i know this is similar to this post, but i’ve been thinking about buying a google pixel (side note: why does the 9 look like that) and installing grapheneOS on it. i’ve been on ios for basically all my life, so there’s definitely a bit of hesitation
i was wondering if anyone here has experience with grapheneOS and could possibly attest to any small quality-of-life things or “culture shocks” switching from ios—or any thoughts on alternative android ROMs in general, whether you’ve used graphene or not. ^_^
I have been running GrapheneOS full time for 4 years on a Pixel 4a 5G.
It’s a great OS, probably the best implementation of android that’s actually usable on the day to day, the stock installation is extremely clean and bloat free, the default apps work well, and I’ve had no issues with any apps I need not working, even banking apps work properly.
I have never had a crash, bad update, or major issue with GrapheneOS and I plan to stick with it into the future so long as nothing changes.
I run without google play services installed which means my notifications are very delayed, but I can live with that. Installing and uninstalling GAPPS is a two click job in the graphene app manager and google’s stuff runs sandboxed with the privileges of a regular app which makes it less invasive.
Some apps will not work without google play services installed, however a great many apps that say they don’t work actually do, but with an annoying pop up on first open.
I can’t comment on it compared to IOS but modern Android is a pretty smooth and friendly experience, you shouldn’t have to finagle with much.
I get most of my apps from F-Droid, anything I can’t get from there like banking apps is downloaded via Aurora store, which is available through F-Droid and gives you google free access to the google play store.
OSMand+ is a great Google/Apple Maps alternative and my preferred go to, Gmaps is the only major app that I can think of that just won’t work on Graphene.
Make sure to get the G-Cam APK for your phone model to get the good google camera app.
I can confirm everything you wrote. However, I would recommend Droid-ify instead of F-Droid. It’s just a nicer client but contains the same apps. I personally use Open Camera because I like all the settings it offers, but that’s probably just a weird choice of mine.
Installing it on my Pixel 7 was super easy. I just followed the web installer’s instructions. In comparison, installing LineageOS on my old phone and rooting my e-reader was much more complicated.