Why do GrapheneOS force users to use a new design?

maxmoon

My phone rebooted by itself last night and after I wanted to see my lock screen, I couldn't see the information I needed, because the new design is hiding information I decided to see.

It's not only that information are hidden, everything changed. The clock font is ugly, all icons changed (look at the battery icon, wtf is this?) and the menus are annoying, because I can't see buttons correctly, because everything is blurry and translucent.

Usability went down by 80% over night!

Why did GrapheneOS become what Apple & Co are?

I'm not going to come into your apartment and paint the walls and move the furniture around either.

Why not asking the users if they want to change to a new design or keep the old one?

Is there a way to put the device in a state, which I (the user) decided how I want to use my phone?

23Sha-ger

maxmoon
Ask Google :)
You complain at least as if you paid for the "product".

NetRunner88

maxmoon

Make your own build

SkynetPrime

NetRunner88 took the words out my mouth.

maxmoon GrapheneOS is not forcing anyone to do anything.

Byteang3l

maxmoon I'm just going to out myself and say I actually like the new aesthetic, not to mention this is an upstream change and has nothing to do with GrapheneOS. You're of course welcome to make your own fork of GrapheneOS since it's open source.

n3t_admin

I love me a good Monday morning rant. You realize this is an upstream change from Google?
Did Google ask if their users wanted a new design? Did Apple with iOS 26? No? Exactly. Why do the small projects have to suffer from these complaints all the time? Don't know.

mmobder

n3t_admin side effects of popularity

GrouchyGrape

n3t_admin the number of people requesting the devs to maintain the previous, purely aesthetic look, is quite frankly hurting my brain. This happens every year to remind us how ungrateful users are of open source projects. And how ignorant they are of how all of this works.

phone-company

A few days ago, I tried to explain to new users why GrapheneOS isn't as colorful as the original Google operating system... They desperately need the new design. And now that AOSP has integrated the new user interface, everyone wants the old user interface back.

MetropleX

We had all the same arguments with the changes made in Android 12 and the monet engine as well as the combining of the wifi and cellular network toggles together into one.

These changes are derived from AOSP and with the resources of the dev team always taken up by the rapidly changing and challenging privacy and security environment, theming for obvious reasons is left as AOSP dictates it, any changes however minor would require maintenance to keep them up to date with our code base as well as relevant.

We're not an OEM with resources to focus on ensuring we have our own "skin" such as those found on OneUI, Nothing etc. also don't forget many of these companies prioritise aesthetics over security which is why you have access to patches months in advance on GraphenOS where they delay them up to 4 months. I'd rather those OEMs put their UI dept money toward their security dept instead.

nandohyphen1

MetropleX nicely put, @MetropleX . I realise this change is pretty much from Google and GrapheneOS just has to roll with it, and I think that's great. Hey everybody. We've got a great operating system here, and the look was tweaked just a little. Honestly though, I know some of you don't like it, but seriously, GrapheneOS is so great that I'd continue to use it even if it got a major UI change. I didn't even like the new UI at first, but its fine now. I've just got to give my thanks to GrapheneOS and all the developers for getting us to A16 QPR1!

Tandara

I genuinely feel like all the posters about new UI are trolls. How come that in 2025 we still have people complaining about 'enforcing' UI on smartphones.

DeletedUser499

I don't give a rats ass what it looks like, it's secure and private, that is why I came to GrapheneOS,

mar2112

These changes would not be a problem of Google lived to to their hype that Android is the most customizable phoneOS. Of they want to make a new theme every year that's fine. Just let people have the ability to customize the phone as the like and as they advertise.

23Sha-ger

mar2112
Users don't choose it. Did you choose the design of anything?
Coprorations forced it. Maybe the Linux desktop is the only, example.
Otherwise, you have Android, iOS, Windows, macOS. Can you change the design?
No. We are forced to have a "design language" of the big corps. Can we do something? no.

MetropleX

mar2112 Google lived to to their hype that Android is the most customizable phone OS

They kind of do though (don't shoot the messenger), thanks to AOSP all OEMs customise it to their needs as I mentioned in my previous post for their corporate design languages. Then unlike other mobile OS beyond the settings and QS you can customise everything using third party apps from the launcher, icon packs, widgets etc.

I don't see any of that on iOS for example.

23Sha-ger

MetropleX I don't see any of that on iOS for example.

iOS customization started from the jailbreak community, which I was a big part of,
and ended with Apple making most of those things part of iOS. The JB community had
been dead for around 5 years, since no new devices can be jailbroken. Anyway, I am very
sure that the JB community lead to this. Many developers were hired by Apple eventually.

schnazz

Is there an option to alter the accent colors in any meaningful way? The new aesthetic is fine, but I did alter the prior color scheme due to vision issues. I don't need heavy contrast or what is in the accessibility options, but a stronger color variance was helpful before.
Not that it is anyone's responsibility here, just a question.

Novalissoide

schnazz still a little hopeful for the slider at:
Settings > Accessibility > Colour & motion > Colour correction

02673853

maxmoon Usability went down by 80% over night!

Are you a now taking 5X as long to do the same things or what do you mean by " Usability went down by 80%"

maxmoon Why not asking the users if they want to change to a new design or keep the old one?

Is there a way to put the device in a state, which I (the user) decided how I want to use my phone?

If you care so much for it, you could try to implement such a choice option or pay someone to implement it