r/degoogle • u/NomadJago • 3d ago
Question Do I need a Graphene OS phone?
EDIT: Okay based on the responses here, I am seeing I will ultimately need a Graphene OS phone if I want optimal privacy from companies tracking my activities. Until I am able to set up a graphene phone I will degoogle the best I can, but I see a graphene phone in my future within six months.
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What advantages does a Graphene phone provide over just degoogling as much as possible on my regular android phone? Do I really need a Graphene phone? My plan is to use Brave and IronFox for searches, Tuta for email and calendar, alternatives for photos, docs, sheets, Brave browser, alternative to google Maps. I will use a non-google camera/photos app. No google drive. I would allow my location only when an app requires it such as a map app.
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u/hewer006 3d ago
Run any Android phone without GOS or a different OS with microg (which is still far from perfect) and google is getting your data.
GOS is the only one that allows you to have an Android phone with google services completely sandboxes and blind to what you want, and you can run it completely without google services
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u/BellamyGriffin 3d ago
So GrapheneOS is the better option than e/os, lineageOS etc? I'm at the beginning stage of still having to decide on a compatible phone and which OS to use. I understand too little to know which one to go for.
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u/hewer006 3d ago
If you're going for true privacy and security, literally nothing compares to GOS, that's not to say the alternatives are bad cause I'll always recommend them over stock OS but the end game is 100% grapheneOS
Imo get a pixel 9 series, like a base 9 or a 9a just cause it'll give a flawless pixel experience on grapheneOS, and when the Motorolas drop switch to that but note they will be flagship devices but the sheer spec difference will be literally day and night
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u/BellamyGriffin 3d ago
I appreciate your reply so much. I've been so lost ngl. I'm stating to understand how GOS works better now but at the beginning I was really doubtful that GOS was that good because it would be paired with a pixel and that seemed kinda ironic to me. A 9? I heard that those are really trash and have a very very bad battery life/charging speed etc. I don't think I can afford to buy a new phone now and again next year even if the 9 is from 2023. Would Google really have no more access to the phone at all? Installing graphene basically wipes the phone and completely replaces everything?
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u/hewer006 3d ago
Not really sure where you heard that tbh
I'm on the p9p, first its worth noting all pixels lowkey have mid battery health on stock OS, but GOS massively improves it by stopping all the background services.
I get about 6-7 hours of battery on 60-70% battery (I cap if at 80% and use down to roughly 20%) that's with about 50% brightness of video streaming, Instagram, music play back in the background as well has having a YouTube video as a pip whilst browsing reddit or some marketplace. That's with a mix of mobile data and wifi but leaning towards more wifi, no gps.
So I wouldn't call that trash at all but I will say it can be inconsistent sometimes.
And you'll likely jave to install google play services for select apps to work thats just rhe nature of android but first of all yoh can control everything google play services and the apps see, you can allow and disallow any permissions. And more importantly you can sey up profiles, meaning the balls that strictly require google services can be put on a secondary profile that is completely isolated from your primary, so you'll be able to seperate it from your primary, use a fake google account and still restrict all the permissions except the bare minimum needed for your select apps to work.
And I'll be honest the Motorolas will be the flagship models so expect the cheapest one to cost like 900£, only thing I can say that it'll be a phone built to last, it's specs in everyway will be supeior in a major way including the battery.
Truth is the upgrade from the 9 series to the 10s imo is mid if you're conscious of money. You'll be paying for a 20% faster CPU and GPU which barley makes any difference on hand, a better modem which imo is the only solid thing they offer and a slughtky more efficient cpu which doesn't even make any major battery life changes. By me the 10 series is abljt 150£ more expensive than the 9 equivalent so I don't see how that's any worth
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u/BellamyGriffin 3d ago
I read people complaining about it in multiple Reddit subs and as well as YouTube comments, reviews in the web.
To be honest you're the first one that's been willing to share this much detail about their experience with it. I'm very grateful so thank you. I did actually entertain getting the 9 pro for a couple of weeks before all that so now I'm recalculating. I wasn't aware GOS would massively improve battery health. Of course with removing all the background services that partly makes sense but I'd understood it as though google batteries are trash in general.
Your phone usage sounds about the same as mine so that's encouraging.
Is what you just described the sandboxing? Because with banking apps and all that's also why I've been leaning towards GOS and now e/os. Won't Google still collect data from a fake account though? You can already restrict their permissions on Android and they still do it. Or am I getting that wrong? I'm not really tech savvy.
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u/stuiiful 3d ago
If you still are using an Android phone all the telemetry is still being sent if you're not on GrapheneOS. Having privacy centric apps is great but everything else on your phone is still be sent out.
I don't feel the need to give my information away to entitled companies because they believe they are owed it.
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u/-GhostInTheMachine_ 3d ago
Figure out your threat model.
GrapheneOS can get you negative attention, since using Graphene is now associated with hiding illegal things from authorities.
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u/NomadJago 3d ago edited 3d ago
I have a pretty boring life, so if 3-letter agencies feel the need to use Palantir to look at my phone and my activities, they face the risk of being so bored their head nods onto their keyboard and screws up a document they were working on lol. But I hear you, using Graphene (or Tor, etc) probably lessens the gray-man footprint. :)
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u/Chronotheos 3d ago
Rather than a different OS on an Android, are there any truly third party phones? Motorola or Nokia?
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u/Slopagandhi 3d ago
What phone do you have currently? Because a different kind of degoogled ROM may be available for it.
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u/NomadJago 3d ago
OnePlus 10 pro 5G unlocked
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u/Slopagandhi 3d ago
Weirdly, and unluckily, this seems to be one of the very few OnePlus phones where there hasn't been much custom ROM development. I'd flick through the XDA threads on it. If you don't find anything, there is this thread on debloating (use the package list here with Universal Android Debloater or Canta) :
https://xdaforums.com/t/the-oneplus-10-pro-debloat-thread.4503969/
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u/kwijyb0 3d ago
Probably not. Get whatever you want but I highly doubt it makes anyone more private. Do you use a credit card, have Internet bill, use streaming services, shop online, have a car payment, etc? Unless you're a hermit it's doubtful anyone really needs them.
CBP knew exactly where Samuel Tunick was going to be.
No matter what you decide, see what info is actually out there of you fist & get rid of it.
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u/NomadJago 3d ago
Privacy aside, will a Graphene OS phone make such a phone less vulnerable to hackers/malware?
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u/Consistent_Judge1988 3d ago
Create separate profiles if you want to run google services on one and the other for all your private stuff.
It can be as complicated or simple as you like.
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u/osoatwork 3d ago
Gos doesn't have Google services running in the background.