New to GrapheneOS and very enthusiastic, but running into difficult adjustments everywhere I turn.

I read that so many people love the degoogled life...but....how do you edit a basic video? I just want to shorten it by a few seconds. I feel like this is a silly question but I've searched these forums, reddit etc. for hours and find very little to go on.

How do you manage sending your family photos and videos with the extremely low data cap of regular SMS, what is a non-google imessage alternative?

What is an alternative to facetime?

Thank you all! I know I'm one of many newbs here. I appreciate what Graphene is trying to accomplish, thank you.

    AliceAres Hi there's and welcome to GrapheneOS. It sounds like you're switching from iOS. I can empathize with issues you're facing. It seems to me you would face the same issues if you were to switch from iOS to stock Android rather than GrapheneOS.

    It's a lot easier where I live. A majority of people use Android, and therefore WhatsApp and Signal dominate, even amongst iOS users. So I use those apps for video editing and video calls with family and friends.

      Thank you, I understand. I am a highly adaptable person but this is an adjustment. That old convenience is the trap though isn't it. I will continue to adjust! Any more advice from anyone is appreciated, thank you all.

      The three dot menu in the top right corner of the default gallery app does have some simple editing options like trimming and muting audio, you just need to select the video first.

      AliceAres

      Hi and welcome. I switched from iOS, too, not that long ago. A good and secure alternative to iMessage is Signal (or Molly, which is a hardened Signal fork), just as treequell said. Your messages are end-to-end encrypted so nobody can see your stuff except the recipients of your messages and yourself. Same goes for factime.

      Also, if you really need to, you could still use Google Photos to edit your photos and videos. There is no harm in it, really. You could even hide it in a different profile and only use it when the need arises.

      As a general advise: Take your first steps slowly and get used to Android in general. Then, after a little while, you can start to experiment with APKs from GitHub or alternative app stores like f-droid. Try to find out which app is really essential for you day to day interaction with you phone and which one is not and could be replaced (by a FOSS alternative or just the website). If you are not concerned about three-letter-agencies or state-sponsored attacks, you already gained a lot more privacy by just installing GrapheneOS. It gives you the power to control the software you use and as such your privacy and data security.

        AliceAres As of now, the most cutting-edge app for real-time communication is SimpleX. I wouldn’t recommend WhatsApp because of metadata collection, and Signal isn’t a long-term solution because it’s centralized and requires a phone number.

          What would be the solution to this scenario. I have a profession that requires me to send daily picture and video updates to my clients. This was very easy in imessage. I didn't consider that I may lose that ability by switching to (any) android. Work arounds?

            AliceAres

            • use a different messenger as suggested above
            • upload to Google Drive or Proton Drive and share the pictures (obviously Proton Drive would be the better choice)
            • Mail? Using proton you could even encrypt your email in case your contacts use too

              Great advice by @Phead .

              AliceAres
              Regular sms messages are able to send pictures and videos. They are not private at all and you don't have control over quality/res settings, but works and is the simplest option.
              Alternative option are:

              • send by email
              • send using various online privacy respecting "file sending" websites. (I can't recall a name right now, perhaps other can mention). These work very simply, you just upload the file and the site gives you a link. you send the link to the recipient. the file expires after a few days.
              • Use a "Drive" as mentioned.

              If you are doing some kind of business its hard to limit yourself to foss tools. You can't impose your app environment on your clients and work partners. Generally speaking the kind of messing apps that you have to use really depends on what your relations are using. You may have to comply with that somewhat (whatsapp).

              AliceAres
              Moving to a privacy phone AND switching from IOS to Android is a doubly tough task. Dealing with one of those alone is pain enough.

              If your pics and videos are for family then get your fam to use "your preferred Privacy Comm app". Beyond that you may have a hard time converting people.

              If you are finding the switch too difficult, make life easier for yourself and install some of the "bad" apps. Its ok. Install whatsapp. Install Google Photos. By using the "Network access" and "storage Scopes" permissions you can limit it and make it more private.

              Get a working system first. Then slowly upgrade your assortment/arrangement of apps so to make things more private.

              Signal itself maybe able to resize videos for you. I have looked into some foss tools to edit videos, I haven't found a good one yet. Maybe someone else can recommend.

              Have a look at this post. https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/3889-getting-ready-for-pixel-graphene-advice/3 . Some suggestions there need revision.

              Apps for you to look into that I recommend:

              • Droidify
              • Aurora Store
              • Obtanium
              • Aves Gallery / Simple Gallery
              • Simple Calendar
              • VLC
              • Notally / Quillpad
              • Brave
              • OpenBoard / Floris Board / AnySoftKeyboard
              • Geometric weather (fdroid)
              • Magic Earth / OsmAND+ (Get both)
              • Metro
              • ViMusic
              • NewPipe / LibreTube
              • AntennaPod
              • Signal / Molly
              • Infinity / Stealth
              • KeePassDX
              • UntrackMe
              • VPN (Proton - Free)
              • RethinkDNS
              • Lawnchair V2 / Nova
              • ImagePipe

              You may want a better messaging app, which I don't have a recommendation ATM. You may also want a voice recorder app (GOS doesn't have one).

              Google apps you might want:
              (Installing these properly is important to protect your privacy and take advantage of their voice features)

              • Gboard
              • Google Speech Services
              • Google Camera
              • Google Photos
              • Google Recorder (voice)

              Have a look at this link for lots of FOSS apps: https://www.reddit.com/r/androidapps/comments/jhtvn4/a_list_of_open_source_applications/

                    User2288 I just want to say I really appreciate all if this. Thank you for taking the time. I feel this is great advice and appreciate the support!

                        AliceAres You're very welcome.

                        Also know that I have picked these apps from a number of alternatives because I feel these are better than the alternative (for a combination of reasons). This is the list I install on my own system. So to say, if you are really unsure what to install, you are safe to install these now and research later.

                        Also if any one else has app suggestions to add to this or feel some other app would be a better choice in their category to checkout then please state here so I can improve the list. I'm building a guide for GOS new comers.

                          In case you were using the iCloud calendar, you can even keep using it. A popular choice among people coming from iOS is a combination of these two apps:

                          • Etar is an offline calendar app but you can import your iCloud calendar using ...
                          • DavX5 which syncs your calendar with iCloud. There is walkthrough on their website (https://www.davx5.com/tested-with/icloud) on how to set it up. Works great, from a technical point of view, but of course you miss out on some convenience features such as reminders and notifications.

                          I also like Organic Maps as an alternative to Google Maps but just feel free to experiment and see what works best for you.

                          If you were using AirDrop a lot there's also an app for it: Syncthing. It does a lot more than just replacing AirDrop but you can use it as a replacement if you need it.