New user incoming...

sailirish7

Hello everyone,
I am currently on a Samsung s21 ultra and I plan on moving to the pixel 8 pro and leaving Google behind. I did look around, but I didn't notice any stickied posts for new users, FAQ, or other "gotcha" guides for initial install.

Am I blind? Or do these posts not exist?

What should I be doing in preparation for the move?

Respectfully,
-Sail

N1b

sailirish7 hi and welcome to the community! The best starting place is the official website, give it a good read to learn about what makes GOS special and what the most common questions are: grapheneos.org

From there it's just install and use, you'll easily get along with the system if you ever used a close to Stock Android OS (aka phones from Google, Motorola, Nokia or old OnePlus). Compared to Samsung, the UI is much cleaner and straightforward since Samsung puts their bloat on top of everything. And once you have issues, feel free to ask around here since we're all here to help and make this OS a good experience for each other.

[deleted]

sailirish7 As far as 'gotchas' go, I'd say a well defined app update strategy too often seems to be underappreciated by people moving over from either 'stock' Android or iOS where these kinds of things are taken for granted. The official usage guide does make a broad-strokes recommendation, but it remains a popular friction point—different approaches come with their own sets of tradeoffs. Of course, this is not at all specific to GrapheneOS, it's just an admission of the nascent state of affairs when it comes to getting and updating apps in a private, secure, and robust manner outside of Play Store. The rest of it is pretty straightforward.

Bumwin3

sailirish7 as many others have said, read the official docs, and just dive in. GOS is plenty user friendly and it may take a little time to get to your ideal end state but having a second phone during the transition to revert back to if necessary is a plus.

User2288

sailirish7

One thing that comes to mind, G-os by default lacks some important foundation apps: calendar, audio/video player, map, app store, voice recorder.

Also the file explorer, keyboard, messaging, contacts, and phone app are lacking in some features and might need alternatives. The gallery app is atrocious and must be replaced.

There are a number of very useful discussions, asked by other new comers, already on this forum that will help you a lot. Search this forum for appropriate words (new, newcomer, newbie, basics, etc) to find these threads and read them. I personally have written multiple guides.

Reading my post history alone you will find a lot of things. Click on a user's name to read their history.

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/5267-basics
https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/3889-getting-ready-for-pixel-graphene-advice/3
https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/4078-best-voice-typing-options-requirements-and-differences

matchboxbananasynergy

Hi Sail! Welcome to the forum, and I'm glad to hear you've decided to take the plunge.

When it comes to guidance or any "gotchas", as you put them, they are detailed in the installation guide. One such consideration to make, for example, is to ensure that you get a device that is not carrier locked, as you then won't be able to enable OEM unlocking, and therefore will be unable to install an alternative OS.

When it comes to the actual installation process, all of the prerequisites and edge cases are detailed in the guide but you are encouraged to join our Matrix chat rooms and seek help if you feel you need it. Someone is usually around and we're quite happy to walk you through the process. :)

If you have any specific questions or concerns before more, feel free to let us know and we can try to tackle those for you.

Michiel

I think the two main things to consider before you install GOS are if you want to install sandboxed Google Play Services and if you want to use multiple user profiles. Pros and cons of both options have been discussed several times in the forum.

GrouchyGrape

Welcome! Glad you're going to give GOS a try. I went from s21 ultra to pixel 7 pro earlier this year. I hadn't made any drastic changes to the way I used my phone prior to the switch, so I just went ahead and installed Google play services, signed in with my normal Google account, and used the phone how I was prior. I then gradually (over the course of several months) adjusted the apps and services I use to more secure/privacy respecting alternatives. Once I felt I had a good grasp on the phone and my workflow, I did a factory reset and started fresh.

It did take a bit of getting used to something closer to AOSP than OneUI, but it's not a hard transition depending on how you use your phone. There are a couple things I miss about OneUI (regarding usability, not privacy/security), but overall I'm much happier and couldn't imagine not running GOS.

Like others stated, the main website is your friend. I promise most questions you have will be answered there. If you are unsure about anything, don't hesitate to reach out, especially on the matrix channels. Good luck!