what are the disadvantages of grapheneos?

Xtreix

More harder to use compared to what ? For me, It was as easy as with the original OS, with just a lot more privacy features that I quickly learned how to use.

The only disadvantage for me was the NFC payment via Google Pay, my bank does not use its own contactless solution, but this problem has been solved since Curve Pay became available for the European market and works on GrapheneOS, now I can pay with contactless payment.

Eirikr70 One disadvantage : it is not translted into French.

AOSP is translated into several languages, but the GrapheneOS part is not, maybe one day that would be cool.

Pavestone2734

lovefromisrael Not necessarily grapheneOS but AOSP and the platform in general:

Some settings are annoying cross-profile. You cannot modify WiFi AP settings in secondery profiles, likewise you cannot toggle mobile data in secondary profiles. Contacts are per profile so you need to set them up and manually sync them across yoir profiles if you want to display call info. If you switch profiles, you can pretty much say goodbye to your previous profile data because it get's wiped from RAM or cache or whatever. This is particularily annoying with Vanadium because browser state is non-static so with incognito browsing you reset every time. Aside from these and a few upstream bugs such as media player disappearing in lockscreen and Vandium shortcuts disappearing randomly it's still miles better than anything else. Switching between profiles could be faster. No native Fido support in AOSP and my Fido setup crashes the Play process so I pretty much had to downgrade to TOTP. GNSS is super slow for some reason. For some reason br*tish language formatting is stuck on my device despite me not having any region or language preferences. Some apps are really bad at invoking location data but that's unrelated. No proper Google Play alternative to date.

The native apps are fine, you can replace most if you want but better, more modern vanilla apps would be great. Expecially Gallery, Messages and default keyboard. I kinda blaming Google because they could open source or include some modern version of default apps on AOSP but it wouldn't make them any money I guess

lovefromisrael

DeletedUser478

toda [thank you]
i wonder still.. if there will be a hebrew spelll checker soon..

LeslieFH

Problems with backup and restore (SeedVault is... buggy).
No NFC payments with Google Wallet.
Some banking apps may refuse to work (Revolut didn't work for some time and may refuse to work again if they change the way of "checking device integrity").
Only available on Pixels.

DeletedUser396

"what are the disadvantages of grapheneos?"

The only one,
Pixel hardware, there are better phones available but not able to support GrapheneOS, unfortunately.

edent

There are a few. Mostly related to proprietary Google services.

Find My network doesn't work. It is impossible to add trackers.
No Google Pay - but Curve and a few others do work for NFC.
Some banking apps refuse to run.
The default launcher is very basic, icons are too small for the screen size etc.
It requires a lot more "active management". Things like storage scopes etc are complicated to get your head around. Of course, that's one of the reasons people choose Graphene.
RCS seems buggy (I've not tried it, but plenty of reports of it not working).
See all the open issues at https://github.com/GrapheneOS/os-issue-tracker/issues

Personally, I like it. But it isn't suitable for most people unless you're prepared to make compromises and learn some of the administration needed to get the most out of it.

Murcielago

edent

It requires a lot more "active management".

I would rather say, you can do a lot more active management if you want to or have to (because of your threat model).

But you can also just install GrapheneOS using Web Installer, set up Sandboxed Google Play, and use everything with the default settings, and you'll have a very secure and privacy-friendly device out of the box without much hassle. (Anecdotally: I recently "helped" a friend install GrapheneOS (my help consisted of standing next to him, having a coffee and watching): In less than 30 minutes (and we didn't rush), he had a freshly set up device up and running with all the apps he wanted from Play Store). The only thing he really messed up: He had forgotten to bring a USB cable.)

Things like storage scopes etc are complicated to get your head around. Of course, that's one of the reasons people choose Graphene.

In my opinion (I'm not a techie), storage and contact scopes are fairly easy to understand (not in technical depth, but how they work and what result to expect):

https://grapheneos.org/usage#storage-access
(This is followed by specific information on storage scopes. I think both entries are worth reading in this context.)

https://grapheneos.org/usage#contact-scopes

GrapheneOS

lovefromisrael It's only the features added by GrapheneOS which aren't currently translated to other languages. Most of the OS is translated.

You can use a different keyboard and spell checker with support for additional languages.

Van-de-GraaffeneOS

Endless

Feature, not flaw.

You likely already have a physical wallet. Open it up. See the big, empty compartment? That's called a billfold. Put cash in there. Some billfolds even have a divider!

If you come across a store that doesn't support physical wallets, at least it will still support fire. JOKING, RELAX.

pixelfairy

Posted another thread on this here. https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/24669-reasons-not-to-use-grapheneos

Some issues could be mitigated with time and popularity of user controlled phones. The current duopoly is not good for anyone except Google and Apple.

grapheneos.org needs something like "Who is this not for" on their FAQ, or a list of known possible reasons not to use it. Use cases that are out of scope.

wonder75

Coming from another alternative Android OS no root access was the biggest downer for me.
I know this has been discussed deeply, but for me an option to get root if you want it would make GOS perfect.

Van-de-GraaffeneOS

wonder75

It is possible. You probably won't know what you are doing but you'd need to build it yoursrelf.

chinook

wonder75 but you can have root access on GoS, just not with the image the developers publish.

You can create your image, sign it with your keys, and flash it :)
It simply won't be the "pure" GoS (and wouldn't pass the attestation for example).

MetropleX

wonder75 yes it has been discussed, to death and we killed the topic being discussed on here further. I am not opposed to the practice and have many devices for personal projects and tinkering with it. It isn't for a secure OS, it is antithetical and shouldn't be used on a production device.

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