GrapheneOS is finally ready to break free from Pixels, and it may never look back
https://www.androidauthority.com/graphene-os-major-android-oem-partnership-3606853/Open linkView original on lemmy.ml569
Comments106https://www.androidauthority.com/graphene-os-major-android-oem-partnership-3606853/Open linkView original on lemmy.ml
I'm out of the loop. Any examples of this?
They shit on other projects all the time (frequently unprovoked, sometimes without the original conversation having anything to do about security). They also often reply with multiple posts with multiple paragraphs each when shitting on other projects. It shouldn't take very long to find an example if you trawl through their replies on Twitter, Bluesky, or Mastodon.
They have good points, but they're often either not relevant to the conversation or worded in such a way that it sounds like every project other than GrapheneOS is dogshit.
They also sometimes go on (IMO) paranoid rants about XYZ project systematically trying to destroy them or whatever.
I got the same vibes when they describe in detail how supposedly terrible Firefox on Android is for security. I actually didn't believe them just based on the tone.
I mean, I think they're right that the security is worse. I'm pretty sure it's worse on desktop too, just not nearly as bad. Last I checked, Firefox on Android still doesn't do per-site process isolation by default, for example.
Yes that is what they said. But the way they said it made me doubt that it matters quite so much.
worse than what? What browser is better?
Blink-based ones (Chrome/Chromium, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, etc.)
Somehow I don't believe you when you say that those browsers are better for security.
Reminds me of our good friends on Lemmygrad.
it's called effortposting
wasn't that in the pqst? wasn't that just the guy who started it or sonethinf? isn't that person off the team now?
If you're talking about Daniel Micay, he's still heavily involved. I'm pretty sure he still maintains the accounts since they haven't really changed writing style or anything. IIUC though he's no longer the main dev.
That's what I've been thinking as well, remember having a conversation with him in a forum a few years ago and recently looked up something that had a comment from the official GrapheneOS account. The writing style was exactly the same. Kinda disappointing IMO, the dude is clearly a brilliant coder but he should be kept away from the official accounts as far as possible.
yes i meant daniel micay. ah okay didn't know he was heavily involved. by "the accounts" i assume you are referring to social media accounts?
Yeah, the social media accounts.
Yep. They need an actual comms professional. I love GOS and am forever grateful to the team but having a bunch of non-nuero-typical devs speaking for them is not doing them any favours.
Seriously. I love GOS and can't imagine using a phone without it at this point, but their social media is a shitshow and a half.
For me, it would be the opposite. Their "unprofessional" and aggressive way of communications makes me think they are doing it for convictions rather then personal benefits. The person that's helping you doesn't need to be overly polite. The person trying to get something out of you does.
Sorry, maybe I just did not see how bad it gets. I don't follow their communications in detail. I wanted to say that being a bit aggressive is fine, but if it was really to the point of attacking you, than that is not ok either.
Doesn't seem "it's finally ready" when they didn't name the name.
Amateur marketing speak for "we're considering bringing it to other hardware"?
It's not marketing speak because GrapheneOS didn't say it. It's a bad headline from a site known for bad reporting. GrapheneOS has been talking about this for months and there's nothing new in this article that wasn't already out there.
No need to defend it. It was obviously a comment on the headline; I didn't care who wrote it - the criticism was directed at whomever vomited it up. Tech publications are as much uncritical PR agencies for tech companies as the latter's marketroids are.
I was trying to clarify, not defend. It is absolute garbage and this article as a whole is a pile of nothing, written in a weird breathless style like they just discovered something. Thumbs down to this shit all around.
That's fair. 🙂
Yep, definitely more in line with that reality. 😄
Break free, implying they won't support Pixels anymore (is how I interpreted it at first anyway), but they are simply expanding support for more devices. 👍
The article suggests that they have not decided whether to support new models of Pixel but will support current models until EOL
So so far only news of expansion. 👍
Thanks for the relevant quote 👍
It'd be funny to me if Pixel sales tanked a significant amount and it turns out that people only used their phones for Graphene.
Me personally, I don't like Pixel phones. But I've owned every single one of them through 9 Pro.
I look forward to a Graphene future.
Typing on a pixel at the moment. I never get tired of the irony that privacy enthusiats uses google made phones of all devices out there
I never would have bought a Pixel if it weren’t for GrapheneOS. It was literally the only selling point for me.
I'm glad this is getting some traction now, but this is some poor reporting. This is one site reporting what another site saw, which was just GrapheneOS restating things they've been saying since the summer, with no new info. I read both this article and the one they link to as their source and learned nothing I haven't already known for months just from casually checking on GrapheneOS socials.
I'll speculate.
