I am a long term GrapheneOS user and would like to talk about it. r/privacy on the redditland blocks custom OS discussions which I think is very bad for user privacy, and I hope this post will be useful to anyone who are in the hunt for better privacy.
Nowadays smartphones are a much bigger threats to our privacy and Desktop systems, and unfortunately manufacturers has designed them to be locked down devices with no user freedom. You can’t just “install Linux” on most smartphones and it is horrible. And most preloaded systems spy on us like crazy. That was why I specifically bought a pixel and loaded GOS onto it.
According to https://grapheneos.org/features , they start from base AOSP’s latest version, imptoves upon it’s security and significantly hardens it. There’s hardened_malloc to.prevent against exploitation, disabling lots of debugging features, disabling USB-c data, hardening the Linux kernel and system apps etc. They even block accessing the hardware identifiers of the phone so that apps cannot detect whqt phone you’re using. That means with Tor and zero permissions given, apps are anonymous.
Compatibility with apps are best in Custom ROMs but there are still that can’t work, especially if they enforce device integrity. Very few apps usually enforce that tho. Also their community isn’t the friendliest but you can get help. Just don’t try and engage too much or have too many debates.
Anyone else here use GrapheneOS, or any other privacy ROMs? What is your experience? Do you disagree on any point? Let’s have a discussion!
Other than Starbucks app and VoLTE stuff, I haven’t encountered an issue yet. Somehow all my banking apps work. The profile feature alone makes it worth it. They also recently increased the number of profiles that can be run in parallel, too.
Did you fix VoLTE stuff? What was the issue?
The issue is that I can’t make phone calls and send SMS… But it can be fixed using this tool:
https://github.com/kyujin-cho/pixel-volte-patch/blob/main/README.en.md
I need to run Shizuku every GOS update and enable VoLTE, so it’s tedious, but necessary. Phone incapable of phone call is ridiculous.
Oh, and even with this fix, I can’t call some people for some reason. I can receive call from them though.
That’s a dealbreaker for me. I do use my phone as a phone rather frequently. What’s the deal? Is VoLTE not supported by default on GOS? Is ou it a specific device incompatibility?
Yes and no. e.g. see https://grapheneos.org/usage#carrier-functionality
And https://grapheneos.org/usage#lte-only-mode
So… it depends
If your carrier is official supported by google, your carrier itself supports it and your device is not imported, it is likely to work.
So basically not a technical issue, just corporate shenanigans.
Honestly, not quite sure why it happens, but I know it’s something to do with using it in Korea, where Pixel phones are not natively supported. In other words, it happens with Pixel phones, regardless of the OS.
As to how I knew it would work with the fix, it was a gamble. I rooted my phone and enabled VoLTE prior to that app.
Could you automate that with Tasker?
Unless the phone is rooted, I don’t think so; I need to enable wireless debugging first, then run Shizuku, then enable a bunch of options in the Pixel IME app. But then again, this can be done permanently with root.