I'm very used to using my phone's stock ROM with root access, however I got a Pixel 8 for Christmas (long overdue I've not had a new phone in 5 years) and while interested in Graphine OS, I'm heavily used to completely overhauling my UI (I love skeuomorphism still, I like changing the boot animation and taskbar, etc). It's just somehting I'm used go doing over the past 11 years.

Am I able to customize Graphene OS to this level without root? I know rooting isn't advized but will I break the OS if I do it? If not, is it possible to reproduce the security features (primarily removing telemetry) without Graphene?

Apologizes if these are noob questions, I'm heavily interested in the operating system but most people that ai see on YouTube don't customize Graphene.

    I'm willing to look into other ROM's but I haven't seen many due to the newness of the device. Honestly consitering tearing apart the stock ROM like I did back in the day but I'd prefer Graphene.

    ACA_iF I'm heavily used to completely overhauling my UI (I love skeuomorphism still, I like changing the boot animation and taskbar, etc). It's just somehting I'm used go doing over the past 11 years.

    Those changes can't be made in GrapheneOS as shipped. If you want to make such changes, the proper way would be to fork GrapheneOS and maintain your own builds. That way you could implement such features whilst preserving the Android security model.

      ACA_iF know rooting isn't advized but will I break the OS if I do it? If not, is it possible to reproduce the security features (primarily removing telemetry) without Graphene?

      It's not possible to root GrapheneOS or any Android-based OS and preserve the Android security model. Rooting is not the proper way to implement such features and is counter to the aims of GrapheneOS, so that's not something we'll support you with.

      ACA_iF As treequell writes, the way to "mod" GrapheneOS is by building and signing your own releases on your own fork. Detailed directions are found here: https://grapheneos.org/build (esp. starting around https://grapheneos.org/build#generating-release-signing-keys).

      Maintainers of custom builds should remove GrapheneOS branding and should ensure the system updater is not pointed at the GrapheneOS update server.

        Worth noting that the System Updater app is not included by default and if someone includes it by exporting OFFICIAL_BUILD=true they should first point it at their own server.

          treequell That sounds exactly like what I'd like, do custom forks get updates or will I have to rebuild my fork with every Android version like other ROM's?

          Additionally do you have any guides? If not I can find them myself, I'd appreciate any leads however.

            de0u Noted. Thanks for the help man, this is exactly what I want.

            ACA_iF Do custom forks get updates or will I have to rebuild my fork with every Android version like other ROM's?

            If you fork it, it's yours! You could maintain your changes in patch form and apply them after syncing each GrapheneOS update. Arguably you would want to watch to see which releases make it to the stable channel (most of them, but not all) before going through the work of building an OTA image and flashing it.

            GrapheneOS issues a lot of releases. If I am counting correctly, in 2023 the average was one per week, though some months are quieter than others.

            ACA_iF Additionally do you have any guides? If not I can find them myself, I'd appreciate any leads however.

            The best place to start would be by building GrapheneOS yourself following the guide on the website: https://grapheneos.org/build.

            If you run into any issues, you can ask for support in the development chatroom, which can be accessed on Discord, Telegram or Matrix. See https://grapheneos.org/contact for how to access that.