Popularity, image, advocacy and sponsorship

theyycmonk

Hey GrapheneOS, roughly how many users are you currently protecting?

How is GrapheneOS going to improve its image (if it even thinks it wants to) to appeal to activists and journalists more?

How best can current users help GrapheneOS gain more market share in target demographics?

I'd be more than happy to increase my monthly donation to GrapheneOS to help fund advertising campaigns or sponsorships for independent journalists (I would love to see this type of sponsorship happen) or leadership figures in the activist space or volunteer observers in cities being targeted by oppressive numbers of government officers/agents, around the world, not just in the USA.

Sponsorship would have real-world genuine impact and spur word of mouth praise and great PR.

theyycmonk

theyycmonk as an afterthought, maybe GrapheneOS would consider a Buy me a Coffee type account that people could directly contribute to that would go to sponsorships for indie journalists or activists?

userofgos

theyycmonk How is GrapheneOS going to improve its image (if it even thinks it wants to) to appeal to activists and journalists more?

I don't think it's GrapheneOS's image or appeal that needs improving. It's the activists and journalists that need to educate themselves on how to be more proactive with the security and privacy of their person and of their devices.

theyycmonk How best can current users help GrapheneOS gain more market share in target demographics?

There is no "target demographic" of GrapheneOS. GOS is for everyone.

Users can help via word of mouth, donating, rebutting any FUD/misinformation surrounding GOS.

theyycmonk I'd be more than happy to increase my monthly donation to GrapheneOS to help fund advertising campaigns or sponsorships for

Great to hear you want to increase your support of GrapheneOS, however this is not how donations work. Donations are no-strings-attached.

theyycmonk Sponsorship would have real-world genuine impact

Sponsorships can also lead down dangerous roads which could end up harming GrapheneOS, especially if the sponsorship is conditional with strings attached. Sponsorships must be carefully considered and scrutinised.

GrapheneOS

theyycmonk theyycmonk

Hey GrapheneOS, roughly how many users are you currently protecting?

There are around 300k to 400k GrapheneOS users in total. We don't have precise numbers at all.

How is GrapheneOS going to improve its image (if it even thinks it wants to) to appeal to activists and journalists more?

but there is perception out there that it is for criminals and hackers or "shady" types

Multiple European states recently began heavily pushing the claim that GrapheneOS is heavily used by criminals based around inaccurate claims including conflating GrapheneOS with individuals and companies selling phones in Europe which often don't use GrapheneOS itself. We recently obtained registered US trademarks for GrapheneOS and our logo which we can start using to much more aggressively take down content infringing on our trademarks such as phony GrapheneOS accounts and domains impersonating the project to sell sketchy devices often not running genuine GrapheneOS. There's not much more we can do ourselves. Our community needs to be much more actively in countering the massive amount of misinformation being spread about GrapheneOS by both authoritarians and companies selling phony privacy projects.

I'd be more than happy to increase my monthly donation to GrapheneOS to help fund advertising campaigns or sponsorships for independent journalists (I would love to see this type of sponsorship happen) or leadership figures in the activist space or volunteer observers in cities being targeted by oppressive numbers of government officers/agents, around the world, not just in the USA.

We're going to focus on continuing to improve the operating system including having a smoother out-of-the-box experience and better bundled apps by overhauling or replacing the legacy AOSP apps. We aren't interested in engaging in advertising campaigns any time in the foreseeable future.

theyycmonk Tuta's marketing team is consistently negative about GrapheneOS. They're heavily promoting buying non-private and extraordinarily insecure phones without basic privacy/security patches and protections which are the direct opposite of hardened devices. Their focus is promoting products from European companies regardless of what's provided. They also dislike that we only support the currently available reasonably secure devices (PIxels) and our OEM partner hasn't launched their devices yet as an alternative they wouldn't be hostile towards. Our community should steer people away from using Tuta because at this point they're being actively hostile and causing significant harm to the GrapheneOS project with the misleading and inaccurate information they spread. It appears they have people working on their marketing team with ulterior motives unrelated to marketing Tuta. It appears other people intervened and got some issues addressed but then the marketing team went right back to what they were doing.

theyycmonk

userofgos points acknowledged, but there is perception out there that it is for criminals and hackers or "shady" types. This is what needs to be changed. There's so much power and money behind surveillance capital that puts users at risk... And that money and power is aligned against GrapheneOS and its users. This is my concern. Also, I didn't mean sponsorship like we see on sports jerseys and endorsements, just offering a free phone with the OS on it to young independent journalists and activists who express interest. Maybe through a survey campaign on privacy and security and press freedom. I don't mean endorsement or sponsorship in perpetuity. Just getting it in the hands of someone who can't afford a phone and might be lacking skills but who would be a net benefit to freedom of the press or who campaign for rights aligned with freedom, dignity and privacy. Perhaps journalism students?... Enter a contest with an essay on privacy and press freedom and get a shot at winning a phone with the OS?

