I'm in no way defending Google here, just pointing out you're going from bad to worse and think it's a good thing.
And on the other side, the benefits of using iOS over Android spyware outweighs the cons now.
Apple lost my confidence after they removed Advanced Device Encryption for British users (plus implemented age verification for them).
https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/14344-cellebrite-premium-ju...
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/105120
You're thinking of Apple saying they haven't detected a case of a device with Lockdown Mode exploited in the wild themselves. Extremely few devices use Lockdown Mode and Apple has very little insight into successful exploits so there isn't much opportunity for them to detect it in the first place. Lockdown Mode bundles everything together and has very inconvenient changes many people won't accept. That greatly reduces usage even by people fully aware of it who want a lot of what it provides. For example, there's
Apple has said they haven't seen a case of a device with Lockdown Mode being exploited which is extremely misleading. Apple doesn't have that much visibility into devices being exploited and would mostly seen failed attempts. All of the Lockdown Mode functionality being bundled together contributes to it barely being used. There's no opt-out system for most of it beyond disabling it as a whole. Only a subset of the Safari restrictions can be partially disabled per-app and per-site which doesn't fully restore web compatibility. It's more that hardly anyone is using it and that Apple doesn't have much insight into apps and the OS being exploited successfully in the first place. Lockdown Mode is definitely useful but people should read about what it actually does and compare that to how devices get exploited. Apple's memory corruption exploit protections aren't tied to Lockdown Mode.
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/Xcode/enabling-enh...
You can use iPhone being blissfully unaware it has malware on it even in Lockdown mode (which is essentially cope mechanism and Apple way of saying "we care about security, trust us bro").
But yeah, there is no doubt in my mind that they both collect as much as they can.
There are multiple objective reasons to believe that Apple is a more trustworthy actor here than other companies, including vulgar capitalistic reasons.
You can just say “pfft, wow, you really believe that?”, I guess, but if that’s your position there’s no reason to argue about this with you.
Also, for anybody from outside of US, its US 3-letter agencies that pose biggest actual security risk since US laws treat us as sub-humans. Apple is as translucent to those as Android. But I get it, its still much easier to make PR campaign based on security for Apple than Android.
The biggest loss for me was Termux. I had lots of scripts and such that I ran, plus just having a Linux environment in my pocket was nice. Luckily I found ish which gives me alpine Linux on top of a virtual x86 machine as provided by a JITC layer. I can host PWA apps out of that environment for local use. Of course I can also ssh to my unix like machines from there too.
I am starting to tinker with swift a bit more too. As with google, I could buy a dev key to deploy my own apps only this way I have all the window dressing and end to end encryption on cloud storage.
Maybe this will be a catalyst towards further evolution of the web app as Android devs want to carve out some freedom from the world domination corporate shadow government walled gardens.
That’s what forced me to finally bite the bullet and pay Apple yearly so I could develop an app for my friends and I to use. Would have much rather kept it as a PWA.
At some point you have the thing working to your satisfaction and just want to continue using it.
Or maybe everything is normal, but, oops, you forgot the last renewal and it stops working exactly the moment you needed it most.
Or maybe it's a normal day, and, oops, you forgot the last manual renewal, and now it's busted at exactly the moment you needed it most.
You forgot to factor in the cost of a Mac.
So I feel like, Something like this was/is possible but its immensely hard for something like this being used especially when a desktop os on a phone is so bad ergonomically speaking unless you have a keyboard mouse connected
A better option iirc is to use something like kivy[0] directly with termux, not sure if java might have direct options too or not.
What's the next step when ADB requires some hoops to enable? Will we say that but the eMMC has an unencrypted EXT4 partition, we can just desolder and write into it?
Still unacceptable, a better option would be to use something like lineage or some other aosp distro without the google services (hoping that nothing makes you dependent on them).
This still doesn't address the vast majority of people though (and that's what I'm concerned about the most).
What we need now is:
- short term, work on pushing apps not to depend on the google services so phones preinstalled with something like /e/ become a viable option for most people. Push our public services to stop mandating Google and Apple OSes for random stuff.
