The end of this month will mark 6 months of me using GrapheneOS (already!!!). Wow. WOW! This is the single best Operating System I've ever used.Trust me, after seeing all the control over permissions that I have, you couldn't pay me to go back to (regular) Android or iOS. The Storage Scopes and Contact Scopes are the best feature ever! I've never felt like I had a choice weather or not apps could access my contacts and photos. Thanks to GrapheneOS, now I do! Also great, is the ability to give an app literally zero permissions at all! I can deny network, location, sensors, everything! This is just amazing.
Another great thing is the simplicity. Think of it this way. I turn on my (stock) Android phone for the first time. Guess what I'm greeted with? Apps. Apps. Apps. All bloatware apps. YouTube, FaceBook, Instagram, X (Twitter), TikTok, Gemini, Chrome, Google, Useless system apps, etc. And I wonder why my storage is already half full. And all of the apps above can't be deleted in any way since Android calls them "apps installed by default". They cannot be removed. Uh, hello, I don't even want any of those apps! Well, too bad for me I guess, since I was forced to leave them installed unless I used ADB. (That story about stock Android is true, it was my first Android phone experience).
Now meet GrapheneOS. I turn it on for the first time and what do I see? The best home screen setup on earth. A black wallpaper (love) and the minimum amount of apps required - just what's needed to run the phone. Even no app stores! I could literally set up my phone exactly the way I want, with the apps I want, and the permissions I want!! All while using a private and secure Operating System! So in theory, if you use GrapheneOS, you most likely have a different phone from any other GOS user, since you set it up the way you want, and aren't forced to use pre installed, non removable crappy apps.
Thanks to the entire GrapheneOS team who makes this OS possible, the forum moderators, and all the forum users that helped me get started. This is the best OS ever and its all I'll be using now!