Sorry for the highly theoretical question with not much specifics, but I hope it works out.
Some apps may be reluctant to support GrapheneOS, and whether the app works fully or for the most part, that may be luck too. The worst case is when such apps are an integral part of being able to use their services. E.g., a banking app on your phone may be required to log into the bank's website on your PC, with no other 2FA solutions allowed. So it is not just a mobile banking app, it's also an authenticator. This limits your platform freedom, because you will need a phone just for that. And if it refuses to run on anything else but stock Android, your freedom, your privacy, your phone's security is greatly affected.
Sure, you could try and do one of the following:
- Talk to the app creators. They would respond anything to refuse your request like, for example, "based on our previous investigations and international trends, our bank has not identified any security risk that would have necessitated the development of applications for additional operating systems beyond the two most popular mobile operating systems." Some companies would add GrapheneOS support, and huge respect for them, but others not, not even if I tell them that GrapheneOS is the only non-standard AOSP-based phone that is worth supporting.
- Switch to a different bank. Easy to say. Some banks need your personal local presence to do administrative things, and I may not live near a place where other banks actually do better service than the bank I am a customer of.
My worst nightmare is having to depend on an app that does not run on GOS. How do you deal with such problems, guys? What can we do to make our lives more private, less controlled, and more secure?
Ideally the following should be true:
- Noone should depend on any mobile app at all just to be able to use any services.
- Noone should depend on a smartphone either (I'm not saying I don't want to use one).
- Websites alone should be enough and should be able to support any platform (see: Progressive Web Apps).
- We should be able to decide whatever 2FA solution we want to use (within common sense, of course).
Sadly, I see a tendency that the world does not want to allow this kind of freedom. Eventually I may hit a point where no resistance works. I can only do so much. I love GrapheneOS, but I believe it's only a matter of time when I will have to get a regular Android phone too, and I won't be able to find an alternative solution that doesn't require it.
Your opinions and advices are welcomed.