I have not any prior experience with installing custom ROMs, but after trying it out (and getting stuck, and googling and finding answers) I successfully did it. Below is my home screen if anybody is curious:
I use OpenBoard for my keyboard. Unfortunately I am still dependent on Play Store since some of the apps I need can only be found there. Sometimes it feels meaningless committing to this whole thing because I’m not perfectly private; then I think this is better than using a regular iPhone or Android phone.
So far I’m liking it. I am naturally inclined to feel hesitant about using this as my main phone and plugging in a SIM since it’s custom, but I’m slowly making the transition.
Feel free to share any beginners advice or your own experience using GOS for the first time. Cheers!
Checkout Heliboard, it’s a fork of the discontinued Openboard which fixes a lot of it’s bugs and adds new features and improvements:
https://github.com/Helium314/HeliBoard
It’s avaible on F-Droid and IzzyOnDroid
What are your concerns regarding using your SIM card?
It’s actually nothing but beginner paranoia. Will it work properly even on a custom ROM, is the main question spinning in my head.
Works for me on Verizon and has for 5+ years. Google Fi even works as I’ve tried that with a different phone on GrapheneOS.
When I last used Graphene, it was on a pixel 4 XL, and I used a Google Fi sim card just fine. Texting, specifically MMS was borked, group chats would just be massive sentences of spaghetti letters. Other than that though, issue free.
Same issues here. I love GOS but I need basic things like SMS/MMS/RCS to work, and right now they just don’t.
Damn, not even RCS works?! I’m back to stock Android on a 6 Pro because I don’t have the energy, and can’t be fucked to deal with tech problems that often.
RCS works with my Pixel 7
Some people apparently got it to work. Maybe check this thread on the Graphene forum: https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/1353-using-rcs-with-google-messages-on-grapheneos/81
Thank you! It was interesting skimming that thread.
No reason it wouldn’t as far as I know, assuming your hardware is compatible.
You can use the aurora store for most of your play store need’s.
vouch for aurora store being awesome
Should be all, its simply a frontend. I have never seen an app be “missing” so to say.
Nah, I prefer F-droid wherever I can. The mentioning when an app has anti-features is so helpful.
But Aurora is a great second option.
Yeah I use play store because I have to have some stuff furnished from play store for work but aurora store is a great way to acquire those apps you do need to get through life but that aren’t open source
I was referring to features, like adding money to your account. Not that they are needed in aurora.
Some apps are not available in my Google store due to geoblocking. Can aurora circumvent this? Or is it a front end of the “local” google play store?
A reputable VPN can block this. I’m not sure if the store can solely. I don’t believe so. If your blocked for any reason you need a good VPN. ****
You are correct, re-loading the aurora store after shifting my vpn to the target country (and anonymous login) seems to change the aurora storefront too :)
Welcome! My experience has been seamless, I think most of the idiosyncrasies have been covered in other comments already but Ive had zero issues with base functionality “out the box”
Have you checked out this?
Yes. The reason I don’t use Aurora is because I’ve heard it’s instable sometimes and uses many anonymous Google accounts in order to install apps. I feel safer using my own burner account for that.
You can also use your own Google account in Aurora store.
Interesting. I’ll check this out later.
Definitely do! I also suggest Droid-ify for FOSS apps :)
Don’t forget to change your DNS provider to something such as NextDNS for added benefits
Does it have any benefits over just running pihole, other than reliability?
It also works when using cellular data or connecting to a different Wi-Fi network. Your Pi-Hole only works when you’re at home or when you VPN into your home network
Fair. I always assumed I could just point to it while I’m out, but i also haven’t put a lot of thought into it yet lol
You aren’t always home, therefore when you aren’t home it’s useful.
I have not yet looked into the DNS topic. What are the risks if I use the provider’s default DNS? Or what are the advantages of using a different DNS?
ISP DNS servers often lies, depending on your country, a lot do DNS blocking so it’s a way to evade basic censorship. Also some alternative DNS can lie in useful ways, for adblocking or malware protection. You can also check mullvad DNS.
NextDNS even let’s you customize your DNS filter. You can choose which blocklists you want to use, and you can manually whitelist/blacklist individual domains. It also has other cool features like parental controls and malware protection.