My money's on Asus. Asus is a bit more mainstream than Nothing but still enough of an underdog that I think they should see the value in a partnership. They already target an enthusiast niche with the ROG line.
The Nothing Phone 3 uses an SD 8s Gen 4, which is not Qualcomm's "flagship" SOC, and it would be stretching the definition of "major" OEM, but who knows? This seems the most likely after Asus.
Moto's only flagship Snapdragon phone is the Razr Ultra, which I guess is possible. It'd be weird, but hey, I'd buy one.
OnePlus has been moving in the opposite direction for years now, locking things down more and more. I think they're too big for their britches at this point.
Sony's flagships are crazy expensive, well beyond the price of Pixels. They also don't cover the US market, though I'm not sure how important that is to the Graphene devs.
HMD doesn't make any phones with flagship SOCs. I think their best is the Skyline, with a 7s gen 2, Qualcomm's fourth-tier SOC line (the "s" stands for shitty).
Fairphone doesn't use flagship Snapdragons and GOS has had some pretty nasty things to say about them in the past.
Samsung is a pipe dream. They'd have no motivation. The entire GOS user base would be a rounding error to them.
On a global scale, Xiaomi would be a huge get. Not sure I see any of the Chinese OEMs focusing on this though.
Lenovo and Blackberry...might still exist? I think?
Honestly can't imagine any chinese manufacturer partnering with a free and open Android OS. Even though it would be cool, since their phones usually have decent hardware
Asus would be nice, I've liked most of the zenphones but either didn't support my carrier/bands or something like that or they stopped allowing bootloader unlocking which is why I didn't think they'd be on the list but this would be a great way to jump back in as an option for enthusiasts.
Also would love for it to be RAZR, I really want one but also want GrapheneOS but hesitant to buy a pixel.
It's the same Asus that doesn't allow bootloader unlock anymore for "stability concerns"?
What did they say about Fairphone? As far as I know, Fairphone doesn't provide patches as frequently as it should. I mean, thats not great, but it's not "nasty."
Lenovo bought Motorola like a decade ago.
Fairphone doesn't have the security hardware.
I would love to put Graphene on a Xiaomi device, even more, I'd love to put them on Huawei phones, but afaik those ones don't have an unlocked bootloader.
I wish fairphone could be the thing, but unfortunately - doesn't seem to be the case https://piunikaweb.com/2025/10/13/grapheneos-ending-pixel-exclusivity-new-oem/
I pray that my Pixel 9 is my last Pixel.
That may be a monkey's paw wish.
He'll use that phone for the next 20 years as it's the last one on the planet with an unlocked bootloader
Could Fairphone count as a "Major" Android OEM ?
They do use snapdragon chips, are priced roughly the same as the pixels, and might align the most with a project like Graphene and its values ?
One can dream…
It would be my dream as well, I won't buy it unless it's respirable anyway
I advise against inhaling your phone
What about some old iPad Air from 2013?
I mean it's got air in the name so it's gotta be all right
Great, it went well! I'm still in doubt about some OnePlus devices. Do you think those with OxygenOS are safe? Quick, please, I can't hold my breath much longer!
Idk friend, for something like that I'd ask an expert. Like ChatGPT.
"Don't breathe this!"
I hope its blackberry, id love to see them re-enter the market, and i'd love an excuse to buy one.
that would be wonderful
I just want a smartphone with a physical keyboard again. That would be awesome!
A new modern and secure BlackBerry with a physical keyboard would be absolutely incredible
Fuck! I brought a pixel just for GrapheneOS 2 months ago. Hoping they would continue the support.
Honesty I would just wait it out if I were you. I really regret getting the pixel 9 (since my last phone broke).
There is nothing new in the pixel 10 the only area that desperately needed improvement was the battery which is just as bad if not worse than the 9 and the modem still sucks. It is not fully bad but because of low reception it fights harder to get signal and therefore burns away the battery even faster.
Plus, no sim card slot on the 10 in the US market
Google also didn't release the source for the 10, so I'd expect the support to always be subpar compared to the previous models
Think I saw them respond that they were aiming for last half of 2026 to 2027 for the new phones.
They will most definitely continue the support for existing Pixel models.
It's okay just keep using it with GrapheneOS as you need to as support will continue for pixels.
Would love to see oneplus support.
i hope grapheneos keeps supporting pixels, if possible. i liked pixels way before I discovered grapheneos due to the cameras that I still think are on top in the android world, and when I became privacy conscious it was a perfect add on to an already nice phone imo.
Good camera was just a byproduct if better post processing on Google. It was true maybe 5-6 years ago that pixels had too of the line camera. But these days, even Motorola can manage a comparable camera to pixel.
