I took the jump and installed GrapheneOS on my Pixel 9 this weekend. Easiest alternate OS load I’ve ever done, didn’t even need to see a command line. (I’ve put LineageOS on many a phone and GrapheneOS’s web-based installer is amazing).
Loving it so far. I have three profiles, the main ‘Owner’ with NO google services/app store at all; and two more ‘Personal’ and ‘Work’ profiles that have Google stuff that I alone chose to install.
Amazingly GrapheneOS even lets you deny Google App Store itself permissions to install from untrusted sources (in this case, Google App Store itself) – I was suprised to see installing just App Store triggered attempts to then load: My Pixel, Google Photos, Fitbit(!!? WTF), and a few others, without any confirmation first. Was able to shut that shit down immediately. (I had never, ever installed Fitbit on my previous phones, so there’s no excuse to install it “from my previous device” or whatever…)
I hope GrapheneOS spreads to other phone models. And I’m sure Google has a team planning on how to strangle it before it does…
How does it deal with banking apps? What about camera apps? How is the camera workings with other camera apps?
I am US-based. I have a handful of credit card apps, and a few banking / investment apps - all of them in my experience have worked fine. ONE of them required me to toggle a GrapheneOS option that enables you to exempt certain apps from some of Graphenes more hardened safety measures.
“Exploit Protection Compatibility Mode” is the toggle which can be flipped per-app, and is very easy to access so you can quickly troubleshoot whether that’s related to any app troubles or not.
Similar to the other comment, I also use Pixel Camera by downloading the Google pixel cam APK and installing. I’ve removed all permissions from the camera (and photos) app besides to the camera lense itself, and file permissions of course. You can even use Pixel Cam’s hefty features like unblur, erase me, etc. - though certain ones require you to temporarily give network access to the camera app so that it can reach out and download necessary packages. Once done, you can remove network permissions and the downloaded function will remain functional.
I haven’t yet tried – planning to do that in the next day or so when I get the time.
Others already replied with promising results, I sure hope they work for me as well (Scotiabank in Canada is particularly annoying in this respect in my experience, with LineageOS I had to use Magisk and define stealth rules specifically for their banking app).
Edit: As for camera, I’ve only tried the GrapheneOS builtin/default camera app. It’s pretty basic, but I should see if I can get the Pixel9 official camera app on there, it would be nicer to use if possible but the basic one is probably good enough for my purposes.
I haven’t had problems with Canadian banking apps, and I use 3 of them. Sadly, my favourite budgeting app doesn’t work with Graphene OS. I use it every day (and have paid for lifetime premium access), so it was unfortunately a pretty big issue. But I love what they do. A cause worth donating to.
80% of them works. rest has real devs. they should have a bank and government app list in their forums.
There is a reason quartebacks don’t return kicks and linebackers dont play wide receiver. They followed their natural genetic build and skillset to become the best at what they are built to do.
Samsung has been a fuckin train wreck with every single piece of fuckin software they touch. They used to make amazing hardware products and I was their #1 fan 20 years ago. Then they started embedding software in every cunthole they can shove their tiny dicks into.
First I stopped buying their TV because the volume button on the remotes hat an embedded feature that when pressed down/in instead of up or down (like the sticks on video game contorll3rs) it backed you out of fuckin everything and launched the fuckin atrocious built in samsung broadcasted tv. Signed into hulu/netflix/disney/xbox/fuck even if your just listening to music and the tv is on sleep mode… NOPE FUCK YOU AND FUCK WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING WERE SIGNING YOU OUT OF FUCKIN EVERYTHING AND BUTTFUCKING OUR BROADCAST SERVICE OF CHANNELS CABLE COMPANIES CANT EVEN MAKE A DIME FROM. Not cable, not anything you plug in or choose. No it takes you to a tv service which broadcasts only shows that noone will pay to watch.
Then it was laptops but i dont remember why it might of just been residual pissed off-ness from the TV.
Now about to be my fuckin ZFold-5 that AGAIN is the best piece of mobile hardware ive ever owned. Indestructible, blazing fast processing power that is only slower than my blazing fast typing speed with full qwerty keyboards like the good Ole cellphone days, beautiful display, beautiful cameras. It really is my favorite thing that someone else has ever ruined.