- longer term, work on making alternatives to Android and iOS viable options for most people (stability, usability and availability of services people use). The best candidate for that today is Linux mobile.
Breaking network effect around proprietary services is one of the strategies towards this.
Another one is reducing our reliance on computers (of any shape) altogether, maybe.
Jolla has a prelaunch campaign, decent phones for 200€. I might just as well grab one. Sick of having a phone which is more expensive than my laptop but I can barely use.
This is much worse than nagging about "untrusted sources".
each adb host has to be individually white-listed by an unlocked device. also the current behavior is that it auto forgets any white listed host that hasn't connected within 7 days.
So even when adb is on an attacker can't just plug into your phone and use it. Besides, I just switch it off when I don't use it
•1. Where most users can install software from:
↠↠ iOS: official store (App Store) + (in EU) other stores
↠↠ Android (now): official store (Play Store), other stores (e.g. F-Droid), arbitrary APKs
↠↠ Android (after changes): official store (Play Store), other stores (e.g. F-Droid), arbitrary APKs
•2. Who the developers of software can be:
↠↠ iOS: registered developers ($99/year)
↠↠ Android (now): any developer
↠↠ Android (after changes): registered developers ($25 one-time) + hobbyists (small distribution) + any developers (for advanced users)
•3. Installing your own apps on your own phone, without becoming a registered developer:
↠↠ iOS: using XCode: need to reinstall every 7 days.
↠↠ Android (now): using ADB
↠↠ Android (after changes): using ADB
The second row (•2) is what is changing in Android. I think "the ability to run my own code on my own device", narrowly speaking, is closest to the third row, which is not changing.
Alternatively if the difficulty of moving from 0->X is not negligible but moving from X->X+Y is then I may still be installing but I'm not considering the Y in the comparison then either. i.e. If I have to show my id to google once and apple twice it's the initial showing that is the turn off, or if it's the action of getting my credit card out in the 1st place rather than the cost difference that concerns me.
The key difference being that when I needed help I called Apple Support who transfered me once to their EU Developer support who, while I talked to him, setup and approved my Dev account. While my Google account still is in pending limbo with their new verification system with no support to contact... I have since giving up getting access after multiple tries.
So Google changes do hit alot harder than the summery makes it seem.
As if most android maker phones don't already fully own your device - preventing you from unlocking of bootloader and installing an OS that actually doesnt enforce the restriction google is introducing in their flavour of android.
To pretend that with this change android becomes exactly like iOS is... ridiculous? I can pick any 10yo old android phone from my drawer and develop for it, no problem and without asking for permissions. And if I'm already this motivated I'm certainly motivated enough to wait 24hs on future (more locked down) devices.
Do you think people who download NewPipe and alike - to circumvent ads and enable premium features - would think twice because they need to wait 24hs? Will NewPipe devs stop developing (anonymously) because of a small fraction of users who refuse to (or won't) go through unlocking steps?
Show me all these "rebel" apps on iOS ecosystem that can be easily distributed on any channel: fdroid, github, telegram groups, etc.
But sure, if you thinking moving to iOS is the same, sounds like you never really made use of any of the freedoms android used to and will continue to provide
But I don't think that's the point. It's a continual erosion of people's ability to use hardware _they own_ in ways _they want_ under the guise of 'security' - which to be fair google does fuck all to actually prevent malicious, scammy and misleading apps from appearing on their play store.
Like, why make it harder _at all_? I develop Android apps for a company that is used only internally. I don't want to have to release apps to the play store so that they have to go through a bs review period before I can get them out the door users. Currently I have a <10m turn around from starting the build to having an app in user's hands, ready to go... Every other time we've had to use the play store it's 2+ days, and they don't test or verify anything meaningful.
I recognize my experience isn't universal, but I'm pretty opposed to changes like this. I'm not American so I don't really have underlying rhetoric around freedom etc, but this is an impingement and part of continuing anti-consumer trend. Google's not the only one, but certainly the one under the spotlight here.
