I made a post some days ago asking about LineageOS, but my curiosity towards Google Pixels and GrapheneOS has been growing. As somebody who has always used regular Samsungs and iPhones, I hope somebody can clear up some questions I have regarding this OS.
I plan that my next phone is to be either a Motorola (LineageOS/SailfishOS?) or a Pixel (GrapheneOS). My first question about GrapheneOS, or really any non-standard OS, is this:
- how does having an account on the device work? For example, Samsungs require a Samsung account and iPhones require an iCloud account. How does it work on non-standard OSes?
My second question touches on built-in apps that you often get with every phone:
- does GrapheneOS have its own Notes/Drive/Photos/Messages app? If not, how does one go about obtaining these? Related question:
- how do I sync my notes/photos/files/etc to the “cloud” of GrapheneOS?
My third question regards the app store of GrapheneOS. I have heard that the sandboxed Play Store is better than FDroid, for instance; what are your thoughts? Do I go for Aurora Store instead? Is there any major difference at all? Is it possible to use multiple app stores?
- note that I likely won’t be solely relying on FDroid since I need some non-FOSS apps (FB Messenger for contacting family for example).
I know that in the privacy community, it’s very common to fix up a cloud of your own (i.e. NextCloud). I have no experience doing this, but is it something I must do when I install atypical OSes? Then comes the question about pricing, how private and secure it really is, which one to choose… and so on.
I understand many of these questions will sound stupid to those who are experienced, but I have not been part of this community very long. Feel free to link any educational videos or articles that answer my questions. I hope to learn more about this subject and one day installing a more secure system on my phone. Cheers!
- Your user account on GrapheneOS is just a local user account
- GrapheneOS comes with its own camera, gallery, contacts, sms, phone, and file manager apps, a hardened fork of Chromium called Vanadium, and an app that lets you install sandboxed versions of google play services and google play store, if you so wish. Nothing else. You can install other apps using F-Droid, or by installing the google play store app.
- GrapheneOS does not have a “cloud”, aside from the web services it uses to check for and pull new updates. If you want to sync files somewhere, you can install whatever you want (Nextcloud, Google Drive, etc)
- F-Droid is a fine choice, and the google play store is as well, all depending on what your priorities are for your phone. I only use F-Droid and have no non-foss apps on my phone for privacy reasons, for example.
- Running your own Nextcloud server is a great learning exercise, but it’s a big commitment of time if you’re not already familiar with linux administration, and if you want it to be secure and accessible remotely that’s even harder. Don’t let that be an impediment to getting a secure phone though - you can always keep using Google Drive for now, and then learn how to set up Nextcloud or some such as you go along.
Good luck!
- There’s no grapheneos account identifier.
- you can use any app you want.
- Usually nextcloud is the go to for cloud stuff.
- you can install play store or use aurora store.
how does having an account on the device work? For example, Samsungs require a Samsung account and iPhones require an iCloud account. How does it work on non-standard OSes?
On GrapheneOS, you don’t log in to any online account. All your stuff is just locally stored on your device by default. You can install third-party apps to sync your data, but GrapheneOS has no online account/sync system built in.
does GrapheneOS have its own Notes/Drive/Photos/Messages app? If not, how does one go about obtaining these? Related question:
It has the standard Android (non Google) File manager, Gallery and SMS app. These aren’t particularly good though. I recommend Fossify apps, they are completely free and open source, respect your privacy and offer a pretty good user experience. Fossify has a notes app, gallery, file manager, SMS app, phone app (dialer), music player, clock, keyboard, launcher and some other stuff.
how do I sync my notes/photos/files/etc to the “cloud” of GrapheneOS?
