I think it is too hard to go iOS -> Android and Google at the same time. People just get angry at bugs and go straight back into iOS. I see more success in a phased approach.
Discussion
* de-google.
You’re not wrong. Tried graphene and bought a new iPhone within 2 days. Still have the graphene phone as a “toy” but it won’t be a daily driver.
*Subjective* - the android keyboard and photo edit / markup workflow is horrible compared to iOS.
Google keyboard is decent and you can disable network access for it.
The actual typing experience is what I’m referring to. The Android “feature” that removes the space between 2 words when you try to backspace to correct a typo almost had me throw the whole phone away 😅
It's not an Android feature. That's one of the bugs you only see in the open-source versions because of old keyboard implementations. You have to change the keyboard from the default install to fix it.
Given I’m no Android wizard, but I’ve tried 3-5 different keyboards and they were all doing it. It’s infuriating.
And I *hate* the look of keyboards that have the gboard material design without designated key separations. Definitely couldn’t find one that worked for me.
Which keyboard fixes it?
FWIW, I'm using GrapheneOS specifically to de-Google (in the sense of them vampiring my data). I've tried all the open source keyboards and they are all unusable for me. I am running the latest version of Google's GBoard which is the best keyboard for me functionally by many miles.
The beautiful thing about Graphene is that you can install GBoard and very simply give it zero permissions; no networking, no contacts, no microphone, no photos and videos... and then you get a fully functional keyboard and none of the siphoning.
Will give this a go. It would make the device much more usable. But I probably not enough to seriously consider it as a daily driver. Its just not an enjoyable experience.
I’ve got a Linux laptop for things I want to do more privately and iOS / Mac for stuff I just want to work. I just don’t want to do the phone tinkering. Don’t like dealing with profiles and lack of notifications unless the right setting is toggled, banking app headaches, app stores that don’t work half the time, etc.
Not what I’m looking for in a primary use device.
My use-case is probably different from yours but I can 100% honestly say that Graphene works better for me as a daily driver than the stock Android on a Samsung A71 that I switched from. I only have one profile. I was expecting to have to spend a lot of time setting things up and tweaking, but it ended up being less than I feared, and since I got the phone set up and configured, it's been surprisingly stable and reliable.
I don't want to rape GrapheneOS with Google apps😁.
Anysoft keyboard is good.
This is definitely a good tip: calyx comes with a pretty good firewall. You can download Google keyboard and lock it completely.
I wrote this answer with it :)
Datura Firewall is a frontend for the leaky LineageOS network toggles. It presents options that it's not capable of providing correctly.
Packet-based firewalls are inherently leaky compared to say, the GrapheneOS Network toggle. The Network toggle disables direct socket access like a firewall but also disables indirect access via APIs requiring the INTERNET permission eliminating all known leaks via the OS.
Interesting. I'm not entirety ready to jump on graphene but will keep that in mind. Thanks for sharing
LoL AOSP's keyboard is absolutely awful. There's other options which sort this out. The best experience and arguably better than iOS's keyboard is downloading Google's keyboard and revoke all permissions.
Ok, but at least Apple pay lipservice to privacy. Google don't even pretend not to be spying on you. So for normies, I don't see any benefits.
The other bummer is how bad the none google camera app is. Can use the google camera app on GrapheneOS and still be private??
Depends what you mean by private. You can install GCam and dont give it network or location permissions etc. If your super para' install it in a profile with nothing else.
Like all photos the privacy concerns comes from the metadata, you can use a tool a to remove it before uploading to the internet.
GrapheneOS Camera has HDR+ on Pixels. It's a less aggressive variant of HDR+ than what's used by Google Camera. It captures and combines fewer frames than Google Camera tends to use at the same light level so the photos look more natural but it doesn't reduce noise as much.
GrapheneOS has the same camera features and quality as the stock Pixel OS within the same apps. It's your choice if you want to use Google Camera for the full feature set. You still have HDR+ without it. Night, Portrait, etc. will be available in GrapheneOS Camera eventually too.
GrapheneOS Camera app will have more of the features in the future too. It already has multi-camera zoom since the Pixel 4, a light form of HDR+ since the Pixel 2, HDRnet for preview since Pixel 4a, EIS, etc. HDRnet for video likely works fine everywhere it's supported too. This will come as the CameraX API evolves and as Google adds the required vendor extensions. (Samsung users can already see how full featured GrapheneOS Secure Camera is as they've already provided these for their devices.)
These should come with Android 14 for some devices and/or the Pixel 8. However, it may initially require sandboxed Google Play.
That said Google Camera with all it's features can be used without sandboxed Play Services installed and with improved privacy by disabling permissions including network. (Sensors will stil be required for orientation however.)
Thanks for info.
Is there an APK for google camera? Where do I find it? I couldn’t see in auraua store??
Set Aurora to open these links in App Info>Open by Default
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.GoogleCamera
I updated aurora to open links and it found the app but said cannot download as not compatible.. I'm on grapheneos lastest version pixel 6. Any ideas?
I uninstalled and was able to reinstall, I am using the latest nightly of Aurora.
You do not have a modded GCam installed in another user by any chance?