A lot of people don't seem to understand this and point out that Android is still more open and free than iOS, but iOS has never been about openness and freedom. People believed in Android, and in Google. Now they either see Google betraying them (once again) or only see the Android vs iOS comparison, forgetting about the implications about autonomy, agency and about the future of Android. Many people don't care which actors control their digital lives and what motivations they have. People should be made aware that Google is on their side and that they have shown many times that they have no honor.
I wonder why. The last time I considered believing in Android was in 2008 when I was choosing between getting an Android phone or Openmoko phone. Went with the latter and never regretted, as Android quickly turned out to be a disappointment. This is just the continuation of the slow crawl they've been on since 20 years ago and it's been really obvious that it's going to happen. The answer is to reject Android just like iOS, not to keep hoping that inevitable isn't going to happen.
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."Replace the lock screen with a custom app
Replace the home screen with a custom app
Set default apps for SMS, phone service, assistant, camera, photo gallery. all things you can not change on iOS
Always on widgets and dynamic wallpapers
It has a much more customizable inter app communication system so that you can get more apps to be the default viewers
At allows true background tasks like say a BitTorrent client
It supports shared storage like SMB and a user accessible file system
Custom NFC apps
USB host mode
Multiple users/profiles
And about 70 other things
I hope we will remember this lesson and learn from it. Calling something "open" doesn't make it so, and anything owned by a large corporation will eventually succumb to the direction taken by the corporation. And large corporations have goals where you, the user, are not a consideration, you are just a part of their money-making machinery.
I do not feel iOS is particularly better... some things are, some things are not. Yes android was more customizable, and yes the universal back and home buttons are still better than the multi tap and hidden gestures on iOS. But overall some pleasantries such as shared clipboard, seamless headphone switch over, and overall simplification so far, is working very well for me.
I simply need a phone on a major platform, as my job (and life) requires to have certain apps which only run on (non-rooted) Android or iOS phones. And I am tired of fighting and adapting.. so I now just use most of the default apps everywhere, and whatever does or does not work, I take it mostly as-is. For now it seems to allow me to just worry less about it and focus on the things I actually want or need to do .. send email, read message, visit a website, listen to a podcast and not fret about the tiniest of UX details.
I would love to live in a world where I could run around with a customized linux laptop and some sort of privacy respecting phone (e.g. Graphene) but the hurdles are not really worth it to me anymore. Sad in a way, as without counter pressure.. things will not necessarily get better, I know. The 22C3 talk by Rop and Frank I think was depressing, and true.
We lost the war.
https://events.ccc.de/congress/2005/fahrplan/events/920.en.h...
Then they locked it, so I went to live in a luxury hotel, it's more expensive, I can't decide how I want it and I don't own anything, but it's such a superior experience!
It's not their fault (plus since 2027 we expect the first Motorola handset secure enough tu be supported by GOS)
And at least they don't cheat on patches :)
Also, once you have it, it just works.
Some people like that.
Does that not apply to GOS?
Anyone making this statement is not a serious person.
I have been around Mac, Windows, and Linux for both desktop, personal, containers/server (yes, even OS X Server) at a large scale, etc. use and there's no way this is a serious take from anyone with any breadth of real world experience, especially not in the desktop world.
The Apple/macOS experience is even now still above the rest by a serious margin that cannot be ignored.
The Linux experience on server/container, etc. is King.
The Windows experience is...well, yeah, still somewhat stable and they're doing their best to alienate anyone they can. But still a more stable experience by a slim margin than Linux.
I've used Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Gentoo, Arch, Mandrake before Mandriva, macOS since before it was macOS, Windows since 95, and beyond. I'm writing this on a Nobara install right now, because my entire goal is to eradicate Windows from my life, which within the first minutes of setup already showed more quirks than even Windows 10.
Is the Linux Desktop experience better now? Yep, it's miles ahead of what it was, and yet it's still buggy as hell. I have intentionally gone between iOS and Android over the past decade-ish and a half and Android is a Playskool mobile OS compared to iOS. And yes, I even have used GrapheneOS.
