this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2025
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[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 hours ago

Is this going to be another one where they fuck up the recog, cancel your google account and report you to the cops because you text pics of your kid to his doctor?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago

I already uninstalled it. Already enough Google spyware on my phone.

[–] [email protected] 69 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (5 children)

Yeah... Bullshit.

I no longer have the confidence in Google to believe anything they're telling me.

Another good reason to go for LineageOS/GrapheneOS.

🖕

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Did you read the article? The GrapheneOS devs are saying the exact same thing as Google here...

Personally though I wouldn't trust the GrapheneOS devs much, they're a bunch of divas.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 19 hours ago (4 children)

GrapheneOS is such great experience

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 hours ago

If you have a pixel. I use calyxOS since I don't and it's a bit more secure than lineage.

Also, if you bought your phone through your cell provider, its probably not happening. The bootloader is probably locked. There miiight be some janky tutorials to get around it, but you might brick your phone. Ask me how i know.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 15 hours ago

Just disrupting the tracking/advertising pipelines a little bit is reason enough to use GrapheneOS. Everything else it does is just an epic bonus for me.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 19 hours ago (6 children)

I may have to finally make the switch. Are there any initial pains that you found from switching?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

Honestly, I was surprised at the lack of compatability issues. It had less issues than any custom ROM I've used, and I've used a LOT of custom ROMS over the years.

I had to toggle off the anti exploit hardening for a few apps, but I eventually just ditched those apps and replaced them with their respective websites or with FOSS equiviliants.

Flashing the ROM was easier than my older Android phones too.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

Google Wallet (or whatever they call it these days) doesn't work, even if you install Google Play Services. So NFC payments are simply not possible for me. I've heard that some banks have NFC payments built into their apps, but I have never seen a list. I'd switch banks if it meant I could get this to work.

There's currently no NLP (network location provider) support, so if you don't have an actual GPS satellite signal, you will not have active location unless you use Google's location services. There's been some talk of including a new NLP service in the future but I don't know of any timeline.

Even when using Google Location Services, accuracy is worse than on the stock Pixel OS. I'm not sure why, but I get tons of drift indoors (whether Wi-Fi is enabled or not), whereas on PixelOS it was almost always stable. It also means navigation apps will sometimes think I magically hopped off a bridge and onto the side street below or something like that.

There's no "extreme battery saver" mode like on Google's Pixel OS. When I switched, I didn't realize that was a Google feature rather than an Android/AOSP feature.

If you rely on Google backups for app data, I'm not sure if there's any reasonable way to get that into GOS since it can only happen during initial setup. Might be solutions to this, but personally I didn't spend time on it because there was nothing I cared too much about. Check your apps to see if they have settings import/export functions. A lot of open-source apps (like Lemmy clients) do.

GOS has an open-source backup system called Seedvault, but of course if you ever want to switch back to a stock Android OS, you won't be able to bring those backups with you since apps simply can't get that level of access on any stock Android OS. You're stuck on GOS or other third-party OSes that support Seedvault, or maybe rooting if that's possible.

If you use WhatsApp (ew), be aware that it only supports backup via Google Drive. And you can't manually download and restore that backup without adding Google Play Services and logging in.

Lawnchair and other third-party home screens seem to work worse on GOS than stock Pixel OS when it comes to the app switcher animation bug. I've seen some GOS forum threads about this so I know I'm not alone.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 hours ago

You can definitely configure NLP if you install MicroG.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

https://grapheneos.org/usage#sandboxed-google-play-configuration

If your having unsatisfying location, go through this guide to turn on Google everything for location.

You will need to grant "Allow all the time" Location access to Google Play services along with the Nearby Devices permission for it to have all the access it needs. You need to use the "Google Location Accuracy" link from the sandboxed Google Play configuration menu to access the Google Play services menu for opting into their network location service, otherwise this is all pointless

[–] [email protected] 4 points 16 hours ago

Yes, the issue persists even with all of that enabled. I don't understand why.