I guess i know what my next year's phone is gonna be.
They supported Google because it was the only device with the hardware security features they needed
Wanted. It was a choice.
That defeats the entire point of the project, there are other custom ROMs that significantly improve privacy and security on non-google phones. What's accomplished by graphene supporting them?
For my brokes ass I'm just going to keep buying secondhand last-gen pixels, but its good for the overall market to get an expansion in grapheneOS support.
More likely a shift rather than expansion. Graphene said they don't yet know if they'll support Pixels beyond 10. Looks like they may focus on the new OEM and drop Pixels.
Please let it be Nothing or OnePlus 🙏
This needs to happen so bad. Very excited for the future of mobile computing. We are so back.
I hope they announce what that new phone is before my Pixel 6 goes EOL
I'm on a P6, living life on Lineage and loving it, fwiw 🙂
Finally escaping from Tensor jail. Hopefully the new phone has a decent design.
BUT IF THEY KEEP JINXING IT!!!!?
As long as it isn't a Chinese OEM. Most likely going to be Sony or Nothing?
Nothing is pretty much a Chinese OEM...
The phone is fully designed, engineered, tested, built, and firmware written in China... Pei just has his marketing office in the UK so he can claim it as a UK company. Maybe they give some aesthetic design direction in the UK too. Pei has a history of lying to make his companies seem like something they aren't.
(Though they did have a couple of software job postings up recently, so maybe they are trying to slowly change that and do some of the software in the UK)
Aww damn. Well let's hope it's Sony then (or someone else reputable)
I've bought Sony devices for years, but nowadays the cheap ones are shit and the good ones are way too expensive
I still do not trust Sony after the CD rootkit incident.
Maybe HMD?
HMD is a Chinese OEM. 90% of their phones are just off-the-line Foxconn reference designs with almost stock android.
It is the illusion of choice that happens when companies and IP are massively consolidated into monopolies.
Chinese? They're headquartered in Finland and even make one model in Hungary
Their flagship models only IIRC.
But the principle of an ODM is that the company lets another company completely design, manufacture, etc... Their product and then they paste their name on at the end and sell it as their own, which is why the design is often identical, because it is a reference design with a couple tweaks.
Like 99% of the cheap smart watches do this, as well as the Nothing CMF line. The non-flagship HMD line historically did this, maybe it changed in the last couple generations have changed it?
I am still rocking my Xperia 5ii. The fingerprint sensor stopled working after 2 years completely (a known problem that persists to newer models and it is thought to be a hardware problem, but it doesn't happen on any other phone with a power button fingerprint reader and booting in safemode and back or a phone reset to factory can fix it for a short time, so I think it is planned obsolence in firmware), the software support only lasted 2 years (1 android upgrade IIRC, I am on 12), and the battery usage is 2.5-3% per hour with the screen off on 4G and 2%/hr on WiFi.
Other than that it is a great phone! Pro camera app is also awesome.
How is the quality of their phone? Does this person lie about the products themselves or just company?
I'm typing this from a Nothing Phone 2 I got about a year and a half go and I love it. Still gets monthly updates, stills runs fast and is updated to A15. Battery is starting to slip but as long as I'm around 40-50% charge before a trio or going out that's more than enough. Really like the nothingOS customizability, reminds me of the OG oneplus phones but not what they are currently.
I have heard that their phones are pretty good!
The thing is, all phones nowadays, even OEM Chinese phones are good. 100€ budget Samsung's are good because there hadn't been any actual phone innovations for a decade.
I think it is just him and his way of marketing his companies, not the phone itself.
Nothing isn't a major oem
Lfg
I'm hyped! Get the OS on a foldable on-par with the Z Fold 7 (in terms of thinness, camera quality, battery life, and UI featureset), and I'm sold. I am so done with Google and Samsung's bullshit. If I wanted an iPhone, I would have bought an iPhone. I'm tired of them copying Apple and somehow managing to be even worse at it. I don't want to be forced to use use either of their shitty app stores.
FWIW, I'm aware that I'm going to be waiting for awhile.
I hope they add supports for more foldables!
Cool! Gonna wait for a Graphene Phone now!
I never understood why a privacy and security focused project would use Google hardware.
Because only Google provided everything needed to actually fully support the hardware it runs on. Besides, hardware is just the skeleton, as long as you exchange the brains inside, you are fine. Like a bomb shell but empty inside.
Still, I do not like paying money to google.
It's like saying I don't like drinking water from planet Earth. Good luck with alternatives.
yes please!
Niiiiice
Imagine, they announce a Chinese phone brand, like Huawei or Xiaomi. Although that Xiaomi 17 Pro Max... damn.