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---
title: "Daily Driving GrapheneOS"
published: "2024-05-21T21:52:30.000000Z"
updated: "2024-05-21T21:52:30.000000Z"
---
The one techie thing I accomplished [while I was a zombie last week](https://scribbles.jbowdre.lol/post/emerging-from-the-fog) was installing [GrapheneOS](https://grapheneos.org/) on my Pixel 8 Pro.
> GrapheneOS is a private and secure mobile operating system with great functionality and usability. It starts from the strong baseline of the [Android Open Source Project (AOSP)](https://source.android.com/) and takes great care to avoid increasing attack surface or hurting the strong security model. GrapheneOS makes substantial improvements to both privacy and security through many carefully designed features built to function against real adversaries. The project cares a lot about usability and app compatibility so those are taken into account for all of our features.
It's packed with [thoughtfully-designed security features](https://grapheneos.org/features#table-of-contents), and includes a clever compatibility layer which allows the user to [install and use Google Play services](https://grapheneos.org/usage#sandboxed-google-play) as a standard, sandboxed, non-privileged application. This means you can continue to use the apps you want (including ones you've already purchased) while limiting the invasive reach of Google's services.
I had played with GrapheneOS a bit in the past, but always on a secondary (or even tertiary) device. In those cases, I installed Google Play in a "work" profile to further limit its reach, and I only installed a few must-have apps in that profile. And (perhaps as a result) I never stuck with GrapheneOS long-term.
But I've now spent a week using GrapheneOS as my primary mobile OS, and I've settled in pretty comfortably for the long haul. I configured the sandboxed Google Play environment in the primary profile, and I installed most of the apps I use on a regular basis.
I'm really impressed with GrapheneOS as a daily driver. Even with all of the added security and privacy features, the overall OS is polished and easy-to-use. It feels very much like a proper grown-up OS experience rather than one of those community ROMs that include a bunch of partially-baked features. The OS maintains the cohesiveness that I've come to expect from Pixel-flavored software.
And it wasn't hard to get all my apps and connected devices set up (including my Pixel Buds Pro and Pixel Watch 2), and I really appreciate being able to limit the permissions and access of the Google services. I can even selectively install *most* Pixel-specific apps that I might want (like the Pixel Camera app for its software-based photographic wizardry, or Google Messages for RCS support) without also requiring the typical background data collection that goes with it.
Not all Pixel apps work though; some (like the Pixel Thermometer app specific to the 8 Pro) may have system dependencies that aren't able to be met with a de-Googled OS. And some other features which depend on Google's on-device magic (like Face Unlock, Now Playing, Flip-to-Shh, and others) aren't available either. Those things would be nice to have, but I'm okay forfeiting them in exchange for an Android experience which helps me further reduce my reliance on Google.
All told, I wish I had made this switch ages ago.
=> https://scribbles.jbowdre.lol/post/daily-driving-grapheneos 📡 Originally posted on Scribbles