I'm really tired of the Linux fanbase, and I include myself in that group, constantly lying in every thread about what it is and what it isn't. If you lie to people and tell them that it's better than Windows and macOS, they're going to immediately have a bad time and end up in a world of hurt because they're listening to nerds who barely go outside talk about how Arch is the greatest thing in the world and will solve all your computing problems.
Don't set people up to be disappointed if you actually care about Linux becoming a thing.
Also, and perhaps most importantly, I apologize if this comes off a bit harsh.
It's been a few years since I had to use OSX for work, but last I used it, you couldn't maximize windows without a 1+ second animation playing when you cmd+tabbed, which made maximizing completely useless. Docker was also super slow. There's no package manager and the usual recommendation (brew) for a third party one is trash that will update programs you didn't ask it to when you're installing something else. IIRC external monitors are completely unusable from blurry text.
I used a windows laptop recently for a year or so for work. Absolute jank. Sleep was just broken. Like wouldn't sleep/spin down the fan with the lid closed unless I unplugged it. Often completely frozen requiring hard reboots when opening the lid. Leaving it "sleeping" for an extended period would still heavily drain the battery. WSL barely works. For some reason I have to care whether things are in my Windows or Linux home directory. Wrong one and git commands take seconds. I'd get environment mismatches where the terminal in VSCode would fail to run commands that run in a normal CLI, etc. DNS would break inside WSL because it wouldn't propagate config from DHCP. UI is just slow to respond to anything. If you start typing in the start menu search (e.g. "shut down" or "power off"), the menu replaces itself with a different one, and you can't find the power options until you close and reopen the menu.
That's a throwaway line, everyone is used to their own flavors of jank, even on Linux.
>Your goal is to get off windows, but I've had only Linux on my home computers for ~10 years and it's been working great the whole time, Literally nothing I can think of to complain about.
I think you're trying to read too much into a comment and trying to poke holes...I don't have any Windows, if that wasn't clear. Since we're flexing about experience...I've been doing this since RH 7.2 came in the back of a book 20+ years ago and deploying production Linux services for about the same at a large scale but whatever.
Everything has its flavor of jank, and for most people, Linux is a flavor of jank just barely too far over the horizon still. But, once again, far better than what it ever was 20 years ago, and has the potential to pass Windows at least here soon. But, one of the biggest hurdles especially for adoption is, well, the community, 90% of which think they're one step away from being Linus simply because they installed Arch following a tutorial, and they treat new users the same way for no good reason as they tell the same new users "it's Easy!"
You must be one of the luckier Linux users I guess. I have heard of them, but I've had plenty of convos where once you actually dig into things it's usually not as truthful and playing to the crowd on an internet forum _about Linux_ for confirmation.
>It's been a few years since I had to use OSX for work, but last I used it, you couldn't maximize windows without a 1+ second animation playing when you cmd+tabbed
I use it every day for work, for heavy eng work. Let's be honest, yes there's an animation delay to some degree, but this is trafficking a bit in hyperbole here. GNOME has basically the same behavior for many aspects including switching workspaces by default...which can be turned off in both. The Cinnamon or KDE default experience is better in this regard.
>Docker was also super slow
Only issue I've had with Docker on a Mac with speed is when I'm trying to use some hefty x64 images on ARM macOS (I still have a last model i7 MBA for fun too), which is expected, same with VMs. I've run some pretty gnarly full stack apps, some that included Java backends that needed up to 8gb because reasons, without issue as long as I built an ARM image.
>There's no package manager and the usual recommendation (brew) for a third party one is trash that will update programs you didn't ask it to when you're installing something else.
It behaves roughly the same on macOS as it does on Linux, IME. If I'm not explicit on dnf/apt, I get more updates than just what I wanted too. But maybe I'm missing something. It's how I manage all my tooling on the work env and gives me very few issues save usually for only the occasional connection issue which is always attributed to work VPN nonsense.
>IIRC external monitors are completely unusable from blurry text.
Even on a Mac? The ecosystem is designed for professional graphics use, never had an issue there even back to CRT days heavily using all the Adobe suite versions, and even with non-Apple displays. Every Linux setup I've ever used, including this one is janky with external monitors, let alone dual. Even the "Easiest distro in the world" (Mint) according to most Linux nerds is problematic to say the least in trying to use the screen res/layout settings.
