Got a new android phone and am thinking about starting fresh and running graphine.
Before I do this, what do I need to know?
Discussion
Nothing, you can learn as you go
I'm sure others will have tips though, bunch of fucking topic discussers
1st you need a Pixel Phone
2nd it needs to be unlocked
it has to be a Google phone. no others have a secure bootloader and therefore won't work.
other than that, the webinstaller for GraphineOS is a cake walk.
you can get around the GPlay store with Aurora, mostly...
🤙✔️💫
GrapheneOS is the way to go.
Choose a privacy preserving browser like Brave, get a VPN (Proton Mullvad, nostrich one's payable in SATs/whatever), install Tor, then start saving and exporting all your app settings on a USB key.
Keyboard: Futo. Zapstore & Obtainium for the good stuff, maybe F-Droid as a fallback. Play Store without Google Account: Aurora Store.
CalyxOS is also really good.
Get familiar with F-droid, ZapStore, Aurora, and Obtainium for package management. Use only open source, private keyboard programs. Isolate your corporate world from your crypto sovereign world on there. Graphene has great sandboxing and security features for that.
Calyx is having some weird dev stuff happening, and may not get updates for months. Be careful.
https://calyxos.org/news/2025/08/01/a-letter-to-our-community/
Great now I have to make ANOTHER backup phone setup?
Worth it.
I've been using custom roms since Android 4, cyanogen, lineage, etc. The only one I consider now is Graphene.
What makes Graphene more trustworthy than Calyx? Is it because the lead developer is an obsessed autist? I mean that is usually a good sign 😂
Is it that Calyx depends too much on corporate code?
Does seedvault offer an easy transition to Graphene?
- Ease of install and use.
- Consistent updates.
- Great community on the forums.
- It has a long history of being secure and stable.
- It consistently performs the best vs Cellebrite.
- Their security patches regularly get accepted upstream into Android main.
- Doesn't rely on weird 3rd party stuff for Google access, instead sandboxes Google Play.
I like weird 3rd party Google replacements but other than that, pretty solid. I'm gonna distro hop and see what I like best. Looks like I need to use Graphene for a while anyway because of the Calyx thing going on. Thanks!
+1
when I ran it i found:
-installation is really easy
-battery life was better without all the tracking on from google services
-privacy is still a rabbit hole (consider running two profiles on the same phone) and you will have to define just how private you want to be
-this was 2 years ago and most apps worked out of the box, however somethings dox you pretty hard if you're using it
Some apps don't play nice. My bank app sort of works but transfers don't work for some reason. Using web apps is usually the work around.
Just get started! It's awesome. I've been using it for years. Even my wife and she barely realizes she's using it. Now if only I could get my kids to, but all their friends are in apple gulag
Obtainium is great. Update straight from GitHub.
https://github.com/imranr98/obtainium
nostr:npub10r8xl2njyepcw2zwv3a6dyufj4e4ajx86hz6v4ehu4gnpupxxp7stjt2p8 too
Graphene + download nostr:npub10r8xl2njyepcw2zwv3a6dyufj4e4ajx86hz6v4ehu4gnpupxxp7stjt2p8 at https://zapstore.dev/download to get started fast. Lmk if you have any issues.
Know how you will use your profile(s) and if you'll be using a non-Google profile, be aware of which apps will and won't work in it.
A lot of apps rely on Google play services that you wouldn't think would. Additionally, decide which profile to use with your SIM. If you're in your non-SIM profile, you will not receive calls/messages to that profile, nor be notified.
ChatGPT did a great job of breaking down my apps and how well they work without Google. Just tell it you'll be using Graphene, your profiles, and which apps you use and which profiles you want to use it in.
Know that my 17 year old daughter has been using it for 3 years with no major complaints.
Refrain from being a little bitch, freedom isn't always convenient.
🤙🫂
It's easy peasy. The main thing is whether you can live without the play store and services, but they allow you to run them sandboxed if you want. The default messaging app is dog shit but who tell people who want to use SMS to fuck off 😂
I'm in the process of trying to solve this too, apparently you can only do this with a google Pixel phone
If you're not in a rush to do this, I'm trying to buy a Pixel phone from my network provider, but their customer service is slow. Once I decide which phone I'm getting, I can make some videos of me trying to set it up. There's a good chance I might break it, knowing me, which could make for interesting videos. I've been told it's straightforward, but that advice came from someone super smart.
1) hopefully you got a pixel
2) biggest thing you're losing from stock android is NFC payments
3) if an app isn't working, turn this setting on 
4) the default keyboard sucks. Get Gboard (turn off network and other permissions if you are concerned about privacy implications)
5) backups are different from normal Apple/Android. 12 word seed phrase + a file. Keep em secure enough and accessible enough.
6) if you find location services are really slow, turn on the GrapheneOS proxy 
what do people use for maps and navigation?