GrapheneOS doesn’t have a cloud. You need to find a solution for syncing your data yourself. There’s DAVx5, which uses the WebDAV protocol, Nextcloud, EteSync, PhotoPrism, Immich and many more. They all serve different purposes. DAVx5 works with any WebDAV-compatible server, it lets you sync calendars, contacts and tasks. Nextcloud is a self-hosted replacement for things like Google Drive, it lets you sync files, calendars, contacts, notes, photos, bookmarks, recipies, basically everything you could imagine. Note that the official Nextcloud app only lets you sync files, but there are other Nextcloud-compatible apps on F-Droid that let you use more features of the Nextcloud server. Both PhotoPrism and Immich are self-hosted solutions for syncing your photos, Immich has an official Android app on F-Droid , PhotoPrism only has this unofficial one called Gallery for PhotoPrism. If you’re not into self-hosting, there are still good, private options out there. EteSync allows you to sync your contacts, calendars, tasks and notes, and it uses end-to-end encryption by default. You can self-host it, but you don’t have to. You can just pay them $2/month and they will handle it for you. Personally, I like to self-host my own instance of Etebase, the backend server for EteSync. Other private, cloud-hosted options are Proton for email, calendar and files or Ente for photos (their app is also on F-Droid).
My third question regards the app store of GrapheneOS. I have heard that the sandboxed Play Store is better than FDroid, for instance; what are your thoughts? Do I go for Aurora Store instead? Is there any major difference at all?
Personally, I use Aurora Store if I need to download something from Google Play.
Is it possible to use multiple app stores?
Yes, you’re not bound to one app store, you can use multiple ones.
You can DM me if you have more questions.
+1 for recommending Fossify over ‘SimpleApps’
Extending the reply for ‘Sandboxed Play Store … F-Droid … Aurora Store’ -
- In case of Sandboxed Play Store - we’d need to login via a Google account in order to be able to download apps. Also, when we allow network access to the Play Store, it may send device info, app downloaded, updated etc related telemetry to Google. Also expect the promoted apps/games ads in the Play Store home screen.
- In case of Aurora Store - we can use it via Anonymous User or we can supply our own Google Account. Aurora Store just uses the credentials to download apps from Google Play, but other telemetry is limited compared to Play Store.
- In case of F-Droid store - It mostly hosts open-source Apps. And has cautions whenever an app uses proprieray libraries, code or needs access to specific network(eg - Telegram FOSS needs Telegram Servers access to function) in order to work.
I’d recommend you have both - F-Droid and Aurora Store. If you need to access the Play Store subscriptions, then you’d need to install Play Store as well.
So, regarding the account: it depends. AFAIK, there’s no “graphene account” in grapheneos, but you can use the regular google account after installing sandboxed play services. Note: you don’t have to, the only things from google I personally used were gcam (since their hdr+ thingy is quite good) and photos (since foss alternatives I’ve tried can’t 3d transform), both without play services and internet access. On other roms there may be an optional account (ex, /e/os).
Applications: there’s a messaging app (regular SMS) and gallery (not sure here, tho, mb there wasn’t; once again I decided to keep using google photos), otherwise - nope. All can be obtained from f-droid/play store/aurora. Syncing probably needs to be done via 3rd party stuff (I’d probably go with self-hosted nextcloud instance, which can be done rather easily and for free with tailscale if you have a spare laptop/pc)
App installation: I personally went with f-droid plus aurora (since the proprietary software I use doesn’t rely on play services other than for sending notifications, exception - gcam, but fixable with gcam services provider from f-droid with the caveat of not being able to use sandboxed play services due to the name collision). Idk how exactly sandboxed play services are “better” compared to f-droid, mb in terms of software availability? Otherwise I prefer f-droid since stuff there is Foss, trackerless and overall better audited (paste here the links to numerous articles about actual malware being found in play store).
Self-hosting nextcloud is relatively easy (I can drop some links later if you’re interested), but you can also keep using whatever you used before. Also (correct me if I’m wrong) /e/ provides their cloud with some amount of free storage, so you may want to start with that.
I don’t know if there exists such a thing as GrapheneOS account, but it is not required. You can add Google, Facebook or other accounts like with regular Android. I use a self hosted Nextcloud instance to synchronize contacts and calendar with DavX5 app. GrapheneOS has built-in apps. I use most of them. For the app stores I mostly use Fdroid and Aurora store for non open source software. I don’t use Google play store even sandboxed because I don’t accept the terms of use, mostly because they have the right to uninstall apps from your phone without consent or notice.
