Graphine os for adult content addicts.

Moldy

Me and a friend are addicted and want to stop I just want to cut off all avenues for access to this material. Me and my friend have talked about getting both of us graphine os phones with each of us being the admin over the other both of us haveing no web browser and minimal apps such as email navigation calls texts camera. Is there any advice anyone could give about useing graphine os in this way. Im asking because 1 I havent used graphine os and my friend has not as well. And this certainly could be done on our current phones however we both believe we could find ways around it. Any advice would be appreciated as well as concerns such as features not working because of our minimalist phones. Thanks!

de0u

Moldy At present GrapheneOS requires the owner PIN/password to be entered if the device reboots. The owner profile has complete control over the device. Thus the only way for your friend to be the sole administrator of your GrapheneOS device would be for you to be unable to operate the device if it reboots (such as if the battery runs flat).

Developer-Dude

Moldy GrapheneOS can't stop you from viewing adult content - only self control and not giving in to temptation can. But even if they are more insecure, if you really want to quit this, the best solution may even be a dumbphone or flip phone - at least for the time being. That way you can be absolutely sure that you cannot access the internet.

Carrousel7956

Moldy

Yes GrapheneOS is right for you

I think that GrapheneOS will be a great choice for your goal. I personally use a similar setup to described here to lower my screentime. It is really effective and my phone is a great tool instead of a burden.

My method

I have an insanely long Owner profile password making it inconvenient to type, and I remove Vanadium from all user profiles. I use the owner profile with Accressent (Download from the built in GOS Appstore), Obtainium, and Play store to manage and update apps. I use the user profiles as daily drivers, while the Owner manages apps.

Alternatively to the long password, you can write it down and put it in an inconvenient place in your house, or give it to a friend or family member. You will only need it when restarting phone/updating apps/removing Vanadium.

App Recs for a good experience

For a good experience using the device, I recommend these apps: GBoard(Best keyboard), Pixel Camera(Best camera), and Google photos(kind of needed for Pixel camera), all with network revoked. You get the option to revoke network when installing apps and in settings.

Open source apps that you will need to have a good experience. (Add anything with a GitHub link to Obtainium). Breezy weather, Unitto Calculator, Bitwarden, Ente Auth, CoMaps, Notesnook

For improving your mental health I reccomend:
Olauncher (Minimalist Homescreen),
Daily You (Insanely good journaling app)
Healthy Minds Program (Fantastic, completely free meditation app - not privacy respecting).

DeletedUser733

Moldy
GrapheneOS is not your answer, nomatter how you set up your phone, with whomever, using long passphrases, once you know about factory reset and you will, all bets are off.

A new phone with an exotic sounding outlier OS with recommended apps by unknowns using Pseudonyms instructing you on how to behave with YOUR device OR you beleiving in yourself and learning self control, a skill for life, not an app for a week...

gristle-cause

GrapheneOS is not a solution to the problem you describe

Moldy

I see

Carrousel7956

I can't edit my previous message any more, but I cleaned it up. (If a mod can overlay it that would be great)

Yes, GrapheneOS will work for this

Your goal is achievable. I run a similar setup to cut my screen time, and my phone has become a tool instead of a distraction. Here is a good write-up of the main thing you have to do.

How to do it: make accessing the owner profile inconvenient, while making the user profiles distraction-free

Instead of relying on your friend as admin (which runs into the reboot problem), the trick is to make your own owner profile annoying to get into:

Set a very long or not memorizable owner password, long enough you can't easily type it
Remove Vanadium from any secondary profiles you want to use
Use a secondary profile as your daily driver
only unlock the owner profile when you need to manage apps

Alternative for the Owner Password: Write down the password and put it somewhere inconvenient like an attic or with a friend/family member. You'll only need it for reboots, app updates, and installing or removing apps.

How I manage apps from the owner profile

From the owner profile only, I use:

Accrescent (installed from the built-in GrapheneOS app store)
Obtainium for anything with a GitHub release
Play Store for closed source

From here on is just advice for using GrapheneOS for new users.

Settings

Make sure to turn on 120hz in display settings. Go through the settings and make adjustments as needed.

Recommended apps for a good experience.

I am just giving these so you enjoy GrapheneOS. It is a better experience than iOS or any other Android, you just need to get the right apps. (It looks awful when you first load in)

Google apps (optional but recommended so you enjoy your experience) — install these with network permission revoked for privacy (you'll see the option during install, or you can toggle it later in Settings):

GBoard — best keyboard
Pixel Camera — best camera
Google Photos — kind of needed for Pixel camera

Essential apps for me (put any GitHub links you see throughout the tutorial into Obtainium to manage these apps easily):

For mental health

Olauncher — minimalist home screen
Daily You — insanely good journaling app
Healthy Minds Program - Fantastic, completely free meditation app - not privacy respecting

LeslieFH

AndOff works quite well for limiting access to whatever you want: https://docs.andoff.one/home

(You do need ADB to install it on GOS)

Unfortunately, a lot of people simply don't get that reality is not binary and assume that if you can't prevent factory resets you can't do anything.

The fact is that increasing the friction related to some activities works for many people to help them manage their addictions, for example, it makes a difference whether you need to physically go to a casino to gamble or whether you can log in to polymarket from the device you have in your pocket 24h a day, 7 days a week.

Johnnyloans

You already have received some good answers. Besides finding a software solution that works on GOS:

I think you would have to not know your unlock code for this to work. You should write eachother's lock codes down so you don't forget. Especially since you'll probably rarely do unlock the other person's device.
The solution can't be a 3rd party launcher that let's you password protect apps because the launcher can be switched back to stock easily.
I think realistically you'd both would have to put in some mental and lifestyle work/changes. Whether a key factor is fun, boredom, etc, I think one would have to substitute another behavior in place of the bad one. Possibly pick up some other fun/fulfilling hobby or join a club to meet more friends to occupy your time or become more well rounded.
I think you both would have to not have access to the owner account because there are so many subversions to your goal. (I am purposefully not enumerating them to not foil your plan)
I am not aware of how parental apps work exactly but the web browser is a tricky one. Maybe your parental app can prevent re-enabling vanadium (the web browser). If the parental app doesn't block adult content, you could look into a DNS solution that described as "family protecting" or blockign adult content such as: https://adguard-dns.io/en/public-dns.html

troika

My recommendation is to look for legitimate options, such as celestial baths.I have 700GB of videos and pictures.

gta3

Moldy

Ignore the negative users here.

graphene can help with your addiction. as u said you can have a profile setup with no browsers.

You could further it by having a browser but with a DNS config / provider that blocks all adult related requests.

Gradually u can create blocks that will gradually enforce your self-restricting habit attempts.

Use apps like pipepipe for youtube without ads, thst allows channel blocking, ie if certain persuasive channels are recommenddd by google u can block them entirely... All w.o an youtube account

Best of all, you de-google your life in the process.