Good luck. I switched a long while back now, and I love it. I went back to using a phone cover with space for a physical payment card, and I honesty never miss having Google Pay.

There were a couple of other items specific to Denmark that I had issues with, one I solved and it now works (MobilePay), the other I replaced with a dongle (MitID). Outside of those two, everything else worked flawlessly from the start.

There is a lot more control available to you, and I've found the settings and user experience very easy to figure out.

I have separate profiles:

• main user has no Google Play services or Gapps: just F-Droid apps and a couple of play store apps I use daily (anonymously via Aurora Store app)
• Aurora profile has other playstore apps that will run without Google Play Services
• PlayStore profile is for anything that requires full Google Play Services (banking, purchased apps)
• Work profile is full-on Google everyting (Google school)

• Location is on, but only shared with Organic Maps, FindMyDevice (FMD) and Transit.app
• USB port is power-only (no data).

Some compromises I've made:

• I have fingerprint unlock enabled (but not on my password vault or PlayStore/Banking profile)
• I tap-to-pay with a Garmin watch ( you only need the Garmin app to set-up the credit card, then it can be deleted )

But... I think starting-out, don't worry about it. If you load all the same apps as on your old phone, into a single main profile, it'll still be a huge improvement.

One thing that is easy to overlook - use a high quality USB cable to connect the phone to your PC for web installation of the OS. There are many garbage-quality cables floating around out there that may charge a small accessory but could be lacking in the data transfer department.

Good on ya!

Is there anything I need to know before I use the web installer?

Nope, it's S tier, or was for me, just works. (but uses a chrome browser for ungodly access, on the flipside, you get network deny access to all your android apps, which is godly)

As you transition, I recommend a second user with sandboxed google and a primary without. Over time you'll learn to do without (FDroid is your friend), but every now and then you'll want something and there it is, put all the crap you thought you needed in that user, and over time you'll find alternatives. A while later you'll find yourself google free, but if you actually need maps, it's a swipe, tap and password away.

Welcome freedom.

Use Obtainium, get your apps directly from the code repositories !

• Setup private space with play services to use for apps that require it like banking.
• Use obtanium for updating apps automatically.
• One of the hardest things to replace is google maps. I use here we go maps and its probably the closest you can get however it isn't Foss.
• FairEmail and Thunderbird are probably the two best mail clients. I use Thunderbird be cause it looks a bit better. Note however without play services email notifications will be updated every hour. If you want instant email notifications install in private space with play services.
• If you use signal I would try the fork of the client called molly. It uses less battery for notifications.
• Using an email provider that also has CalDav/Carddav like posteo can give you a simple cloud backed up calendar and contacts for really cheap without the need to self host. Use the davx5 app to connect. Davx5 calendar integrates well with etar and fossify calander

Understand that RCS is very hit or miss right now. I believe all alternate OS's are having a problem figuring it out. Some people are using it with no problem and other people can't get it to work. There is a looong RCS thread in the GrapheneOS forum.

Community is great. There are many very knowledgeable people there.

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/

Installing it works best with standard vanilla Chromium. If you have issues, it may be because you don't have ADB or the Android SDK installed on your computer. Just follow the directions, and it will run itself. Its simplicity is honestly a thing of beauty. And if you fuck up, you can (almost) always flash it back to stock Android with Google's own WebUSB application.

After that? Getting a launcher that can install custom icons was a priority for me personally. I've heard awesome things about Lawnchair, but Pear Launcher is nice too. Aurora Store is a must if you don't want the Play Store but still want play store apps (disclosure: It undermines some of the important security features of your phone's setup to do this, and the GOS devs themselves strongly condemn the practice. F-droid and Obtainium are, imho, the better solution for most things. But also, bank apps and Discord are essential for me.) Shelter from F-Droid is an excellent tool that lets you set up certain apps in a work profile, which makes toggling certain apps on and off very easy so it uses even less bandwidth and battery power.

For apps, I recommend the following replacements:

• Play Store -> Accrescent and F-Droid

• Images -> Aves Libre

• Maps -> CoMaps, Organic Maps, or OsmAND

• Google Translate -> SimplyTranslate

• Weather -> BreezyWeather

• YouTube -> PipePipe or Clipious

• Keyboard -> HeliBoard

• Stock utility apps -> Fossify from F-Droid

Beyond that, just enjoy it. It's so simple and so quiet. I mean mentally quiet. So few pop-ups, so little fuss, it's remarkably pleasant.

Congrats! I made the switch a few months ago and haven't looked back. Highly recommend everyone switch to GrapheneOS, even if you still use Google Play Services or other Google apps (obviously trying to get away from those is always the right move but it isn't that simple for most people)

Now just wish Google Pay or some other contactless payment could work with it...

You are leaving your comfort zone for something new and that's difficult for everybody, so kudos. Consequently my only advice is to take time to learn how it works and accept limitations.

As someone who messed with a lot of custom ROMs for Android in the past, I can definitely say that installing Graphene is a breeze by comparison. The one thing to note is that their web installer can't use Firefox (at least the last time I checked), but other than that the experience has been solid. 👍

Try Curve if you want to pay with your phone. You can't sign up for N26 on GrapheneOS, but Revolut works pretty well.

One of the only complaints I have, after using GoS for the past 2 phones, is that my bank requires Google's Play Integrity software to run on the phone, for the bank app to work. So, the bank sent me a physical pocketable scanner to use with the mobile web version. Works for now. Annoying additional bit of hardware kit to not forget home. Other than that, I love GOS.

Good luck. I switched over some months ago after using samsungs since the S2.

It takes some getting used to, but I dont think there's gonna be ant bigger showstoppers in 2026.

What I miss from samsung is the gallery (and ocr) and some smaller inconviences. Oh and dex. Android's baked in desktop isnt really up to dex on any scale

please keep us updated; i plan on taking this plunge in the near future.

Out of curiosity what phone model do you have?

Congrats. I too also moved to GOS a little over a week ago. Found out a few of the apps fromy old phone no longer work as intended and I'm now discovering the security restrictions of Android 13 is making syncing of files in the Android/data folder very difficult.