They just facefuck shitty software onto of shitty software into everything they can. I MEAN PERFECT EXAMPLE AND TIME TO STOP WAS WHEN EVERYONE SAID FUCK YOU TO THEM MAKING FUCKBOOK A BUILT IN APP. Fuck samsung right in their fucking fuck hole.
This was a super fun, and colorful read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Hahahaha
Not to mention that I agree with everything said.
I like how he rages himself into a stroke in the first sentence of the last paragraph.
Wow, I can really feel the emotion, all that rage.
I once saw someone get an ad for the new phone as a notification on their current one. They had never had a notification from Samsung like that before. At that point I knew they would build in advertising for all their other products in to the products.
I have never bought a Samsung device since. Some people I know live them, but it put me off so much.
I had an A5 a while back and samsung didn’t make me hate them so the next phone I got was an s10. On that phone, they decided that they needed to dedicate a physical button to their fucking virtual assistant bixby. It was pretty obvious to me that these virtual assistants were mostly actually data vacuums, wanting to integrate into every aspect of your life so they can access better data on all those aspects.
Every single time it opened that fucking thing, it was unintentional. It wasn’t as annoying as your TV, since I bet the phone was way faster and had enough memory to not have to discard whatever else you were doing just to open its app, but it exemplifies how I see samsung today. Hardware had great specs but the software made it annoying by trying to lock everything in to their ecosystem without a hard lock like apple. Even MS had ways of disabling the windows button (which used to have a high chance of crashing a game if you accidentally hit it).
Yeah, I’m angry at them too.
Now tell us how you really feel… actually, maybe don’t. :) (so you don’t get banned. Lol)
This, normally, is where I Sssssssssssssssssssssssssssstaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrttttttttttt inhaling deeply, while glaring maniacally down my nose at my audience of toddler aged nieces and nephews all taking cover from th3 eruption they knows coming🤓🤯🤠🫤😨🥹😱
But naaaaaaaa this is the waaay more laid mat me who only twitches their eyelids while grinding my teeth when someone tells me to simmer down🤣
Edit: seeeeeeeee i was guna Edit the typos out of my reply but I decided fuck it, not laid back me, no way ill tell you. So now my toilet seat is covered in pee cuz this was a two handed edit on the zfold’s big qwerty keyboards while playing piss accuracy by ear.
I do look forward to the day that I can have a phone that unfolds into a tablet size. I have two devices because my old ass has trouble reading and typing on a phone. But that is going to take an extra dimension of folding.
I agree with what you said outside of their flagship smartphones. My Fold3 was fantastic all the up till the point I traded it in for a Fold6 so if you don’t mind, could you explain what they did to your Fold5 because I don’t see any example mentioned of how they managed to ruin it over time?
I’m a pretty big fan of using fuck, but holy fuck, that was a lot. I wonder why you feel that passionately about it?
I deleted my Samsung account when an update about 6 months ago came along that basically wanted ALL your personal data so you could use AI for photo search, etc. Then I found out about all the other minor things they insist you have an account to use. So, yeah, Fuck Samsung! Now I need to find a phone I can live with to replace it when it stops working.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Israel, again, is pushing for this :
The software in question, AppCloud, developed by the mobile analytics firm IronSource, has been embedded in devices sold primarily in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
Huh, Unity owns IronSource.
Of course. It’s a zionist company.
Great quote. It’s laughable how this bullshit article dances around this.
Don’t buy any Samsung devices, got it.
But what options are there for non tech savvy people. Apple isn’t any better.
I’ve got a Motorola, it probably still has spyware but at least it’s cheap, durable, and has a decent battery.
OnePlus, Pixel, Sony, Sharp.
Pixel? By google? I can’t imagine they aren’t collecting a ton of data on users. It’s thier whole business model. I don’t know about the others, but by including the pixel I am dubious if the others are any better than samsung.
Pixels are just bad hardware. 3 models got software updates that destroy battery life and more issues. No DAC ever worked properly on my 6a. They did gave me $100 for replacing the battery but I bought an s25. The Samsung has great hardware, software is less good than the pixel.
