Hi,

do you have every heard of GrapheneOS? If no, then read this ;)

What is GrapheneOS?

GrapheneOS is an alternative OS for your phone. It focus lies on privacy. Since Android is from Google and Google knows everything about you, sells this information to big companies and makes big money, while you receive nothing but more advertisements which are based on your preferences. GrapheneOS looks the same like Android. It's a open source distro, like Android and is based on it. For that it looks the same. You will not have big differences, but more features like PIN Scrambling, which means when you want to unlock your phone the numbers on the number pad are on a random position. This prevents shoulder spying.

How to install GrapheneOS?

I don't want to cover the installation process since it's very easy and there are a lot of tutorials on YouTube.

Why i choose GrapheneOS?

First of all for the enhanced privacy, but also because i find it unfair, that big companies like Google steal all your data, sold it, make big money and you will never see a single cent. And also because i like to modify my gadgets :D

What are the disadvantages of GrapheneOS?

Well unfortunately i must speak about the disadvantages, because nothing is perfect...

• First of all it isn't available for every smartphone - only for the Google Pixels. And yea, i know that contradicts. So why a phone of Google? Because it has the best hardware security.
• The biggest disadvantage is the camera. Unfortunately the pre-installed camera is worlds away from the original Google-Camera. You can download other cameras, but they aren't that good like that from Google. You can also install the Google-Camera if you want. But that needs a workaround since the Google-Camera needs the Google Play Service. So you must install microG on your phone and it will work.
• Not every app works on GrapheneOS. There are some Playstores available like F-Droid Which is free and open source software and there is the Aurora-Store, which you can download from F-Droid. With Aurora-Store you get the same apps like the Google Playstore, but you don't need an Google-Account. You can login anonymous. But again, not every app is working with GrapheneOS since some need the Google Play Service... But important apps like Whatsapp are working on it (even if once in a while i don't get a notification of new messages, but that's rare).

But besides that three disadvantages it works fine.

Which apps are recommended?

• F-Droid: A simple playstore to download free and open source software
• Aurora-Store: Another playstore with apps from the Google Playstore (eg. Whatsapp)
• NewPipe: An app for YouTube, Soundcloud and more, all in one. There is no advertisement and you can watch in the background. You can even close the app and the music is still playing
• Shelter: A virtual machine on your smartphone. You can't choose the distro, it's still the distro which is installed on your phone, but all the apps there are sheltered from the rest of your smartphone. It's very simple to use.
• Telegram FOSS: It's the Free Open Source Software of the messenger Telegram.

How is it to live with GrapheneOS?

It's really nice! I got a bit of my privacy back, without having to deal with a complete new operating system. I can install all the apps i need and they are working. If not, i can download the microG app and make them work. I'm really happy that i use GrapheneOS, since Google doesn't get money with my interests, while i earn nothing (it's really a point that disturbs me).

If you are interested, here is the official site of GrapheneOS