GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple • Hacker News Board

Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#451

Post by aniviacat » Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 4:34 PM UTC

Gud wrote: post #353

Is there a great phone with high end specs this runs on? Currently have an iPhone 16 pro, and probably my next phone will be something like this. I need to be able to share photos easily with my wife, typically I’ve been using airdrop.

You can use GrapheneOS with the Google Pixel lineup, or in particular the Pixel 10 Pro XL [1].

GrapheneOS supports Android's Quick Share, which (on the Pixel 10 family) is compatible with AirDrop [2].

[1] https://grapheneos.org/faq#supported-devices

[2] https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/platforms/android...

Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#452

Post by darepublic » Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 4:36 PM UTC

So you were happy in your orchard/garden but then plenti arrived offering the forbidden fruit; android. This is the slippery slope that led us here, open rebellion against the tech patriarchy

Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#453

Post by stronglikedan » Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 4:41 PM UTC

bergheim wrote: post #105

Been using this for about a year on a p9 pro. It works very well. I hear the google tap to pay does not work, but I've never tried it. However Vipps with their tap to pay works fine. BankID works but not with biometric login, which some things require IIRC. And for some reason DnB private works fine, but you are not allowed in on the corp app. It's mind boggingly stupid that they lock down apps like this, when you ca…

> BankID works but not with biometric login

Do you use any authenticator apps such as Okta? My org requires biometrics when using Okta on my phone.

Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#454

Post by GoblinSlayer » Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 4:41 PM UTC

hparadiz wrote: post #392

sunaookami wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah that's the first thing a pentest will complain about, had the same problem too. I pushed back enough so that it's trivial to bypass but the bank and pentesters also agreed with me that it's security theater or else I would never had the chance.

I always ask them if they have root/admin on their computer. Then follow up playing dumb with "shouldn't we lock out PCs too?". Watching them stammer is worth the 30 second aside.

Locking down PCs is easy: just set a random password.

Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#455

Post by thomastjeffery » Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 4:43 PM UTC

As great as GrapheneOS has been, I'm still tempted to switch to LineageOS. Sure, it would be objectively less secure, but at least then I might be able to disable the obnoxious "automatically disabled 3 unused background apps" notifications.

The biggest problem with security culture is its obsessive hyperfocus on security. Any change that could possibly be less secure (even in extremely exclusive circumstances) must be wrong. Even if it improves accessibility, it must be rejected out of hand.

GrapheneOS promises to liberate us from the enshittification of Google's anticompetitive moat; but it focuses that effort exclusively on security. Everything else that was enshittified gets carefully preserved as-is in the name of "security".

All I want is a mobile computer that does what I tell it to. Why is that constantly treated as an unreasonable fantasy?

Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#456

Post by zackify » Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 4:43 PM UTC

As a long time iOS user, I now mainly run Graphene + GadgetBridge with a helio strap. Pretty nice and private setup.

My running watch is from a chinese company that I do not trust, so I lock down the permissions quite far. I like that Graphene lets me control the network permission and have offline maps that cannot report anything external.

Overall the most annoying thing is not being able to iMessage... I moved who I could over to signal.

Also the battery life is amazing because I keept restricting apps from background usage and the defaults already do a good job of that

Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#457

Post by fodmap » Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 4:43 PM UTC

severino wrote: post #269

fodmap wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's mind boggingly stupid that they lock down apps like this, when you can just open the thing in a website anyway. I can use my bank on some linux distro... Not in Spain. I can access my bank's website but I can't do anything without their bank app. Even sometimes they require to confirm my identity using their app in order to access their website. I have several linux phones but I can only do banking with their…

I don't know which banks you are using but in my case I work with five Spanish banks and I can do everything from their websites, no app required. Yes, they try to push you to use their app, some tried to activate mobile 2fa for me when this psd2 thing became mandatory but I always told them their app doesn't work on my phone (which is true) and they offered me alternate methods like sms.

Can you access their websites without the need to confirm 'who you are' with their app? In my case, not anymore.

My bank used to have other options but it has made mandatory the use of their app.

Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#458

Post by notpushkin » Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 4:46 PM UTC

Neil44 wrote: post #160

bergheim wrote: post #105

Been using this for about a year on a p9 pro. It works very well. I hear the google tap to pay does not work, but I've never tried it. However Vipps with their tap to pay works fine. BankID works but not with biometric login, which some things require IIRC. And for some reason DnB private works fine, but you are not allowed in on the corp app. It's mind boggingly stupid that they lock down apps like this, when you ca…

Same with Lineage OS, may daughter has an old Samsung with Lineage on it and the Wallet app doesn't work because the phone's been rooted.

Wallet app is still impossible to get working, but there’s been some development recently: https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/issues/361

Some other apps are often willing to accept my current setup (Lineage for microG [0], plus Magisk, if you don’t need root – Magisk Hide does some magic I don’t really understand, but even without Play Integrity passing, apps just start working).

With more tweaks, you might be able to get Play Integrity to work to some extent, but it’s hit or miss. I’ve just stopped using apps that demand it.

[0]: https://lineage.microg.org/

Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#459

Post by cbeach » Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 4:46 PM UTC

The article is a wall of text with not a single screenshot.

And I couldn't easily find a link to a page that summarised GrapheneOS with some images so I could see how polished it looked.

This is one of the reasons why OSS fails to gain mainstream appeal (as much as I want it to)

Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#460

Post by codethief » Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 4:46 PM UTC

blahaj wrote: post #333

codethief wrote: post #154

I've used GrapheneOS on a Pixel 3a, 5, 8 and 10 Pro so far and it's worked really well. I couldn't imagine going back. The only things I'm missing (which don't exist in other OS'es either): - Being able to configure contact scopes in such a way that the app in question only gets access to the phone numbers of the contacts belonging to the label I specified, e.g. "WhatsApp", nothing more. Yes, one can of course add co…

You can use labels for contact scope.

You might want to read my comment again. :) If you use labels, the app will have full access to the associated contacts, not just to their names & phone numbers.