The web browser is what lets this OS down.

greenstumps

No third party browsers will install, they all say they do not work and the browser that comes with the OS has no extension support, you cannot even install chrome extensions. I switched from iPhone that has content blockers built into the OS and hiding cookie notifications. However I cannot live without those two things at least as the internet is so broken with ads ruining every website experience and slowing the page loading down. Every site asking about cookies, why is there no auto setting I dunno? However thankfully other browsers have extensions to block and IOS has it all built in.

Without the ability to get a better browser, I'm going back to IOS.

Volen

greenstumps

You can install pretty much every web browser just like in stock OS. I am using Brave right now, it has a blocklist and cookie consent blocker. You can install other browsers, for example, Firefox and install uBlock origin add-on.

You can install web browsers either from F-Droid or Aurora Droid (Google Play Store).

Can you describe the steps you are doing to install web browsers and what error message you get?

matchboxbananasynergy

greenstumps No third party browsers will install, they all say they do not work

Hi there. That doesn't sound expected at all. Could you walk us through your process of obtaining your browser and exactly where you're hitting a roadblock?

By the way, even with Vanadium, you can block ads by using an ad-blocking DNS, as documented here:

https://grapheneos.org/faq#ad-blocking

Vanadium eventually plans to add content filtering and other features.

If you need an all-in-one solution that does adblocking etc. in the way that you're used to, I would personally recommend Brave (which works fine on GrapheneOS, of course).

greenstumps

That Brave browser installed, everything else said it doesn't support the OS. I'll see how it works out but it stops cookie notices and ads so far, if I can work out how to play Youtube videos with the screen off with it like on IOS then it'll be perfect.

I honestly do not understand people who try to shame you for blocking ads. I've used the internet for the first time today in years without an ad blocker and it's broken. So many sites just have about 500 ads everywhere, even big sites like IGN. It slows the site down so much that scrolling becomes impossible. Channel 4 makes it so you have to be actively looking at the ad or the ad pauses, which that is a scary future if it becomes a thing.

matchboxbananasynergy

greenstumps if I can work out how to play Youtube videos with the screen off with it like on IOS then it'll be perfect.

Settings > Turn on "Background video playback"

That should do it.

greenstumps everything else said it doesn't support the OS

Which browsers were that? Where did you download them from? Can you show us screenshots of exactly what you see? What Pixel is this on?

greenstumps

matchboxbananasynergy Just download the APKs from that APK Pure website, Firefox, Ghostery and the ad blocker browsers all said the same thing. I'll upload a photo later as I'm not using the phone on here and I'm trying to work out how Android works. Using a Pixel 5, I bought it very cheaply just to try out the OS after seeing that Louis Rossman video.

It would be nice to add an option to hide the gesture bar thing at the bottom. IOS has that thing as well and it always burns into the screen after a couple years. I would like to hide the clock and signal icons at the top as well and just have them as a swipe down feature. I do not know why those things even exist, I can tell how much signal I have if it's slow or not and I have a watch that tells me the time.

I just hope my banking apps work, if they hate the OS then it'll be impossible to sell the iPhone.

matchboxbananasynergy

greenstumps Just download the APKs from that APK Pure website, Firefox, Ghostery and the ad blocker browsers all said the same thing.

It sounds like APKPure is doing something weird with those APKs. I just tried downloading Firefox off of APKPure and sure enough, I got an "app not installed as app isn't compatible with your phone." error.

In general, I wouldn't trust APKs from random sources like that. For apps that are in the Play Store, I would recommend using the Play Store itself if you're using or are okay with using Sandboxed Google Play, or Aurora Store if you don't have a Google account of your own.

This doesn't seem like a GrapheneOS-specific issue, but rather an issue with APKPure.

greenstumps I just hope my banking apps work, if they hate the OS then it'll be impossible to sell the iPhone.

Feel free to take a look at this community-maintained list of banking apps to see if yours is there. Keep in mind that it not being there doesn't mean it won't work. This list is not exhaustive, but rather meant to help people determine if theirs will work quickly.

https://privsec.dev/posts/android/banking-applications-compatibility-with-grapheneos/