I have a fairly new ish Pixel phone, do you think I'll be able to go back if I don't like it?
Because when I had set it up, grapheneOS itself couldn’t install or set one up unless it was previously installed under the old OS.
So I had to set up my carrier and then install grapheneOS.
It can install eSIMs on its own now so this doesn’t matter other than confirming the eSIM carries over.
I’ve never reverted to stock android and I’m never looking back so idk if the eSIM survives the round trip.
Yeah, it is very easy, it's described here:
https://grapheneos.org/install/web#replacing-grapheneos-with...
Similar to GrapheneOS, Google also has a web installer (linked from the above section). Just in case you didn't know - both installing GrapheneOS and recovering the stock OS will remove all data as well.
Uber couldn’t verify payment so I couldn’t take a ride when needed.
Google needs to whitelist graphene basically to work in the wallet app.
On that note, given that graphene is focused around security and privacy, perhaps not givng your payment data to google is probably a good thing
GrapheneOS website in comparison contains a lot of things to read, so after a hour of thorough reading I had good impression what GrapheneOS is.
it's very minimal ootb and has a better update schedule than 95% of oems (alas)
you can install google play store & services from the app store, and pretty much everything will just work as you might imagine
When chip and pin was first rolled out, Europeans were shocked by the low security of swipe cards in the US. The reason that wasn’t an issue for Americans was (and still is) that credit cards have excellent fraud protections.
If someone steals my credit card, it is the bank’s problem, not mine.
The risk of paying by debit card on a regular basis is unfathomable to me, even with fancy tech to try to make it secure.
And yes, phone NFC payment is one of those technically unnecessary conveniences that's really easy to get used to. You probably already have your phone out or at least accessible in like one second, paying with it instead of pulling out your wallet and finding a card or even cash is just sooo nice. I hate that I've gotten this used to it.
That being said, you can still get NFC payment on a rooted or reflashed phone. Instead of Google Wallet, find a bank or card provider that has their own app. I use the Curve "proxy card" and it works fine.
(you can use gboard, that was just an example - but it's always these small inconveniences, just like in the chrome vs firefox threads)
That said, I wouldn't last 8.4 months like the author. Even though he admits to some Google app usage, I'm in too deep — I'd never be able to get out. But if I get the chance, I'd like to try it on a secondary phone. Those solid black icons are one reason. They look cool.
also you can restrict some apps network permissions, for example i use the google camera app with the network disabled :p
Running Graphene for a long time now, everything works perfectly fine, but I don't do mobile banking.
Do you really need access to banking apps on the go? I get that it can be handy and maybe you legit do, but I'd wager most people don't really do. If you can pay by phone you can pay by card and the card has less potentially to weirdly break.
And if your bank demands a phone app to be used, you can always have a cheap stock android lying around at home. Can't get stolen or lost. Doesn't give big G any data on you, because that phone doesn't have anything but those apps.
But I also understand "just have a second phone" is not a tempting idea for many people. I am not much of a phone person, so I'm not a good case study, but it works fine for me.
drnick1•1h ago