First of all, a big thank you to the whole GrapheneOS team.
I have been testing GrapheneOS for about three weeks, daily, and I am genuinely convinced. I recently made my first donation, and I truly hope this project will continue long-term, because what you are building is unique.
My background: I come from xiaomi.eu, Samsung ROMs, CyanogenOS, and other custom ROMs. I used to run rooted devices for 10 years, but over time this became incompatible with many essential apps, especially banking and professional ones.
GrapheneOS feels like a very mature and realistic alternative.
Pros:
• Banking and government apps work perfectly, which is a major requirement for daily use.
• Google apps such as Photos and the Thermometer app work well when installed in the sandboxed environment.
• Seedvault backups with WebDAV support are very welcome and well designed.
• The return of native call recording is extremely valuable.
• The fine-grained control over app behavior and permissions is something I really missed; this is a huge strength.
• And of course, app sandboxing / isolation is one of the best features of the OS.
Cons / limitations (from my usage):
• No way to assign a SIM card to a specific contact or contact group. I use one SIM for professional calls and another for personal life, mainly to preserve privacy and to disconnect from work when needed. Being able to bind a SIM to a contact adds an extra layer of safety. I currently use “Ask before call”, but I still worry about making mistakes.
• No way to completely block a contact (all numbers at once, calls + SMS). Blocking must be done per number and per app. From a harassment-prevention perspective, blocking a contact as a whole feels very important.
• No equivalent to Google’s Safety app. In my work and mobility context, I sometimes need to call 112 (European emergency number). Google’s Safety app had a very useful feature: displaying a precise address that could be transmitted immediately to emergency services. If possible, automatically displaying location information (postal address, GPS coordinates, map link) when calling 112/911 would be a significant safety improvement.
• Call recording can only be started after the call begins. On xiaomi.eu, there was an option to automatically record all calls without user interaction. In professional contexts, or for people facing phone harassment, automatic recording can be essential. I understand there are technical and legal constraints, but any improvement in this area would help many users.
One last point (contacts):
I still use Google Contacts, because I don’t see a clear way for the GrapheneOS Contacts app to sync with an external provider (even though it is backed up). I am still looking for a good alternative. Unfortunately, even Proton does not yet offer a full solution here.
Overall, GrapheneOS is the first OS in many years that made me stop rooting my phone without feeling constrained. Thank you again for the work, the transparency, and the strong security posture.
I keep trying to convince people around me to install it
