Request for a Pixel 6 PRO extended support

martha_gruntberg

Hi
It was very difficult for me to get a Pixel phone in my country that has the OEM feature to install Graphene, I have a Pixel 6 PRO from last year and it's brand new and Graphene works amazingly with it. But in here https://grapheneos.org/faq#supported-devices it says the support will be available until October 2026... can you PLEASE extend this for people like me??

Dumdum

martha_gruntberg Not sure if they will. Extended support is already something the GOS team aren't particularly positive about to begin with, and is only for the purpose of giving users time to switch to newer devices.

Johnnyloans

martha_gruntberg

Hopefully they will. I have a pixel 6 and the end of support is close-ish to the motorola 2027 release.

Novalissoide

martha_gruntberg

Johnnyloans

You should use the time from now until EOL of your devices to find an affordable replacement, and prepare for migration by doing backups while you're not that much in a hurry.

Two reasons for this:
The newer device will have more security features.
The older device is more at risk of having a hardware failure after many years of use. The memory units has limited lifetime, and this is hard to predict how or when it may fail, but the risk will only increase. Migrating from a fully working device may appear wrongheaded but is easier than salvaging a broken down phone.

W1zardK1ng

martha_gruntberg The Pixel 6 has already been supported for almost five years, which is a pretty long time for an Android phone. It might still receive updates until the next major Android release since there may not be many changes to backport. but after that, continued support is unlikely. Extended support used to be a thing since the older devices had only 3 years of support which was very short compared to the new 5 and 7 years of support.

Updating to the newer version for a device that's out of OEM support updates takes a lot of work and not worth it since without updated driver patches, the device can’t really be considered secure even if it still gets Android security patches, similar to how community ROMs like LineageOS work.

DivestOS used to exist as a harm-reduction option for older devices, but thats gone now. If you care about proper security support, it’s better to move to a newer device, ideally something from the Pixel 8 series or newer.

Litedrive

Novalissoide The newer device will have more security features.

What security features do the Pixel 9 or 10 series have that 6 doesn't?

martha_gruntberg

So just to be clear if there won't be extended support for Pixel 6 PRO I will not get any updates after October? Is there a way to somehow send an email for the developers with a kind request of such or what can people like me do? It's super hard to get OEM Pixels at many countries, I don't think it's just me.

secrec

martha_gruntberg Nobody who has participated in this thread speaks authoritatively for GrapheneOS. Historically, most models get extended support, so I would expect (but obviously cannot guarantee) that there will be some level of extended support for the 6. There's also really no significant difference between the 6 and 7 and even 8, so I don't expect any significant burden on them for it. The 6 was radically different from the 5, so extended support on that model was a much greater burden.

Czubek

I have 2 pixel 6's. One is using GOS which I very happy with. The other Pixel 6 is apparently totally locked. Using store.google.com/us/repair on the locked pixel 6 returned a (verizon) locked id. The other pixel 6 returned (unlocked). I have read on these forums that a (verizon) locked phone is impossible to unlock. Further research tells me (duh) that carrier unlock is not the same as bootloader unlock. Come the end of the year I'll be looking for a newer
Pixel as I don't want to give up GOS. Ads for unlocked phones are numerous, but I need to find a replacement pixel that has the bootloader unlocked. Any help/suggestions would be very welcome.

grayway2

I expect grapheneOS to support the Pixel 6 and 6 PRO for at least an additional 6 months and Google might push one more update after EOL.

I'm the owner of a Pixel 6 PRO and it's really an amazing device except the fingerprint sensor.

GrapheneOS is a security and privacy project and they are serious about it. It's just logic to not support them as soon as Google drop them.

I was against the extended support for the Pixel 4 and Pixel 5 lines.

wizoatk

Litedrive What security features do the Pixel 9 or 10 series have that 6 doesn't?

The big one is: Hardware memory tagging (ARM MTE or equivalent), first available on Pixel 8 series.

martha_gruntberg

I'm glad there are good chances Pixel 6 PRO will be supported for longer time. Hopefully developers will take this kind of situation into account

Czubek

So when the time comes for Pixel 6 EOL and I wish to switch to lineage OS I should unlock bootloader, delete the GOS key and then install the factory image. Then install lineage. If that's the safe way I'll follow it.

Neon_City

I would very much like to see an extension too. Some of us live in the past. ;)

The-Man

Neon_City

security does't...

de0u

Once Google stops tracking and fixing bugs in a device's firmware, the device becomes increasingly insecure over time, and also over time becomes increasingly difficult for the GrapheneOS team to maintain.

More work for less security is not a great mix, and at some point there is a risk that vulnerable people will think that the existence of an extended-support release means the device is still "OK to use".

Perhaps Google may decide to support the firmware for a little longer. Perhaps the GrapheneOS project may decide to issue an extended-support release for a few months. But I wouldn't plan on either one of those happening, and I would suggest having a backup plan ready. If it will take several months to import a newer Pixel device, then it is probably best to get started on that before the EOL date, or at least on the EOL date if it isn't extended.

Please note that I don't speak for the GrapheneOS project.

de0u

From a strategic perspective I can imagine that it might be valuable to invest effort in extended support for the 7 series, because right now there is only one Tablet and it's very close to other 7-series devices. That may not end up happening! But it seems more likely to me that an extension would happen for 7's than for 6's. I write that as a 6a owner who is expecting the 6a to lose both Google and GrapheneOS support in July of 2027.