I had a similar issue on my previous phone, but never on my Pixel before. So I guess Google specifically does something extra.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

If you want your sms/mms, back them up.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

*laughs in Google Voice*

I'm screwed...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

SMS Backup & Restore app works great

[–] [email protected] 1 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

That's not what I meant:

  1. Google Voice doesn't fit in the traditional mold of SMS. Its messages exclusively use its own app (or the browser) and doesn't get classified as SMS in phones as they don't use SIM cards.
  2. What I was really getting at is that it'd be harder for me to leave since I'm dependent on Google for a major service, arguably one that's almost as important as email...
[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 hours ago

You can install Voice. I installed it on a separate profile dedicated to that. I turn it off when I don't use it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 18 hours ago

Graphene is only for Pixel phones. That's been enough to stop me from pursuing it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 17 hours ago

You'll lose all your local data as the bootloader gets unlocked, so back them up.

Tutorials on modding phones, from my experience, are fairly obtuse despite the process itself usually being rather simple and straight forward.

If you want to go as privacy-oriented as possible, you'll likely pick a vanilla system (that is, as close to AOSP, "Android Open Source Project"), and will often be on the lookout for software that is either DRM-free (no dependency on 3rd party software), or open source / FOSS ("Free and Open Source Software"). Also VPNs to mask your online usage may come with their own set of cobsiderations, like some sites breaking, some others considering it ban-worth, and others setting prices, languages, etc., to a given region.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Some banking and similar apps don't work, or have some features nonfunctional (like NFC). You can always use the website and carry a card like we did in 2012.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

CARRY A CARD?!!?! b-but it's on the desk a few meters away from me I can't reach it!!!!!!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 14 hours ago

I wish it was available for my phone :/

[–] [email protected] 2 points 12 hours ago

You appear to have posted a negative opinion of 'ol Musky

Please remain seated, DOGE will collect you for reeducation soon.

Thanks Google!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 13 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 15 hours ago

I'm trying to convince my fiend to sell his still in box new phone and install Lineage OS on his current one.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 19 hours ago

Doesn't matter. It should be opt in, not secretly installing itself on your device automatically

[–] [email protected] 6 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

I need to buy a new phone. I had a onenote to set up but I fucked up the process and now it won't leave orange mode or charge enough for a proper fast boot. Essentially bricked. Because it can't charge faster than the battery drains and doesn't seem ti support powered down charging. So, I'm stuck with an s21 that had the boot loader locked because Verizon is a PoS like that. I ordered an unlocked phone but I didn't know ordering from the carrier ment they locked the bootloader. I want to degoogle but money is tight.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago

It's the carrier's phone, not yours. That's how they offer such low prices.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 19 hours ago (3 children)

Imagine buying a piece of technology and have some fucking creep in mountain view constantly pinging your device doing god knows what but he is doing this because he think you are spreading CSAM so that's like totally cool.

Bu here we are and majority of pedons accept it and will even defend the behavior because they got nothing to hide.

Put nest camera with alexa in your bedroom, cuck.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago

Lol Mountain View... Elon Musk has a bunch of satellites that can communicate directly with your phone via 4G almost anywhere in the world.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 15 hours ago

What happens when it's other things that become illegal? Like certain topics. Like trans rights. Like the genocide in Palestine. Like abortions. Like criticizing Trump.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 17 hours ago

From the article:

"Classifying things like this is not the same as trying to detect illegal content and reporting it to a service," GrapheneOS said. "That would greatly violate people's privacy in multiple ways and false positives would still exist. It's not what this is and it's not usable for it."

[–] [email protected] -4 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

If it's really what is described (an app that other apps can use to classify content without querying a server), seems like a good thing to me. There is a clear need for people to be able to filter spam and things they don't want to see. Imagine a Lemmy app where you can set it to not show you US politics related posts, where it will work regardless of whether specific keywords are in the title. Couldn't that kind of thing contribute to a more decentralized web?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Not from google it ain't.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 17 hours ago

That's a mouthful of almost meaningless techno babble of a headline.