I have a google pixel, and I know I could install grapheneOS on it. But I’m very, very hesitant, since I depend so much on my phone.
This isn’t like distro hopping, where I feel more comfortable hot swapping ssds, or making partitions, or using my desktop while I tinker with my laptop. My phone has a SIM and the service I depend on can’t be emulated off this phone.
So what do you recommend I do? Should I move my SIM (my phone service, really) to a new phone while I tinker with this one? Can I just blow up the current OS and wing it? Or maybe theres another option that would allow me to bail back to stock android in case something goes wrong. What do you think?
EDIT: how I use my phone: about everything I use is from fdroid, with the occassional app from aurora. I do use my banking app to cash checks, but I don’t use whatsapp, google pay, which I know arent compatible. So as far as app compatibility I dont think it’ll be a problem, Im mostly worried about my phone number not working. I dont know how SIMs work like I should, I just know Ive had the strangest issues in the past with it, so Im hesitant. Thanks for the replies so far.
Does WhatsApp not work at all on Graphene OS or do you just need to enable Google Play services for it to work?
(I do understand why you personally may not want to enable the Play services, but I’m just curious about the potential capabilities).
I think that it works, but for it to work you need to enable Google Play services. From what I understand, this is done in a sandboxed manner simulating a fake identity, so it is possible to do this while isolating Google from your phone to an extent. But I think that WhatsApp is in itself problematic and one of the direct offenders that I want to avoid, regardless of its reliance on Google Play services, and so I have not gone through this effort myself.
Many people have the misconception that they’re defeating the purpose of GrapheneOS by using privacy invasive apps but in fact the opposite is true. If you want to use those apps, then using GrapheneOS allows you to protect your privacy from them far better than another OS.
GrapheneOS arguably makes the biggest difference for someone who is going to be using a bunch of mainstream apps including very privacy invasive ones. They need features like Storage Scopes and Contact Scopes more.
You’ll substantially benefit from our privacy and security features without making significant changes to your apps. In fact, you’ll benefit more from features like Storage Scopes, Contact Scopes, Sensors toggle, etc. if you use a bunch of very privacy invasive apps.
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Does WhatsApp not work at all on Graphene OS or do you just need to enable Google Play services for it to work? (I do understand why you personally may not want to enable the Play services, but I’m just curious about the potential capabilities).
I think that it works, but for it to work you need to enable Google Play services. From what I understand, this is done in a sandboxed manner simulating a fake identity, so it is possible to do this while isolating Google from your phone to an extent. But I think that WhatsApp is in itself problematic and one of the direct offenders that I want to avoid, regardless of its reliance on Google Play services, and so I have not gone through this effort myself.
removed by mod
The official GrapheneOS Twitter account states the complete opposite on several occasions:
https://nitter.net/GrapheneOS/status/1692002070650335259#m
https://nitter.net/GrapheneOS/status/1728630943886270827#m
https://nitter.net/GrapheneOS/status/1745532453215781151#m
It works fine if you have Google Play Services