I wanted to share an interesting statistic with you. Approximately 1 out of every 25 people with a Google Pixel phone is running GrapheneOS right now. While it’s difficult to get an exact number, we can make educated guesses to get an approximate number.
How many GrapheneOS users are there? According to an estimate released by GrapheneOS today, the number of GrapheneOS devices is approaching 400,000. This estimate is based on the number of devices that downloaded recent GrapheneOS updates. Some users may have multiple devices, such as organizations, and some users may download and flash updates externally, but it’s the best estimate we have.
How many Google Pixel users are there? Despite Google’s extensive data collection, this one is surprisingly harder to estimate, since Google hasn’t released an exact number. There’s a number floating around that Google has 4-5% of the smartphone market, which is between 10 million and 13.2 million users in the United States. I can’t find the source of where this information came from. That number is problematic, too, because Japan supposedly uses more Google Pixel phones than the United States. The Pixel 9 series was also a big jump in market share for Google. I couldn’t find any numbers smaller than 10 million, and it made the math nice, so that is what I went with.
Putting the numbers together, it means that 4% of Google Pixel users are running GrapheneOS. That means in a room of 25 Google Pixel users, 1 of them will be a GrapheneOS user. If you include all custom Android operating systems, that number would certainly be much, much higher.
To put it into perspective, each pixel in this image represents ~5 Google Pixel users. Each white pixel represents that those ~5 people use GrapheneOS:
Even with generous estimates to Google’s market share, GrapheneOS still makes up a large portion of their users.
That image is a horrible way to represent any ratio. I love it!
I actually do like it. I don’t see it as trying to show an actually accurate ratio, or for you to be able to make an informed decisions from it. I read it as a vibe check, just a quick “what would a room fu LLM of pixel users” look like.
Hello fellow criminals, anyone get up to any good crime lately?
Nice try FBI
I didn’t do the legally mandated number of "Hail Corporate!"s yesterday.
Just doing my best to avoid surveillance capitalism and government surveillance. Is that illegal yet?
LTT beat you to the joke.
Maybe This Phone ISN’T Just for Criminals - Trying Graphene OS for a Month.
LTT did not make that joke though? He also copied it.
That is in fact the reference
Who cares about toxic LTT?
Google sold 40 million Pixels between 2016 and 2023, and that number has grown rapidly in the last few years. I think an estimate of around 40 million active Pixel phones is reasonable, which would give GrapheneOS a relative market share of 1%; certainly less than 2%.
I’m certain that most people between 2016 and 2023 bought multiple devices to upgrade old ones.
I’m on, I think, my 3rd Pixel. All of them were chosen because of the possibility of putting a third-party firmware on them, but my current one is the first I’ve actually done it to.
One one hand, a superior ROM choice
On the other hand, subpar crappy Google hardware
c/dataisbeautiful :P
I had no idea the share was so large.
Hi, Google Pixel user here, wtf is GrapheneOS? And why should I get it?
essentially grapheneOs is just plain android, with additional security features/ hardening. It is said to be the most secure (normal) Os in the world.
And one of the nicest feature in my opinion is, that all the google stuff is optional. So play store and play service is just another app. (Instead of a system level privileged process)
And in my opinion, it is just the better operating system.
https://grapheneos.org/features
I think you, the question should be “why should i not get it” and the answer to this is if, you either need NFC payment (does not work (depending on bank)), or you dont want an app to ever not work, because some apps dont work on it (google play integrety check is the reason)
And it should be mentioned, that grapheneOs has one of the best web installer out there, it is easier to install then any linux distro. It was a dream really.
(and for switching the data transfer might be annoying)
GrapheneOS is a privacy and security focused operating system for your phone, based on Android. It provides much more security than stock Android. If you want a more private or secure device, then GrapheneOS is the go-to recommendation for Pixel devices.
It’s barbones Android, without the Google. You can add the Google stuff if you want, but by default, it comes completely de-Googled.
It also comes with some extra features, like granular app-level permissions, sandboxed Google Play Services (which a lotta apps use), duress PIN, and more.
