I recently acquired a pixel phone and set up gos. Prior to trying gos I was using an iPhone hardened as much as possible based off of recommendations and guides from respected OSINT experts.
It’s only been a week but I’ve found gos extremely frustrating and mostly useless except for web browsing.
I can’t seem to get my Yubikey to work so my 2FA is borked. Works fine on my iPhone.
I’ve previously managed to degoogle my life but now certain apps require me to use sandboxed google apps just to run.
I’m facing the nearly insurmountable task of convincing my friends, family, and colleagues to download and use signal when they are all using encrypted iMessage.
Most of my banking apps just simply do not work. Mobile banking is unfortunately something important that I need in my occupation. A part of the appeal of gos was being able to have an isolated dedicated profile for banking.
There’s also a few features that I’m assuming are iPhone exclusive that it really sucks to have without. Double tapping the bottom of the screen to shift everything down so you can reach the top of the screen with your finger when using one hand. Holding down on the space bar to move the text cursor between characters. Maybe these exist on gos though?
I understand most of the issues lay on the shoulders of the app developers. I’m grateful for the devs for creating and working on this project. I’m not bashing anyone here. I’m simply asking for some guidance on how I can break through the hurdles and make this work for me, from the mouth of those who were once in my position.
Hello! I’m sorry to hear you are experiencing issues switching to GrapheneOS. I understand that can be frustrating, especially with how much of a privacy boost it is compared to iOS. I have used iOS my entire life, so I know it inside and out. When I heard about GrapheneOS over a year ago, I decided that I also wanted to switch. I spent multiple months learning everything I could about GrapheneOS and Android, just to give myself an idea of if I might like it. I even bought a $30 test Android phone to get familiarity with Android.
The thing is, I never expected it to be a one-to-one with iOS, and I expected issues to happen. I learned about potential issues and looked for solutions or forums where I can ask about such problems. I also spent that time (very) slowly convincing my friends to use Signal, but some still use iMessage. It’s not an easy switch from iOS! With that said, I have a few things that may help you.
Don’t worry! Switching from iOS to any Android is difficult, and will take more than a week. You have to have the mindset of really making it work and making sacrifices. The thing is, even if it doesn’t work, its ok to switch to iOS. Make a threat model. If iOS is what you’re comfortable with, that’s ok! We don’t all have to use GrapheneOS
Prepare Make a list of apps you will use once you switch, test out apps on an Android emulator or test phone, and see what works best for you. Not everything has to be open source, and some stuff will require Google. Tinker around and make a map of how you will set things up (apps, profiles, etc.) If you find that there are things you just can’t live without, you can either switch back to iOS or have iOS as a secondary phone for those apps.
Security keys If your security keys are causing you problems, consider one that acts over USB-C. If that still doesn’t work, ask the GrapheneOS community for help at https://discuss.grapheneos.org/ You can still use iOS as a secondary device for logging into the services that you use security keys for.
Degoogling Because GrapheneOS has such great sandboxing, using sandboxed Google Play is generally safe. It’s still degoogled, but you ensure that any compatibility is met by isolating Google related things. You can even put those apps on a separate profile for further isolation. I know, it’s uncomfortable to know something Google related is running in the background, but unfortunately that’s the state of things. Some other custom ROMs have their own implementation of Google Play (See here)
Contacting others I wasn’t able to switch everybody to Signal, and for the ones I couldn’t switch you can use a burner phone, MySudo, iOS as a second device, or https://jmp.chat/ to message them. In iOS 18, iPhones will also support RCS, meaning you can contact them with Android without using SMS. Again, this sucks, but you should take care of your own privacy and let them have their own journey.
Banking apps Banking apps have been a common issue on GrapheneOS. Without specifics, I can’t comment, but I suggest reaching out to their forum at https://discuss.grapheneos.org/ for help. If that doesn’t work, use iOS as a second device for banking.
iOS-specific features Android is not a one-to-one comparison to iOS, but what it makes up for is that any features you want can be quickly added by anyone. However, because the aim of GrapheneOS is a little different, it might be a while before user experience features are added. As for the keyboard, you can replace the default keyboard with ones that suit your needs. HeliBoard is a good one, although I don’t know if it has the specific feature you described. These features may be a sacrifice you have to take, unfortunately.
Again, if GrapheneOS simply doesn’t work out for you you can always switch back to iOS. Good luck!
Most helpful comment. Thank you. I’m heavily considering carrying two phones. My biggest hurdle is the Yubikey at this point because it locks me out of my password manager and most of my more important apps.
You mention using the usb-c connection. I tried that but it doesn’t seem to register. I guess I just need to research some more.
Thanks for giving me some hope!
@brownmustardminion @Charger8232 I understand two phones one for work, one for personal, for example. But carrying two phones somehow for privacy doesn’t make sense to me, they can easily be correlated as they appear together in multiple same locations carried around together so why go to the additional work of GOS and another phone?
Just for the sake of getting used to / transitioning to a single gos phone, does it make sense to use the insecure phone as a hotspot and utilize the pixel without a sim (so data only device). I would be using e2e encrypted apps for texts and calls so this makes sense in my head.
@brownmustardminion that’s sort of the model the Calyx Institute recommends in some situations, the hotspot approach, I mean. Here’s their site with more info, but the specifics of what procedures you need to follow to maintain privacy, for example don’t use any of your phones at your own residence, seems beyond my needs/ threat model / tolerance for bother. #optout is another option. https://calyxinstitute.org/membership/internet
If you want, you can port your Bitwarden passwords over to a different password manager such as KeePassDX, which also supports security keys. I’m not sure if this is a solution you want, but it might work!