GrapheneOS, for a normal person.
GrapheneOS is a version of Android built by an independent project, without Google’s services baked in and with stricter controls over what apps can do. It runs on certain Google Pixel phones. That’s the whole idea; the rest is detail and trade-offs.
Day to day
- Google is optional
- By default nothing reports to Google. If you want Google apps, they run in a sandbox with ordinary app permissions, not system-level access.
- Permissions you can see
- Network, sensors and storage are permissions you grant per app, and can revoke.
- Updates from the project
- Security updates come from GrapheneOS directly, for as long as the device is supported.
- It still looks like a phone
- Calls, messages, camera, maps (with your choice of app). Most people adjust within a day.
What you give up
- Some apps refuse to run
- A few banking and payment apps check for stock Android and decline. Tap-to-pay with Google Wallet is the common casualty.
- You do a bit more yourself
- Choosing an app store, deciding on the sandbox, managing backups. We set it up; you maintain it.
- Only certain phones
- Supported devices are a short list that changes. We check the official list before any install.
- Not anonymity
- A privacy-respecting phone isn’t an invisible one. Your carrier, and anyone you log in to, still knows you.
Would it suit you?
Tell us the apps you can’t live without. That’s usually the whole answer.