>I used a windows laptop recently for a year or so for work. Absolute jank. Sleep was just broken. Like wouldn't sleep/spin down the fan with the lid closed unless I unplugged it. Often completely frozen requiring hard reboots when opening the lid.
A - agreed, I don't work anywhere which requires Windows, because for all my devtooling, it's all tied into a macOS ecosystem, yes, with homebrew for now. Been that way for almost a decade now. Ideally, one should also do a lot in a build container for 1:1 matching so your CI jobs run the same env/toolset/versions. It's better for real dev work and way more stable in a way that won't require you to become a support headache for the company either.
B - what you are describing is a hardware issue and attributing it to Windows. I had the same issue on a B550 series desktop mobo, went to Linux, same exact behavior. This is not an OS issue.
>Leaving it "sleeping" for an extended period would still heavily drain the battery.
To my mind, non-mac laptops are garbage for battery life, everyone knows this, and yeah if it wasn't sleeping for real it's gonna eat up resources. This is more a hardware issue than anything, not the OS layer. Put Linux on it and I could almost guarantee you would have had similar issues, I've dealt with this like I said w/ the mobo above.
>WSL barely works. For some reason I have to care whether things are in my Windows or Linux home directory. Wrong one and git commands take seconds. I'd get environment mismatches where the terminal in VSCode would fail to run commands that run in a normal CLI, etc. DNS would break inside WSL because it wouldn't propagate config from DHCP. UI is just slow to respond to anything. If you start typing in the start menu search (e.g. "shut down" or "power off"), the menu replaces itself with a different one, and you can't find the power options until you close and reopen the menu.
Man, I have to wonder....was this not using latest/WSL2 and instead using WSL1? Because there _is_ a massive leap between the two. It's not ideal compared to native on Linux or even mac but still works quite well for many use cases. When the WSL2 upgrade came back when I was forced in a past env to use a Windows laptop, myself and 4 other Devs could run our full stack including Kafka locally without much issue on WSL2 other than producing heat on the laptop b/c of how many services we were running. (About 35 .NET Core microservices at the time, along with redis, Kafka, etc.). Yes, the home pathing was a tad annoying.
>If you start typing in the start menu search (e.g. "shut down" or "power off"), the menu replaces itself with a different one, and you can't find the power options until you close and reopen the menu.
Yeah every OS seems to have issues with their search/launcher tooling, but the Start Menu has been shit for a while now. I've had more issues on Windows than anything else re: manu defaults (once tweaked on like W10 it's fine), but then Linux, and then even macOS...before paring down Spotlight to only search certain things, which made it way better.
shrugs
I think this is one of the challenges of building good software, it's why Apple does what they do. Some experiences on one hardware set are somehow perfect, but they're rare, some are the exact opposite. But a lot comes down to what a user is willing to tolerate, too, and while someone might say it was "Easier on Linux" it's usually just that they're willing to tolerate more terminal madness and odd behaviors than others in their daily driver.
For non-power users OSX is still a no-brainer, but for a programmer I feel like Apple's left us no alternative.
edit: and I'd like to add, GrapheneOS brought me back the joy of using my phone. Since 2018 or so I started to dread my phone (and the internet) more and more. Installing GrapheneOS brought back the joy on using these marvelous computers (and self-hosting brought back the joy of using the internet)
I love my phone and when I replace it, I will be flashing GrapheneOS again. This is my second phone with it so far, and roughly year 4 or 5.
With that said, it isn't for everyone. I definitely remember some issues upon first install, a learning curve if you want to call it that. I also introduce intentional obstacles in certain "workflows" in my life that dissuade certain usage, like excessive social media use. With that said, I no longer remember what I introduced myself and what was an OS characteristic. I do remember having frustrations with most banking apps IF I didn't log into the play store mirror. Since I'm "hardcore" and am not willing to sign into a Google product on my phone, they just don't work. However I don't think they would be an issue for most people.
