Switching to GrapheneOS

gokox2

Hello, I'm thinking about buying a Google Pixel phone and installing GrapheneOS on it. Got a couple questions before making the purchase:

Which phone should I acquire? I'm thinking about 7a, the price is somewhat decent compared to modern standards and It's not a big downgrade from 7, while providing very great hardware spec.
I've seen a lot of complains about notifications on GrapheneOS. What's up with that?
I need my phone to have some applications like communicators or banking app. Can I download applications from Google Play Store/FDroid and expect them to run well without issues?
Thanks in advance

ErnestThornhill

gokox2

Welcome!

https://grapheneos.org/faq#recommended-devices
I'm not sure what you mean. Can you be more specific?
A vast majority of apps will function perfectly fine. https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/8330-app-compatibility-with-grapheneos

gokox2

People complaining about notifications not being delivered and such. Is it a big problem in GrapheneOS?

matchboxbananasynergy

gokox2 It's not a problem at all. Some apps require play services for notifications, in which case, you can use sandboxed Google Play. Notifications work just fine.

gokox2

matchboxbananasynergy
Alright thanks, just wanted to be sure.
2 more questions:

Can I use my card via Google Pay?
Anything I should know before installing Graphene?

matchboxbananasynergy

gokox2 Google Pay requires that it's used on a Google-certified OS. They're blocking non-certified OSes from using it. You could use a smartwatch to use Google Play through that instead.

gokox2

matchboxbananasynergy
I see, is there any workaround? I'd hate to lose the ability to pay with my phone.

matchboxbananasynergy

gokox2 No workaround if they don't choose to allow it. Any way to spoof it is cracked down on and will cease working permanently in the future.

A smartwatch is the workaround. If another service provides what Google Pay does but didn't have this silly requirement, it'd work fine on GrapheneOS. Some banks have that.

gokox2

matchboxbananasynergy
My bank has something called "Blik contactless payments". It uses the banking app instead of Google Pay. Do you think that would work?

matchboxbananasynergy

If they also don't prevent non-Google certified OSes from using it, sure