GrapheneOS is great and I recommend it all the time for Android users who are concerned about spying by governments and law enforcement.
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@evacide Too bad Pixels are not available in Brazil (probably the case for many developing nations), and currency conversion makes its cost prohibitive.
The only thing that bugs me is that I have to give G00gl3 of all companies money to get a smartphone I can run without G00gl3.
Ough 😞
@evacide What worries me most is the Google symbol "G" on the back of the device.
@evacide Something that will be eventually made illegal once digital ID gets brought in. VPN's will also be banned.
@evacide for a second i read "celebrity phone hacking"
And i was gonna post...
Damned Liam Neeson we've been over this already.
@evacide I recommend Google Pixels with #grapheneos to everyone I talk about phones. There are barely any drawbacks due to project's maturity and even if you do not care about #privacy, it's more secure than stock android and offers all the same features. We need it to become available on more phones and become more mainstream. The only issue is reliance on Google for further device support and development. If GrapheneOS did not exist, I have no idea what phone I would choose as neither iOS nor stock android offer anything close.
@evacide
I'm on a Samsung S24 Exynos and can't use GrapheneOS.
Recently updated to Android 16.
Samsung has Auto Blocker (Maximum Protection) available.
Google has Advanced Protection/Device Protection.
Apparently these were in A16 in response to Cellbrite.
I know they fall short of GrapheneOS, but can they be useful against Cellbrite or are they just Marketing?
@evacide "We’ve reached out to Google to inquire about why a custom ROM created by a small non-profit is more resistant to industrial phone hacking than the official Pixel OS."
Lol JFC
@evacide I’m absolutely disconnected from the Android side of things, but looking to move to it. If you don’t mind the question : Is Graphene specific to Pixels, or does the security extend to all Android phones?
@evacide GrapheneOS is the sane way to do phones.
FSF is a bit too idealist to think that replicant will ever go anywhere without huge changes in people's thinking. Too much of an uphill battle in 2025 and especially ever since 2015
Does VoLTE work on GrapheneOS?
@evacide
> GrapheneOS is great and I recommend it all the time for Android users
I'm definitely keen to try custom ROMs like GrapheneOS, but the main obstacles for me are;
* getting hold of a device that definitely supports one
* figuring out how to install it without bricking the device
* mobile carriers here are getting very fussy about what devices they'll support
@strypey @evacide
Your second point is almost a non-issue with Graphene. Having been through the process with other custom ROMs, the steps always felt somewhat fraught. With Graphene, once you've managed to unlock the bootloader (which is trivial if you've bought a bootloader-unlocked phone), you basically plug it into a computer with Graphene's website loaded and hit the button. It does most of the process automatically, and the parts it doesn't do, it walks you through.
On that last point, NZ probably needs a comprehensive Right to Repair law that obliges carriers to keep supporting the devices people had when we set up our contracts until EoL. I suspect they'd quickly find a way to patch old devices to work properly without the 3G network, if their only alternative was providing a free replacement ; )
(2/2)
@Kay
> It may resurface in a smaller form in another term of government
Hopefully it will resurface in a more comprehensive form under the next government ; )
@strypey Fingers crossed. I submitted for a broader law including open sourcing software when a company could no longer provide updates, as has happened with some medical devices.
@evacide I wish my phone model was supported. I can't afford to buy another for several years.
@evacide Protip: make sure the Pixel phone you buy off eBay has the ability to have its OEM bootloader unlocked.
I bought one that does not allow the option to be selected in developer mode 😞 it says to connect to the Internet or contact my carrier. My carrier says they cannot unlock it as they did not provide the phone 😞
@evacide and use Signal Messenger..
and understand SMS/MMS FFS.
@evacide it's been my daily driver through most of this year. Would definitely recommend for people who want the privacy and control over their own phone. Google is optional and there's no baked-in AI.
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