Since GrapheneOS is the standard recommendation for a custom ROM on Pixel devices and comes up very often, I figured we should have a thread about it.
For those who are using it, what Pixel device are you running GrapheneOS on and how is the overall experience? What are the things that you like about GrapheneOS and what are things you miss from the factory Android install?
As for me, my curiosity got the better of me and I finally went and installed GrapheneOS on my Pixel 7a using the web installer on Arch Linux and a USB cable.
So far, nothing unexpected and I’ll have to do a bit of exploring of the OS’ security features. The OS works just fine and feels obviously way cleaner and less bloated, the annoying search widget finally went away without having to install a custom launcher. The only thing that scared me a bit in the beginning was the contacts not syncing and some purchased apps not transferring over as the sandboxed Google Play saw the device as a different one but that was solved by giving it permission to access contacts and also waiting for Google Play to do its thing. Google Camera and Google Photos also worked fine without network permissions.
I haven’t tried Google Wallet’s NFC payments yet and I have no hopes for that one to work on GrapheneOS, but that is certainly a feature I will miss.
I have been using GrapheneOS since the Pixel 6 came out and I have no complaints. I get regular updates, the OS is super stable and my phone is free of the pre-installed ad- and spyware.
I also remember the ridiculously easy and straight forward install, something that I wasn’t expecting since I used to tinker with LineageOS and CyanogenMod way back. It almost feels like a stock rom.
The additional security features are great, though they come with the tiny inconvenience of not having access to system files (which is obviously by design).
Overall I couldn’t be happier with it and I’ll continue to use it for as long as I can.