Widely regarded as the safest and most private “commercial” mobile operating system.
Disclaimer: I run SwapMyOS, a GrapheneOS/custom ROM installation service.
The lead Dev of graphene has a very bad history. Just Google Daniel Micay
I recommend avoiding it.
You shouldn’t. Its a project from a mentally ill person who can’t be trusted.
How is everybody stupid enough to follow murena and calyx’s propaganda. Graphene is years ahead of them in terms of security, that’s why they want to get rid of them to sell you a subpar, less open product (edit: actually sell, they sell preinstalled phones). And fuck you, autistics aren’t mentally ill.
You swallowed the kool-aid.
And I’m autistic, but not an asshole like you and Daniel.
deleted by creator
Yeah 4% is big enough to get on Google’s radar as a threat. Especially if it’s trending upwards.
This is more than just a few tinfoil hats now.
And yes they’re working on locking bootloaders and also making AOSP less useful
Is there a theydidthemath lemmy community lol I’d like to be one of those reddit posters who link communities because funny lol
One of my ideas for increasing GrapheneOS market share is to market GOS as the minimalist phone so many crave.
In recent times, I’ve stumbled across a handful of articles about how dumbphones are back, and how people crave more minimalist phones to curb smartphone addiction or otherwise.
GrapheneOS is a great minimalist phone that’s still “smart,” yet secure and private.
GOS is a way better option than dumbphones because:
- Chances are you’ll need some sort of smartphone functionality. For example: Digital “live” tickets that you can’t screenshot and need to be opened on your phone directly (Ticketmaster, MLB, etc.)
- Using a dumbphone reverts you to older technologies and protocols, like cell towers and SMS. These are inherently insecure and shouldn’t be used anymore. So even though you might “feel” like you’re better off, your communications (text, audio, video) take a huge leap backwards in terms of privacy and security.
And none of them are Linus from Tech Tips. :P
And remember that some of those black areas are other oses and not just only normal pixel phones, what a win for alt OSs
Isn’t it a bit schitzoid to use an os designed to escape google on a google phone??
GrapheneOS is popular with degoogling, but that’s not its primary goal. If there is a tradeoff between independence from Google and security, they will always choose to increase security.
GrapheneOS is also probably the only custom rom that cooperates with Google to get access to vulnerabilities and patches before the embargo is lifted.
If you want to be completely independent from Google, GrapheneOS is not what you’re looking for. Its it’s a security focused os that also has some degoogling features, not the other way around.
You are right.
I suppose I am a little bit frustrated with the fact that there are 4,9 billion smartphone users and yet 0,5% chance of having a non-US integrated phone. If someone had said that will be the future in 2007, I think most everybody would have thought it preposterous.
Sounds like you want a Fairphone.
I’m worried for “us” not for me :D
Currently, only the Pixel hardware has all the hardware security features GrapheneOS wants. They could support other devices, but then they would have to compromise on security, which is something they don’t want to do. A while ago it was reported that they were looking to partner up with another manufacturer, but I haven’t heard anything about that since.
No other hardware offers the required security hardware features. At the moment, the developers are working to support a model from another, undisclosed vendor.
So you get privacy from individuals while signing up to a company provenly offering back doors to government. It makes sense in the way that govenrment is not going to empty your bank account for sure. But I would call that safety and not privacy.
You don’t need to sign up for any service if you install GOS on Pixel hardware.
The back door can be made in the hardware
Insist on open auditable hardware then.
It seems like the last breaths of the “do no evil” mantra. Your other options are like Fairphone or the yet to be released Hiroh phone with /e/os which is another flavor of degoogled android.
At the moment Pixel phones are the easiest for people in the US market to degoogle
Thanks for the clarification!
Somehow I am not surprised that the only phone able to use software not made by google is a phone made by google. Or, of course, you can buy iPhone and comply with NSA that way.
I am going to take a lucky guess and say this is by design and not by accident.
I’m not sure what the exact reason is. I would guess the people within Google running the Pixel program still have the freedom to make the phones like that. I don’t think it will last forever, especially if people start adopting degoogled phone operating systems at scale.