You can still use PiHole as your DNS when not home if you setup a VPN. For me that was the route I went.
or you can allow public authenticated access to dns over https/tls… like just requiring a unique query param would be enough (just don’t expose the raw udp dns server, it’s a really bad idea)
You can set up multiple user profile and install the play services in only 1 profile if you want to jeep other profile more private
I recommend you use GrapheneOS as your daily driver. There’s not really any reason not to. I have been for years and never had trouble.
Aurora store is also pretty cool. You can download from there without a google account.
I’m still waiting on LineageOS being ported on my phone (SM-A536B).
You are welcome to work on it. However, Samsung devices are a absolute pain to work with.
Yes, I know that, and I tried porting it to PostmarketOS, but the build failed miserably.
You need to mainline the kernel for Linux systems. That is a very difficult job
Check out Heliboard (also on F-Droid) and follow the instructions to enable gesture typing. I also suggest Futo for on-device voice to text.
What specific apps are you using that you can’t deal going away from? Other than some social media or gamr or something. Even then it seems like there are replacements a lot of the time
Aurora store and F-droid will be your besties, you don’t need play store unless you have purchased something.
I suggest Droid-ify over the F-Droid store for ease of use, but both work fine
I personally like the F-droid app way better. It is pretty polished and has the benefit of being first party
Last I used it, Aurora store can’t do automatic updates without user attention. Is that still true? If so, it’s adding another massive inconvenience.
Automatic updates were added about six months ago. https://gitlab.com/AuroraOSS/AuroraStore/-/issues/719
They’ve been working well enough for me.
Well that’s awesome news. I used it a little over a year ago, so I didn’t know they were working on it.
Is it really a massive inconvenience? I would hardly even call it a minor inconvenience. I get a notification maybe twice per week that there are updates pending, and I just accept them in bulk. Your life must be absolutely perfect and ridiculously easy if that simple infrequent action can be classified as a massive inconvenience.
There are much more annoying things when de-googling and using graphene OS than this IMO. This hardly even registers as annoying. Not being able to use my government 2FA app or NFC payments, now that is massive inconvenience.
To me I love to have control over what I update, I agree with it not being inconvenient. For other it might so it’s not really necessary to be mean about it!
Okay, smuglord. It’s a massive inconvenience compared to doing literally nothing. And it heavily depends on what apps you use and how often they update.
It’s OK shitbrains, but a small action over nothing does not make a massive inconvenience, at best it makes a minor inconvenience.
Unfortunately I’m experiencing the same thing :( Not too big of a deal for me to do manual updates once every two weeks or so but still an annoyance
You don’t need Play Store if you’ve purchased something. I had to use a paid app for a few years and installed it through Aurora. You can install paid apps on Aurora if you log into the google account you bought it on.
I like neo store
I’m curious why no one recommending FlorisBoard.
I’ve been using GraoheneOS as my daily driver for months now. I still have issues with things that need Google Localization (car sharing program in my city for example) and I’ve had a few banking apps complaining when being installed from the Aurora Store.
I miss having my cards on my phone quite a lot.
+1 for this, but i will mention that suggestions/autocorrect is not stable yet if that matters for people.
Suggestions/autocorrect will likely come within the next 2 months when 0.5 releases
It’s also easily customizable and will likely have an in-app layout editor by 0.6
hopefully i can move clipboard buttons too.
Today I learned that Vanadium has a search widget, so thanks for the post :D
It gets me wondering, I have never use a search bar widget in my life and I find them rather setting in the way… My search bar is just 1 tap away inside Firefox, which is also on the desktop… I’ve not seen many people around me use it
Do people really use it?
Well I used to use it when I was still using normal Android. When I open Vanadium I get greeted with the last page I visited and I get distracted from that, so a search widget helps me.
Makes sense. Whenever I open Firefox, of opens on the (empty) homescreen where I can start typing in the URL bar right away. But everyone has got their own ways!
Every step you take towards a more private digital life is essential. I mean you have to start somewhere right? And the phone is in my opinion the biggest privacy thread out there. I am not on GrapheneOS but I’m considering switching soon.
I switched over a year ago and have no regrets. It does everything I want (including android auto now) and gives me at least a little but more privacy than a stock android image.
The more people who use it the more impetus there is to further develop it.
Give it a go! Its a great.
