Honestly this is one of the only things holding me back from going to graphene. Once this is available to non alpha users I might make the switch properly.
I tried out this OS last year and really loved it, until I went on a road trip and couldn’t use Android Auto. This is huge and will make GrapheneOS an extremely attractive option to privacy minded people.
I think Android Auto is really the only thing keeping me from completely de-googling. Many times in the past I’ve installed some stripped down ROM or whatever but I always go back because Android Auto is too convenient.
I wish there was a nice open source alternative that worked with my head unit.
So you can have Android Auto while beinging degoogled. I do. As others have pointed out there is: https://github.com/sn-00-x/aa4mg
It’s a bit of a faff to install, but works.
The problem I found is no SatNav that can take into account traffic. The best I’ve found is “Organic Maps”, but it is open and works without the Google infrastructure. No getting round that traffic knowledge makes Google Maps better.
I have non AA things forcing me towards having to at least partly re-google.
I’ve been eying GrapheneOS as a way to compromise without being compromised.
To me it is super weird that GrapheneOS positions itself as a way to degoogle - but it is only supported on google’s Pixel hardware.
Pixel hardware is some of the easiest to get/best/cost effective with an unlocked bootloader.
Too bad the only affordable ones are those that have little to no support left.
Why would anyone care about official support? That’s not why you buy a pixel
That sounds like a reasonable position. Google would have an advantage in getting timely AOSP and security updates, but getting that stuff done should be a high priority for all manufacturers anyway. As for the rest of the list, there are things I don’t know about - but at a glance it looks fair enough. So I guess there could and probably should be other phones trying to meet those conditions.
For example, they’ll regularly suggest using sandboxed Google Play over F-Droid or Aurora Store
Because many of my used apps are only available in Google Play.
GrapheneOS gives you options that you don’t have to use. I don’t agree with you.
I’m betting it’s because Pixels have some unique hardware/ software quirks or something.
Oh hell yeah. That was a big issue when I tried out gOS last year.
Awesome. I’ve been using GrapheneOS on my Pixel 7 for almost a year now and it’s been great. I won’t be using this feature, but am happy it might attract more users.
I’m still sour that Google disables hdmi/DP over USB-C on Pixels on purpose, and it bothers me that Graphene devs never bothered adding it back.
To be fair, in terms of adding features, they probably care more about parity with stock Android (as their secondary focus, since their primary is security) vs actually superceding it.
Has anybody else figured out how to add it back to the Pixel? If so, you might be able to convince them to pull the work of others over.