If you are on the fence, you can make a backup of your phone, try it out, and if you don't like it, you can reinstall the default Android and restore your backup. I've done it before when I used my previous GrapheneOS phone for store credit for my next phone, and figured they'd want a factory reset default OS on there.
The first is the anti-trust angle. Some subset of bank apps don't work because of attestation and that's a significant barrier to adoption for switching to competitors, so it ought to be an anti-trust violation for the platform to do that.
The second is, you try it and discover that your bank doesn't work. If you want it bad enough you can switch banks, and the fact that it doesn't work is a signal that your bank has a weak security team who is just cargo culting deleterious vendor nonsense without evaluating whether it has any real security value.
(The use case for attestation is completely orthogonal to bank apps because it can't prevent credential stealing from compromised phones running a fake app since the fake app won't require attestation, and it can't prevent attackers from using stolen credentials to transfer funds because once they have the credentials they can just use a normal phone, and that's the case even if the attestation was completely airtight, which it isn't. Meanwhile the devices that can pass attestation are generally more vulnerable because it implies they're running the more-likely-to-be-outdated OS that came with the device rather than a third party upgrade with more recent patches, so they're essentially encouraging their customers to not upgrade their OS. Banks that do this are wearing clown makeup and you have to ask if you trust them with your money.)
But look at all the information I can get from the Live Tiles! Oh and isn't Cortana neat! A little more self-flagellation for the penitent ones who've traded corporate app stores for daily inconvenience.
With that out of the way, and the device now seemingly authorized, it still doesn't work, because when I log in, the app restarts. That could be a real compatibility problem.
I'm not going back to paying without my phone. So yeah, I'm not going to a free platform either.
the choice really is mostly down to Google's Android or iOS - unless you're ready to make sacrifices. If you are... More power to you! I'm not (at this point in my life) right now.
Alternate take: good. I'd rather the GrapheneOS team pick standardized (if limited) hardware configurations to support and then spend their (many multiples less than Google) resources on the platform rather than device compatibility.
The Android OEM diversity mean the time/economics of supporting every phone with a non-Google OS were never going to work, and I'd rather have it working well on a limited number of platforms than poorly on more.
Firmware engineering and patching sucks and delivers little value to the user, because best case (you solved the issue or patched the hardware errata) something basic that a user expects is now working.
Nobody is going to switch to a platform because a phone can now make calls. Even if there are 1000+ human hours in patching some cheap clone LTE chip it uses.
Go freely walk out your local supermarket without paying.
But your Android phone is unlocked #winning
that's your definition of freedom?
Don't pay taxes. Steal cars, punch Trump, call a black person the N-word ... see how it goes
Paper and pencil offer a far more blank canvas compared to the very specific hardware constraints of a phone, and ecosystem of software limited to the common languages
Software dev and use is, comparatively, heavily constrained and on rails compared to sitting by a tree and imagining
To buy the phone ones agency is coupled to the subset of legitimate options to make money
Same for electricity to charge it, battery replacement, screen repair if it breaks.
Really just quickly becomes a ball and chain
So free!
It's natural that this huge Android regression might be enough for someone to dip their toes into the other side.
No, it markets lockin dressed up as privacy. Convincing you that they are the same thing is the real magic here.
(Apple's Terms of Service is also much better, for not having an arbitration clause anywhere except the Apple credit card, with a very easy opt-out flow.)
I love my 13 mini as a phone, but I don't understand how anyone could compare the two app stores and think iOS comes out on top. At least android has f-droid.
From my perspective, the walled garden value I get is predominantly in the integrations between my phone, macbook, and watch. And to a lesser extent (because it's a bit buggy at times) the family integrations.
As a result it's mainly rich people and tourists that own them. Most people use budget android phones, the kind that still come with 3,5mm jacks. You still see wired earphones a lot.
[1] https://source.android.com/
[2] https://www.apkmirror.com/
[3] https://www.kyoceramobile.com/rugged-devices/duraxv-extreme-...
