I have not any prior experience with installing custom ROMs, but after trying it out (and getting stuck, and googling and finding answers) I successfully did it. Below is my home screen if anybody is curious:
*removed externally hosted image*
I use OpenBoard for my keyboard. Unfortunately I am still dependent on Play Store since some of the apps I need can only be found there. Sometimes it feels meaningless committing to this whole thing because I'm not perfectly private; then I think this is better than using a regular iPhone or Android phone.
So far I'm liking it. I am naturally inclined to feel hesitant about using this as my main phone and plugging in a SIM since it's custom, but I'm slowly making the transition.
Feel free to share any beginners advice or your own experience using GOS for the first time. Cheers!
Aurora store is also pretty cool. You can download from there without a google account.
Even if apps you use depend on play store one of the things you can do on GrapheneOS is temporarily disable it and only turn it back on when apps refuse to run, another option is just keeping those apps in a separate work profile.
Aurora store and F-droid will be your besties, you don’t need play store unless you have purchased something.
I suggest Droid-ify over the F-Droid store for ease of use, but both work fine
You don't need Play Store if you've purchased something. I had to use a paid app for a few years and installed it through Aurora. You can install paid apps on Aurora if you log into the google account you bought it on.
Is it really a massive inconvenience? I would hardly even call it a minor inconvenience. I get a notification maybe twice per week that there are updates pending, and I just accept them in bulk. Your life must be absolutely perfect and ridiculously easy if that simple infrequent action can be classified as a massive inconvenience.
There are much more annoying things when de-googling and using graphene OS than this IMO. This hardly even registers as annoying. Not being able to use my government 2FA app or NFC payments, now that is massive inconvenience.
It's OK shitbrains, but a small action compared to nothing does not make a massive inconvenience, at best it makes a minor inconvenience.
To me I love to have control over what I update, I agree with it not being inconvenient. For other it might so it's not really necessary to be mean about it!
Unfortunately I'm experiencing the same thing :( Not too big of a deal for me to do manual updates once every two weeks or so but still an annoyance
Don't forget to change your DNS provider to something such as NextDNS for added benefits
Check out Heliboard (also on F-Droid) and follow the instructions to enable gesture typing. I also suggest Futo for on-device voice to text.
What specific apps are you using that you can't deal going away from? Other than some social media or gamr or something. Even then it seems like there are replacements a lot of the time
Have you checked out this?
https://f-droid.org/packages/com.aurora.store/
Yes. The reason I don't use Aurora is because I've heard it's instable sometimes and uses many anonymous Google accounts in order to install apps. I feel safer using my own burner account for that.
Today I learned that Vanadium has a search widget, so thanks for the post :D
It gets me wondering, I have never use a search bar widget in my life and I find them rather setting in the way.. My search bar is just 1 tap away inside Firefox, which is also on the desktop... I've not seen many people around me use it
Do people really use it?
Well I used to use it when I was still using normal Android. When I open Vanadium I get greeted with the last page I visited and I get distracted from that, so a search widget helps me.
Makes sense. Whenever I open Firefox, of opens on the (empty) homescreen where I can start typing in the URL bar right away. But everyone has got their own ways!
I recommend you use GrapheneOS as your daily driver. There's not really any reason not to. I have been for years and never had trouble.
Sorry for the noob question, but are you able to access your banking apps with GrapheneOS? If so, how?
For me, going into the app info and enabling "Exploit protection compatibility mode" worked for banking.
Most apps should work with no issues. There’s a compatibility list at https://privsec.dev/posts/android/banking-applications-compatibility-with-grapheneos/
I've used four different banking apps (admittedly banks which may not operate in your country, but they're popular enough in my country) on GrapheneOS no problems. I currently don't have a banking app installed because I don't need one and it's probably spyware. I just do my digital banking in my web browser. But if you want to install a banking app, it should work completely fine, save for notifications—a lot of proprietary apps seem to rely on Play services for notifications 🤷♀️
I have been using lots of the different private keyboards that have been out for a while but FUTO just came out with a amazing Keyboard that has better then Google Voice typing.
