GrapkeneOS is by far the best phone OS i have ever used. Memory tagging and sandboxing are my two favorite features.

After using grapheneOS i will never go back to regular android. If I ever have to move off gOS i will be moving to a straight linux option.

The benefits are more behind other scenes and in your face. Contact scopes, sandboxed play services etc are available to use and not available in stock manufacturer ROMs.

I think it is worth the change just for the security benefits it offers - scrambling of the pin grid at the lock screen as well as a secondary pin prompt when using fingerprint unlocking, auto reboot after X-hours of idle are very useful features.

Worth what? The $0 I paid for it? Hell yeah. It gets rid of all the annoying Google bloat and runs like an operating system should: It's a utility for you to complete your tasks, and not a billboard for the manufacturer to sell you shit. On my P9P the default OS dedicates 4GB of your RAM to the useless bullshit that is Gemini. GOS unlocks it.

Unfortunately some things are still dependent on Google, but that's largely because app developers refuse to embrace open technology. Even the ones that should absolutely know better.

The only downside I have come across is Google forbids the use of NFC credit card payments on Graphene. Otherwise everything behaves like normal Android, just more secure and private

I'd recommend it anyway, but the fact that you don't use the playstore makes it even easier imo

Yes it’s excellent

Ive used Graphene for the past 3 years on my phone and will bot be going back to normal Android. I recently decided to get a tablet too which now has LineageOS on it. Thats nice too but simply not as good/easy to install as graphene. Highly recommend giving GOS a try.

traffic log in GrapheneOS (and LineageOS too) is calm. There's no constant reporting in the back. If you care even just a little about privacy, it's of course worth it.

!graphene_os@lemmy.sdf.org has plenty of posts

As others have said the benefits are mainly in security and privacy, the disadvantages are in some banking apps being picky and that it's slower to boot

Hell fucking yes it's worth it. I was skeptical at first since usually privacy / open source / free stuff is shitty as hell but the experience has been incredible.

Yes.

I have had some issues in the past with certain banking apps misbehaving (it took a long time and a lot of updates before Zelle was working, haven't gotten CashApp 100% yet). Android Auto was also touch-and-go to set up, and still has occasional weirdness. An occasional single-use app will not install correctly. Single-use apps (parking, restaurants, group activities, etc.) should not exist, but that's a different battle. Other than that, it's smooth sailing.

I do find that battery usage is improved, and there are lots of little ways to more easily see and change what apps are actually doing. As others have said, much of the benefit is invisible because it has better separation between apps, more privacy layers within apps, better exploit protection, no spying, etc.

It's absolutely a net positive in my life.

I'm running GOS on Pixel 7a and Tablet. I used Lineage OS on a phone and a tablet before. For my use case it's painless and Just Works.

Lots of people mentioning the positives so I'll only list my biggest bugbears so far after running it about 2 years now:

• No FOSS map app (I'm aware of) does live traffic. Comaps generally works great for me, but it's routing can be a bit finicky and no idea of traffic conditions. My usual workaround is to search the route via the Google Maps webapp then take the fastest route guided by Comaps.

• Limited transit options. Rideshare apps and apps for calling taxis generally rely on Google Play services. I'm fully de-Googled so I cannot use these. In cities with good public transit, not usually a problem but small to mid-sized cities can be hard to get around.

• I'll give a half point to the banking app thing. I can use the webapp just fine for 95% of the things I need to do. Mobile check deposit fights me though, which only impacts me the ~3 times a year I need to cash a check. YMMV

Otherwise, completely agree that the shift is worth it in spite of these hiccups.

I've been using gos for a few months now, I haven't really notices a change other than gmaps not working in some apps, but that's because I didn't enable the google stuff. I mainly use the browser for stuff and I'm happy android auto works.

The biggest change was going from a s22 ultra to a pixel 10a is such a step down but I dont really mind at this point

if Play Store and Services are system apps on your phone, Google still knows literally everything you do on that device.

If you just use F-Droid and other sources, it's all the easier to switch without any downside.

It's great to be able to easily back up contacts or any other files on the phone to my Linux computer. And to easily reload everything on a new GOS phone. No google at all on my phone, Openstreetmap isn't equal to maps for sure. I don't need a map app much. I keep location and WiFi off. My credit union app works great.

Started using a pixel 7 with graphene ~2 years ago, havent looked back since. Im fully degoogled, but even if you arent, graphene offers a sandboxed version of the google play store. Banking works and i havent noticed any reductions in performance.

Unless something big changes, my next phone will probably be a pixel + graphene too

I have been dailying it on my 9 Pro Fold and it has been great. Switching to a 10a (fold hinge is causing hardware errors now) and using GrapheneOS there as well.

I am mostly de-googled, using the sandbox for a couple banking apps, YouTube, and Waze. Otherwise, I prioritize using FDroid and open source apps.

I don't use any of the other google apps or tap to pay, personally.

I love the responsiveness, simplicity, and no AI junk in it.

I switched back in 2020 from a Samsung Galaxy A10 phone to a Pixel 4 XL with CalyxOS, then to a OnePlus 6T with DivestOS, before settling on GrapheneOS back on the Pixel 4 XL. I don't regret switching to GrapheneOS fulltime.

Once you switch to it, anything else will seem worse. The feature set, the level of control you have over everything, the minimalistic baseline, the warnings you get when you try to do something that may be privacy invasive...

It educates you, it gives you more ownership and control, and kinda even spoils you in some ways. With that said, it's easy to get lost in all the tinkering you can do with it. But that's optional and up to you.

Worth it? I refuse to use anything else. It's wonderful.

I run it on my work Pixel10 phone. I also run iodeOS (with MicroG) on my personal phone - a FairPhone 5. And just received my new play phone of the 2026 Jolla phone running SailfishOS (Linux).

GOS is my far the most "secure" general purpose mobile OS on the market. However . . . some of it's developers and cheerleaders are truly nasty bits of work, going WELL out of their way to be just assholes. Their refusal to even acknowledge TARA threat models beyond their own definition is frankly childish.

So yes, a solid operating system . . . developed and supported by some humans you really want nothing to do with.