Suggestion for people trying GrapheneOS...

Although GrapheneOS puts a lot of work into sandboxing and protecting against Google Play, don't assume that you have to go that direction.

An alternative direction, if you wish, is to simply minimize the set of apps you use. And maybe it turns out that you don't really need anything from Google Play.

For example, I limit myself to a few open source apps (e.g., email, TOTP authenticator, maps, calendaring).

Anything else, either I don't need to do it from my phone, or I can get by with the Web site version of it in the phone's Web browser.

I also recently went through and deleted some open source apps that were a good idea to try, and which initially seemed like a good idea to keep on hand, but that I really wasn't using, and didn't expect to use without opportunity to reinstall them, so were just clutter and risk (e.g., Matrix, XMPP, Signal).

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EvanAnderson 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Re: not using Google Play

I'm not using GrapheneOS (I am unwilling to give Google money directly), but I did recently move to my second Android phone after having been a decade-plus iPhone user.

When I got my first Android phone I decided to "sideload" all non-stock software on the phone. I never have setup a Google Play account. I kept all the APKs for the software I loaded over the three years I used the old phone.

When I got the new phone I loaded all the software I use day-to-day and imported my SMS, contacts, and call logs using a nice FOSS app[0]. It felt remarkably like moving to a new PC does. It was nice.

You definitely don't need Google Play to get a lot of functionality. I have run into a number of apps that I can't get to "sideload" (basically any xapk-packaged apps) but I don't need any of the badly enough to care.

I am really sad Google is ending this moving forward. Jackasses.

[0] https://github.com/tmo1/sms-ie

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hsbauauvhabzb 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Why stop there when you can just not have a phone at all?

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neilv 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

I did try phoneless for a few years, except for a dumbphone that I kept at home for the rare call or SMS 2FA.

The biggest factor that forced upgrading was poor call quality on the dumbphones I tried. (And this was really forced by bombing a particular important phone call because I couldn't be understood well.)

Then, once I found a smartphone that I kinda liked (GrapheneOS, after Apple sold out on surveillance), there were reasons to start carrying it. Rather than simply keeping it in a drawer at home.

But fortunately not sufficient reason so far to go full Google Play.

Email, Web, maps, authenticator, camera, and calls are all things I sometimes could use when out.

Though I normally don't have to have any of those, but I've been experimenting with it for a year or so, and seeing whether it's worthwhile.

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tranq_cassowary a day ago | parent | prev [-]

If you are going to use a desktop instead, you are hurting your security significantly. Traditional desktop OSes like Window, MacOS and Linux desktop lack a sane security model with a mandatory app sandbox with fine-grained permissions. They also heavily use memory-unsafe code compared to modern OSes like Android OSes and iOS and lack modern exploit mitigations. Only daily drivable productions grade desktop OS with security in its foundations is ChromeOS.

	▲	hsbauauvhabzb 19 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I never said anything about desktops? You don’t have to use those either, though.