So today I finally took the plunge and bought a new Pixel 8a to install GrapheneOS on. It will be my new daily driver, replacing my current phone. It’s getting delivered tomorrow, and I’d like to make sure I’m getting the full privacy/security benefits from the device. What other recommendations would you provide?
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One thing I wish I knew going in, apps installed via Aurora store (google play store front end), for example ProtonMail typically rely on google play services to correctly send push notifications unfortunately.
You can remedy this with a seperate profile that can run in the background with google play services and apps that you want notifications for if you take issue with running google software running on your main profile.
Other than that, I’ve actually found GrapheneOS on my pixel 8 to be a much better software experience than my previous S22 without any tampering at all, both privacy (obviously) and functionally.
Congrats and enjoy your new freedome phone, you won’t ever look back!
The suggestions people are making are good but I want to point out that GrapheneOS has good defaults so you don’t need to do much except use your phone. If you don’t have a particularly high threat model you shouldn’t need to make any other considerations (beyond just what software you use on your phone, like if you use something like discord or whatever)
For discord, aliucord works ok. For some reason I can’t see emojis though. Maybe I gotta update?
F-droid session installer, aurora store for google play apps, second profile or 3 for main non invasive apps, google apps, then tor privacy app usage on 3rd. Create backups of each on a flash drive use experimental app data feature in settings. Storage scopes for google app usages, deny most permissions in all profiles, use the camera and mic block toggles. Setup distress in the settings. Download wasted app on fdroid if you like it for extra precaution and settings. Use private messengers. FUTO makes good voice dictation, password storage bit warden its pretty seamless to use. Don’t use fingerprint or face ID. Go through the settings and tweak as you need.
The F-droid session installer isn’t necessary anymore
How so?
It now uses the built in API
I will add on top of all the other recommendations, in F-Droid settings, turn off all anti-features. If after doing that, an app you are looking for is not available, check what anti-feature it has for why it’s not listed.
I don’t really see a point
This seems really inconvinient, especially because the app page already shows the anti-features.
Anti features are also often not comparable, but they are presented that way. Relying on some random proprietary API owned by some random company is not the same as using Wikipedia or OSM.
Can do this or they natively list apps that have anti features on the app page as well as the search page under the app title. Whatever strikes your liking.
Regarding profiles, having two is generally recommended - your main profile with no Google services, and a secondary profile only for apps that absolutely require Google Play Services. Personally, I just dump everything in one profile and deny nearly every permission to anything Google, and on top of the sandboxing that’s enough of an improvement over stock Android that I don’t bother with two profiles.
I’m glad there are other GOS users out there with only one profile and Play services. I tried out multiple profiles, and even though there might be benefits to it, it was just too inconvenient and inefficient for me. Hopefully Google doesn’t steal all my device contents though lolz
Isn’t a 2nd profile unnecessary due to sandboxed Google Play Services?
Yeah I have 2 profiles but I gave up and started using everything in one profile
You don’t need a lightweight launcher like KISS, but… Damn if KISS isn’t just a good fucking launcher
Get a case with a wrist strap;
Get a usb-charge only cable/adapter for when you want to charge it when out and about.
Get a usb-c to headphone adapter.
Play around with multi-profile alerts, and work profiles for separation.
Play around with file-scopes, and contact scopes.
All y’all downvoting recommendations: That’s a really negative way to participate in a community. People are genuinely giving their earnest real lived recommendations (i haven’t seen one meme recommendation in this thread) and some of you downvote them for it. We wouldn’t have anything to talk about if we all thought exactly the same thing, and had the same opinions.
Some people would love if it all were just memes and no discussions. Lemmy is getting there because downvoting pushes down a lot of valid opinions.
I think people who enjoy downvoting are people who generally never themselves have any opinions that differ from the majority one.
Yeah, the downvote chilling effect is real.
I try to figure out why some people are habitual downvoters, and I have some archtype theories:
Example in this same discussion, one person is downvoting ANYONE who mentions a keyboard app that isn’t the keyboard app they recommended. That would be personality type 1.
@henchman2019@lemmy.world Which category represents your downvote here?
I think it’s #4.
#1
deleted by creator
Lol I do the #3 all the fucking time with Voyager app
Check out FUTO.org’s keyboard, best gboard alternative I’ve ever used.
The Aurora store is also a nice front end replacement for Play Store if you go the sandboxed Google services route.
Also, F-Droid Basic is out, which is just a newer F-Droid.
For an excellent Pixel launcher alternative, check out Lawnchair 14’s Beta 2, or nightly from their github.
I really love FUTO’s keyboard, the auto-completion is really good. I paid to support them. I whish they’ll add French model soon.
FUTOs stuff isn’t under a free (freedom) license so I would avoid it. Use stock apps and anything off of F-droid
I haven’t tried their keyboard but FUTO Voice Input with the largest model is absolutely incredible!
This does speech to text 100% locally and is more accurate than Google’s shit.
I can recommend HeliBoard or Florisboard. Florisboard has some auto correct issues on my device right now so in the meantime I use HeliBoard.
My ability to type accurately, and with good auto correction on FUTO’s is immensely better than using HeliBoard.
I found the opposite. What settings do u have in FUTO, I remember seeing a lot of options.
It’s all default except for the theme. I have key borders on. Transformer LM on for prediction.
Not a fan of FUTO keyboard atm, Simple Keyboard is better
(Please don’t use simple keyboard. Use its fork, Fossify Keyboard)
good to know, thank you
Yes and the reason is that simple mobile tools sold everything to a very bad ad company that will milk the apps to dead.
Thank you for the context. I was gonna add it when I got home from work
What is special about FUTO’s keyboard. I would argue HeliBoard (also on f-droid) with the swipelib is the closest to gboard.
Yeah Heliboard with the swipelib is closest to gboard for me, better than Futo, however, Futo has a voice typing app also that is incredibly accurate, and punctuates near perfectly. So I use Heliboard with Futo Voice Typing.
My ability to type accurately on FUTO’s was immediately way better than on HeliBoard.
I really can’t explain but I type WAY worse on HelBoard. I’m usually quite accurate typing on phones, but on HeliBoard it’s almost as if my finger is always shifted to the side, and that every tap has twice the delay
I saw a video of Rossman doing a presentation on FUTO’s keyboard, originally. Eventually he made a statement that he was pissed off that every single keyboard that wasn’t Gboard made him feel like he was drunk typing. I immediately said “holy hell, me too!” and went and downloaded it.
For me, it’s the first time I’ve had a keyboard capable of doing dictation since I stopped using Google keyboard in 2019 when I started using lineage OS. Personally, I am very happy to have that feature back.