Lafiyafi
I'm not a GrapheneOS user right now, but I'd love to become one. The biggest thing keeping me from switching is the concern in loss of camera quality.
If the loss of camera quality is what's keeping you from switching to GrapheneOS, I‘d say: Welcome and have fun with GrapheneOS, you won't regret it!
My recommendation (since you seem to really appreciate the Pixel camera and its results) would be:
- install sandboxed Google Play (apparently not even necessary for the Pixel Camera)
- create a (throwaway) Google account
- install Pixel Camera (aka Google Camera) and Google Photos (for editing) from Google Play Store
- enjoy taking and editing photos exactly the way you did before
I wanted to link you to a few discussions (f.e. here) that list exactly which Pixel Camera and Google Photos features work on GrapheneOS quickly realizing that there’s a lot of not incorrect but aged information out there, so i decided to test everything myself again.
Before going into details, one suggestion:
I would highly encourage you to compare image results of GrapheneOS Camera and Pixel Camera to make up your own mind.
In terms of features GrapheneOS camera can't quite compete with the Pixel Camera – but - for not being a privacy- and security-related feature - GrapheneOS developers seem to invest quite some effort into the camera app with the outcome that - under good lighting conditions - GrapheneOS camera produces quality image results with a very natural look and feel.
Some planed improvements:
We aim to reduce the benefits of Pixel Camera compared to GrapheneOS Camera over time, especially on Pixels. Many features of Pixel Camera will end up being available for GrapheneOS Camera in the next year or so via CameraX extensions including more aggressive HDR+, Night Sight and Portrait. Video features such as slow motion and time lapse are likely further away than within the next year. These video features could potentially be provided via CameraX vendor extensions or could be implemented via our own post-processing of the video output. Panorama, Photo Sphere, Astrophotography, Motion Photos, Frequent Faces, Dual Exposure Controls, Google Lens, etc. aren't on the roadmap for GrapheneOS Camera. Video frame rate configuration and H.265 support should be available for GrapheneOS Camera in the near future via CameraX improvements along with DNG (RAW) support in the further future.
source: https://grapheneos.org/usage#pixel-camera
Ok, back to testing:
My setup:
Pixel 9 Pro, build 2025080600
Pixel Camera (version 9.9.106.773153235.19)
Google Photos (version 7.39.0.787784983)
Both apps installed via sandboxed Google Play Store in Private Space with network permission revoked (App info> Permissions> Network> Don't allow).
TL;DR
Almost all Pixel Camera and Google Photos editing features seem to work fine, a few require network access.
(I omitted mentioning obvious features such as aspect ratio and camera sounds so that the overview would become less cluttered).
Pixel Camera
works
Photo
- Action Pan
- Long Exposure
- Add Me
- Portrait
- Night Sight
- Panorama
Photo settings (general)
- Night Sight
- Top Shot
- Timer
- Macro Focus
- Camera Scan suggestions
- Palm Timer
- Guided Frame
- Framing Hints
Photo settings (Pro)
- High Res photo (50MP)
- Raw + JPEG
- Lens selection
Video
- Pan
- Blur
- Night Sight
- Slow Motion
- TimeLapse
Video settings
- Resolution (4K up to 60 FPS)
- 10-bit HDR (up to 4K 30FPS)
- Macro Focus
- Speech Enhancement
- Audio zoom
- Speech Enhancement
- Video stabilization
- Store videos efficiently (H.265/HEVC)
- Storage Saver (changes some settings that use large amounts of storage, reduces video quality, for example)
does not work
not tested
- Frequent Faces
- Google Lens (additional app required)
- 8K Video Boost (requires internet connection, wants to upload video)
- Save location (didn't want to share my location with Google)
Google Photos
works
- Enhance
- Dynamic
- Crop
- Unblur
- Best take
- Portrait blur
- Pop
- Sharpen
- Denoise
- Markup
- Filter
- Sky styles
- Portrait light
- Brightness, tone, shadows, tint, saturation and all that stuff
does not work
- Zoom enhance (works but crashes saving)
not testet
- AI Enhance (requires internet connection)
- Magic Eraser (requires internet connection, wants to upload photo)
- Move (requires internet connection, wants to upload photo)
- Reimagine (requires internet connection, wants to upload photo)