I'm probably not doing a great job of expressing myself here. But I think it is safe to assume there are people out there who would be great at word of mouth advocacy of GrapheneOS if they became familiar with it and who aren't because even companies like tuta and proton don't seem keen to mention it in their online infographics encouraging people to dump techbro platforms and apps.

Anyways, I thought it was worthy of discussion in a broad sense. I do what I can to advocate and educate, but I'm nobody.

userofgos

theyycmonk but there is perception out there that it is for criminals and hackers or "shady" types. This is what needs to be changed.

That is true, especially in European countries like France. Now where you are coming from, the OP was broad in this regard, but you've made it more clear what perception/image you are referring to.

theyycmonk lso, I didn't mean sponsorship like we see on sports jerseys and endorsements, just offering a free phone with the OS on it to young independent journalists and activists who express interest. Maybe through a survey campaign on privacy and security and press freedom. I don't mean endorsement or sponsorship in perpetuity. Just getting it in the hands of someone who can't afford a phone and might be lacking skills but who would be a net benefit to freedom of the press or who campaign for rights aligned with freedom, dignity and privacy. Perhaps journalism students?... Enter a contest with an essay on privacy and press freedom and get a shot at winning a phone with the OS?

Sounds like you've put some a fair amount of thought into this. However I think these ideas are better suited for third party initiatives, foundations/org's, and individuals to implement rather than the role of the GrapheneOS Foundation/Project.

theyycmonk Anyways, I thought it was worthy of discussion in a broad sense. I do what I can to advocate and educate

I agree with you, I just think that this is better suited for us as users to do the advocating.

Note: I do not speak on behalf of the GrapheneOS project.

theyycmonk

Was literally just a fleeting thought stream after seeing one of tuta's bluesky posts today.

EnragedBoot

My perspective on the matter is that I believe both sides of this argument have merit.

Yes, I believe GrapheneOS' optics, visiibility, and the like, and funding, certainly do need improvement. However, it is also 100% true that activists, journalists, and everyone needs to do more to learn about privacy, security, and their intersections and differences, and that those who do have knowledge on these should do what they can to help educate others on such.

Edit: Fixed typo.

theyycmonk

EnragedBoot totally agree, I'm consistently surprised at the level of disregard for privacy amongst journalist and activist community. I chalk it up to ignorance of the existence of an alternative though, or the assumption that our chosen OS is "shady". I suspect and hope the perception will change once there's an actual GrapheneOS phone, but advocacy by current users, especially in the social media space, is still important.

There's no freedom without privacy.

MotherShipton

theyycmonk

I think that focussing on journalists and activists will never cause the image you described to appear less "shady". It will give plenty of easy ammunition to media and governments with authoritarian tendencies. How simple it would be to group the journalists and activists in with the criminals and call them enemies of the people.

If more ordinary people were to switch to GrapheneOS, then we become much less easy targets for demonization.

userofgos

MotherShipton If more ordinary people were to switch to GrapheneOS, then we become much less easy targets for demonization.

Agreed

Xtreix

MotherShipton I agree, the more random users there are on GrapheneOS, using it on their everyday phone with all the great security and privacy features they don't have to worry about or touch, the better it will be.

Example : https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=OJMX1tnko1c

it's not for nothing that GrapheneOS strives to be as easy to use as possible and doesn't target any particular users; the partnership with the OEM will certainly play a big role in this regard.

theyycmonk

GrapheneOS thank you for the extensive reply! I advocate for the OS every chance I get, on and offline.

MineralWater

I think there will probably more users in the near future. The more AI gets intrusive, the more people will look for alternatives, and GrapheneOS is by far the most elegant solution -you get rid of AI, but still can use the apps you like and do all the things you did before.

I also think that Graphene is doing an absolute amazing job when it comes about installing the OS to a Pixel. The web installer is almost fool proof i would say, the only reason why it can fail is the USB cable or the rare case that someone has trouble with unlocking the phone.

Also to revert back to Stock Android is super easy and is a great offer for people who want to try out the OS.

The UI is fantastic in my opinion, I don't need fancy animations and super tiny fonts -i prefer a non spectacular UI without distractions.

What I would like to see is improvement for people with disability. iOS is much better in this than Android, it begins with font size system wide. Android can't do this yet, when you set bigger fonts it often destroys the look and usability of apps or web pages, iOS handles this much better.

But overall, I am very happy with this totally free alternative to Stock Android.

I use graphene for almost a year now, as a daily driver and my only used smartphone. It's super stable so far, bugs are almost not existing or if, they are mostly part of the ASOP Android and not a result of bad Software.

I remember that within the first month i was undecided if I shouldn't switch back to Stock, but it you take your time very soon it gets more and more difficult to switch back to Stock, because once you figured out how the things in GrapheneOS work, you don't want to go back anymore.

I tried some alternative OS in the past decades, but Graphene OS was the only one I would consider on the same level of usability as iOS/stock Android.