After switching away from GrapheneOS to iOS after RCS stopped working for me, I can safely say my experience has been the opposite. The camera is the only thing better for me on iOS - everything else is buggier and worse. A few of my favorites:
1. Safari is buggy as hell, and requires installing apps to run things like ad blockers.
2. The settings are ALL over the place and very hard to navigate
3. The gestures are clunky - often have to try a couple times to get one of the settings quick menus to drop down
4. Why is the date not displayed at the top of the screen with the time outside of the lock screen?
5. The pin unlock is horribly broken - I have to slow way down to use it compared to Android.
6. Apple maps is hot garbage. I had to install Google Maps anyway to get decent performance.
7. The handling of audio devices seems intentionally malicious - like if I call someone from my car through car play, it shouldn't send the audio out through the phone earpiece. If a call begins with phone earpiece audio and is underway, it shouldn't switch several seconds in to bluetooth headset half a house.
I'm going back for my next phone.
I highly recommend switching to GOS, it is wayyy better than iOS UX-wise and obviously better privsec and freedom.
One thing that I had to do when I first got GOS, to get a better experience, was find all the Open Source apps that I needed. Otherwise, it looks rather bland and the apps are mid. Once you find the right apps and launcher, everything works much better.
On the bright side, Messages works without linking to a Google account
When I first tried last fall I had it working for a few weeks then it stopped entirely delivering messages and I fell back to SMS only. After the recent system updates and enabling the ICC option it has been working well for me.
The official page explains briefly, https://grapheneos.org/usage#rcs
There is a very long discussion threat going back several years that is now considered resolved, which seems to be the case for me. https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/1353-using-rcs-with-google-...
In the last week or so, multiple people have told me they cannot text me. I found that I was getting a "verification limit exceeded" error (perhaps because of my unusual behavior of usually being at work or at home, both which have known wifi networks, and sending maybe half a dozen texts any day?). I got the error to go away for half a day and they were still unable to message during that time, and now that I have it disabled I still appear as online on RCS (yet still unreachable?) so they still cannot message me lol.
I've been on the other end many times across multiple Android devices across multiple years, being able to send messages to some RCS users, being unable to send messages to other RCS users, not being able to receive messages in group chats entirely comprised of Android users, etc.
SMS/MMS: Handled by carriers, you can send messages to people who are offline and they'll get the messages when they turn their phone back on.
Telegram/FbMessenger/Whatsapp/etc: Handled by individual corporations, you can send messages to people who are offline and they'll get the messages when they turn their their device on.
RCS: Handled by both Google and carriers at the same time for some reason, maybe 80% chance of being able to send a message to somebody who's online, let alone offline.
I'm sure there are multiple reasons it was challenging, but Google and friends have not risen to the occasion at all. Truly a garbage protocol.
RCS I didn't even bother to set up. I don't want to use yet another system. If people want to reach me they have WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram to choose from.
I hear this and wonder how much must be regional. I'm experiencing the opposite. Apple Maps has gotten quite good, while Google Maps seems to just be rotting away. Both do work reasonably well in my home area of the PNW, but Apple Maps is a bit more polished. But in some places, like recently when I was on a business trip in Austin, Google Maps was comically terrible at routing. I get that partly this is probably because Texas has interesting ideas about designing a road network, but still, Apple got it working just fine.
How many people can afford one?
Calculator checks yearly cost based on device support: (https://ibb.co/xq82YQCw)
Sources for device lifetime from calculator: (https://grapheneos.org/faq#device-lifetime)
I used a New+Unlocked+Pixel+X on eBay to find a rough price of the phone.
Most people get scammed by their carrier and pay $25-45 per month just for their wireless subscription, and many more get caught up in the device bundles which gets you the "latest and greatest", at a huge price. So people are paying, per month, what you can pay, per year for a Pixel.
You can use Silent Link to pay by the gigabyte with no expiration date. Most people don't need unlimited—I use a maximum of 5 GB per month, and my average is around 3. At $1.60 per month, that is $60 per YEAR for me.
Swap in https://jmp.chat for another 60 dollars per year for calls/texts and you get a $120/year phone bill which is just $10/month.
I will be moving from US Mobile to Jmp.chat once my plan expires.
