined deGoogled OS. I felt like CalyxOS was more like a few devs coming together and throwing some security tools and hardening it a bit but GrapheneOS has a much larger and dedicated team and truly making it the most private and secure Android operating system. With the compartmentalizing of Google Play Services or whatever it’s called. I even found out that when using Location, they have their own SUPL and PSDS proxy servers. Instead of using Netguard, GrapheneOS has network permission toggles much like for mic and cam access. It’s truly the best phone OS I have ever used. People can safely use Google Play Store like nothing happened and all the information is segregated and protected. It’s been pretty stable and I couldn’t be happier.
TLDR and Recommendations
That being said, iOS has its strength and weaknesses. Apple being very locked down and hard to break and mess up, Android being less refined and even more so the more you branch out away from Google. Would I change what I did? Not really, all of this helped me gain experience and evolve as a person. Would I recommend it to other people? I recommend GrapheneOS, if you are tech savvy and want to mess with phones a bit. The argument is fairly similar between the argument between Windows and Linux. Do you want to use something better and free you’ll need to play around with or use something locked and just works at the cost of freedom, privacy, and security?
The official websites can probably explain it better than me:
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I preordered the phone right when it opened but then I changed my mind, I wanted a different color, so I canceled it
I then cancelled that Samsung S22 order.
People at the store were like: “This fucking guy…”
I’ve been a long time cyanogenmod/LineageOS user, and you’ve inspired me to give Graphene a go, thank you.
How do you like it?
I actually never got around to buying a pixel to give it a go. I might pick up an 8 once the price drops more.
I had quite a steep degoogling journey. I bought a Pixel 3a half a year ago to try out some custom roms. Calyx was nice but I decided to go with Graphene on my main phone (Pixel 6) because in some way I was and am dependend on some Google Apps and services like chromecasting my kid’s TV shows to the telly.
Installation was fine, it is stable and in theory has all the features I need.
I already had my Nextcloud set up, used that for contacts and my calendar, switched to Proton, used more and more alternative apps like FreeOTP instead of Google authenticator and so on.
But after a long vacation road trip with my electric car it was a little tedious to not having Google maps and Android Car to get me more easily to the next charging station.
And a few little things added up like not having 90hz support. So I wanted to tip my toe in stock Android again to see if I was just annoyed by Android in general or by Graphene.
And “sadly” Stock feels like a new and better phone to me, much smoother more features etc.
For now I’m staying on Stock, but I know that I could switch anytime when Trump will be President again and cuts ties to the European Union and Google is expelled from Ireland in the process.
Hey, crazier things happened in the last 10 years.
But I won’t lose my children’s photos because I just uploaded those to a google service and I’m as degoogled as you can be without a custom rom which is kinda nice.
DeGoogling doesn’t mean you need to run these hardened operating systems. Sure they might offer more protections than stock, but everything you’ve done is amazing. You’re still independent from Google and don’t rely on Apple either. Though, you might consider running some kind of adblocking or vpn with a blocklist because I notice that stock Android still has a lot of weird stuff running.
Pi-Hole for home, Personal DNS Filter on the Go. :)
Seems like a good setup you’re running then.
Thanks for the write up. :) Does GrapheneOS provide root / su access in the default installation? (no magisk required)
Not in the default installation. From everything I can find, while you can root GrapheneOS, you shouldn’t. Source
Oh, interesting! I guess the main reason I use root nowadays is for AdAway, the system wide ad blocker that uses the iptables firewall. Would this functionality still be possible in GrapheneOS without root?
I would look at something like TrackerControl, which is very customizable and runs as a “VPN” that simply filters out ads. This should achieve the same thing, especially in combination with either Brave browser or a Firefox-based browser with uBlock Origin.
The only issue I have with those services that run as ad/tracking filters (ie DDG) is that I prefer to run an always on VPN, and since Android will only run a single VPN connection with no support for nested VPN services, it creates a limited scenario in that I would have to run a nested VPN setup on my home server and connect to that. At least with root, I can run AdAway in the background and have my VPN connection simultaneously. I understand the idea of not enabling root for security purposes.
I have the same issue. What I do is use a VPN with a custom DNS (Only some providers allow this, and documentation is often unclear or inaccurate as to whether they do). Using NextDNS, I have ull control over my DNS, while also using a VPN. This setup + uBlock Origin has been flawless for me so far, and I have a similar setup on my PC.
Rooting presents a huge security vulnerability. As an OS designed for security and privacy, I don’t think it would allow rooting. Though, what I do is run protonvpn with its malware+ads blocklist and it is fine. My browsers already have ublock origin with even more blocklists so I don’t have any real reason to root it.
This hits close to home, I have 3 “current generation” phones right now, and all because of the reasons you’ve mentioned. However where I ended up was different.
- Apple iPhone 12
- Samsung S21FE
- Pixel 7
I got the Apple because of the ecosystem, I have a ton of Mac products (Airpods, Apple Watch, Macbook, etc.) and figured it would be a natural fit. Apple has weird restrictions that make me unhappy and generally there are not much open source apps to use. I particularly dislike being forced to use iCloud for certain syncing services (e.g. Obsidian).
Next I picked up a discounted openbox S21FE because I wanted to get back into the Android ecosystem, it was very nice device. Camera takes nice shots, really beautiful screen and high refresh. I did not enjoy the intrusive apps that forced themselves and couldn’t be uninstalled. Google Play and other services felt intrusive and I had no expectations of any privacy. I use pihole at home and notice this device consistently being the topped blocked device. Outside of Google, Samsung themselves are pretty abhorrent at forcing you into their ecosystem.
Lastly I picked up a Pixel 7 and immediately went with GrapheneOS. It was not as rosy as I would’ve imagined, without Google services a majority of the apps (particularly social ones) do not work, and in general I was struggling to "find the open source version of <x> app. There are supplements to Google play services such as MicroG but that felt more like a work around than just a fully working device and ecosystem. I will admit out of all 3 devices this had little to no blocked content on my Pihole server, and the battery life was the best of the 3.
Eventually I settled back onto my Apple device (iPhone 12), as the watch is a crucial part of my day to day, and unfortunately there are no well made Android watches. I tested out a Galaxy Watch 4 for a while, but even that was a far cry from my Apple Watch.
You can actually download Google Play Services and any app in the Google Play Store you wish. You can go to the “Apps” app and download the Google Services Framework and the Google apps from there. It should work like a normal Android, but it’s protected from the rest of your system.
I’ve been using Sailfish OS, a Linux phone, for a while - you might give it a look.
What phone do you use? Last time I looked they only fully supported specific older Sony Xperia.
Sony Xperia 10 III.
I looked up the OS as well and it looks pretty closed off. It doesn’t seem to have a large development team either just from browsing their github.
Yeah, it’s not really open source (some parts of it are), but it has a company behind it that’s working on it and it’s been around since at least 2013 (I think).
GrapheneOS sounds cool, I’ll take a look into it. Generally, I prefer the customizability and openness of FOSS and OSS solutions, but I’ll use proprietary solutions out of necessity or if they bring me significantly more convenience.
Have you had any comments about your phones operating system? Are there apps that are only for Graphene?
Yep, most people don’t notice that it’s anything other than normal Android. I’ve told my techie friend that it’s Android without Google and running on all open source apps. No, anything you can download on a regular android, you can on a GrapheneOS phone. You can still use the google play store, or anonymously through the Aurora Store, or get FOSS apps.
