The answer to your question can be read in the release notes https://grapheneos.org/releases#2024110400

In short: GOS has a very dedicated development team that are very active in improving the AOSP code, making it more secure and more solid.
Recent history:

  • Release 20241031 was the first release of the major upgrade from Android 14 to Android 15
  • Only a few days later 20241104 comes along and the user base is presented with the first update fixing a couple of inhibiting bugs in AOSP plus some more.

It's all in the release notes for anyone to read.
I feel blessed with such commitment and dedication to provide me with the latest and safest on Android.
My previous phone was a Samsung, where OS updates and security updates came a half year late, at the fastest.

    ieure The frequency of updates varies a lot. The yearly new release of Android does result in a flurry of updates. A large fraction of those are due to bugs that Google shipped. Quarterly Android releases also generate a flurry of updates, but fewer. Between those events there are fewer updates, but never less than one per month, because that's how often Google ships security patches. Any Android distribution issuing fewer than one update per month is exposing users to known security vulnerabilities.

    App "optimization" is ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation. Regular Android uses just-in-time (JIT) compilation, but that increases attack surface, so GrapheneOS doesn't do that at present.

      ieure
      You can reduce inconvenience by setting updates to only download and install while charging, go to:
      OS settings -> System -> System Updates -> require device to be charging

          ieure All of us on the stable channel owe a debt to the intrepid volunteers who run alpha or beta to protect us from a bunch of bugs and a bunch more updates.

          Thanks, alpha and beta users! What you do really helps the GrapheneOS team improve the user experience.

            Stephan-P Only a few days later 20241104 comes along and the user base is presented with the first update fixing a couple of inhibiting bugs in AOSP plus some more.

            It also bumped the security patch level which is significant.

              I am very grateful to the devs to be so active in having the OS follow the pace of security updates and evolve in order to provide us with a more secure / more privacy-friendly device.

              it is normal the phone is updated whenever there are new patches.
              you can mitigate that if you want.. by :

              only updating on unmetered networks but never connect to unmetered networks
              only updating while changing but never charge
              disabling auto reboot and reboot when you are free so it does not happen in the middle of a call or important game or whatever.

              In my honest opinion, if u use GraoheneOS, part of it's strenght lies in updating asap when a update reaches stable...

              ieure What's with "Optimizing apps," anyway? I don't recall any other Android install doing that. I don't understand what it's doing, or why it needs to optimize the same apps as it did 2-3 days ago.

              A quick search on this forum brought this up: https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/16429-what-does-optimizing-apps-do

              An explanation as to what "Optimizing apps" is can be found here: https://nitter.poast.org/GrapheneOS/status/1845094724694073671#m

                ieure while I personally share the opinion of pretty much everyone else that's commented (I always update my phone ASAP), I'm going to offer an alternative. It's your phone, use it how you want. You think the updates are too often? Disable automatic updates and check in whenever you like.

                The best security advise is to keep your phone up to date always, but use it however you like. Realistically, even if you're one or two updates behind the rest of us, you're still better off than most.

                  If you enable 'Require device to be charging' and 'Automatic reboot' then you'll likely never see updates. Your phone will update itself while you sleep at night, assuming you charge your phone at night.

                  Viewpoint0232 Stupid question but if you enable "automatic reboot", will the alarm still go off in the morning?

                  grapheneos-enthusiast the alarm won't work if your phone is in BFU state (after reboot), that's why is not advisable to enable auto reboot if you rely on your phone for morning alarms

                  Yes it does, assuming you're using the included clock app and the owner profile to set it. Third party clocks can do it too, they just need to support direct boot. Secondary profiles are not suitable for this because they can't be started separately from the owner.

                        spring-onion

                        Thanks! Also, with automatic reboot enabled, what is meant with "automatically reboot once the device is idle"? For example, I'm using Foldersync to sync a couple of folders every night (or actually: when it's charging and connected to Wifi). Would that prevent it from rebooting because it's not "idle"? Or does idle basically just mean the screen is off and there's been no user interaction for a few minutes?

                          Adding my 2 cents:

                          GrapheneOS has 3 update channels, the "stable" channel normally gets an update roughly twice a month. I am on Beta, only Alpha updates every day.

                          You can set automatic reboots and requirements for updates, so you could totally wait to reboot once the update is installed, and then the process starts if you dont need your phon.

                          "Require the device to be charging" could be useful here.

                          GrapheneOS ships updates like they are important, unlike nearly all other Android vendors. This is great.

                          The optimization of apps after the update is (afaik) because Android apps use Java (not sure if exclusively, afaik there are rust apps) which is an interpreted language. That interpretation takes time and resources, so the apps are precompiled for your device which makes stuff smoother.

                          The playstore does this too when installing apps, but only for code pages that are used very often, afaik.

                          You dont need to restart the apps once they are precompiled. You can, but you can also totally wait until you want to.

                          The "getting hot" must be a Google Tensor thing. My 7pro got incredibly hot too, my 6a doesnt. I hope they have fixed their chips when the 6a gets EOL 🥲

                            My phone does not get hot at all while optimizing.
                            Perhaps it depends on how many apps one has, and how bloated those apps are.

                            I've never ever noticed mine being warm, with <90 apps (including stock apps) that are mostly lightweight and FOSS (minimal megacorp bloat) on a P7.