When my Graphene’d Pixel 7 goes out of support I’m switching to something Linux based even if I have to get a Raspberry Pi and a case and carry around a brick. My handbag’s big enough.
I REALLY wanted to do a pi phone, and while it’s very possible to make a working phone/tablet out of one, their power consumption is absolutely awful. Most of the linux capable SBC’s can’t do low power.
I want an 8" linux touch screen with 18h of moderate usage batter life, I’m even willing to carry around a separate 4g access point.
Furi’s FLX1s seems like a valid alternative.
This is Israeli spyware.
They own you.
First sentence:
Samsung has been accused of shipping budget Galaxy A and M series smartphones with pre-installed spyware that users can’t easily remove.
So unremovable in the sense that it can be removed.
also from the article:
Even more concerning, attempts to uninstall it often fail due to its deep integration into Samsung’s One UI operating system.
Reports indicate the app reactivates automatically following software updates or factory resets, making it virtually unremovable for average users.
but i do agree that “virtually unremovable” and “unremovable” are two very different things. and im not even sure i would classify this as “virtually unremovable”
Zionist Spyware
Funny how they never mention where this comes from… The bullshit propaganda is strong in this article.
TIL Unity owns ironsource.
The software in question, AppCloud, developed by the mobile analytics firm IronSource, has been embedded in devices sold primarily in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
So if you’re not in the Middle East. You’re good. Still not going to buy any Samsung devices.
With the past decades or so a phone has become a standard piece of equipment where it’s virtually used everywhere, anytime. It is a complete disaster that those standards are not applied to what’s deemed under the hood - all these companies are deemed to do anything they want to because nothing is standard.
Look where that got us - a duopoly where going against them is deemed “inescapable”. It is disappointing how we even let this happen in the first place, the capitalists and fascists basically own us because of it.
All that got us is a standard thing tacked together by mystery tape and glue - hardware & software. Open source software and standards have barely any say here just because the fascists in rule decided so.
I have yet to purchase a Samsung mobile phone and I will do my best to keep it that way.
I hate galaxy phones, they’re build quality is so shitty and the prices are higher than a google pixel. Now they come with Israeli spyware? What other phones have spyware that I should know about?
I can’t imagine the pixel is much better. I think the question you have should be inverted. What doesn’t have spyware…
Hello from GrapheneOS 👋
Tech savvy Lemmings don’t need SwapMyOS, but for more non-technical folk, it’s there just in case by demand.
AMA.
I wish I could install GrapheneOS on my Samsung… fuck it. I cannot wait for this shit to be paid off and I can get a GrapheneOS compatible phone.
Fuck Samsung to hell.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but GrapheneOS is designed to prevent users from gaining root (admin) privileges. Consequently, even if the device is compromised, you will never be aware of it. I don’t care about the moronic reasons behind this; this is my device, and it should be under my control.
I really dont know what you mean. I rooted my samsung s23 and I can turn the sensors off.
FWIW, GrapheneOS is in talks with phone manufacturers to also reduce/remove reliance on Google Pixels.
Also: You can technically put GOS on some non-Pixel devices, but it’s not officially supported (and thus not recommended). Just FYI.
I heard about Cape, a phone provider that is privacy focused and will soon be entering the consumer market. I will probably switch to them.
For one thing. Their geolocation is deliberately imprecise, meaning instead of pinning you down to a few meters (or even centimeters) they put you in a broad range around the towers, meaning your stated location could be far away from actual location.
Remember when Apple was the bad guy?
There can be more than one bad guy.
if you really believe Tim Apple isn’t doing the same shit only a Little bit smarter so its les obvious then I’m sorry to wake you from your dream but:
All big tech is bad. Apple. Microsoft. Oracle. Meta. Snap. IBM. Digital Ocean. Amazon. Etc.
There are no good guys. Only bad and worse. Its not the good, the bad and the ugly. It’s the bad (Apple), the really bad (Microsoft and most of the rest) and the obnoxiously bad. (Special place in hell for Meta, TikTok and Google)
I’ll believe it when the proof is as strong as what Google is doing. I don’t base my anger on assumptions.
Cloudflare down