You could also use US Mobile for $17/month which is unlimited and is user friendly. They also often have Pixels for a significant discount with no lock-in.
Not going to be cheaper than Pixels. The chips they need for the hardware security are the flagship Snapdragon chips iirc.
I love my Pixel now, I would have to see where Motorola is better than the Pixels other than the more computing power.
The only phone I've ever had trouble installing more than a few apps was one with 512MB of storage. If I go check the second result on amazon for android phone it's a solid motorola option, unlocked for $127 and with 128GB. That's more than enough; even some flagships have 128GB.
The "just over $100" range has multiple options with good storage. Below that is a sea of locked/refurbished phones that are also good options in many cases.
Digging deeper I eventually hit a "BLU" brand phone for $50 with only 16GB, and that leaves you with not very much after the OS takes its space. But then you can add $10 to get another 16GB and have more than enough room for apps.
So you have to go really low to have the problem you're describing.
Hardware may be cheap enough now that budget phones are more useable--32 GB for <$100 is a major improvement.
Regardless, since they have a 16GB model I strongly doubt the 32GB model would ever have less than 16GB of usable space.
Last year though the Pixel 8a was selling for 350€ and I got one. Luckily, given the recent developments. Will be installing GrapheneOS.
If you consider getting iPhone you DEFINITELY can afford something much newer than that.
Android will still have the ability to install non-google-distributed programs. The problem is the ominous momentum, but it is still more open than the apple alternative
From my perspective iOS is better than Android in a number of ways but Android always won out overall for me, in large part because of the freedom regarding software. Remove that freedom from the equation, I think the balance tips towards iOS.
These posts always have a few comments like that, but they never actually say what they find to be better on iOS.
For me, Google services are not an option, so my Android experience is sans-Google.
Until September 2025, I'd say iOS had actually gotten better than Android.
CalDAV, CardDAV, and SMB are baked into iOS, whereas these are onerous to set up on Android. These are very very nice protocols, and I use them all daily. (Contacts, Calendars, Notes, Reminders, and Files.)
Apple's developer ecosystem lacks the FOSS devs that make F-Droid so good, but they do have a number of devs who release paid apps with zero tracking, which is very nice. It's often the case an app exists on iOS as a $5 one-time fee with a two-paragraph privacy policy for which one does not exist on Fdroid.
Shortcuts work well enough, homescreen customization is good enough, etc. that a number of the original Android draws are gone. There are a number of points where iOS and Android are equals now.
iCloud's E2EE photo backup is something I reluctantly started using and found to be very nice, after having had de-Googled in 2018. I miss having my photos auto-upload and be available on other devices, and Apple has had iCloud Web for awhile. This is nicer than the options I have on Android.
And while Android's notification-panel tiles have gotten worse over the years (down from six to two controls on the first swipe, this was what alienated me and got me to try iOS), iOS now has a much denser "control center".
The big caveat is the gigantic regression that is iOS 26. The phone is slower, it kills battery, the native apps are constantly crashing, the lockscreen and homescreen often have broken navigation flows, etc. It's a travesty that never should have been released and iOS is easily worse than Android right now. If someone needed a phone today, I couldn't recommend an iPhone, but that might change with iOS 27.
I can only speak to SMB but it is not hard on Android. I use a longtime third party app so not sure what the state of native support is but it works just fine for me, including over VPN
The long term fear/plan for google is that they know they days of SAAS and Apps are obsolete. People will just write their own platforms, apps, websites all from scratch using AI, which means the app stores becomes obsolete, which means no more ad revenue from shitty ads and no more control and unfettered tracking of your behaviour. AI will make these guys obsolete, they know it, this is them fighting back.
As someone who hates disturbances this is the killer feature that has kept me with samsung - well that and fdroid which is currently endangered.
For example, Ive had a Mac(book? The one that you connect periphery to use) as a work computer at a previous software job, the iPhone because of a girl I dated who wouldn't be with a green bubble man, and iPad also in a previous job, so never together or actually adopted in personal life, so I didn't get sold.
iOS charges you and limits your custom app until a few days and you have to "renew" Even before this change, I have my custom apps running forever.