grapheneOS: ungoogling (kinda)
Up to last week, my phone was a Huawei P30 Lite, which I inherited after my girlfriend moved to the dark side of iPhone. It functioned perfectly for my uses, since I'm not a smartphone power-user: I don't take many pictures, I don't play mobile games and I don't use AI models, which I guess must now be a criterion when choosing a smartphone?
Anyway, my dad had previously inherited my 2016 Huawei P8 Lite, which was serving him well until last week, when he needed to install the hospital's app, and he no longer had any storage left. Since I already used a lot of open-source apps and always liked the idea of having a phone with GrapheneOS, I got a used Pixel 8A for 330€ and gave my old P30 Lite to my dad. Win-win for both!
Now, the web installer couldn't be any simpler. In about 20 minutes, I had a fully functional smartphone that actually felt like an upgrade, since I was coming from Android 10.
The big idea behind having GrapheneOS is to 1) have more privacy, 2) debloat your phone and 3) potentially fully degoogling it. Initially, I wanted to fully degoogle. I was ready to not access my banking apps and access them through my browser. But I ended up not doing it for a reason that I hadn't considered: people only talk to me through WhatsApp, and very few are willing (currently) to leave it. I've already deactivated my Facebook, and only have a fake Instagram account to follow some bike shops, but I can't leave WhatsApp at the moment. I do have Signal (with two contacts) and a Threema account, so I'm ready to fully embrace them!
Since I needed WhatsApp, I installed GrapheneOS's compatibility layer for sandboxed Play services, which allows users to access the Play Store. I don't trust Aurora Store and F-Droid that much, so I preferred this option. After some consideration and ponderation about threat models, I didn't even create different users for Play Store apps and open-source apps I get from Obtainium. I just use one user and limit the apps installed (and their permissions) to the ones I really need.
All in all, I fell back on of my life mottos: done is better than perfect, and perfection is the enemy of good. I now have a much more private smartphone that will be supported until May 2031, and my dad now has a functional phone that will serve him for a long time as well.