personally, my bank app works out of the box, even without google play services. i would recommend not banking on your phone unless you absolutely need to, like mandatory 2fa (only using the mobile app)

yeah the hardware support is a big difference to graphene.

true (i think). i bought a pixel to use grapheneos

np ;)

based :) how r u liking it? i considered it but didnt want the risk of bricking my phone

fair. in my opinion, banking apps are not worth having on a phone due to the security risks. there are several alternative launchers available on f-droid :)

If by side-loading you mean installing from a ‘non-trusted’ or ‘unofficial’ source (apps other than google play store), then yes, that is the only option. however, this is not much less convient or secure.

There are a few ways to install apps (these should work with any Android phone, not just Grapheneos):

• Any non-paid apps on google play can be installed using Aurora Store. supposedly you can use it without even logging in to google account (but i havent gotten that to work). Eg. Facebook

• Most FOSS apps will be in the F-Droid repository, and can be installed with the F-Droid app, or other similar apps such as Droidify. Eg. K-9 Mail

• If an app is not on the main F-Droid repo, alternative repositories can be added to your F-Droid client.

• APKs (app packages) can be installed from the web. this is how F-Droid is usually installed for the first time. Eg. Signal is not available on F-Droid (for reasons)

Basically, if you need a proprietery app like Facebook, use Aurora; if you need an open source app, look for it on F-Droid or download the APK. There are of course pros and cons of each method in terms of security and convenience.

what havent you liked about it ?

the android which most phones use is android+gapps (google apps), which is a closed source fork/distro of android made by google. base android and grapheneos (based on android 13) are open source. grapheneos does not have google play services, so most google apps will not work at all, but play services can be installed (although i dont recommend).

any app from the ‘Simple’ suite is always worth checking out. (search ‘simple files’ on f-droid). i personally prefer the stock grapheneos one, but use Simple gallery

consider grapheneos. i use it and its been great

Been using windscribe custom plan (2$USD/m) for years. Great apps (all are foss i think), great support (linux/android/windows/iot). I believe they have good privacy practices.

ive heard briar and session are good

keepass (xc/dx) and aegis

i hate to be that guy but linux is worth the switch

chad activities

keepassxc for linux, keepassdx for android